Hi Knifedog people, I've found your forum and this looks like a good place to ask.
My son is 11 and is interested in knifemaking. I'm fairly handy and crafty myself, but I know nothing about knives. Recently we took a one-day "parent-and-me" blacksmithing class at Pratt Fine Arts Center and we both had a blast. But this has just further cemented his desire to get into this and I don't know the best way to help him, because, well, he is a kid and all the classes are geared towards adults for obvious safety reasons. Right now he just watches people make things on youtube. We have the potential for tools/workspace at home as I do a bit of woodworking myself, but I can't teach him about knives since I don't know what I'm doing.
Ideally, I'd love for him to take weekly lessons one-on-one with an expert, much like piano lessons, but I don't know if anything like this exists here in Seattle, let alone one that would be open to teaching a kid (he is smart, though!) If anyone has any ideas, or suggestions for how to satiate his interest in this for the time being (good intro books?), please let me know! Thanks so much!
My son is 11 and is interested in knifemaking. I'm fairly handy and crafty myself, but I know nothing about knives. Recently we took a one-day "parent-and-me" blacksmithing class at Pratt Fine Arts Center and we both had a blast. But this has just further cemented his desire to get into this and I don't know the best way to help him, because, well, he is a kid and all the classes are geared towards adults for obvious safety reasons. Right now he just watches people make things on youtube. We have the potential for tools/workspace at home as I do a bit of woodworking myself, but I can't teach him about knives since I don't know what I'm doing.
Ideally, I'd love for him to take weekly lessons one-on-one with an expert, much like piano lessons, but I don't know if anything like this exists here in Seattle, let alone one that would be open to teaching a kid (he is smart, though!) If anyone has any ideas, or suggestions for how to satiate his interest in this for the time being (good intro books?), please let me know! Thanks so much!