Bowie's Hammer-In is this Fri/Sat/Sun in Knoxville this weekend.
"What's a Hammer-In?", you ask. It's where a bladesmith invites a whole mess of other bladesmiths to come over to the forge for anywhere from a week to a weekend (usually 3 day weekend) and present seminars on how to do this or how the old-timers did that. There's always a lot of heating and beating going on when they're not grinding or talking (sometimes all at once
). There are lots of knives and hammers and tomahawks and grinders and other things being bought or sold or traded. Usually Saturday afternoon late the "Iron In The Hat" cup raffle occurs. A lot of the makers and vendors will put things out on tables with cups beside them so that folks can put tickets they bought from the host of the hammer-in in the cups. I've seen a young fella that bought 10 $1 tickets win a $500 custom knife. I've seen old timers that bought $100 worth of tickets win $10 worth of kaowool. I've never seen anyone get angry over not winning what they were after. This IITH will have at least 3 custom knives in it according to Bowie.
There will also be free knife forging sessions for youngsters as well. I've seen 12 year old girls forge credible knives under the tutelage of some of the best bladesmiths in the world at Bowie's.
They're also going to make a complete knife from steel to finished this time and put it through the cutting tests.
Unlike other hammer-ins, Bowie's is open to anyone interested in forging blades and making knives or just collecting. That means that even mortals can purchase tickets for the iron in the hat and have a chance to win a custom knife.
Bowie is Ron Claiborne. His forge is on Ellistown Road off of Millertown Pike off of I640 in Knoxville.
"What's a Hammer-In?", you ask. It's where a bladesmith invites a whole mess of other bladesmiths to come over to the forge for anywhere from a week to a weekend (usually 3 day weekend) and present seminars on how to do this or how the old-timers did that. There's always a lot of heating and beating going on when they're not grinding or talking (sometimes all at once
). There are lots of knives and hammers and tomahawks and grinders and other things being bought or sold or traded. Usually Saturday afternoon late the "Iron In The Hat" cup raffle occurs. A lot of the makers and vendors will put things out on tables with cups beside them so that folks can put tickets they bought from the host of the hammer-in in the cups. I've seen a young fella that bought 10 $1 tickets win a $500 custom knife. I've seen old timers that bought $100 worth of tickets win $10 worth of kaowool. I've never seen anyone get angry over not winning what they were after. This IITH will have at least 3 custom knives in it according to Bowie.There will also be free knife forging sessions for youngsters as well. I've seen 12 year old girls forge credible knives under the tutelage of some of the best bladesmiths in the world at Bowie's.
They're also going to make a complete knife from steel to finished this time and put it through the cutting tests.
Unlike other hammer-ins, Bowie's is open to anyone interested in forging blades and making knives or just collecting. That means that even mortals can purchase tickets for the iron in the hat and have a chance to win a custom knife.
Bowie is Ron Claiborne. His forge is on Ellistown Road off of Millertown Pike off of I640 in Knoxville.
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