Spring 2024
April 13-14
Summer 2024
August 3-4

Forging Carving Tools: Your Very Own Bent & Straight Knives

Weekend Class, For Beginners

This weekend class is designed to introduce you to the wonderful self-sufficient world of tool forging. We’ll specifically focus on bent and straight knives used for spoon carving and many Pacific Northwest Indigenous carving traditions. Each student should come away with a set of tools and a solid understanding of the techniques and theories behind tool forging.

This two-day course is not woodworking! Instead, we’re learning how to make your own carving tools. Specifically, bent and straight knives commonly used for spoon carving, mask carving, panel carving, and many other carving practices. 

Working with flat bar tool steel, students will learn how to shape, bend, and prepare knife blanks for forging. Using small benchtop forges and toaster ovens, we then learn how to harden, polish and temper the steel. After final sharpening we will set the blades into a temporary handle to try out our new toys. Everyone will be carving with the tools they’ve made by the end of the second day and students will now know how to make knives and forging set up at home.