Big things are happening in the background! This upcoming fall I am collaborating with two of North America’s BEST blacksmiths, one from Hocking Hills Ohio who has taught others on the famed show Forged in Fire and another from Southern Alberta Canada who specializes in forging early American style knives, hatchets, and tomahawks. A viewer on my channel suggested a comparison series of Nessmuk vs Kephart and what better way to start the comparison than with each of their unique woods tools?

Mr. Doug Lockheart is the patriarch of Lockheart Ironworks in Logan Ohio, he will be forging the reproduction Kephart and Nessmuk axes respectively as close as he can using primary sources. Darcy Quapp of Alberta Canada is reproducing both of the knives for the project, the Nessmuk is the one depicted in the pictures of this post and MANY more on the progression can be seen by looking on the article HERE. Both men are highly qualified craftsmen who pride themselves on their quality of work with attention to detail. Each has  more than 30 years of experience. Mr. Lockheart is a full time blacksmith who runs his own school of the trade and Mr. Quapp is a metal fabricator by trade. I hope you are as excited as I am to bring these two legends into the fold to pit two iconic outdoorsmen’s tools against each other next fall and winter!