My nearest city is Sheffield, the home of the steel industry and thus cutlery and knife making in the UK. As this year is the 100th birthday of stainless steel, Exciting Things are happening! One of those things is lead by Grace Horne, an exceptional knifemaker and very good friend of my Mum, and so I got in on it.
May Make A Folder is a project to encourage non-knife making craftspeople to have a go at making a folding knife in the month of May. We each received a pack of bits, and after a demonstration day were packed off to do our own thing..
I, of course, opted to make mine with a wooden ‘scale’.
A lovely piece of ripple plum, rescued off the firewood pile because it was just too beautiful to burn. Too hard and dry to turn into spoons, it was just perfect for a knife handle.
Combining metal and wood like this was a tricky business. Most wooden handled folders and made using seasoned wood and power tools, and I can see why. The scale needs to be perfectly flat and even to fit the metal liner, something which would be far easier with a bandsaw and a planer-thicknesser…
Nonetheless, I managed it and successfully completed a knife before the month of May was over!
I’m feeling quite inspired, and very much looking forwards to getting the opportunity to chat knives with Nic Westermann and Dave Budd at SPOONFEST in two weeks time!
Check out the facebook page for more details on the MMAF process..
nice.