We've been traveling for the past two months, first of all to deposit our two puppies in the loving care of my Mom and Dad so we could head down south. All the way south to Clyde N.C. for the ABS Intro To Bladesmithing class. This was a necessary class for me to take so I could test for my Journeyman Smith rating in june and Adam came with to help out with the class and buy me ice cream cones...can't get enough of that stuff when we hit town, quite possibly an icecream poverty complex is to blame.
The class was a great time, taught by two good friends of ours, Jason Knight
... and Burt Foster. 
... and Burt Foster. We all lived the good life out at Bill & Heidi Wiggins' civil war era cabin up in the hills. Jason had picked up a young hitch-hiker named Jeremiah Johnson on the way and he decided to take the class as well and so stayed with us. We enjoyed the stories of his adventures and also his prowess in playing the theme from Tetris on his accordion. We also benifited from his dumpster diving behind the grocery stores, just because it's out of date doesn't mean it's bad! He provided corn on the cob for our nightly BBQ's and even 3 dozen beautiful roses. We look forward to when his travels bring him to Alaska.
There were ten students including Adam and I, the facility was amazing. Ten coal forges all in a row, everyone with their own anvil and vise. Our host, Haywood Community College, also boasted the largest plasma cutter I've ever seen as well as a shearing machine, multiple welding stations etc. etc. it was a shop lover's dream! 
There were ten students including Adam and I, the facility was amazing. Ten coal forges all in a row, everyone with their own anvil and vise. Our host, Haywood Community College, also boasted the largest plasma cutter I've ever seen as well as a shearing machine, multiple welding stations etc. etc. it was a shop lover's dream! The first day we arrived Bill took us over to his shop so I could take my JS Performance test. This involves shaving hair with the test knife, cutting through a 2x4 twice, cleanly cutting a free hanging rope in one stroke and still being able to shave hair. The knife is then clamped in the vise and bent to a 90 deg. angle without breaking. We hadn't had time to round up a 2x4 so Bill was generous enough to dismantle an old sawhorse for me to destroy, I was a little worried about chopping into a nail but all went well. 
After some tense moments with the cheater bar the knife passed 90 Deg and sprang back....whew! Now I just have to make those 5 knives to submit to a panel of judges in Atlanta. We celebrated at the cabin with a glass of wine and passing around my bent knife which Adam decided was our new melon scooper.
After some tense moments with the cheater bar the knife passed 90 Deg and sprang back....whew! Now I just have to make those 5 knives to submit to a panel of judges in Atlanta. We celebrated at the cabin with a glass of wine and passing around my bent knife which Adam decided was our new melon scooper.It was great to have two weeks with nothing to do but forge knives and to have Jason and Burt to ask questions of. 
Adam spent some time teaching heat treating and inspiring everyone with his monster blades. He was experimenting with some CruForge V, a new bladesteel that has some surprising characteristics. Every day it seemed he'd put at least one knife in the vise and break it to check the grain structure...that's why we can't have nice things...
Adam spent some time teaching heat treating and inspiring everyone with his monster blades. He was experimenting with some CruForge V, a new bladesteel that has some surprising characteristics. Every day it seemed he'd put at least one knife in the vise and break it to check the grain structure...that's why we can't have nice things...We had a great time, brought home over 40 blades between the two of us and met some really good people. Tommy, the youngest and biggest member of our class took a southern-boy-sized swing at a free hanging rope and followed on through into his thigh and calf. 
After a rush to the emergency room we were glad to find out that nothing vital was cut. He drawled to the nurse on arriving "Ya think ah'll neeead stitches?" she looked at the massive cut and said tartly 'ya think?' 32 staples later he hobbled out on crutches still grinning.
He was a sport and showed up the next day, which was the last day of class, to say goodby and get in on some class pictures which unfortunately didn't end up on my camera. THIS priceless picture was however...last we heard from him he was healing up well and still making very sharp knives.
After a rush to the emergency room we were glad to find out that nothing vital was cut. He drawled to the nurse on arriving "Ya think ah'll neeead stitches?" she looked at the massive cut and said tartly 'ya think?' 32 staples later he hobbled out on crutches still grinning. He was a sport and showed up the next day, which was the last day of class, to say goodby and get in on some class pictures which unfortunately didn't end up on my camera. THIS priceless picture was however...last we heard from him he was healing up well and still making very sharp knives.
The surrounding area has a ruggedly graceful beauty to it. Old water wheels turn gently by their mill ponds protected by the foothills of the Smoky Mountains. The Last Of The Mohicans was filmed in the area and neighboring Asheville boasts the famous Biltmore Estate which is open to visitors. Weekends in this part of the country cannot be ill spent. Jason even talked us into some Karaoke one Wed. evening and Adam wowed the audience with his rendition of Johnny Cash's 'A Boy Named Sue' Our afternoon in Asheville was a charming combination of good coffee, incredibly artsy hats and an impromptu jam session with a dulcimer wielding street musician. I never knew this but mountain dulcimers are tuned harmonically so EVERYTHING you play sounds good! The ultimate knock-around instrument to pass around the campfire. Next time we're in the area we'll certainly be planning more time just to look around. Photos by Haley D. & Lydia McGhee
We got in some salt and freshwater fishing while they were here too. Just so 
I have been working on some 10 inch blades, a bit bigger than I usually create but I'm preparing for my cut and bend test which is my first step towards becoming a journeyman smith. I find the combination of housewife/
I had loaned out my personal chopper so Adam grabbed an unfinished one off his workbench for me. He sharpened it up and whipped a cord handle on it and we were off. 
It was a bit of a brush crash to climb to the foot of the mountain... then things started looking up...
We camped about 50 yds. from the summit the first night. We were up above the tree-line and the crevasses were still brimming with snow. It's remarkable how heavy a pack can feel after a winter of relative inactivity in the shop. It was often steep enough that you couldn't sit to rest either on the snow or grass without sliding down. We wheezed our way onto a little outcropping and called it home for the night. 
We were eating our top ramen dinner when we heard a SSSHOOOOOOOSHHHH sound and a huge boulder came sliding down through the snow about fifty yards away. The next morning I realized I'd forgotten any tea or cocoa so Adam brewed me up some mountain fare from spruce-tips and flowers blossoms. Then we went up and over to see what we could see!
Game was plentiful and Adam was in heaven breaking in his drilling. 
"I don't mean to brag, but I make a mean weed-rat stew..." Cheers to the second honeymoon!
The puppies were glad to be a family again and with all that moss it was basically a whole mountain of dog-beds.
It was hot and sunny and no wind to speak of. We dumped our packs on the summit and spent the day hiking the far ridges and exploring rock crevasses that hold tasty critters.
We also heaved a few boulders off the edge ourselves to watch them slide and spin through the snow far below. There was a sunburn to be had and we got it...here Adam fetches me some snow while I relax, he spoils me until I'm just rotten.
I hadn't shot it much in recent years and was stoked to find it's still a tack driver. We wiled away an evening decapitating lupine flowers outside our tent...alaskan 'groundskeeping' at it's finest. That little rifle is all the more precious to me since Grandpa went to be with the Lord recently, he would be proud to know it's still traveling mountains. 
We camped out the second night on the crest of the mountain overlooking Excursion Inlet. Here Adam prepares to hurl a thunderbolt at the city and borough of Haines for having the nerve to collect property taxes from us without providing any services.
It's hard to get to sleep because there's so much more daylight with nothing to throw a shadow on you, expecially this close to the summer solstice it never really got dark at all. We woke up the third day to find ourselves in the clouds. 
Our world suddenly seemed very small and steep on both sides. The wind picked up a bit and we decided to break camp and get down off the summit and into the timber in case the weather turned bad. It started to rain a tad and we made ourselves a camp down there in the trees and had a wood fire for a change. There was still patches of snow nearby so we weren't short of water.
The next morning it started really pouring down rain on us. We went home another way, got to thinking about hot cocoa and crashed down a loooooong steep slope cross-hatched with windfalls and brush. I was taking this picture to try to capture the incline and caught Adam just as he slipped and swung around dangling from this tree. Didn't realize I'd married such a tree hugger!
All in all it was a great way to decompress from the BLADE show excitement...we may make it a tradition.
These always seem to take longer than they should with some turning out just as you'd hoped... and some not so much. The final shaping of the leather on the grinder sends floating pink shreds everywhere making it look as if we'd been plucking muppets in our spare time and leaving us shaking it out of our hair and explaining to disbelieving friends 'uh, that's not really MY dandruff'... It's rare it seems I'm out of the shop before 8 pm to even start dinner... conversations center on plunglines, damascus etchant and 'let's hope it rains since we don't have time to haul water'.
Adam trims a moose antler down to size for a handle...
The finished product!
...To grinder...
Finally we'd finished all the knives we were going to get done. The night before we left we had a 'private viewing' for our friends and neighbors...
...had to have something to show for all the turned down invitations to adventures we'd been dishing out the past month! It was a fun time, lot's of ice tea and chocolates were consumed. Someone even came up with the idea to all pick a favorite and runner up and have a best of show award. After they all went home we packed our knives straight into the hardcase. The next day was gorgeously sunny for our boat trip into town.
My maiden name is Bell. I'd made the reservations months ago and the name change process (now that we're married) has been glacially slow since we live out of town. When Adam called for the car he gave him his first name. Anyhow, I'm sure my Dad would enjoy the sight of that..."right this way Mr. Bell"
