My Name is John Hege, I'm a mostly retired auto mechanic in the foothills of North Carolina. I got started in knife making when Tommy McNabb brought an old m40 Volvo transmission into the shop where I was working. While I wish I'd begun like some of these new kids who are getting started when they're 16 years old, my involvement in Knife Making was timely because I got started about the same time the ABS began working with Haywood County Community College.

I visited the first hammer-in in Waynesville and sat in on the class about ABS Blade judging. Greg Neely was teaching and he drew a few knives on the board to illustrate what they didn't want to see. All of his drawings looked like at least one of the knives I had already made.

Long story short, I got my Journeyman stamp at the Blade Show last week. I was thrilled to have passed, but during the process of making my five knives (it was actually about a dozen or more, only five were completed successfully) I could see how much my work was improving. I'm looking forward to developing my craft and trying for my MS.