Knife and Tomahawk Forging with Joe Szilaski. #974-0820. 3 days. August 20-22.

This class is designed for anyone with little or no forging experience but with an interest in making hand forged high performance knife blades and tomahawks. Topics to be covered include blade function and design, selection of steel, forging and safety. All students will gain a basic understanding of the techniques and importance of forging a blade to shape at low temperature and will have a hands-on experience using a gas forge. Techniques of differential heat treatment and its importance will also be discussed. This class is dedicated to the forging and heat treating of a blade in preparation for the making of a complete hand-forged knife. For those with an interest in learning to forge a tomahawk head, we will discuss design and function of various types of tomahawks. We will cover the various methods of making a hawk including traditional and more modern methods. All students will complete a tomahawk head that they can then take home to complete the haft.

NOTE:  Hard shoes and long pants are required for student's safety.