Dagger class.......

Mace, thanks for the great thread! I know you had a great time! Waiting to see the finished Dagger!

The weather was a tad better when I was there!

I attended the two week "Intro" in June 09 at Haywood with MS instruction by Greg Neeley and Burt Foster and JS Bill Wiggens! MS Jason Knight and Jimmy Chin stopped by the last day also! What a great experience and facility! Clyde NC is a great little town!

I hope to return soon! If you can get there by all means do it!

Steve
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Potomac Forge
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IN GOD WE TRUST
 
Mace,

You make damn sure you stop in tomorrow on the way home. I want to see that knife up close!

Aldo

PS- Everything is ready for you!
 
Whew!!! Just got off the road for the night after driving 500 miles! Funny it got warmer the farther north I got.:D

Mike, Lots of "ah ha" moments. The class realy helped me look at making knives in a new way. I like to learn by doing and watching. I wanted to physically do as much as Kevin was teaching us and learn along the way. He was always there to answer a question or help in showing me the way he might fix a problem.

Great class!:thumbup:
Mace
 
Mace,

I hope you make it back to North Carolina soon. And as long as you will leave the cold weather behind next time, you will be welcome at my shop anytime!! Enjoyed getting to spend the week with everyone. It was a great week.
 
Great looking dagger and great thread Mace !

I can't wait to see this one finished.

Hope you don't mind me asking a quick question here :o

I'm looking to attend an Intro class in 2010 and just wondering if anyone knows the 2010 schedule or who I could call to find out.

I only have short window of time to make a class so I want to be the first guy registered so I don't miss out on the right date

I talked to Texarkana already but it's sure alot shorter drive to N.C. :D.

Thanks in advance - Josh
 
Thank you for this thread Mace, and thank you for all the kind words about the class. I have to admit that this is beyond a doubt the most fun I have ever had teaching a class, and Mace, Bill, Dan, Johnny, James, Butch and Rob were some of the best students. I also picked up some great tips from David Burnett’s demo on Friday as well, so I believe everybody involved came away with something.

It is nice to know that a few of the techniques I have developed over the years in making these blades could help make it possible for others to tackle the project that intimidates so many ABS members needlessly. It is satisfying that there are seven guys out there who now know that regardless of any mushroom heads who tell them that daggers are beyond their skills can confidently prove them wrong.

This was not a heat treating class so many took their blades home and hardened them after hours some warped a bit, and I demonstrated how to straighten very thick, hardened 1095 blades with no worries. Using tempering heats to affect modulus of elasticity I simply forced them straight and while most present nervously backed away, I showed my total confidence in the science involved.

I am still trying to recover, as we worked hard all week and Butch and I got started around 7:00 A.M. on Saturday hoping to make it through the mountain passes that were filling with snow. We didn’t make it and it seemed that every route north was closed so we had to take a 4 hour detour around the range in order to get to 75 north. I finally made it home in the early hours and after I unloaded my truck, no sooner had my head hit my pillow my fire dept. pager went off for a fully involved two story structure fire. We fought the blaze from 2:30 a.m. until around 10:00 a.m. this morning in temperatures as cold as -4 F. My turn out gear was iced to the point I could not bend my arms and legs, many of the systems on our pumper truck froze up and barely functioned, we had two hose lines freeze solid, and our porta-tank required frequent breaking of ice to keep things going. And on a very serious note the structure was a shelter for homeless veterans and we found two of those hero’s who didn’t make it out. I am physically and emotionally exhausted but the good times I had this last week are helping me deal with a day I would rather forget, thank you gentleman.

I now get a three week break before I will teach a weekend mini course on these daggers to another group of knifemakers in Ohio. My goal in these classes, and the recorded lectures available through the ABS store is not to somehow minimize the M.S. requirements but to increase an appreciation for these magnificent real “tactical” knives, and increase their quality as more accurate portrayals of the historic originals; originals which were not just for looks or merely “art” knives but some of the most serious using knives ever made.
 
AKHammonds said:
Mace-
The dagger looks great! Where do you find out about such classes? I did a Google and can up with squat. I am not ready yet but maybe someday soon.
Thanks
Allen
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The class was the first of its kind and only came about this last fall when some smiths got together to have me give a weekend demo/course. It was then decided that a full week hands on course could be viable. Unfortunately because of this quick scheduling the course was not heavily advertised nor included in the standard ABS course listings. Here is about the best place to learn about the class at this time.
 
wiggins said:
Mace, thanks for posting the pics. It has been a great week. Wish the weather had been better, at least the shop was warm at the school. Can't say the same for my shop....
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I'll say! Bill's wood stove fire is the only blaze I have even seen that needed to be primed with a heat gun in order to get warm!;) Now I need Dan and his heat gun in my shop! Perhaps he could bring his broom as well;).
 
Kevin sorry to hear you had such a rough night. However, I am glad that there are people like you who will get up in the middle of the night and work in tough conditions to help save lives and property.
 
Kevin R. Cashen said:
I'll say! Bill's wood stove fire is the only blaze I have even seen that needed to be primed with a heat gun in order to get warm!;) Now I need Dan and his heat gun in my shop! Perhaps he could bring his broom as well;).
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Alright, enough talk about my wood stove....Also, Daniel will be harder to trick into sweeping next time.

Hate to brag on you Kevin, but you did a great job with the class. Even worked overtime. A mushroom head could take your class and leave with the knowledge needed to make a dagger!!;)
 
Josh Dabney said:
Great looking dagger and great thread Mace !

I can't wait to see this one finished.

Hope you don't mind me asking a quick question here :o

I'm looking to attend an Intro class in 2010 and just wondering if anyone knows the 2010 schedule or who I could call to find out.

I only have short window of time to make a class so I want to be the first guy registered so I don't miss out on the right date

I talked to Texarkana already but it's sure alot shorter drive to N.C. :D.

Thanks in advance - Josh
Click to expand...

Josh, we will be having a intro course March 8-19. Greg Neely and Jim Rodebaugh are teaching. The next intro course in NC will be in Oct. with Burt Foster and Jason Knight. PM me and I will give you my e-mail if you have any other questions. Bill
 
Kevin R. Cashen said:
The class was the first of its kind and only came about this last fall when some smiths got together to have me give a weekend demo/course...
Click to expand...

I am really thrilled this came to fruition! And I am so glad everyone involved had a great tutor and came home with tons of new knowledge.
This past August at the Mid-America Bladesmithing Expo & Knife Show in Troy Ohio, a handful of us Journeyman Smiths - myself, Brian Thie, Pete Crowl, Dan Cassidy, and Butch Sheely sat down one night after hours and had a "JS" session. What we discussed was that there was nothing in the ABS "itinerary" as far as a course, hammer-in, show, etc that was designed specifically to consult the Journeyman Smiths as a group, and to acknowlege their accomplishments.
We tossed some suggestions around and this Dagger Class is the result of that impromptu gathering.
I won't say here whose idea it was, but next time you see me - ask me ;)
My hat is certainly off to Kevin, for giving of his time and experience and so whole-heartedly jumping in, and as well to Bill Wiggins for pushing this through.
See ya'll in a couple weeks in Ohio.
 
I just wanted to bump this thread for anyone who might have missed it.
Wiggins told me it was going to be in the 50's on thursday this week!....of course.;)
Great class!
Mace
 
great thread. wow what a shop. by the way i REALLY like the happy hookers shirt.
You do realize that when you make M.S. you are buying dinner
 
Great to see there is a class designed for those of us with dagger-itis. Those blades look great. I will have to see if they will do it again. I may be up to this one.
 
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