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A Little (or a lot!) About Me

Discussion in 'CJA Edged Art / Scorpion Forge' started by CrisAnderson27, Jul 16, 2014.

  1. Hello everyone!

    Some of you know me, most probably don't. I've been a member of Don Fogg's knife forum for many years, a member of Kitchen Knife Forums (where I met most of you!) for the last year or so...and a practicing bladesmith off and on for the last five years. I'm a single dad with full custody of my three incredible children, and until the last month or so, worked full time in construction. I've owned my own underground pipeline company (which I closed in 2008...which is where my bladesmithing story begins), as well as a racing engine business. My hobbies include everything from building cars, supersport bikes, offroad trucks, computers, pencil art, photography, and until this last month, bladesmithing.

    So, how about we start around the beginning?

    In 2008 I closed the doors on my construction company, as I mentioned above. The economy was in an absolutely dismal place, my contractors weren't paying, my suppliers didn't really care...and we were barely getting by. It was time to end things. So...I did. I immediately began looking for work (a search that lasted over two years lol), but there was nothing to be had. There were NO construction jobs, and I quickly found out that no other industry was interested in hiring a guy who not only had a middling six figure income at his last place of employment, but had been in his profession for over 20 years. I couldn't even get a job at Wal Mart, Home Depot, or McDonalds! I was in a desperate place. I had moved my five person family (wife and three kids) back into my parents house, along with my little brother and his family. It was MISERABLE! I needed a source of income, ANY income. One night, I'd been browsing the internet looking for any way to make some money (along with feeding my need for information on my many interests lol), and I came across the website of a gentleman named Graham Fredeen. He had a small tutorial up at the time on bladesmithing. That tutorial was the spark that got me started. I spent all that evening devouring every bit of information I could regarding bladesmithing. I found dozens of websites, tons of conflicting information, dozens more websites, even MORE conflicting information. I fell in love with the work of Howard Clark, Rick Barrett, Randall Graham, Walter Sorrells, and many others. Japanese swords became a passion. I quickly realized that even if I sold them on Craigslist, railroad spike knives could be made very cheaply (I've only ever finished one, lol), and sold for a reasonable amount. Over the next few days, this became my plan for income! I quickly turned to my wife (who was in school full time) and said 'Honey, I'm going to make knives to make us money!'

    She looked at me like I was crazy lol.

    So I went out to the garage, with a handful of change in my pocket, and thanks to a tutorial I'd found by another gentleman named Christopher Price, I came back in a few hours later with a coin mokume heart pendant...the first thing I'd ever made with fire and a hammer.

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    She was still looking at me like I was crazy, but at least that $.65 bought me her permission to spend a bit of our money on charcoal, some cinderblocks for a forge, and a craptastic Harbor Freight 55lb cast iron anvil, lol.

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    I spent HOURS that night hammering with a 4lb mini sledge on a railroad spike...I was immediately in LOVE with what I was doing! Unfortunately however, my results only bore minimal resemblance to my dreams.

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    Not being one to give up however...I worked and worked, and worked...and actually managed to make that rail spike into a passable butter knife (it never hardened, even in home made superquench lol).

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    But, the positive feedback I'd received on this creation (a lot of amazement mostly, at it being my first knife), and the help and support of some of the most respectable makers in the business (a few of the names mentioned above included!) helped me make my next knife even better. My third project was very ambitious...a shobu zukuri o-tanto. When I told my new peers what I intended to do, I received a LOT of advice! Mostly, it included 'That's going to be really tough man!' or 'You should probably take some smaller steps brother...' and 'You want to make a 13" edge length, JAPANESE style blade, with a HAMON as your third knife?! ARE YOU EFFING CRAZY?!?'

    It was what I wanted to do though...and I was determined to do it successfully. I studied geometry, heat treating, metallurgy...watched a million videos, read a million texts...then went to work.

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    As you could see in the picture...I had been hard at work improving my tooling. I'd picked up a HUGE forklift tine to cut into two anvils, and had lifted my firebrick charcoal forge up into a clapped out barbecue grill. I even had music!! But, I worked and studied and posted pictures of that work up for critique, and in the end, I managed to make a very serviceable tanto, with a very interesting hamon (if I do say so myself!)...that I may actually properly finish and mount one of these days, lol.

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    And a rough etched picture showing the hamon to greater effect...there' about 3 layers to it.

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    That little blade got a bit of attention, along with bolstering my confidence tremendously. My next blade was a 23" ko-katana out of Admiral 1075/1080 with a very similar hamon (I don't have any high polish pictures of it at this time).

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    At this point, I took a substantial forced break from bladesmithing. We'd moved, and it was a long while before I was able to set my shop up again. Up to this point, I really hadn't made any money yet. I'd sold a few pendants etc...but not really much on the knife front. I was still learning, I felt. My wife had finished school and was making enough for us to survive on...but I knew I'd have to do something to get thing rolling. There was still no 'real' work to be had. When I did finally get my shop setup, I built myself a little propane fueled paint can forge...and made my fifth knife.

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    That little knife is STILL my EDC. It's held up to everything I've thrown at it, and comes back asking for more lol. I sold a number of these designs...and a few similar knives of slightly different design. I made a really cool Jimmy Fikes/Don Fogg inspired camp chopper thing, and my first attempt at a kitchen knife (I'll put a picture up after this paragraph...you guys will die laughing!) and then we ended up moving from Arizona to Nevada where I had found work. Here was another forced break from bladesmithing. My wife and I ended up divorcing, she moved back to Arizona and I kept the kids in Nevada. A few months after that I setup my forge in the garage of our small townhome/apartment lol...and began working again. I made a couple handfulls of blades that sold very well, then ended up moving back to Arizona in order to maintain custody of my kids.

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    My first little kitchen knife! It didn't start out looking that way, and the story of how it did become so retarded looking is a long one, lol. That knife tried to kill me in the making, literally, and has embedded itself in my body twice, once nearly all the way through my palm. I keep it locked up now, so it can't hurt me or anyone else (ok...mostly me).

    Fast forward two years or so, to around February 2013. I hadn't made a knife in FOREVER, and was itching to get things going again. So I pulled all of my bladesmithing tooling out of storage, and setup a new shop. I'd been reading again, and was determined to make kitchen knives. While I was in Nevada, one of the blades I'd forged but hadn't finished was a copy of my old original chef's knife, only...without a full tang. I didn't realize it at the time, but this blade would be the foundation of what I feel has come to be my future in bladesmithing.

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    I made that blade, a small matching petty, and the handles (my first ever woodwork, lol) for my dad for Father's day...and fell in absolute love with kitchen knives. There is literally no other knife that is so technically challenging, so rewarding in its execution and completion...as the modern Japanese style chef's knife. No knife is so well appreciated and, simply put...USED...by the customer as these knives. No mistaking, I enjoy making other blades, but NOTHING compares to the feeling I get when I've sent a gyuto to a customer, and receive his return feedback.

    And that my friends, is why I'm here...that is my history in bladesmithing.
     
    Last edited: Jul 16, 2014
  2. Toothpick

    Toothpick #2 since day #1 Founding Member

    Fantastic read. Thank you for sharing!
    For the record I really like your first kitchen knife. I like simple looking tools. No frills.
     
  3. Thanks Jason! It really wasn't a bad little knife. The edge profile was nice enough. It actually started out with a pretty standard kitchen knife profile, lol. Like this:

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    And here's how it was after its first heat treat =p

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    Look at that hamon!! I was devastated lol. This was only the second blade I'd lost to cracking. I've only ever lost three or so total.

    And a bigger picture of the final iteration.

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    As you can see, I cut it down substantially, and heat treated it a second time. I just hated the idea of it being scrap! Up to that point, it was my finest forging. I never did put a handle on it, lol. I swear the thing was 2mm behind the edge too. Up to that point, all I'd made were user blades, where durability was critical. I believed that sharpness was what cut food...and my only knowledge of wedging was enough to make sure that a 3' sword blade wouldn't get stuck when being passed full force through a 5" or so rolled bamboo matt with a 2" dowel in it!

    I hadn't the slightest clue about stiction.

    I've learned a little bit since then :).
     
  4. Toothpick

    Toothpick #2 since day #1 Founding Member

  5. Right, lol? I still cry a little inside when I see the original hamon though!
     
  6. Jeffery Hunter

    Jeffery Hunter Founding Member

    Thanks for sharing your story. I really enjoy that EDC with the leather wrap, great looking knife/
     
  7. Thanks Jeffery! I'm grateful for the opportunity to share!
     
  8. Very cool Cris. After visiting your shop I'm glad to hear about your grinder upgrade now too :)
     
  9. It's a very good read.
     
  10. apathetic

    apathetic Founding Member

    Thanks for sharing, that makes for a great read :)
     
  11. Wagner the Wehrwolf

    Wagner the Wehrwolf Founding Member

    Good stuff!
     
  12. James

    James smarter then your average duck Founding Member Gold Contributor

    the real question here is... Italian, or Swedish meatballs ?
     
  13. Thanks everyone! It's really nice to have my own small section of the web to call my own. Facebook is great and all, but it just doesn't cut it overall lol.

    Very kind of you to call my workspace a shop Don lol. It's definitely getting there though, and I hope to have a permanent structure up to work in before too long.

    Wellll...that depends. Mostly on what they're going in.

    Wait a minute.......is this a trick question?! You guys can't pick on me just because I'm not a chef!!
     
  14. Mrmnms

    Mrmnms Founding Member Gold Contributor

    You were wise to get Son to test your knife. A huge compliment that he kept it. He sings your praises.
     
  15. I was actually kind of lucky that Son found me, lol. I had posted my dad's Father's Day gifts (gyuto and petty) over on Don Fogg's Bladesmith forum, and Son messaged asking me about making him some kind of petty/sausage knife. The rest as they say, is history. We never did go through with the sausage knife...but as I mentioned elsewhere, he did end up with that first gyutohiki he tested out for me. He sold it awhile back, but I have a new blade in the works for him as we speak :).
     
  16. Wagner the Wehrwolf

    Wagner the Wehrwolf Founding Member

    Hey, post over in the off topic about Engine Building. Would love to hear about that.
     
  17. Lol, I'm not sure what I'd post! What kind of stuff are you interested in hearing about?
     
  18. WildBoar

    WildBoar Founding Member Contributor

  19. I'm more of a small block Ford kinda guy, lol. My last 347 went low 10's at over 130 in a 2900lb 67 Mustang :). Pump gas, no power adder, and daily drivable.
     
  20. Part throttle, no traction tuning passes, lol.



     

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