Going to this symposium was well worth the time. I got to meet a lot of great people and learned a lot about what goes into the making of knives.
Brian Lyttle and Greg Lightfoot got together and made a fantastic hunter/utility knife using the stock removal method. Brian did the grinding and polished the blade up to a 220 grit before heat treat was done. After the heat treat Greg did the final polish and the handle for which he used a green/black G-10. Bryan made a leather sheath for this knife and Greg made a camo Kydex one. This turned out to be one heck of a nice knife.
Ron Leuschen did a start to finish demonstration on how to make one of his forged integrals. He used a lot of tools such as a power, hammer and a hydrolic press, that he was not familar with, but the knife he made was fantastic. It looked great with the natural canvas Micarta scales he chose.
Pierre Laplante, an Alberta bladesmith, demonstrated how to make a knife using a coal forge and hammers. No electical tools were used until the grinder was used to finish the blade. The finish on the blade of this knife was superb, but the rest was purposely left a little rough so that it would be an inexpensive user.
Ed Storch made a billet of Harley Davidson chain damascus and turned part of into a blade for a friction folder. Ed made everything look so easy.
There were lots of other demonstrations as well. Kirby Lambert showed people how to do filework. He also brought a lot of his amazing folders with him. The guy is very talented. Sam Bull, a native artist, part of the art he does is knives, did some marvelous carving for everyone. Pierre Laplante showed how to do a wrapped handle. All of these demos were very informative.
On the second evening some of the makers did a little rope rope cutting and with a knife he had brought along, Ron Leuschen managed to cut through seven pieces of 1" hemp. I think if he had had a knife with a different design, he could have done better.
At the end of the symposium the three knives that were made were raffled off. I didn't win one, but had a great time anyway.
All-in-all, this waas a very worthwhile weekend. If you guys get the chance to take in something like this, I recommend you do so. You will learn a lot about knives and knifemakers.
