I am very sad to say that I just learned this morning that Louie Mills has passed away. If you have not heard his name before, this very much reinforces my observation that the greater the bladesmith, the less fanfare and publicity they need. I would definitely put Louie Mills at the top of the list of the greatest bladesmiths I have ever known. Before almost anybody in the U.S. was even aware of the traditional craft of creating Japanese blades, Louie was doing it with the adept skill of a master. When I was forging my first blades out of files, Louie was working tamahagane, refining oroshigane, and perfectly executing traditional hamon, I wouldn’t have even understood what I was looking at if handed one of his blades at the time. He was a true pioneer. But Louie wasn’t about the front page of magazines, he was about exploring the deepest depths of an ancient craft just for the sake of doing it, and it showed in his incredible work.

I learned about Louie because he lived right here in my home state of Michigan, and I had the privilege of meeting him a couple of times. I had an invite to visit his shop and never made the time, a foolish mistake on my part. Jim Batson once told me that the ABS got the idea of their bend test when Louis showed up at Ashokan back in the 1980’s and blew away Bill Moran, and others, with the ability of his Japanese blades to do such a test.

We have lost a giant, who’s unfillable footprints will remain forever as a monument to what a true craftsman is capable of.