Blacksmith teaches building blocks of metalworking

KINGSPORT – Brenden Bohannon started blacksmithing literally from a hole in the ground.Six years later, the Johnson City resident has national fame from a cable television appearance and word of mouth about his knives and artwork.Bohannon also loves teaching the basics of working heated metal into tools and art, as he gathered a group of students at the Inventor Center in Kingsport Saturday to transform masonry nails into decorative yet practical knives.Heating, stretching, flattening, twisting and bending may sound simple, and Bohannon said it is – even with the part of heating the metal to 1,900 degrees Fahrenheit or more before each action.Each student took turns with Bohannon as they heated their nail, hammered it flat, reheated it and repeated the cycle to stretch it stretch it into handle and blade shapes. Reheating allowed each aspiring blacksmith to form the basic blade and handle shapes before adding decorative handle grip twists and loops on the ends. Heating the almost final product and quenching it in canola oil strengthened the metal before Bohannon used his 'sharpened' knifemaking skills to put an edge on the blade."It's like learning language," Bohannon said of the various steps. "Once you have letters, you can make words. Once you learn these techniques, you can make more complex tools and things. You see blacksmiths put together parts like on a tractor or power hammer or an industrial machine they don't make anymore."All blacksmiths have to start somewhere, and Bohannon told the group that his beginning did not include an expensive forge and tools."COVID," Bohannon said when asked what got him interested in blacksmithing. "I was bored one day, and I'd been working as a woodworker. No one was buying carved bowls on the internet and there weren't any festivals. I watched a video on YouTube that said, "Learn to become a blacksmith in your backyard today."Bohannon tried it by building a clay-lined fire pit in his backyard."I beat out my first terrible knife and went on from there," Bohannon added.With that start, Bohannon said he learned from other blacksmiths in the region and from watching videos and reading. He also posted his own social media videos, one of which caught the eye of producers for the History Channel reality series "Forged in Fire" because it garnered more than 23 million online views."When they found me, I'd been blacksmithing almost a year to the day," said Bohannon. "Two months later, they flew me out, I got to be on the show, and it was a lot of fun."That episode – season nine's episode four – gained Bohannon a larger reputation as he increased his skills and repertoire of knives, tools and decorative pieces.When asked about how he gets the raw material for his forge, Bohannon said scrap metal is cheap and readily available as he showed a chisel he forged from a length of truck coil spring.Bohannon has also gathered steel from ships – the aircraft carriers U.S.S. Kitty Hawk and U.S.S. Ronald Reagan and the battleship U.S.S. Texas – as well as teak and pine from the Texas and U.S.S. Iowa to use on future projects.While he used the anvil and some equipment in the Center's work area Saturday, Bohannon said he has found antique anvils that, in the case of his main Tiffany anvil, can be up to three centuries old and still as good or better than some modern-day tools.Oreon Millard and Jen Heglar both said they came to Saturday's workshop because a friends recommended two of Bohannon's previous classes."It has really piqued my interest into what other metalsmithing things could I get involved in," Millard said, adding that her knife already has a specific purpose."I'm a fiber artist and I do a lot of quilts, embroidery and cross-stitching," said Millard. "You have to pick out a lot of threads and fibers, and I'm excited to be able to that with something I've made. This is going to become my seam ripper.""I collect hobbies like other people collect coins, and this is just one more fun hobby to add to my collection," said Heglar. "I've learned how to make brooms and cane chairs, I've made a bone knife, so this is just one more fun hobby to add to that list. My knife is going to be used for a little bit of everything, to be honest." Online:- Inventor Center: https://theinventorcenter.com- Yallhalla Forge: https://www.yallhallaforge.com