About

My name is Patrick.

I’m a self taught bladesmith, wood worker, and blacksmith, among other things. Let’s just say I’ve been working since the age of 16 and have done multiple types of work.

I didn’t start getting into blacksmithing until about the middle of 2018. Started out small by making quite a few leaf keychains to work on my hammer control – a tip I picked up by watching Alec Steele, on Youtube. I’d say he was probably my biggest motivation to start blacksmithing. I saw the things he was making and thought to myself, “that looks like a blast.”

So I made a forge out of a cheap BBQ and a hair dryer, a small 25lb anvil was given to me by my aunt, bought myself a 2.5lb hammer off eBay, and just went for it. I was hooked instantly and wanted to forge all the time.

Between forging and woodworking, I was having a blast. I very quickly came to the realization I wanted to do these full time. So my wonderful wife (fiancé at the time), set me up a couple social media accounts and got me started on Etsy so I could start putting my creations out there for people. I couldn’t have been able do any of this without her help and support. Of course I wasn’t expecting things to just blow up overnight, but there was always that hope floating around in the back of my head. You just can’t help it.

After about a year or so of blacksmithing and creating custom furniture pieces, I got the itch to try forging a knife. In January 2020, I picked up a propane forge and scratched that itch. It wasn’t anything crazy, just a simple knife forged from a railroad spike. Mainly wanted to get the feel for working with a carbon steel and figure out how to forge in the shape and profile of a knife. It was an interesting new challenge, that I was excited to tackle.

On January 28th, the day before my birthday, I went for it. I took a small piece of an old leaf spring and forged out a Viking seax styled knife. With a piece of walnut from the hardware store and a small piece of brass for the guard, I completed my first ever real knife – thrilled to see it take shape. It took me a few days to really get things sanded, cleaned up and ready for heat treat, since I was working with very basic tools at that time. It wasn’t the prettiest thing to look at, but that was kind of the point. It was supposed to look rugged and kind of beat up, since it’s intent was to be used.

Fast forward a few months to April and I was able to start forging my next knife. I got a hold of some more leaf spring steel and went at it. Took a 1”x3” piece of leaf spring and forged out my second knife. It was a stubby little edc style knife, that I put some red oak handle scales on and polished the blade up like a mirror. Once I finished that knife up, I knew I was hooked.

The excitement, frustration and reward that came from creating a knife from a piece of steel, was so intoxicating, I wanted more. So I slowly started adding more and more tools and equipment to help me along my bladesmithing journey. I always had the idea of making knives bouncing around in my brain, just never thought I’d be doing it so soon in my blacksmithing career.

I’d like to think I’ve had a lot of unspoken inspiration by my late uncle Brent Harp. He was a student of the late Bob Loveless and made the most beautiful pieces of work that would make your jaw drop. My uncle and I actually spoke about making a knife for me, and I was excited to have a piece of his work for my own. Unfortunately, that never came to be, as he became very ill and unfortunately passed away later that same year.

I almost feel like after his passing, it gave me more of a drive to pursue making knives.

I love the Bob Loveless style of knives and making them is humbling to say the least. They are as intricate to make as they are beautiful to behold – though there’s nothing like creating your own style of knife. It’s the kind of thing that makes you stand out from the rest.