Railroad Spike Knife Forging at Northstar Forge

Adam Scepaniak 09.08.23

On the subject of being self-reliant and never tethered to society it’s good to be helpful. Higher but, it’s good to be good together with your palms. This may come within the type of fixing your personal car, tying a flyfishing fly, having a mild contact to deal with honeybees, or the dexterity to kind, manipulate, and mould supplies. Whereas it’s handy to purchase many materials possessions for our on a regular basis lives, it’s priceless and resourceful to craft our personal gadgets. Whether or not it’s a potter on their wheel making a clay espresso mug, the carpenter chopping wooden to kind a chair, the knitter fashioning wool into clothes, or the blacksmith forging a knife. With the abundance of pure sustenance we talk about harvesting on AllOutdoor from venison to fish to upland birds, we’re continually deploying knives to course of recreation animals. So, why not make our personal?… My spouse and I made a decision to attempt simply that after we signed up for a Railroad Spike Knife Forging Class with Northstar Forge in Minnesota. Let’s dive into our expertise forging a knife at an expert forge with ABS (American Bladesmith Society) Journeyman, Jason Kraus, who has the pedigree of getting competed on the HISTORY channel’s “Cast in Hearth” present!

“Residence on the Vary” Collection Protection on AllOutdoor

Welcome to our reoccurring sequence of “Residence on the Vary.” Right here, we want to share all of our experiences for many who could also be homesteading, dwelling off the land, looking, farming, ranching, and really investing in nature and the good outdoor. The flexibility to supply for your self and your loved ones may be tremendously rewarding and concurrently tough at occasions. So, in “Residence on the Vary” we need to share our completely different exploits so you may study and hopefully we will obtain your suggestions alongside the best way as nicely.

Northstar Forge – It’s Starting and The place It Is Right now

Northstar Forge is a blacksmithing store and forge primarily based out of Carver, MN (southwest of the Twin Cities) that has been manipulating metallic since early 2011. Leaving his prior commerce of being a painter, Jason Kraus discovered his calling in leaving the toil of the every day grind in favor of sculpting metallic into magnificent objects like knives, jewellery, and even swords.

“Based by ABS Journeyman Smith Jason Kraus, Northstar Forge affords custom-made knives, swords, metallic jewellery, knife equipment and extra. Lessons for knife-making and introductory blacksmithing are additionally out there, the place college students acquire hands-on expertise in forging and metallic manipulation.”

With over a decade of expertise in blacksmithing and forging beneath his belt, Jason has offered blades and taught lessons to individuals all throughout america. Jason even threw himself into the fireplace by competing within the HISTORY channel’s TV present “Cast in Hearth” (Season 3, Episode 15) in January of 2017 to check his mettle whereas beneath hearth (all hearth puns supposed). Competing in opposition to different achieved bladesmiths and being pushed to his limits left him motivated, wiser, and hungrier for information that may solely be discovered beneath strain. He was quickly invited to compete once more, however this time on the Discovery channel’s Season 1 Season Finale of “Grasp of Arms” (December 2018).

What Introduced Us to Northstar Forge

I not solely write about dwelling a self-reliant lifetime of looking, trapping, studying primitive expertise, and being self-sufficient, however my spouse and I look to actively reside out that life-style. So, whereas adventuring up on the Gun Flint Path of northern Minnesota we got here throughout a people college. Fairly uncommon these days, however extraordinarily spectacular to see that locations nonetheless exist that educate homesteading, crafting, and plenty of what I might deem “misplaced arts.” We seen blacksmithing/forging was a talent they taught at this given college which actually excited us!

I did like several middle-aged millennial would do and I fired up the ol’ Google looking for someplace to make a knife, axe, or one thing to dabble in forging. Should you reside within the Midwest or Minnesota, the interwebs will level you to 1 place – Northstar Forge. Impeccable Google critiques… an authentically welcoming man in Jason Kraus… his fantastic spouse, Kristen, works behind the scenes documenting forging by means of pictures, managing their web site, and conserving the enterprise buzzing alongside at its now fast-paced velocity… and Jason’s physique of labor and expertise speaks for itself.

Home on the Range #051: Railroad Spike Knife Forging at Northstar Forge — My spouse, Andrea, knocking out her Railroad Spike Knife at Northstar Forge.

Forging Railroad Spike Knives

On the subject of forging railroad spike knives it’s precisely as badass, cool, and enjoyable because it sounds. You’re taking an precise railroad spike – crude, soiled, and tossed apart by means of time – then smash, warmth, twist, contort, pound, and bend it to your will to hone it into one thing completely completely different and helpful once more. For us, camp-style knives that might be used to course of tinder or kindling for a campfire or quite a few different outside duties.

The method of making our railroad spike knives far exceeds the brevity of 1 article. So, we are going to extra completely define the complete technique of Andrea and I making our railroad spike knives at Northstar Forge with Jason and Kristen in future articles of “Residence on the Vary.”

Whereas Jason was on the TV present “Cast in Hearth” and was lengthy on his strategy to turning into a Grasp bladesmith earlier than forging was popularized on social media within the final 20 years, I grew to become enthusiastic about forging due to the present I noticed on TV a few years in the past. Have you ever ever solid something earlier than? Taken a category? As all the time, tell us all your ideas within the Feedback under! We all the time recognize your suggestions.