FORGED: Making a Knife with Traditional Blacksmith Skills

The Blacksmith
Paul White has been a blacksmith for over forty years. The smith who taught
Paul to make his frontier style blade was Gus Marie of Brownsville, Illinois.
Gus simply called his blade a work knife and so does Paul. The knife industry
romanticizes this blade style by calling it a “Frontier” or “Bush Knife”. Gus was
the last of an unbroken chain of blacksmiths, originally from France, who came
to the Colonies before the American Revolution.
Paul’s other early mentors were Evan Cooper, an original cowboy from Utah that
shod his own horses, made his own knives and branding irons, and repaired his
own wagons; a real “throwback” kind of guy. The Deal brothers, Jim and Ben,
both blacksmiths of Murphysboro Illinois, trained as rural smiths at Tuskegee
College after the first Great War. They allowed Paul to “hang around their shop”
helping out. Paul was also proud to have worked with Daryl Meier and Brent
Kington of Southern Illinois University. Both men ushered in this modern era
of blacksmithing and pattern-welded steel that we all enjoy. They too were an
early and significant influence on Paul’s traditional training and approach to
blacksmithing. Paul has treasured his friendships with these “old” smiths as
much as the lessons they taught. Relocating to Northern Illinois in 1978 Paul
was instrumental in establishing, equipping, teaching and demonstrating at the
smith shop at Midway Village Museum in Rockford, Illinois. For many years he
taught classes in general blacksmithing, Colonial hardware and, of course, knife
making. He now limits his teaching to individual smiths seeking that traditional
approach to blacksmithing passed-on to him from those legendary smiths of the
last century. He has learned what works and what doesn’t in teaching others to
build a knife. He has captured those old-time secrets in this book and wants to
see other smiths enjoy traditional blacksmithing as much as he does. Paul is an
old-time guy, teaching an old-time skill to make an old-time tool.
Any traditional craftsman will quickly tell you that the best way not to form bad
habits is to learn new skill sets from an expert. Paul’s methods will get you off to
an excellent start in learning the ancient craft of blacksmithing and the artistry of
knife-making. The skills gleaned from making the Frontier can then be utilized
in making any style blade in the knife inventory.
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