Drawing on 15 years of bladesmithing instruction and 23 years of bladesmithing, Nick breaks down the process of completing a full tang chef knife into easily digestible steps in this educational online video series. This 3 part video series is intended for a seasoned beginner, but those who are new to forging or those with an academic interest in how a smith develops a forging process will find it equally valuable. Each part can be purchased independently or all together. This series assumes that you have a forge, anvil, tongs, a post vise, a drill press and a 2×72 belt sander. No power hammers or presses are required for this series. The purchase of any video includes membership to a private Facebook group where tech support will be offered by Nick along with exclusive educational opportunities and detailed breakdowns of each forging step and techniques that until now were only available via in-person workshops. Each installment is a little over an hour.

Chef Knife 2: Normalizing through Hand Polishing

Grain refinement, detailed design and pattern layout, profiling, low tech hardening, temper straightening, full tang theory, grind trouble shooting, edge geometry theory and hand sanding.

Required tools/materials: Pencil, paper, eraser, scissors, Super 77 spray adhesive, 6” magnetic knife holder, 1 half dead 50 grit belt, 1 fresh 50 grit belt (Norton Blaze or equivalent) 1 fresh 120 grit belt aluminum oxide X weight, 1 fresh 220 belt j or x weight, 1/8 drill bit, #50, Quenchfast 11 second or AAA quenching oil, toaster oven, 2 sheets of 220, 320 and 400 premium sandpaper (Rynowet or equivalent).