The INDEPENDENT, August 2, 2007
Page 5
Business Notes
Vernonia man hosts North America’s first Bladesmithing school
A North American “First” oc-
curred in Vernonia last month,
when a traditional Blade-
smithing School was held here.
Five students and one re-
porter couldn’t have asked for
better weather as they attend-
ed the most unique course
ever held in Vernonia. Partici-
pants traveled from all over the
country for the first ever tradi-
tional Japanese bladesmithing
school titled “Secrets of the
Samurai Bladesmith”.
Instructor Murray Carter, a
resident of Vernonia, lived in
Japan for 18 years. While
there, he apprenticed to be-
come the first Caucasian suc-
cessor in a 400-year-old family
tradition of blade making. He
has forged more than 15,000
blades in the past 20 years.
The first class opened with a
lecture about safety, and an
overview of the week’s activi-
ties. The goal was to have each
participant forge three of their
own knives and complete them
in five days – a very ambitious
goal considering that a hand-
made knife can take more than
20 hours and up to 60 steps to
complete. The knives to be
made included a forge-welded
kitchen knife, a neck knife and
a camping/hunting knife. A
neck knife is a small daily carry
knife that is safely suspended
upside-down from the neck in a
special sheath.
Ron Yamaguchi, a third gen-
eration Japanese descendant,
traveled from Southern Califor-
nia to attend the class, after
having met Murray in Los Ve-
gas at a business seminar. He
had never set foot in a blade-
smith shop before, but wanted
to attend the course to better
understand his cultural her-
itage. Yamaguchi brought
along several authentic Samu-
rai sword blades for Murray to
appraise, for the benefit of the
whole class. “This five day
class was more interesting than
Enjoy
Jamboree
Please Don’t
Drink & Drive
Murray Carter giving instruction on shaping handles.
Photo courtesy of WM Hovey Smith
my thirty day trip to India,” Yam-
aguchi said.
Bert Seale and George
O’Brien, drove the 2700 miles
to Vernonia in Bert’s green van.
Friends since grade school,
school, they kept the group
lively with their humor and
cheerful spirit. “We had a blast,
a priceless learning experi-
ence.” Seale said, “I’d do it
again in a heart-beat.” O’Brien
added, “I’ll never look at a
hand-made object the same
way again. Now I know how to
look for quality in an object.”
Mason Payer, from Bend,
told Carter, ”We made three
awesome knives. You perfectly
blended the balance between
letting us do our own knives
and helping us enough so that
we ended up with a great fin-
ished product. I have no regrets
about this class. I consider this
a great value in both time and
money. I had a great time and
learned a lot. I’m very happy I
came and wouldn’t trade this
experience for anything. I felt
like a little kid on Christmas all
week!”
The fifth student, recent high
school graduate Shamus Dot-
son, has been learning the an-
cient art of knifemaking from
Carter since last summer.
Shamus’ comments on what he
learned: “Sweet! Knife making
is so cool!”
Carter’s wife, Rumiko, and
his four children were present,
adding a very relaxed and com-
fortable atmosphere to the
school. Several evenings end-
ed in a garden BBQ, and even
their Japanese dog, Anvil,
shared in the camaraderie.
During the course, students
were taught hands-on blade-
smithing techniques — selec-
tion of steel, forge mainte-
nance, lamination techniques,
forge welding, forging to final
thickness, traditional annealing
techniques, scale removal, cold
forging, straightening, quench-
ing, tempering, grinding, low
temperature silver soldering,
polishing, sharpening, attach-
ing handles and sheath mak-
ing.
Lecture topics included an
overview of different types of
traditional Japanese cutlery,
philosophy of Japanese metal-
lurgy, the five criteria for superi-
or cutlery, an explanation of
laminates vs. homogenous
steel blades, practical parame-
For the Record
In the July 19 issue, The In-
dependent reported that Scott
Laird told the Vernonia City
Council that the Bicycle Skills
Park budget called for a match
of 40 percent. Laird later told
The Independent that the 40
percent applies to the whole
project budget ($460,995) and
not just the recently acquired
$245,600 grant, as was stated
in the article. The correct fig-
ures are, according to Laird,
“40 percent of that is $184,398,
which we show in the grant
budget as $123,550 of in-kind
services and $82,845 of city
funds, for a total match of
$206,396 – $21,997 more than
is needed.”
ters of cutlery design, proper
and efficient blade sharpening
and maintenance, regional vari-
ation in traditional Japanese
bladesmithing, the relevant
strengths and shortcomings of
man-made sharpening stones
vs. natural stones, a guide to
the proper pronunciation of
Japanese blade-related termi-
nology and a special bonus
slide show of a village blade-
smith in Japan.
Reporter Hovey Smith, of
Whitehall Press-Budget Publi-
cations, and author of thirteen
books and hundreds of maga-
zine articles, realizing the
unique opportunity to cover this
North American “first,” flew in
from Georgia. “I enjoyed the
school and learned a lot from it
that I would not have otherwise
experienced, Smith said.” Hiss
report will be published in up-
coming issues of “Knives Annu-
al” by Krause Publications.
Carter and his family moved
to Vernonia almost two years
ago; they enjoy the quiet and
peaceful lifestyle of rural Ore-
gon.
For information about future
bladesmithing schools, or for a
catalog of the knives Murray of-
fers, contact him at:
PO Box 307
Vernonia, OR 97064
503-429-0447
Murray@Cartercutlery.com