Combat Ready Art

05/28/2026

Today was the last Homeschool class of the 2025-2026 school year! Ben continued working on the sword he started, and will finish in Level 3 in the fall. Cruz finished his short sword! Beautiful blade with a copper guard and wood handle. Cruz is graduating this month, so this was his last homeschool class. He has done such great work over the last 2 years!
And Cruz's father finished his billet knife that he started last month. Really nice knife! I think we may see some father & son classes in the future!

05/22/2026

05/22/2026

Anniversary Flower Making! Julia and Stephan celebrated their 11th anniversary in the forge tonight! Their steel flowers are just gorgeous!

05/21/2026

Level 2 Homeschoolers did a great job with their leather sheaths today! And it was the last class before they become Level 3!

05/18/2026

Well this is fun news! I found out today that the episode about the forge on Kalamazoo Lively Arts, from WGVU, has been nominated for a Michigan Regional Emmy Award! Congratulations to Alan, Collin, and Shelley! Does this mean I can say we're an Emmy Nominated Forge? 😂😉

Park Trades Center Discover Kalamazoo Downtown Kalamazoo Downtown Kalamazoo Collective Arts Council of Greater Kalamazoo

05/16/2026

This was a 2-parter class. Richard and his 3 daughters came a couple weeks ago to make Railroad Spike Knives. They all got the blades shaped, but then we had to unexpectedly cut the class short. So today, Sarah came back to the forge to finish the knives with her husband, Tim, who also made his own Railroad Spike Knife. So a little unusual, but everything worked out in the end and everyone has beautiful knives!

05/15/2026

Dan was back to work on his twisted damascus blade....and we may have done a small "sparky picture" photoshoot too. 😉

05/15/2026

I guess if you're making leather sheaths, then you can hold them in a threatening manner for the final photo. 😂😂 The older Level 1 Homeschoolers did great with their first time working with leather!

05/14/2026

Brandon and Maghan were back yesterday, and brought friends to male Scary Cheese Knives! Lots of fun and really nice knives!

05/14/2026

First non-homeschool leather sheath class! 😁 This was Evan's first time working with leather. He did a great job yesterday! I really love the design he stamped in!

05/13/2026

Another fantastic collection of leather sheaths made by today's Level 1 Homeschool class! We used kits from Tandy Leather so they cpuld jump right into the fun parts 😉, and to save time.