Forging Adventure
One of the current projects at the Parksville Museum forge involves hand crafting knives from series Land Rover leaf springs. Series spring steel has not changed spec since the first run in 1948 and replacements today are even made with the same composition. The projects shown below are made from original 1965 Series 2a Land…
Photo Essay: Museum Forge Visit
Talented LA-based photographer and aspiring bladesmith Jourdan Causey made a detour up to the Museum Forge on a very cool April morning to document the atmosphere as the first blade of the season was forged from century-old mining car rail in a fire fueled by charcoal made with brush cleared homestead branches. Photographed and graded…
Museum Forge Shiageba
As part of the 2022 artist in residence project a temporary shiageba (finishing area) was set up for carving handles and scabbards for the knives forged earlier in the year. This was the first time that the finishing stages of traditional knifemaking were demonstrated at the museum. Later in the season a full-sized traditional togi-dai…
Artist in Residence: Museum Forge
Although temporary demonstrations and events have been held at the museum since early 2012, the blacksmith-in-residence project at the museum forge was officially launched in 2015 by Red Cod Forge. Building and installing the traditional swordsmith forge was started in 2016, the first lighting in 2017, and since then bladesmithing has been a regular part…
Railway Days at the Museum
A yearly event around the theme of railways hosted by the Vancouver Island Garden Railway Club, The Oceanside Model Railroaders, and the E&N Division of the Canadian Railway Historical Association. Around four hundred people attended this year and enjoyed the many special exhibits on the grounds. The museum forge was open for viewing, though the…
Forge Visit: Shibata Family
The museum forge had a visit from a unique and talented family this summer. The Shibata family makes artisan foods on Saltspring, and the two boys, aged 10 and 12 are highly self-motivated creative students of craft who are interested in learning about traditional knife and sword making. They traveled to the island and spent…
NikkeiTV Interview
Vancouver-based Japanese NikkeiTV stopped in at the museum forge on their central Vancouver Island tour. Thank you to Kaeko~san and Tag~san for your visit and interest in traditional swordsmithing! Original airing date was June 5, 2022. See more photos of the finished knives here. Watch more forge visits and interviews here.
Museum Forge Interpretive Sign
Design collaboration in support of the Artist in Residence project: freshly installed results of photos, text, and layout assistance for the new Parksville Museum forge signage. See more photos of the Inome tanto, how the fuigo works, and tour the museum forge.
Film: The Blacksmith – Tools for Satoyama
The forging of this blade was documented both in photography and video by Jordan Wende. The wakishinobe stage of lengthening and preparing the sunobe were done on the last day of forging at the island kajiba, and the hizukuri was finished and yaki-ire performed at the museum forge. See the photo essay of the wakashinobe…
2011-2020 Portfolio: A Decade in Review
This newly released documentary book project is the result of many weeks of editing and design work and can be enjoyed by the collector, enthusiast, and craftsman alike. It contains over 200 photos and highlights more than 30 knives spanning the past decade of work at Crossed Heart Forge since relocating from Japan in 2011.…
Simple Bladesmithing Anvil
Traditional Japanese swordsmithing anvils are simple in form and can be made from readily available materials. This article will present a photographic overview of the process of removing and replacing the swordsmith’s anvil at the museum forge on Vancouver Island. Most of history was forged with very simple equipment made from found and natural materials.…
Museum Forge Update
Traditional Japanese swordsmithing forges can be constructed with simple materials and natural ingredients. This article will present a photographic overview of the process of refurbishing the swordsmith’s forge at a museum on Vancouver Island. Most of history was forged with very simple equipment made from found and natural materials. A basic charcoal forge can be…
Bladesmithing at the Museum Forge
Forging a custom forest kotanto in the swordsmith forge. The starting material was a harrow tooth, the finished blade is hirazukuri, mitsu mune, 140mm / 5.5″ nagasa, with a sturdy 6.5mm motokasane. The finish will be tsuchime (hammer texture) so there was no filing or polishing before yaki-ire, which was done at my forge for…
Making Fire with Bamboo – museum forge first lighting
The first night turned out to be quite an event as there were three forges and six blacksmiths/strikers operating in the museum workshop. Thanks to Tim of Reforged Ironworks, and Josh for their energy and charcoal chopping to get the forge up and running, and their assistance swinging the big sledges to finish drifting and…
Sumi-kiri – chopping charcoal for bladesmithing
Charcoal is chopped and then processed through four sizes of screen, the largest is for tanren, the second for hizukuri (I tend to use the largest for hizukuri as well and keep the second size mainly for yaki-ire), the third size isn’t useful in daily forging activity but may be crushed into fines or saved…