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- Oct 19, 2005
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This post is to inform you all that Ms. Carley Perkins of Darlington Edgeworks has officially graduated from the Fiddleback Forge apprentice program. Carley came on board in March of 2025 and pulled a perfect grind on her first day in my shop. She had never used 2x72 belt grinder before. The honest truth is that within 3 months I held a knife out to her and told her she could graduate with that knife. She is a savant in my opinion. I also told her that realistically there are a lot of tricks, tips and people I needed more time to introduce her to. She agreed. By the 2025 Blade Show she had half a table of knives, all good designs, all properly ground, and all had tapered tangs. I doubt there was anyone else showing with 3 months experience and such a pretty product on the table. She has been a model apprentice and employee. She is in the process of building out her own first shop as we speak. I am incredibly proud of her.
For those of you that don't know, in order to graduate from my apprentice program an apprentice must present me with a knife they designed and made 100%. The design and execution has to be professional quality and it has to have a tapered tang. The knife should be as good as I could have made it.
Carley's graduation knife is her Scylla model. Its a gorgeous little pointy EDC model with a swedge. This one is made on 3/32" thick A2 steel. The scales are some outstanding Osage Orange. She also gave me a sheath, and even though she's only been doing sheaths for a short amount of time, this one is quite lovely. I showed her the basics only about a month ago and she's augmented my teaching with some from Keanu Cubas, who makes a very fine sheath. As you can see, she is a very quick study.
Pics!!!
For those of you that don't know, in order to graduate from my apprentice program an apprentice must present me with a knife they designed and made 100%. The design and execution has to be professional quality and it has to have a tapered tang. The knife should be as good as I could have made it.
Carley's graduation knife is her Scylla model. Its a gorgeous little pointy EDC model with a swedge. This one is made on 3/32" thick A2 steel. The scales are some outstanding Osage Orange. She also gave me a sheath, and even though she's only been doing sheaths for a short amount of time, this one is quite lovely. I showed her the basics only about a month ago and she's augmented my teaching with some from Keanu Cubas, who makes a very fine sheath. As you can see, she is a very quick study.
Pics!!!
