Knife Camp 2022, Canberra

By Christian Mathieson

What a weekend. 18 students and 6 instructors turned up at Cuppacumbalong Homestead in Tharwa ACT for 2 days of collaborative skills sharing in the knife camp format that has been so successful in the past. Thursday night following pizza there was the usual meet and greet and knives were brought out for a casual show & tell. Friday was a day of presentations starting with Martin Carswell discussing the finer points of high quality leatherwork. Jackson Rumble ran us through his systems for successful San-Mai billets in various combinations, his key message was “Oxygen is Bad.” Ian Stewart shared his method for salvaging bleached and weathered antler to look dark and healthy again. Karim ran us through some new emerging technologies that we are sure to see make their way into knife making in the future, laser marking and 3D printing. Friday evening two of our state reps, Shawn McIntyre and Adam Fromholtz, ran a discussion on the assessment process.
The students nominated their 2 Saturday sessions from the list of 4 available classes. Adam’s class was using a 3d printed form to create an image in a cannister damascus billet. 2 designs were made, one of the Guild logo and another of an Anvil. Unfortunately I didn’t get a photo of the end result. While the canisters were in the forge, Ian got them all to have a go at rejuvenating some old antler. Jackson got his students to weld up and forge out some San-Mai billets. Martin had prepared some leather coasters and instructed his students on proper awl and cast saddle stitch techniques followed by his methods for a seamless burnished edge, the results were impressive. And Shawn ran a session where he examined knives presented to him and offered suggestions on how to improve them.
Saturday night was for relaxing, sharing experiences, show prep (for those with a table at the Canberra Knife show) and from catching up with the new arrivals as they trickled in for the show.
I’d like to take the opportunity to thank the instructors Shawn, Ian, Adam, Jackson, Karim and Martin for sharing their knowledge with others. It really is what the Guild should be about.
I’d also like to thank Karim and the whole Tharwa Valley Forge crew for making us welcome and ensuring that the weekend ran super smooth.
And finally, I’d like to thanks the participants that were willing to invest in their knife making by coming along to the camp. It’s much better to be a knifemaker of many years’ experience than a knifemaker who stops learning after the first one and simply repeats that year over and over.
Looking forward to the next one, who’s keen to share something?