RIYADH: Saudi bladesmith Hashem Alawami picked up his hobby of making knives from scratch while scrolling through social media.
“The hobby came in quite abruptly,” Alawami said. “I was watching videos on YouTube on Japanese sword-making, and you know, the algorithm for YouTube figured out that’s what I’m interested in. So, it started showing me how to make knives, how to heat, treat, how to put a handle on the knife and all that stuff,” said the self-taught bladesmith.
Alawami’s interest led him to enroll in online classes and forums to perfect his skills.
“I learned knife-making all by my own. I did not have any mentors, nor did I befriend anyone who knew how to make knives. When I first started out, it was all self-taught from online forums such as BladeForums as well as YouTube, and I’ve signed up for a couple of online courses to teach the basics of knife making,” he said.
Alawami starts by deciding if his creation will be a kitchen knife or a hunting knife. Based on this he sources imported materials, such as high-carbon steel or stainless steel, and then finishes by testing to make sure the product is up to standard.
Nothing earthshaking here. I just like finding knifemaker profiles in unexpected places when I do some google fu.
Read the whole thing: ArabNews.com