- Joined
- Jun 23, 2007
- Messages
- 2,142
Eleven hours drive from Fl, through Al, Miss,La,to the little town of Hope, Ar,on Sun. 22nd. Booked for a week at the Best Western, a bit old, and maybe a tad rundown, but they're used to us Bladesmiths,and the nice lady at the desk knows my name. School rate is $62 a nite, with free breakfast.
After the sleep of the just and the tired, had eggs and sausage with my classmates, and drove out the 8 miles to the historic restored town/State Park, of Old Washington, where the ABS school is located on the site where James Black,the reported maker of Jim Bowie's original knife, had his blacksmith shop in the early 1800's.
John Perry MS, whose exquisite knives you should all know, had come down from Little Rock (using his vacation week) to instruct. Students were Stuart Davidson, from Melbourne, Australia, on a year's "walkabout", who had been at the school a month, starting with the intro class, a beginning maker; Tim Potier MS, from Oberlin, La, known for his forged hand axes, and a bladesmithing teacher himself; James Powell, recently retired,fromTexarkana, TX, a beginning maker; and me, John White MS.
Facilities are maintained and program run by Texarkana College, on the site owned by the State Park system of the State of Arkansas, and the equipment,curriculum ,and instruction supplied by the American Bladesmith Society.
The shop has numerous grinders, forges, air and power hammers, anvils, and a surface grinder; the finishing room has work stations, mini-mills, drill presses, etc; there are separate class-rooms, all in period buildings, in a tree shaded and wood fenced grassy corner of the restored historic town.
John Perry had designed a large, 4 1/2" closed folding hunter, with 3 1/4" ATS-34 drop-point blade and half-stop, especially for the class. We were to mill integral bolster/liners from nickel-silver, and peen-pin the knife together, using handle slabs of our own choice. All material and supplies, except handle material, was included in the $700 tuition.No-one in the class had made a folder before!
We worked from 8 til noon, had lunch each day in the Park's restored coach-house, greens, black-eyed peas, country steaks, etc, then worked till 7:30 each nite, and 9:30 on Friday, John P staying with each of us, until all had completed a folder and had parts made for another to take home.We all went out together to one of the little cafes in Hope at nite and continued talking knives, politics, personal histories and so on, and then fell in bed to get up and continue the next day.If it sounds like fun, it was, and if you ever get the chance, GO TO SCHOOL, you'll love it.
John Perry is a fantastic maker and instructor, and each fellow student was a gas and is now a friend.
If you're wondering what our efforts looked like, here are photos of my completed knife, with Blackwood scales. You may not see the mess-ups, but they're there, its my first effort, but I learned a lot.
After the sleep of the just and the tired, had eggs and sausage with my classmates, and drove out the 8 miles to the historic restored town/State Park, of Old Washington, where the ABS school is located on the site where James Black,the reported maker of Jim Bowie's original knife, had his blacksmith shop in the early 1800's.
John Perry MS, whose exquisite knives you should all know, had come down from Little Rock (using his vacation week) to instruct. Students were Stuart Davidson, from Melbourne, Australia, on a year's "walkabout", who had been at the school a month, starting with the intro class, a beginning maker; Tim Potier MS, from Oberlin, La, known for his forged hand axes, and a bladesmithing teacher himself; James Powell, recently retired,fromTexarkana, TX, a beginning maker; and me, John White MS.
Facilities are maintained and program run by Texarkana College, on the site owned by the State Park system of the State of Arkansas, and the equipment,curriculum ,and instruction supplied by the American Bladesmith Society.
The shop has numerous grinders, forges, air and power hammers, anvils, and a surface grinder; the finishing room has work stations, mini-mills, drill presses, etc; there are separate class-rooms, all in period buildings, in a tree shaded and wood fenced grassy corner of the restored historic town.
John Perry had designed a large, 4 1/2" closed folding hunter, with 3 1/4" ATS-34 drop-point blade and half-stop, especially for the class. We were to mill integral bolster/liners from nickel-silver, and peen-pin the knife together, using handle slabs of our own choice. All material and supplies, except handle material, was included in the $700 tuition.No-one in the class had made a folder before!
We worked from 8 til noon, had lunch each day in the Park's restored coach-house, greens, black-eyed peas, country steaks, etc, then worked till 7:30 each nite, and 9:30 on Friday, John P staying with each of us, until all had completed a folder and had parts made for another to take home.We all went out together to one of the little cafes in Hope at nite and continued talking knives, politics, personal histories and so on, and then fell in bed to get up and continue the next day.If it sounds like fun, it was, and if you ever get the chance, GO TO SCHOOL, you'll love it.
John Perry is a fantastic maker and instructor, and each fellow student was a gas and is now a friend.
If you're wondering what our efforts looked like, here are photos of my completed knife, with Blackwood scales. You may not see the mess-ups, but they're there, its my first effort, but I learned a lot.
Last edited:
