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- Jan 1, 2010
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On March 9th, I was honored to participate in The Battle of the Bladesmiths competition at the Great Smoking Mountain Bladesmithing Symposium in Clyde, NC along with Jason Knight, Burt Foster, and Shelby Mihalevich.
The concept is simple but successful completion is not. Each bladesmith gets two hours to forge, grind, heat-treat, handle, and finish a knife in head-to-head competition in front of an audience. The materials and equipment are provided, but each knife-maker can craft any design they like.
This was my first Battle of the Bladesmiths competition and, while it was a bit nerve wracking at the start, it was really a blast to participate. We were given English walnut slabs, an 8-inch bar of 1084V steel, one 1/8 inch drill bit, three pins, a sheet of 400 grit sandpaper, and a set of grinder belts in 36/120/220 & 400 grits. Here's what we all created in just under two hours. Photo by Burt Foster.
Jason's hunter is on the left, followed by Burt's double-edged, hand-sanded, coffin-handled dagger, my hunter, and Shelby's unfinished blade, which unfortunately cracked during the heat treat phase. Burt's dagger took the top prize, and watching it take shape in so little time was something to behold.
Does anyone else have pictures of past Battle of the Bladesmith knives and does anyone else do this competition at other hammer-ins? Apparently this was a Jason Knight original idea, so I don't know if it's done anywhere else. If so, please share. It's a fun event and really helps bring a lot of attention to the art of bladesmithing by making it a spectator sport.
The concept is simple but successful completion is not. Each bladesmith gets two hours to forge, grind, heat-treat, handle, and finish a knife in head-to-head competition in front of an audience. The materials and equipment are provided, but each knife-maker can craft any design they like.
This was my first Battle of the Bladesmiths competition and, while it was a bit nerve wracking at the start, it was really a blast to participate. We were given English walnut slabs, an 8-inch bar of 1084V steel, one 1/8 inch drill bit, three pins, a sheet of 400 grit sandpaper, and a set of grinder belts in 36/120/220 & 400 grits. Here's what we all created in just under two hours. Photo by Burt Foster.
Jason's hunter is on the left, followed by Burt's double-edged, hand-sanded, coffin-handled dagger, my hunter, and Shelby's unfinished blade, which unfortunately cracked during the heat treat phase. Burt's dagger took the top prize, and watching it take shape in so little time was something to behold.
Does anyone else have pictures of past Battle of the Bladesmith knives and does anyone else do this competition at other hammer-ins? Apparently this was a Jason Knight original idea, so I don't know if it's done anywhere else. If so, please share. It's a fun event and really helps bring a lot of attention to the art of bladesmithing by making it a spectator sport.
