17th Generation Yoshimoto Bladesmith

On September 12th, 2016, I met my idol, the 17th generation Yoshimoto bladesmith, Murray Carter. I had first learned about him through his book, 101 Knife Designs, and since then I have been inspired by his simple but effective designs. I scraped together whatever info I could on him and his Japanese way of bladesmithing, but the information was very scarce. I bought his other book, watched all of his Youtube videos, and reread both books countless times to extract every bit of knowledge they had to offer. I made knives based on what I had put together from this and made it work somehow, but all of the scraping around and confusion ended on September 12th, 2016. On that Monday I arrived at Murray's shop, Carter Cutlery, to take a class on bladesmithing. I actually teared up when I walked in and could not breath for a great while, I had been waiting 2 years for a moment like this! It felt unreal to be learning from the one bladesmith that inspired me more than any other. Well that day was the start of a five day class where I would learn how to forge and complete a neck knife, kitchen knife, and fighting knife. The three knives in the picture are those I made in the class. I had heard he is a great teacher, but to experience it for myself was truly amazing. He doesn't tell you when you did well, I'm guessing so you don't get overconfident and careless, but I knew I was doing well when he did not correct the knife that I had straightened and asked him to check! I also knew I was doing a good job when he would tell me to start the forge (it's a charcoal forge so you have to start the fire), help him straighten some of his knives, or do a harder but faster way of doing something, such as contouring a neck knife handle on a slack belt. I was very happy to see that he was very impressed by my skill and work ethic. I learned more in those 5 days then I had all year! He has also offered to come down and show me how to improve my own shop, which I may need soon since I'm currently improving my own shop and expanding it to be more organized and efficient. Next October I will be going on a trip to Japan which I will have to pay for solely off selling knives, but with my newly acquired knowledge it will hopefully work out! I can't wait to see what else I learn from him and discover from my own practice! These three knives stand as an example of my skill!