Another year has passed and another year has come. Somehow the number 2025 feel much more like the future than ever before. Maybe just because it’s an auspicious number. Each year we build on last year, produce more knives, more models and innovate new techniques. People come and go in the shop, both Hardway shop community members who work on their own knives as well as team members at Join or Die. Jamie and Jack still anchor the team and they are learning and growing all the time. Jamie is really developing his Antik Knives concept with some very well-designed blades and Jack is producing some really beautiful swords. Jake has become quite the leatherworker and we picked up Parker who has gone from a newby to a shop veteran in record time. As the Join or Die name implies, we can’t be very effective on our own and we really thrive when working together.
The winter was pretty low key with restocking, getting to some non-holiday orders from the previous December and plenty of shop cleaning and organizing. I attended the Virginia Fly Fishing and Wine Expo to hang out with James my marketing partner where we showcased some knives at his Trailhead Creative booth. Then on March 16th we had our 10th anniversary hammer-in. This event exceeded my expectation by a mile and we will definitely be doing that annually.
Some relationships that we were able to cultivate this past year were some nonprofits like Beyond Boundaries and the Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay. These groups combine missions both to steward our environment and bring kids into outdoor experiences. We’ve also continued our partnership with the Virginia Department of Wildlife Management with the Virginia Wildlife Collector’s Knife, Supporting the One Shot Turkey Fundraiser and pretty much anything else they ask me to contribute to. I love that group of folks and the mission they are called to.
I had a really unique opportunity to travel to the John C Campbell Folk School in North Carolina to assist Ben Abbott in a Messer sword making class for a week. This experience really inspired me to do more with the shop in Richmond and possibly move forward with my dream of expanding our classes into a full time metal craft school. Blade show in Atlanta was a blast as always. Not a great sales event but a very fun and inspiring time. I was also able to travel to the Homestead Resort in western Virginia for a Father’s Day event where I forged small keepsake knives with kids and their dads, what a blast!
We also put a few new models into production this year including our new and improved steak knife set, some boning and filet knives as well as a new paring knife model. Our mini chef and spork set will be hitting the website soon but we have been selling them in person with a cool little mini knife roll. I have still been producing custom knives with a focus on integral bolster knives and Damascus.
I hope to focus on R&D for two projects this year, the folder and a cast urethane handle for a more affordable culinary line. I currently have some working prototypes of the folder kicking around in friend’s pockets to get some long term feedback but the next step is to just buckle down and keep iterating away. I have a friend lined up to help with this cast handle idea but it will also take quite a bit of trial and error. Also, I think we can reliably produce Sayas (wooden chef knife scabbards) on the CNC router which would be a great add on.
All in all it was a solid year and I’m looking for this year to be even better. I can’t thank everyone who has chosen to become a Join or Die Knives customer enough for allowing us to do what we love. Cheers! - Brent