Heavin Forge, Belfast

After spending a few years shoeing 300 horses a month I developed a very bad allergy to horses. Ironic. I had to give up my career and then turned to blacksmithing, joining Gold Reef City, a working museum depicting Johannesburg 100 years ago as a gold rush town. I mainly did decorative wrought-iron work until I tried my hand at making damascus in 1995. I believe damascus to be the ultimate in the blacksmith's art and once I had made a few pieces, I was hooked, I wanted to do nothing else...... until I made my first knife in 1997! I then had found the absolute best - making your own steel and forging a knife from it! While at Gold Reef City I also had the experience of working in their circus!
There were no knifemakers forging knives in South Africa and no-one making traditional folded damascus. I had no one to turn to for help so I decided to go to the American Bladesmith School in Old Washington, Arkansas to attend their Introduction to Bladesmithing and Damascus courses in 1998. I was lucky enough to receive the Blade Magazine Scholarship for the Introduction course. Kevin Harvey, my husband, attended the classes with me and we both came away enlightened and so enthusiastic about forging knives that we, together with Bertie Rietveld and Tom Nelson founded the Southern African Bladesmiths Association (S.A.B.A, pronounced sabre). We now have over 50 members and offer courses in bladesmithing and damascus making. Our annual hammer-in is always a tremendous success.

• Associations
• Johannesburg
• Engineering
• Mechanical
• Steel
• Making
• Bladesmithing
• Damascus
• Recreation
• Bladesmiths
• Dynamite Factory
• Apprenticeships
• Fitter-Machinist
• Bladesmithing School