Galveston man makes, sells hand-forged knives

GALVESTON, Ind. (AP) - Nate Hardin's workshop is cluttered with grinders, drill presses, an orange-glowing forge furnace, an anvil and other tools.

"If it's not begged, bartered, borrowed or stolen, it ain't in this shop," he quipped, the surfaces of his hands as black as the bandanna around his head. "I've acquired all this equipment to make the oldest tool in the world, the simplest tool in the world. It takes all this."

Hardin has been making knives out of the workshop for about the last three years. He creates everything from the steel in the blades to the handles they rest within to produce what he calls a practical tool with a unique style.

When Hardin sets out to make a knife, he starts by putting a strip of steel in a furnace known as a forge until it takes on an orange glow.

After sliding it out with a pair of tongs, he lays it on an anvil and beats it with a hammer, the sharp pings mixing with the hiss of gas from the forge. Each strike further tapers what will become the blade's cutting edge.

Hardin eventually takes the blade over to a grinder, where he chooses from an assortment of belts with varying consistencies. Sparks spray as he confidently slides the blade back and forth across the belt at different angles, tapering it more and getting the steel closer to the shape he desires.

He tries to leave as many hammer marks in as he can throughout the grinding process, contributing toward a style he calls "brutally elegant."

"I like hammer marks," Hardin said. "I think hammer marks are sexy."

Hardin continues by drilling holes for the pins that will bind the blade to the handle. Then it goes back in the forge once more before he submerges it in water or oil, allowing the metal to harden. He then immerses the blade in ferric chloride, giving it a darker finish.

He said he usually chooses hardwoods for his handles but occasionally uses animal bones, antlers and horns. He's even made them out of corncobs, which he added can take more than 25 hours to shape and sand just right as opposed to the two to three hours required for other materials.

Hardin also makes the steel used in his blades. Known as Damascus steel, it consists of taking several layers of two or more different kinds of steel as thin as eight-thousandths of an inch and welding them together. The resulting piece is then folded over on itself before being welded together yet again. That is repeated, allowing the layers to multiply exponentially. Hardin likes to stop when he reaches 160 to 180 layers. The tiers create a pooling pattern in the steel he and his clients find aesthetically pleasing.

The 39-year-old knife-maker started selling his products in 2010. Hardin said he dabbled in the craft in high school but didn't start getting serious about it until further on into adulthood. Now he has 34 different models he sells.

Hardin first got interested in the trade out of a desire to have a knife similar to a treasured one he had lost. It's been a learning experience ever since.

"That's all knife-making is, is covering up one mistake with another one," Hardin said. "You're just covering up scratches with scratches."

Despite all the time, effort and attention to detail, Hardin doesn't call his skill an art form.

"I don't consider myself an artist," he said. "I dabble in the art of knife-making as a craftsperson."

His clients aren't art patrons, he continued - they're working people like butchers, barbecue stand owners and restaurant workers.

"My customer base, they're end users," he said.

Hardin instead applies the title to fellow members of a knife-making community made possible by the Internet and gathering in person at knife shows across the country.

"The guys that I look up to, those guys are artists, man," Hardin said. "I'm very fortunate that I have good influences from great knife-makers."

Hardin's business, Halfbreed Knives, can be reached at halfbreedknives@gmail.com. The name was inspired by the interest and admiration he's had in Native American culture since childhood.

"It comes from the Ojibwe creation story," Hardin said. "It means you're half-earth and half-spirit, doesn't matter what color you are."

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Source: (Logansport) Pharos-Tribune, http://bit.ly/1OOWlif

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Information from: Pharos-Tribune, http://www.pharostribune.com