STRONG and SHARP
knifemaking shop south of Bellows Falls in Putney . Although they specialize in different kinds of knives and blades , they both are incredibly passionate about their craft . “ Kyle likes to make kitchen knives , and I really like to make survival knives ,” says Cumings . “ I also like to test my knives out myself . A lot of people try to go over the top and make knives that have all of the bells and whistles , but I just like to keep it basic . If you ’ re field dressing a deer or preparing food out in the wild , you ’ re going to need a quality knife with a nice sharp edge and a good grip that won ’ t get slippery .”
Cumings ’ craft process begins with cutting a small section out of a sheet of metal . “ I like working with carbon steels , because they ’ re the easiest to forge and the best to heat treat . You can also use the spine of a carbon steel knife with flint to start a fire . I don ’ t draw anything out , I just start forging and see where the metal takes me .”
Cumings prefers to use a propane forge when making her knives . She normally heats the forge to around 2600 ° Fahrenheit when forging steel , and she often uses a basic round hammer to hammer the tip .
Afterwards , she takes her knives to the grinder to sharpen their blades . Although Cumings is not averse to making wooden knife handles , she often uses durable synthetic composite materials , such as Micarta and G-10 .
“ Kyle loves to work with wood ,” notes Cumings . “ I like to use a lot of Micarta and G-10 for my handles , because I make a lot of knives for law enforcement officers . I love the tactical side of things , and G-10 is a very grippy material .”
Farace frequently opts to use locallysourced wood for his knife handles , such as New England maple , or other more exotic hardwoods , such as buckeye burl . “ For the locally-sourced wood , I ’ ll get a block of wood from my friend in Grafton . Once I have the wooden blocks , I ’ ll cut them down to usable sizes and send them to our friend in Upstate New York . He ’ ll stabilize them and dye them whatever color we need , depending on what our customers want .”
Farace explains that most of the blades that he and Cumings make are custom-made to suit the preferences of their clients . “ We work with them to make the knives exactly how they want . It usually starts with them shooting us an idea , and then we ’ ll just bounce ideas off of each
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