Making NW Carving Tools with Steve Brown

Five of us took Steve Brown's NW Toolmaking Class this last weekend at the Port Townsend School of Woodworking. Steve bought his portable blacksmithing kit - forge, Anvil, blacksmith tools, and grinders which we set up inside and outside the class. We started with a presentation on the history of steel tools in the Native American tradition and it clearly predated the settlers - pointing to connections to China and Japan. 

Steve's background in ethnography, carving and toolmaking is staggering. Mitch (one of the students) makes Aleutic style Baidarka and grew up in native communities in Alaska was having great conversations about Prince William Sound style of carving with Steve.

Onto the toolmaking - Steve went into depth on the materials, design of adzes and knives using his wonderful array of tools to explain the subtleties between types of blades.But as usual pictures are worth more than my descriptions.


Thanks Steve for a great class - we hope to get Steve back to teach this and more classes in the future.

Here's a slideshow of the class and several movies of the making process: