Josh A Weston

Absolutely, f*@#ing incredible work! It's one of those posts that I wished would never end. Makes me want to move to New England to work with you guys. Such a fine piece. I love the edge bars and the carvings are just superb!

What fantastic work! I really love how you brought both wolves to life.

I have been doing some water jet blades using Aldo's 10 series and I have not needed to normalize. The blades heat treat well, have good flexibility and good grain structure.

This is so fantastic and wonderful that it's hard to come up with a compliment worthy of the work, the writing and the whole process. Your work, your attitude and your thinking is an inspiration. Thank you for making this and continuing the spreading of knowledge and skill in this modern age. It looks like that sword is a pleasure to hold.

I absolutely love this knife! You did a great job. I can't wait to see the sheath. I really like the butt cap and ring.

I'll throw in my request for some .25" too. I have some projects that could use that in some multi-bar scenarios in bars I don't want layered steel. Makes a few tricky things less tricky.

TV can be a dice game. From where I sit now, it is paying off from a money standpoint. That is nice but it has taken quite a bit of effort. I have met a many new smiths though and made connections and friendships that are invaluable. The show is gaining traction and helping to bring back interest in our craft and for that I am very thankful... except that now people want me to teach them. How can I teach when I still have so much to learn? Don't they understand that?! Lol!

Thanks, Charles! Yes, the dark banding was carved then burnt. I think I used a soldering pen, actually. I modified the tip for use.

It's already pretty toasty here in SC. I have been wearing one pretty regularly, even when forging and working in the garage. They can get a little hot but they surprisingly aren't too bad. They have a soft leather liner inside that helps make them a comfortable wear and I think that helps make the heat more bearable. Also, they typically have a little breathing room in them too, which helps. I am, however, trying to figure out ways to add some additional venting. Probably add some small holes or something like that, especially under the wallet version. Glad you liked the multi-bar kukri. I would like to rebuild that someday, but the way I intended it and not under the pressure of a ticking clock. This last round was very fun. Great group of smiths. We had a blast. Of course the win was super nice too

It's been quite awhile since I have made some post updates. I have had quite a lot going on. I will load some pics and blather on for a bit. I miss being active in the forum. I am not making just one off knives right now and that has me spinning in circles. I am in transition from my day job to my blacksmith job. I am 20ish hours a week at the day job and probably 30+ at knives and then I have another part time design job. That with the family I am quite booked. Anyhow, I managed to get back on Forged in Fire (thanks to people on facebook) and that ended up being a good thing this time. I know some of you hate the show. I don't. I see both sides of the picture, believe, I do. I have had my ups and downs with it. The first time I was on I lost in the final round. They made it seem like I didn't know how to sharpen a blade and that hurt my business. I didn't sell a single knife for 3 months after the air date. But I made more knives, put of videos of me cut testing and booked a lot of shows. I got out and met people, taught lessons and kept forging. My build up was slow but it grew and I started selling knives again. A little over a year after having been on the show I was back to selling knives at a decent rate and price. I had felt like I had at least repaired a lot of my reputation. I also started taking more sculpture work (I can't believe how much more money this can make... lot of work though). At the beginning of this year I was asked to come back on the show. I went. This time, though, I practiced a lot. I practiced the 3 hour forge time and the 3 hour handle time over and over. Some of my practice rounds I failed. I had a blade shatter to bits (I rushed and didn't heat the oil on a cold day while using 52100) and I had a couple handles that looked like horror film knife handles but I learned and pushed myself forward. I worked on my edge geometry and grinding. I worked on forging to shape. I worked on forging random steels and memorizing junkyard steel sheets. I poured over several of Jim Hrisoulas' books over and over. I won. It was very close and I made mistakes along the way but I won. It felt good to come back from a previous loss. I have a lot of you to thank. This forum is chalk full of information and help. Even if you don't know you helped, you probably did. I scour(ed) the forums for information and techniques that help me every day. I would not be where I am today as a bladesmith without you. Let's move on to post FIF. I don't carry a knife. Weird, right? A knife maker that doesn't carry his own knives. I don’t like the bulk. Plus I like to sell everything. But I don’t like full pockets I don’t like belts and though I like necker knives I hate how they fly around if you move. So, on a plane ride back and forth from Brooklyn I sketched up a wrist cuff sheath. I really wanted it to be more cuff accessory than sheath or bracer but yet influenced by both. I am selling these now. Working on a patent and have had an article written about them by knifenews.com. The reaction has been good. I have sold quite a few of them and continue to develop the product. A harsh year of feedback from the first time on FIF has prepped me to deal with the haters (can you believe how many just horrendously negative people are out there). Business is moving along. I have plenty of work and am getting paid a decent amount for it. I thank God for that. Here are a few pics from the last year.

I just came across this piece. It's excellent! My Grandfather fought in the Battle of the Bulge. He was a survivor but he didn't talk much about it. The one story he did tell was that he was always getting laughed at by some of the guys because he was always taking extra time to dig a hole under his tent. Apparently during that battle a few buddies stayed in a tent with him and he dug the holes. The next day they woke up and the tent was shot to hell. Just completely shot through but all three guys were fine from being down in the dirt. From that night all all those guys joined him in digging their sleeping hole under their tent. And no one made fun of him after that.

I am still having an issue here. The login will not recognize my display name. I have had to submit a "forgot password" every time I log in now. I have spaces in my display name and wonder if that is part of the hang up. Maybe I can get my display name changed somehow? I was unable to find a way to edit that info though. Thanks!

You did such a great job on this knife! I loved it the instant I laid eyes on it. You have got to be super proud.

It is always a pleasure to view the projects that come from your forge. Excellent work!

I love this seax!