My Story
I was born in Windhoek Namibia in 1985. I have lived all over the USA and in other countries. I currently live in Texas with my wife and 4 children. I am a knifesmith and knifemaker. I forge most of my knives and do some stock removal.
My fascination with knives started at a very young age. My mother always tells a story of when I was 4. I was saying a prayer and thanked God for knives for fighting. From the time I got my first pocket knife at the age of 8, I have had one in my pocket 90% of the time.
When my older brother was a teenager he and my dad went to the scrap yard and bought an anvil for $0.50 per lbs. Between my Sophomore and Junior years, I dug a hole in my backyard for a fire. Using a shop vac to feed air to the fire I built my first forge. That summer not knowing anything about different steels I unsuccessfully forged low carbon steel into something roughly resembling knives
At the end of that summer, I filled in the hole I was using as a forge. I didn’t play around with a forge and anvil for many years. That doesn’t mean I gave up. I continued my knifemaking education by reading books and searching the internet. I found videos from masters of the craft like Nick Wheeler, Walter Sorrels, and J. Neilson. Some of the most beneficial things for me were some of the engineering classes I took at BYU in Idaho. Specifically the machining and welding classes and of course the material science class and lab.
It is difficult for me to say exactly when it was that I started making knives. Because of all the research and the playing around, I did over the years the timeline is muddled. If I had to put a year to it I would probably say it was in 2014 that I successfully made my first knife. The hook was set from that point on.
Shortly after that first knife, someone told me that I couldn’t make Damascus steel. Me being the stubborn person I am, I decided to prove them wrong. Using 1095 and 15N20 as my steels I made a Damascus steel billet consisting of 275 layers.
That was only the beginning of my journey in knife making. I continue to learn, practice, and try new things. Always with the goal of making the next knife better than the last.