Well, it's time for my yearly brag about my student knives and the school that I am principal of. Our school is a public school called the Maple Ridge Environmental School. Basically we do everything hands on, outside and in context every day. We meet in a number of different places through out our district and all of our learning is about the places we are in. Real life hands on learning every day. Things like Math, reading, writing, science etc comes out of what we are learning about. So if we are studying salmon and the river/watershed in the fall the kids are reading and writing about it, learning about the history of the fish and place, calculating the speed of the river, figuring out the average number of eggs in a salmon and dissecting salmon numerous times. It is rich, deep, engaging learning.
So with our model kids use shovels, hammers, nets, saws and knives quite regularly. Many of my students carry pocket knives and if you ask for one about 30% of our students would be offering theirs to borrow. There is a protocol for a student to use their knife that has been developed over a lot of time and development of trust with the kids. They only use them with permission from a staff member and supervision. If they blow it, they won't be able to carry or use a knife for a long time. There is the odd child who has lost the privilege over time. But the vast majority have done it perfectly. We also have class sets of carving knives that we use with the children. In 9 years of using carving knives and children carrying/using pocket knives we have only had 2 children need a couple stitches each. Both times they got their finger with the carving knife because they had their finger too far around a smaller item they were carving.
This year's knives are AEBL and were designed and ground by me. They were cut out and ht'd by JT Knives. It is a good way for me to continue to learn to grind better. The children found their wood for their knives in the bush in grade 6 and cut blocks that I sent to K&G to stabilize. All of these handles are the wood that the children found except one handle is Koa and that child traded me their block for it.
The children put their handles on their knives, shaped and finished them with files and made their own sheaths. They are incredibly proud.
Again, I want to say how thankful I am for everyone here on this forum that has helped me in my knife making learning journey. You haven't only blessed me, but you have also blessed a whole lot of children too.
So with our model kids use shovels, hammers, nets, saws and knives quite regularly. Many of my students carry pocket knives and if you ask for one about 30% of our students would be offering theirs to borrow. There is a protocol for a student to use their knife that has been developed over a lot of time and development of trust with the kids. They only use them with permission from a staff member and supervision. If they blow it, they won't be able to carry or use a knife for a long time. There is the odd child who has lost the privilege over time. But the vast majority have done it perfectly. We also have class sets of carving knives that we use with the children. In 9 years of using carving knives and children carrying/using pocket knives we have only had 2 children need a couple stitches each. Both times they got their finger with the carving knife because they had their finger too far around a smaller item they were carving.
This year's knives are AEBL and were designed and ground by me. They were cut out and ht'd by JT Knives. It is a good way for me to continue to learn to grind better. The children found their wood for their knives in the bush in grade 6 and cut blocks that I sent to K&G to stabilize. All of these handles are the wood that the children found except one handle is Koa and that child traded me their block for it.
The children put their handles on their knives, shaped and finished them with files and made their own sheaths. They are incredibly proud.
Again, I want to say how thankful I am for everyone here on this forum that has helped me in my knife making learning journey. You haven't only blessed me, but you have also blessed a whole lot of children too.
