Thank you to my customers
A quick moment of thanks to all my customers for the opportunity to share what I’ve learned during this journey in an age-old-trade with the next generation. It’s certainly something I owe to my late father, and I’m proud to continue in his tradition.
Mr. Andre is ShaveSmith’s first official apprentice.
At 17 years old, Andre arrived ready to learn, grow, and become an old-school craftsman.
This wasn’t easy for him. In 2018, he progressed through 6 months of education in my shop learning the basics of knifemaking, forging, safety, workshop ethic and more. Once he finished his first knife, I set him to task to line up an official internship that was hosted by our local government. He persisted, working alongside several Larimer County youth internship coordinators, he got it all arranged. Today was his first, well earned, official day of paid work.
Thanks to the program, we have 300 hours of internship time to learn and share an age old trade of razor crafting.
To start today, I sat him down at a 1,000 grit chosera hone, several razors of various sharpness, and let him explore honing. Afterwards, I had him oil all the old Sheffield razors in my collection (a subtle way to show him what quality forged steel felt and look like).
Here’s a bit about Andre, in his own words:
I was born and raised in Fort Collins Colorado. I became interested in blacksmithing because of youtubers, D&D, Anime, Video Games, and because i love working with my hands. I want to learn this trade so i can pursue it as a career and create a capstone project that showcases what I’ve learned.
Seven facts about Andre:
- My favorite music artist is neffex
- I love learning new skills and gathering knowledge
- I’m a gamer
- Play D&D and MTG
- I love reptiles
- Since I grew up in Colorado, I enjoy camping
- I enjoy studying Blades, Archery, and Firearms
More to come about the internship program, and Andre’s progress as a craftsman.
