ABOUT

Reid Schwartz is an artist and an interested human: He works full-time in his modest, hand-oriented workshop making tools, carving wood, and researching historic approaches to material process. His explorations into the history and traditions of woodland crafts and native watercraft have grown into a passion for the tools and technologies of first nations makers from around the world. Reid works from anthropometric measures and a practiced knowledge of natural materials to design and build usable pieces of art. Whether polished sharp steel or a whittled spoon, He continues to be taken with the complex web of informed decisions and feedback loops that only simple processes can provide.

As a toolmaker Reid has focused singularly on small ‘high pressure’ blades used mostly on wood. Traditionally these types of blades were made for immediate local use by blacksmiths who also made every manner of other things from iron. They were shaped by the demands of nearby users as well as the types of wood being worked. Over time these tools became the work of highly specialized blade-forgers who studied carefully to be able to produce high quality blades in larger numbers by hammer and anvil. This requires a large amount of practice not only in controlling the hammer blows but in reading temperature by eye, as well as understanding the elemental parts of forging like how to organize the steps of the process into an efficient order. Specialized tooling was developed by these craftspeople to suite the task of making blades that looked somewhat different from normal hammers and anvils.

During the height of this specialization in the early part of the industrial era the process was highly refined and It would be carefully taught to apprentices by master forgers in order to ensure the techniques for working steel were followed closely. The biggest part of this education is practice, watching and then trying - struggling, failing, and eventually being able to see what was happening. Ques through each stage coach you as you go, and of course the final result tells all because steel is a very honest critic. But by the dawn of the modern industrial age these skills and traditions were replaced by controlled ovens and special heat exposure recipes to ensure good and even excellent results. Cutting, grinding and machining rather than forging and filing became the most direct route of production, forcing a kind of contempt for skill in the manufacturing process that is still pervasive today.

Study of blade forging in the early/pre-industrial way with simple very-high carbon steels - is the center of many different long term woodworking interests turned into studies and practices for Reid. The main ones including Bark Canoe building as well as peasant style Sloyd most especially Spoon Carving. After many years Reid has developed a tight recipe of ordered practices and has built his own specialized tooling for producing his blades in a traditional but still efficient way. As was the norm for craftspeople generations ago his tools are made not primarily for profit, but with as much integrity and thought as possible. Effort is made to respect the materials involved and also to consider and minimize the consumables used up along the way.