18
WBM june 2012
He takes a pencil to drafting paper and
sketches the knife, leaning on past experiences
as he dares to explore new methods
and figures.
A shapeless piece of steel is placed in the
forge and heated to 2,315 degrees. McGhee
carefully extracts the burning metal from the
forge and places it in the mouth of a hammer
that slams automatically, flattening the blade
and giving it shape. The metal is heated
again and again, each time returning to an
anvil where McGhee strikes it with heavy
blows and careful precision until the knife’s
point is sharp.
McGhee scrutinizes the shape through his
round, wire-framed spectacles. It looks like a
knife, but it is still just a piece of metal to him.
The real work is yet to be done. The knife must
be heat-treated, sanded and polished — each
step is as significant and tedious as the last.
Finally, McGhee outfits the knife with a custom
wood handle. The arborist turned bladesmith
chooses between an array of beautiful
domestic and exotic woods. In a cardboard
box kept in the back of his workspace he
hoards walnut, African blackwood, desert
ironwood, redwood and the penile bone of a
walrus. He doesn’t choose. The knife does.
“The art of knife making is in the flow of the
knife,” he says, pointing to the contours within
the blade. The wood must complement those
contours in a way that accentuates the flow.
Self-employed as an arborist for 18 years,
McGhee says that throughout his career he
did a lot of climbing, pruning and chopping
with nothing to show for it but a stump and
a pile of woodchips. It was depressing, he
says, so he focused more on pruning and
consulting.
“I loved it because of the creativity,” he says.
“It was something that lived beyond what I
did today. Knife forging gives me the same
thing, but it is easier on my knees and shoulders,”
he jokes.
At the end of the day, there is much
McGhee can show for his work: knives cut with
precision, strengthened by heat and refined
with an artist’s touch. His rugged personality
and fiery edge are revealed in each hunter,
camper, fighter and specialty knife he creates.
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