In July 1990 I was in the Army, home on leave from South Korea and attending The Knifemakers’ Guild Show in Orlando, Florida. While there, I was introduced to the forged blade.
I stopped by the table of ABS Master Smith Jim Crowell. He explained to me what it took to gain the prestigious rating of ABS master smith. It wasn’t just the quality of the knife that impressed me. I was amazed at how a 15-inch knife with a 10-inch blade could be so lightweight. While I was not new to fixed blades, my experience to that point had been with stockremoval knives.
Jim explained that is a procedure to thin the blade from guard to tip and spine to edge. The amount of tapering depends on the purpose of the knife. As I moved through the show, I started paying more attention to the forged blades on. The dimensions of the knife were a blade of 10 inches in length, 1.5 inches wide and a quarter inch thick, generally with a 5-inch handle.
