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ARTISAN PROFILE >> JORDAN BORSTELMANN
“Just the idea that even if I did it once, even if [only] one of my knives becomes an heirloom, that would be pretty awesome to me.” “I was still proud of what I did… I kept to my skillset and He explained that the workshops are small groups in which I kept to my strengths, and I think it could have been any one beginners who often have not even swung a hammer before of us. I’m amazed any one of us completed that [challenge] to can try out forging tools. “At first, they’re intimidated. There’s a lot of different physical begin with,” he said. “[The show] definitely taught me that… I actions to do – it’s almost like choreographing a dance. So there’s can produce things that I didn’t think I could.” a lot of stuff that your body just has to learn how to do. But once For Borstelmann, blacksmithing became a serious hobby of they get the hang of it and they start his six years ago. He trained at the feeling comfortable, it’s really fun to Penland School of Crafts in North see people just kind of get into it,” Carolina and learned to tend a coal Borstelmann said. “And at the end, forge as an apprentice to another they’ve got this knife or they’ve got blacksmith. He was taught to make a hatchet that they’ve made with knives by his friend; and since then, their own two hands, and that’s a he has sharpened his skills in bladesense of accomplishment that not smithing and runs his forge out of a a lot of people get.” workshop next to his house where The Crooked Path Forge, named he makes custom knives for clients after the many different things he using millennia-old techniques. did on his path to finding black“Growing up I was really into smithing, and the work he gets to fantasy and swords and sorcery do for and with people has been a books and played a lot of Dungeons “dream come true” for Borstelmann. and Dragons,” Borstelmann said. “I love the idea that the tools I “When it kind of came time for me make are going to have a life of their to stop being... a lazy teenager and Jordan during the taping of “Master of Arms,” Season 1 Episode 2 “Joan of Arc Sword,” that aired on Nov. 9, 2018. own. They’re going to go off and get really start doing something serious, (Photo courtesy of The Discovery Channel) used and be someone else’s special I picked this up almost as a lark and friend,” Borstelmann said. “On top once I kind of made a knife I was of that, the tools I make, especially the knives that are real high comfortable with and it sold, I made another one and it sold. Before I knew it, this [was] my full-time job. I wake up some quality, those are going to get passed down through the family. The grandson’s going to inherit grandpa’s knife and it’s going to mornings, and I’m still amazed that like it’s real.” Borstelmann also hosts workshops ranging from forg- have my signature on it. Just the idea that even if I did it once, ing a knife in a day-long workshop to a two-day class where even if [only] one of my knives becomes an heirloom, that would participants create the tools needed to make other tools. be pretty awesome to me.”
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OUR TOWN MAGAZINE
JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2019