Knife steel out of magnetite

We drove from Silver City up to Glenwood a couple of weekends ago where the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish was hosting a "Gila Festival" to celebrate the opening of its rebuilt trout hatchery -- which raises the state's native Gila trout. Among the vendors was an older fella set up under a shade tree with a hand-cranked blower and old-fashioned farmer-type forge. I just had to chat with him. He was using lump charcoal to get his coke started -- I have built a couple of Lively-style charcoal forges -- and was working on a blade. When I asked him what steel he was using, he reached over and handed me a jar of black sand. Turns out he smelts his iron blooms out of magnetite, and swears it makes great knife steel. Having panned my share of gold back in the day, I marveled at all that black sand I let wash out of my pans. And of course, there are a bunch of Youtubes on this.

That’s the kind of festival conversation you remember for years. It is pretty fascinating hearing someone still working from raw magnetite all the way to finished blade steel the old-school way

That’s the kind of craftsman you don’t run into every day. Pretty amazing to think a pile of black sand can eventually become a knife blade with enough knowledge, patience and hard work behind it.

I hope to get his name somewhere.