AKA Visits Jim Crowell's Shop

This winter the Arkansas Knifemaker's Association held a shop visit at the home of ABS Mastersmith Jim Crowell. When I heard about the shop visit, I knew that I had to be there as Jim Crowell was one of the instructors when I took the Introduction to Bladesmithing Course that the ABS offers. So, I was was quite excited to see how he does things at his own shop.

After having a few minutes to catch up with several knifemakers and collectors from the region the day kicked off with a little forging. Being a bit of a hammer enthusiast I was thrilled when Lin Rhea M.S. stepped up to the anvil to forge a cross pein hammer head from a piece of car axle.

Due to the large size of the stock Lin enlisted Chris Montgomery to serve as a striker for the task. Chris showed quite a bit of stamina with lots of sledge hammer swinging taking place during the creation of the eye of the hammer.

Once the hammer was done we moved onto a great event... LUNCH! The Crowells had set up a nice fire for us and served up some of their famous chili. Once we were full of Chili we were treated to a little dutch oven peach cobbler cooked right there by the fire. Having stuffed ourselves to the point of barely being able to move we had a quick AKA business meeting.

Now that everyone had full stomachs it was decided that it was time for some cutting. Jim Crowell served as the event coordinator and m.c. Two by fours were dispatched as well several water bottles rope and even some fruit. This particular bottle was heroically split by ABS Master Smith Ronnie Foster.

In the end it was Jerry Petty who went home with the much coveted Pink Pig!

Eventually we worked our way back to the shop where Jim Crowell discussed edge geometry and demonstrated his technique for putting a keen edge on a hard use knife. It was a great way to wrap up a great day of knife related fun!