In a world where so many household items are readily available to purchase, their convenience and replaceability are often taken for granted. One such item is knives, including those used in the kitchen and the kind made to carry in your pocket. Over the decades, the time-consuming process of bladesmithing has largely been superseded with a simple drive to the local store. 

Still, there’s no guarantee that these low-cost, mass-produced products are made to last. For John Clark, 37, buying a low-quality knife is what inspired him to explore the hobby of bladesmithing, or knife making.

John, married to Kailey, has two sons, ages 5 and 7, and a brand-new baby girl. A native of Portal, he grew up on a farm on the outskirts of town and says the experience he gained as a built-in farmhand for his father helped prepare him for his future hobby as a knife maker.

“Getting to work with my hands a lot paved the way for me to want to spend hours at my workshop making things,” he said.

As hobbies often do, bladesmithing has become an outlet for John, who has worked as a police officer for the past 11 years — seven of those with the Statesboro Police Department, two with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, and two so far with the Georgia Ports Authority Police Department, where he’s currently employed.

“I figured I needed a good hobby to take my mind off the job,” he said. 

He had dabbled in woodworking, but his focus shifted to bladesmithing after an expensive knife broke within days of buying it. 

“I looked up videos on how to fix it and instead started seeing videos on how to make my own, (so I) gave it a shot,” he said. “I’ve been doing it ever since.”

He’s mostly self-taught with the help of YouTube tutorials, but he has also had the opportunity to work alongside other smiths and makers, learning more tricks of the trade. His personal style often draws inspiration from the American South and West, as well as Japanese art and culture.

“For the most part, I really just make what I'm feeling at the time,” he said. 

As he continues to develop his technique in the age-old craft, John draws from an arsenal of tools, both primitive and contemporary.

“As far as the most traditional tools, I use a hammer, anvil and file to shape and draw out blades,” he said. “However, I do use modern tools such as a belt grinder, hydraulic press, and a modern-style gas forge.”

The process begins with heating a piece of high-carbon steel and roughly shaping it. The excess material is then ground off, revealing the knife’s final shape.

“Next, you do a heat-treating process that involves bringing a blade to temperature and quenching it in oil and later tempering it in an oven,” John explained. 

Finally, the knife is cleaned and again sharpened, and a handle is attached to the blade.

John says it is these details that separate mass-produced knives from hand-forged blades like his, which are available to purchase through his small business, 12 Stitch Blades — a name with an interesting backstory. While working on his first custom knife for a customer, in his haste, John made a crucial error when he fully sharpened the blade and then attempted to drill pin holes for the handle using a drill press. The blade got caught in the moving drill press and became a spinning propeller, slicing open John’s hand. At the hospital, John received stitches from an ER doctor who noted that the blade’s extreme sharpness, akin to a scalpel, had prevented any internal damage, commenting, “That’s a good 12 stitch blade” — and the name stuck.

After all, what good is a knife if it isn’t dangerously sharp?

“I have actually thrown many would-be blades away due to them not being up to my personal standards,” John said. “Handmade knives are far more well-assembled and many times custom-fitted for the user. Each one is individually made and … properly processed and will outlast a mass-produced knife, more often than not.”

This dedication to quality and precision also earned John the opportunity to appear on the History Channel’s Forged in Fire television show in 2018 (Season 5, Episode 20). While he ultimately didn’t win the reality competition, he says he found the experience valuable — and unforgettable.

“I took away from it (that) was there is a whole lot of things I still don't know in the craft, but it was an amazing experience that I was glad to be a part of,” he said. “I still keep in touch with people that were there with me.”

John acknowledges that those in his craft face challenges in keeping bladesmithing alive, most notably in the expenses of maintaining and updating the required tools and equipment. Another significant issue is market saturation, as well as the crucial time commitment required to craft and create. But it’s the art that keeps him going, his hands hard at work, with the goal of creating one-of-a-kind knives that will evoke feelings of nostalgia for years to come — a legacy in the making.

“I just hope one day I'll be able to sit back and have a blade that people remember me as the maker of it,” he said.