The Blade Forgers of New York City

Obsessed?

I would say yes but in a good way.

I only thought people made knives up in like the country.

It just just kind of came naturally to me.

So I was just like you know something?

I think this is something I can do.

I was around 10 years old

when my grandfather gave me my first knife.

I said Grandpa can I go look at your Bowie?

Can I go look at your Bowie?

And I guess after the fiftieth time

of him showing me and he said

you know something let me just give it to the guy.

And I tell you man I think I slept with it

the first night I got it.

Felt like I was an adult.

I felt powerful.

It was just really cool to own something I guess

that was dangerous maybe.

The love was always there.

I always collected.

And then one day I just tried making one.

This is the first one I ever made man.

That's how I knew I was on the right track.

Billy the Blade which I'm most known for

are my kukri blades.

I mean as you can see with the fat belly

with the drop in the head.

It's just designed to chop.

My first step would be to draw out

on to the blade a rough shape.

I would cut it out with my angle grinder.

I want it to get as evenly heated as possible

from the tip down past the handle.

Very important to get an even heat

throughout the whole blade.

When you see that bright orange kind of like

what you're seeing right here.

Is over 1250 degrees.

You want it about 1450 degrees when you start forging.

Well at least I do anyways.

A kukri is basically a curved machete.

The most difficult blades to forge.

Has this big drop point.

It has this big curved belly.

And nailing the geometry of all that is really difficult.

It's a blade that's been proven through centuries.

I want to get this blade strong

so I heat the blade up again and then

I go in for a quick oil clench.

The clench is basically the part

of the heat treating process where you turn

the blade from soft steel

to hard usable steel.

Now that the blade is heat treated

it's hardened, it's tempered.

It's strong, it's ready for the finish work.

So I would start grinding in the bevels, the edge.

And just overall cleaning up the whole blade.

Now that I got the blade finished,

I want to make sure the handle fits.

And it's going to look right.

So I basically from drawing out the sketch

of the handle on to the material.

So I could pre-drill the holes and roughly shape

it before I glue it on to the blade itself.

Now that the handle is glued on and hard.

I can start shaping the handle

and getting it comfortable and looking nice

and polishing it to where it looks awesome.

Pretty much just shaping out the overall look of the handle.

The hand work is where I really

put the finishing touches on the blade.

The last step would just be putting my logo on it,

my maker's mark. It's kind of like when you would see

an artist sign his painting.

It represents everything I'm about.

My first year into making knives,

I was contacted by Forged in Fire.

Did an interview.

Didn't have enough experience at the time.

I was turned down.

I almost wanted to prove to them

that they made the wrong choice by turning me down so

I went even harder after that.

I know I can make good blades.

Just want the rest of the world to know.

My Forged in Fire experience was bomb.

I knew exactly the road I was gonna

go through making these blades.

Cameras are in your face and it's hot in there.

You made it to the final round of this competition.

The Sica sword.

The process of making the sword was difficult.

A Sica sword is a gladiator sword.

I'm nervous.

They bring my blade out.

Oh man, it performed so great.

In the end the truth is they gave him the win.

I was really happy for him that he won

and I knew this is just the beginning for me.

It was almost like a dream.

Like a dream come true.

We're definitely like apples and oranges,

me and Theo.

He gave me my first real good lessons

I think I always had an appreciation for knives.

Started messing around in my bedroom

in my East Village apartment.

And really got bit by the bug.

But it was only a little bit later

that I began to actually like,

understand what a knife was.

We know it's a tool, we know it's a weapon,

we know it's practical and useful.

The extension of oneself through a tool or weapon

is a big part of why we like knives absolutely.

One of the things that I'm seeing

is that a lot of my younger students

no longer have classes that teach them

the basics of working with their hands.

And their parents want them to do something physical

so that they have at least some idea

of what craftsmanship is.

Stephanie is a good friend of mine.

She's naturally gifted. I think that in the past year

she's made immeasurable progress.

She started with just a knife.

[Stephanie] When you're at the forge,

you're just here with your piece of metal

forgetting about everything else and just having fun.

I joke with my friends about how it gets out my aggression

but also how I can get very zen doing it.

It definitely is a male dominated field.

So I'd like to see more women in it.

My daughter Isabella is my rock.

She's my number one.

She's the reason why I do all this.

My drive, my passion.

Really want to make her proud

and have someone to look up to one day.

She is very excited about what I do.

She's even done some drawings at school you know.

Mommy, Daddy, then Daddy with a sword.

What would be better than my daughter

wanting to forge you know?

From grandfather to me to my daughter.

I mean that's exactly what it's all about.