Journal

The integral bolster design that is sometimes seen on knives is the thick area at the transition point between the blade and handle. Part of the handle itself, it tapers from the blade thickness seamlessly to the handle thickness. This protects the handle material from wear, reduces seams and connection points and leads to a much sturdier blade. Most handmade knives do not have integral bolsters because they must be forged to shape and it is an advanced technique which is difficult and time consuming. Admittedly it is more efficient to cut a blade out of thin steel and add...

Join or Die Knives is four businesses in one. I started selling my handmade knives in 2014 and a few years later started offering basic knife making classes. As the shop grew I founded the Hardway Workshop which is a membership community knife shop and now I have added small scale batch production. 

I am sometimes asked to make reproductions of knives and swords. It's not very often but when it happens it is always an interesting challenge. Every project incorporates at least one new technique for me and usually multiple. I try to take reproductions seriously, making the project as close to the original as possible while adhering to the customer’s specs. The idea of making “my version” of a sword is not interesting to me because I don’t have enough experience with swords generally, much less the specific sword I am making to know where to begin to make  my own...

Living in Richmond gives me the opportunity to work with some great people. The guys at Current Culture Fly Shop are a good example. They were interested in carrying our Bird and Trout model and I was interested in learning new fishing techniques. It always feels great to work out a service trade because that indicates that you have aligned interests and values with the other party. One of Current Culture’s owners and boat Captains took us out on the James River in downtown Richmond during the early part of the spring shad run. Shad are often known as bait...