Swords, Scots, and Legends: David Baker Brings Us Back | Reverend and Reprobate Podcast

Historical Weapons Recreation Specialist David Baker Joins the  @RevRepPodcast  to talk all things weapons making, Men's mental health, and the upcoming event in Texas!

Meet Dave in Texas: https://www.texasselectevent.com/

Rev and Rep Linktr.ee (all the show links can be found below) https://linktr.ee/revreppodcast

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Hosts of Forest and Fires, KyleMan, j Warner, Wallace, Heira
Davis's great. Hey, this isthe day basis Harry Camoli, This is
Mike Later, this is this isLAMB Morgan Instagram, Parker the Fifth GP
And this is why you should nevernever, never, never never How I
got suckered in. I'm so embarrassedabout you. You're wasting your time.
You got better things to do.Never lessen close, Darling Yeng the Reverend

(00:25):
and the repro bike. Hey,everybody, welcome to the Reverend and the
Reprobated to show about too best budsinterverywing people they have no business talking to.
My name is Lucas Pinkard. I'man actual reverend and with me today
filling in the seat of the Reprobateis my best bud from from his birth
to now now yeah, present dayand my entire remembery because I can't remember

(00:47):
anything anything BM before Matt Do youlike that? Do you like? I
don't care. It's for my brother. It is the man himself, not
pingred. What's going on, dude? Not a lot moved into a new
place. Yeah, congratulations, lotsof moving that's still happening, And like
three different types of fence, fourfor four different kinds of fence, all

(01:11):
of them in disrepair. Right,it's fantastic in no way conceivable to man.
Ah well, well good yeah,but the rest of it's good.
I mean getting to move into anew place, bouncing around from place to
place was not ideal. And havinga place where I can lay my head
and go, hey, I livehere is nice. Yeah, that's that's

(01:33):
kind of awesome to be to beback in there. For those of y'all
who don't know, we we tooka little bit of a hiatus about six
months. Danley is going to bemaking periodic appearances on the show as his
schedule and things allow. As he'sgot you know, we we've been pretty
open about or he's been really openabout his wife and dealing with her autoimmune

(01:57):
disease. He's got a son whois has been on the show. We've
we've had some appearances from Kale wheneverwe were talking to the mink Man and
he came and was dressed up ina little tuxedo, whenever we did the
Mother's Day episode and was serving theladies. He's just an absolute stud.
He started high school and so aswe were trying to work schedule things out

(02:19):
and what the future of the showwould look like. We had a really
great conversation about how as a asa man, and especially as a godly
man like, family's got to takepriority, and so he's stepped into that
role and we made some adjustments andnow we're we're firing things back up,
and I'll be excited on the episodesthat he gets to come on and chat
and give us some life updates andthen do some interviews. But for now,

(02:43):
we're we're rolling with what we gotand we are coming back from hiatus
with the guy who started it allfor us with David Baker yep, so
David Baker from Forges and Fire.He talks a little bit about the future
Forged Him Fire. He talks abouta new event that he's got coming up
with Jay Nielsen, the Texas SelectCustom Cutlery event that's going to happen just

(03:07):
outside of Austin, Texas on Aprilsixth and seventh of twenty twenty four.
New competition he's going to be Yeah, a new talk competition he's a part
of that's encouraging college students to getinto steel working and they've got some incredible
things. He's doing that with BenAbbott as well, catches us up on
all things Dave Baker and talks tous a little bit about the custom blades

(03:31):
that he will now be selling startingthis year, and actually one of the
things that's happening at the Texas SelectCustom Cutlery event that's such a mouthful Texas
Texas Select Custom Cutlery Event. That'swhere he's gonna where he's going to be
at. We are hoping that we'llget back on schedule with giving you guys

(03:52):
weekly content from the Reverend and therevereree bear with us as we are working
out some new formatting stuff. Andalso there have been a few people who
have asked, hey, what's theupdate. The last they heard Kirsten was
we had just announced that Kirsten waspregnant, and now she still is.

(04:13):
She still is, Yeah, yeah, still is, And we are sort
of at that like any day nowplace for baby number two. So Levi
was born and a eight and ahalf weeks early, almost nine weeks early,
and we have passed that point inthe pregnancy to now where whenever baby
number two comes, he's just we'regonna take him and take him home,

(04:35):
and so this has been a totallydifferent kind of advenger. But we'll fill
you in on all of that stuffuntil then. Thanks for watching you guys.
Make sure to check out our interviewwithout any further ado, with David
Lane Baker on these sweet clean airwaves today. Matt, we have got

(04:56):
the guy who was the very firstbig guest that we had, so much
so that it got me to dressup in my gentlemanly attire. I came
with my with my vest and pocketsquare. Yep. He was my birthday
guest in year one of the Reverendand the Reprobated. It's the historic weapons
recreation specialist, the man who putthe man in gentleman. It is the

(05:17):
true man, myth and legend.Mister David Baker. What's going on,
dude? Hey, how you doing? I'm fantastic too, no joke.
How have you been really good?I was actually gonna shoot this from the
from the shop with my pirate flagbehind me. Oh, that would have
been sick. It's up on thewall in the shop. That's too cool,

(05:38):
man, So absolutely love it.I've been keeping up with your stuff
on Facebook as your throng, asi'll call it aptly your throng of fans
has as well. Uh, you'vegot an I'm sorry, but I didn't
know I had the throng. Yes, yeah, yeah, well maybe a

(06:00):
a pack, but but throng soundsvery large. Yeah, it's it's in
hundreds of thousands, according to uhaccording to the Meta the Meta crew.
Yeah, man, you are oneof the not only one of the top
follows on Facebook, but also oneof the top digital content creators. Who
knew that was such a thing,So congratulations, Yeah, I mean,
okay, yeah, Dave. Daveis one of those guys that makes all

(06:24):
the stuff and then never looks atthe analytics. He's just like, yeah,
a few people thought that it wascool. I'm gonna I'm gonna go
back into the hut and make somemore swords. Well, okay on that
noe. Yes, I uh.I put a lot of stuff up about
men's mental health. Yes, dueto the fact that I lost a friend
a few years ago, a coupleof friends, uh to suicide, and

(06:46):
I just kind of realized that thatI had had moments in my life that
that I didn't feel really put togetheror you know, a lot of cracks
in the in the walls. Yeah, and I share that stuff openly just
about like what I'm feeling wrotten.Yeah, you know, I throw it

(07:08):
out there that, you know,like a couple of days ago, it
had been gray here for three weeks. I hadn't seen the sun except for
one afternoon in like three weeks.That sounds miserable, and I was kind
of sinking into this weird kind ofdepression. So I shared things like I
share things like that in the hopesthat other men in my age will see

(07:30):
that, hey, it's okay tobe not okay. Yeah. So on
that note, I had post athing about reaching out during the holidays because
it can be a very lonely timefor a lot of people, and a
lot of people have some really emotionalbaggage that always comes up in Christmas.

(07:53):
And through a chain of people,I heard that. That me saying that
to somebody, who said it tosomebody who said it to somebody who said
to somebody. Uh, got acall from somebody who needed help. So
we won. Yeah, you winone person, and you won absolutely reach

(08:16):
out to one if you put stuffout there the vulnerable, yourself, open
yourself up for you know, toto share what's going on with you and
you get to one person way downthe line, it's a win. Yeah.
So you know, so that's youknow, I've got a platform that
that I've been given because of theshow, and and a lot of it's

(08:37):
you know, to advertise my ownstuff, and the other the other side
is me trying really trying to giveback, Yeah, which I think you've
done a phenomenal job of. Iknow we've talked to you several times about
the stuff with men's mental health,and you and I have been talking about
some of the stuff that we cando, in particular with some veterans who

(08:58):
have come back and are looking fora way to you know, apply that
some of the skills that they've learned, the working with their hands, those
types of things to some stuff thatthey can do back home. So before
we get into that beauty that youhave behind you, let's let's talk about
one of the things. Look,it's my halo. It's lovely. Yeah.

(09:20):
If only the Renaissance painters would havedone more halos like that, I
think that we would have a completelydifferent view of masculinity in their paintings maybe,
And we've also might have burned alot more people at the stake potential,
you know, potato tomato, that'show it goes blot. Yeah,
exactly. So I'm I'm curious abouta new project that you're part of that

(09:43):
is encouraging people to get into metalworking trades kind of within colleges. Talk
to us a little bit about that. This is this is fun. Actually
Ben had but brought me to themand I started working with them last year
and Ben and I are both involvedin this, the Cast and Steel project.

(10:03):
It was originally called the Cast andSteel I think it's now all in
steel because they've included forging. Okay, And what it was is they is,
uh, in American manufacturing, especiallythis steel industry, which is what
we're in generally tied to, thereare not enough people period. Yeah.

(10:24):
I can't remember the number, butit was in the thousands that they were
short last year for doing the jobsthat need to be done. I mean,
you know, the the shipyards needmore welders, the casting industry needs
more everything, designers, engineers,you know, boots on the ground,

(10:46):
and it's it's you know, theseare high paying career type jobs with a
lot of upward mobility. Uh.And I'm constantly hearing from the pundits of
the various voices out there who whoare saying, oh, there's no American
manufacturing, there's no you know,it's all gone away. Well, there

(11:11):
are a lot of people, includingthe d O D who are trying to
bring it back, everything from steelmanufacturing to when these guys are pouring propellers
for submarines and that's that's like thousandsof pounds at a time, that has
to be perfect. It's a it'san amazing Uh. It's an amazing industry

(11:35):
that I knew so little about becausewhen they first said it to me,
or okay, I was at aluncheon last year with a lot of the
heads of the industry and and theysaid, well, they you know,
we're trying to bring people to this. How do we bring people to this
industry? I said, well,I said the first thing I thought about
when you guys originally said the metalcasting industry this image of you know,

(12:01):
a guy with the hard hat,with the dirty leather coat and his lunch
box walking away from the smoky factory. Yeah. Well, the funny thing
is if you google you know,metal casting, you will find that image
one of the first ones, oran image very similar to it doing that
right, which is which is whichwas the reality in the forties, but

(12:26):
is no longer the reality. It'sit's a it's a much more high tech
industry. It's even on the groundlevel. So the project has gotten a
bunch of college teams. I thinkwe've got forty seven college teams this year.
And what they have to make isa Halligan bar, which is the
fire Department's kind of break in bar. Yeah. You guys did that on

(12:48):
an episode of Forged and Fire,didn't you. Yeah, yeah, we
did. Ben cast are are areforged our example. Uh So they need
to make a Halligan bar. Howeverthey want to do it. They can
cast it, they can forge it, they can do a combination of the
two. And then in Milwaukee atthe end of April will have the competition

(13:11):
and you know, everybody's going tocome together with the teams will all be
there and we'll be judging Ben andI and Phil, a friend of mine,
will be doing the judging on theyou know how well they did.
Those young people, those college studentswill then have the opportunity to I think

(13:35):
there's a tour of a foundry,of a major foundry in Milwaukee, a
tour of a major forge I thinkin Milwaukee. So it's introducing people to
the industry and sort of rebranding Iguess the entire metal working industry. But

(13:56):
as a nation, we need peopleto move into those jobs. I mean
I think that. I think thegovernment recently just ordered three submarines. I
mean these are multi year contracts doingeverything from casting to welding, to electronics
to everything else. So it's youknow, it's American manufacturing. I mean,

(14:20):
yes, it's the you know,maybe it's the the military industry of
complex at this point, but wewith an infrastructure bill, we're rebuilding bridges,
that's all steel work, that's allsteel manufacturing. The more American steel
and American workers we can have onthese jobs in design, in steel manufacturing,

(14:43):
and transport everything else, you know, it's a it's a big kind
of upside down tree. But withoutthe bodies, without the literally bodies going
into this job course, we willalways be falling behind. Why do you
think that so many young people arenot getting involved in this when there's such

(15:09):
a need? Right what? Whydo you think it is that that there's
not a new generation of people fillingthose jobs. Throwing me under the bus.
Yeah, no, no, no, no worries man. The honestly,
I think that that we live inAmerica where there are so many options,

(15:31):
many of which are somewhat make believeoptions. You know, how many
people are making a living or tryingto make a living being content creators online.
Not us, even as even ascontent creators. That's not what we're
trying to do. And what doesthat do? YEA, nothing? Really,

(15:54):
you know, it's it's it's kindof a giant distraction, Don't get
me wrong. I mean I watcheda bunch of content creators and they do
a great job, and it's veryentertaining. So I'm saying it's it's more
okay, you know, I'm sorry, but I just fall into being a
boomer. You know, I canappreciate that. You know, when when

(16:17):
I was a kid, we wereworking at you know, fifteen or sixteen,
we had a job. Yeah,that's all you wanted to do was
get a job so you could buya car so you could cruise around when
you weren't working. Yeah, Imean, that's that's all we thought about,
most of us. Most of myfriends left the house, you know,
within months of graduating high school.You know, you'd stack up in

(16:42):
a department. How many people canwe get in here? How many beds
can we get in here? Sowe're not living at home, right,
you know? And and you work, you just you know, you did
whatever. Yes, there were lesspeople, there was a different economy.
Things were less expensive sort of.I mean, you know, the dollar

(17:02):
was worth more, but you know, so it's hard to say why.
But a lot of it's just Ithink people don't realize that the manufacturing industry
is not necessarily standing in front ofa machine in the gray uniform, pushing

(17:22):
the red button, pushing the greenbutton, pushing the red button, pushing
the green button. Yeah, youknow, and companies are offering further education.
A number of companies, from whatI understand, realized that they were
eliminating half of their workforce by saying, oh, you have to have a
college degree to do a job thathas nothing to do with our history.

(17:45):
You know, great, you gota philosophy degree. That doesn't help you
in a high tech manufacturing in theworld. Probably, Yeah, get through
the door if you had that degree, right, your art day is not
going to help you. Poor propellers. Yeah, you have micro and a
lot of other people pushing for fortrade schools again, and I think that's

(18:11):
completely valid. When I left highschool the three years that I went,
I really didn't go for my senioryear because I had a job and I
had to work work, you know, work, uh credit. I studied
architecture, technical drawing and drafting.I could, I could draw blueprints when

(18:37):
I graduated high school. Wow,it's not even offered anymore. And then
our high school was building a carin the auto shop, then the woodworking
thing. I think I were sellingfurniture. I don't you know, it's
there aren't those options in most highschools any longer. No, you're you're
taught to pass a test. AndI think it's I think it's sad that

(19:03):
that those options aren't there. AndI understand, yes, those options are
expensive, but there's a lot ofkids out there who are absolutely brilliant and
you know, like a dy dand dyslexic like me, we're not going
the college or out period. It'snot going to happen, right, But
you know, give us a ranchand we'll take a motor apart and put
it back together before lunch. Youknow, ask us how to figure out,

(19:29):
you know, some kind of waterdynamic thing. We'll do it without
the math, and it's not offeredyou know, those those tracks just aren't
offered to anybody who doesn't doesn't havea college degree. And I'm not knocking
people who have a college degree.I think it's a great thing if you
can do it, if you canafford it, you know, if you

(19:49):
can make it through. But youknow, there's other ways, and there's
other ways we as a nation,I think, can can open up avenues
for people for non traditional education.So those who have the inclination to go

(20:12):
into manufacturing and construction and things likethat have an avenue and can start out
and start of the ground running whenthey get out of school. I think
it's interesting that, you know,I'm looking at I think here from Forbes
magazine, it says that of theFortune five hundred companies, forty percent of
them in twenty twenty four are nolonger going to require a college degree during

(20:34):
the education process. Right, sothis is massive shift. But I also
think it's funny that we think about, like as far as in the culturals,
like guys right now, that we'retalking about trade school as though it's
no it's non traditional education when like, which is wild to me because up

(20:55):
until the mid twentieth century, tradeschool was the only education like how much
you know, as far as likein the United States, have we completely
flipped on its ear the entirety ofthe education system, you know. Unfortunately,
I think a lot of it isjust straight politics in that as the

(21:17):
system gets bigger and bigger, theidea of standardization became more and more popular,
and critical thinking wasn't taught. Howto pass the test was taught because
if you get your entire school oreighty percent of it to pass, you
get more government money, accreditation,you know. So, and you know,

(21:41):
I don't have any answers. Ican't. I don't have no idea
how to fix it. It's ait's way beyond me. How to you
know, restructure an entire bureaucracy.The idea of burning it to the ground
and starting over is ridiculous and foolish. But reintroduce some of the basics,

(22:02):
like civics classes. I mean,some of the young people I've talked to
over the past few years really wouldhave done well to have a Civics class,
or a social studies class, oryou know, legitimate history class where
they didn't just have to memorize president'snames. Yeah, it's you can probably

(22:26):
hear it my voice a little frustrated. Yeah, for sure. Well it's
it's one of those things, youknow, we we're experiencing, I think,
a shift in generations where you're right, there is a group of people
that all they have seen growing upbecause like Generation Z is the first natively
digital generation. Like they they donot know a time without the Internet,

(22:48):
and so they've been inundated with influencerstheir entire life. Whereas people that are
our age, that are all millennialsand the generations that came before us,
the idea of doing a job onthe internet seems completely ridiculous because you can't
go to the internet, Like I'mnot going to drive on the internet.
Yeah, no, you get itfor fifteen minutes. I get it for

(23:10):
fifteen nine. Everybody in the housecould even be on the Internet at the
st So there's this weird, thisweird shift, And what we're finding with
a lot of the students that we'reworking with is that they didn't know that
trade school was even an option,right, So what are you guys doing
with the projects that you're working with, Like, how are you seeing students

(23:30):
get involved in those projects that maybenever saw trade school as an option before,
and now, you know, withthe competitions and things that you're doing
that now for the first time,they're they're seeing that, they're seeing the
viability in it and finding something newthey can get their hands into. Well,
at this point, we've just startedtalking about and remember I'm not I'm

(23:51):
just a celebrity who shows up andtries to push this stuff. I'm not
making any of the decisions. Butfrom what I understand, you know,
after I think they've been doing theproduct program for four years now, they're
really just starting to say, hey, let's add trade schools. That's too
cool. This has all been collegesright now, and you know the talk

(24:18):
is, you know, how dowe get it even younger? How do
we take it to high schools?How do we take it? You know,
do we go through the boy scouts. I met a guy who's going
to be directing some ROTC things.It's like, man, that's perfect.
You know, you go do yourmilitary stuff, you come out and go
right into the the hardcore manufacturing trades. It's ideal, you know, you

(24:40):
know, you've got college paying Yourmilitary is paying for your college. Your
college is feeding you straight into aliteral career course with jobs that you know,
companies are streaming for you to come, do you know. I think
one of the problems is, uhgeneration is much younger than me, which

(25:03):
is the most don't see it asbeing a sexy way to make a living.
Yeah, this idea that that youknow, the white collar, blue
color line, you know, issomething it's not. It's not my dad's

(25:25):
generation. It's not what you know, the jobs that are being offered right
now? Pension? Have you heardpension in a job right lately? No?
Absolutely? You know, have youheard have you heard you know multi
year? You know, it's likepeople shift jobs. I can't remember what
the average is every every five years, five to eight years. There's a
new gig. Yeah, yeah,yeah, which is funny because we've been

(25:48):
doing Forged for eight years and it'sthe longest job I've ever had. Right,
So, I don't know, Idon't know. I don't know how
it all works, but I knowthere's a need and and I'm passionate about
American manufacturing and things being made hereand and you know, being involved and

(26:10):
if I can bring people into acareer path that's going to you know,
earn them a good living for one, offer them long term job security with
a skill. You know, it'sit's it's a win win. Yeah.
You know, it's interesting that youmentioned the military industrial complex, which I've

(26:30):
been this year. My goal isto average a book a week, so
I'm on on pace right now tohit just shy of sixty books and one
of the eras that I've been fascinatedwith because we've recently been watching the Apple
TV Plus show Masters of the Air, which just wrapped up this week,
which is about the bomber pilots ofthe Blood one hundredth in World War Two.

(26:53):
So we we we watched The Pacificwhich is also produced by the same
people, and Band of Brothers,and one of the guys from Band of
Brothers in his book and Steven Ambrosewas talking about him and he said,
you know, when we signed upfor the army, they told us,
hey, you can you can maketwenty bucks a month, but if you

(27:14):
go to the airborne, you canmake twenty five bucks a month. And
he goes, We've never heard ofthe airborne before. So I asked the
guy what are we doing? Andhe goes, you'll be jumping out of
airplanes and he was like, Imean for five bucks more a month,
I would definitely jump out of airplanes. And like I'm thinking, like,
in my mind, that seems absolutelyridiculous. And when we talk about,
for instance, the way that it'soften viewed, like, hey, you

(27:36):
know what, my great grandparents onlypaid two thousand dollars for their house.
It's ridiculous that a house is goingfor four hundred thousand dollars. Well,
they also made twenty five dollars amonth for jumping out of airplanes and didn't
made three, you know, threehundred dollars for the entire year, right,
So like there's there's milkers never paidthat. Well, that's true,
right, But there's so many ofthose things that you know, we if

(28:00):
we we did know our history andwe were looking at it, that we
can see that each generation has kindof had its its struggles. And one
of the things that really transcends generationsis the ability to create. Is if
you are a person who can create, whether it is in a creative field
with painting or with with music orwith those kinds of things, or if

(28:26):
it is in an engineering field whereyou're actually creating things. The world is
always going to need people that havethe ability to create things. And I
think what you guys are doing withthis competition and promoting that kind of thing
is that's too cool. Yeah.And and what I think, you know,
one of the things that one ofthe teams last year, I can't

(28:47):
remember what team it was, halfof the team was from the art department.
Really yeah, so that half theteam was the engineers and half was
art and bringing those together, that'sthat's true creative engineering, you know,
having that of the artistic sense,the visual sense, and then the engineers

(29:07):
to say, oh, I understandyour visual these are the parts we need,
and having those come together, Ithink becomes I think that's the ideal
mix. It's just there's so manylevels to it that, you know,
I'm learning, and it's funny,you know, being in June, I'll
be sixty two then to start tostart this this whole new learning thing is

(29:37):
fascinating to me. It's absolutely wonderful, you know, and I'm lucky to
be a part of it. ButI just think we've got a lot of
room to improve. I think attachingit to a military track would be ideal
because again, my father, youknow, came out of the Art Army

(30:00):
after World War Two and went tosc on the GI bill. Now,
I don't think the GI bill willget you through st anymore. Yeah,
but you know what, if therewas an option that you you could while
you were working in the military,you can start your training to go into

(30:25):
something else. I mean there's alot of downtime from what I understand with
the military, so yep, yeah, anyway again ideas, Yeah, it's
so cool just to see the resurgenceI think in in craftsmen and in people
having an interest in those types ofthings, especially amongst the hobbyists and the

(30:47):
amateurs, and now realizing hey,you know what, this is a viable
thing that I could turn into toa gig and watching. And that's one
of the things I'm really really proudof the show for is is showing people
that yeah, you can do this. I mean, the number of smiths
who have been on our show,win or lose, who have gone pro

(31:11):
is amazing. And the expansion ofthe business. I remember when we started
out, there's a lot of pushbackthat oh, you're going to delude everything,
and you know, they're going tobe too many people selling fifty dollars
knives. And there's plenty of peopleselling fifty dollars knives. But guess what,
people now know the difference between afifty dollars knife and a hundred dollar
knife and a thousand dollar knife.And you have laymen who are not builders

(31:36):
being able to identify these things andturning them into not only high end tools
for chefs and hunters and whatever,but also into collectibles. Yeah. So
you know we've crossed from you know, it's it's a balance of art and
artisan, you know, where thetool actually you know, I love old

(31:57):
Stanley tools from the the forties andthirties because they've got all that beautiful scroll
work on them in you know,beautiful wood and little brass, you know,
etching and stuff like that. Youknow, So having a knife that
does that same thing in your kitchen, it's family and it's something you can
share. It's something you can alsopass down. Yep. But like you
were saying, it has shown thatanyone can do it. Anybody can go

(32:25):
and paint and anybody can go andyou know, hammer out a knife.
And it doesn't mean you're going tobe good. No, but you can
do I absolutely suck at it,but you can do it. And I
think we've seen that on the show. You know, the competitors who have
come back and come back, youknow, a couple of years later at

(32:49):
a level that's so far beyond wherethey were when they first competed. Yeah,
because they've thrown everything into it.I just I think it's exciting.
It's one for the lot. Yeah, the Redemption episodes have been pretty cool.
And in that regard, Yeah,no doubt in the episodes where y'all
take this stuff that's just failed andgone, all right, new Smith's,

(33:10):
You'll have to make something out ofthis. Oh I hate that. It's
great. Something we already know isbroken. We have to make it into
something exactly. This car did notmake it around the racetrack. It's yours
now, congratulations. But isn't thatthe story was Steel in general, my
understanding is that there's no new steelreally being made. It's all recycled.

(33:32):
Now. Is that accurate or ohthat's not true. I mean there's they're
they're constantly making these stuff. It'sit's you know, it's and and new
new alloys, which is another fascinatingthing. Yeah, that was I thought
I was a do alloys, butthe the or in their original materials.

(33:53):
I thought that's what they were meltingdown to make. That's what I was
told in school. I don't knowhow true it is because I never researched
it. Are they mining ore allover the place again? I think that's
another industry that that is changing drastically. You know, there's just there's so

(34:14):
many new sciences and and heaping upwith them, I think is the hard
part. I mean, you know, I've got phones here in this house
that you cannot connect to the Internetanymore because the software is too old.
But the phone works. Why whycan't I do the thing with my thumbs

(34:36):
and make things happen? Yeah,nope, that software is too far behind,
and your phone doesn't have enough memoryto upload the software. And you
know, you see that with youknow, the new cargo ships won't fit
through the Panama Canal, new cruiseships that won't fit in government cut in

(34:59):
Miami. You know, we're thetechnologies are out distancing the infrastructure that serves
them. That's insane. It is. Well. My son asked me a
long time ago, is it okayto punch your robot. Yeh, what
was your answer? Right until Skynettsays again, there is aware. Yeah,

(35:22):
that's a good idea to change yourattitude. All right, Yeah that
makes sense. Their memory is long, though. I feel like it would
just be a good idea to notstart. Well again, it's like,
you know, AI is a wholenew world. I don't understand any of
it, but I'm told that myphone has it or something. Great.

(35:44):
Yeah, it's listening, it's creatingads based off of all of that.
So I google and getting the phonegoes what can I do for you?
Heard that? Yeah? Yeah,yeah, not good. So but anyway,
you know, we'll see, we'llsee where it goes again. We

(36:06):
meet again for the competition at theend of April and and the heads of
a lot of these companies will bethere, and folks in the d D
will be there, and we're goingto see how we can expand this to
bring more people into the fold.I think it's a great idea. Yeah,
that'll be awesome. Do you knowwhat the competition you said? You
know, submarine propellers, that's thekind of stuff that they're going to cast

(36:28):
or that's the kind of stuff thatthat's the that's the thing that the industry
casts. That's I was going tosay, that seems like a huge undertaking.
What kind of things would they becasting in the competition? Can you
can you give us a little bitabout that? This seasons the Halligan bar,
the Halligan bar, they need tomake a Halligan bar. And if
you've ever seen the fire bar,the bar fireman use. It has a

(36:50):
fork at one end and the adsat the other end and a spike on
it. It's a crazy door.Bust out a window, pop a higher,
whatever you need to do with thisone tool. It's it's the fireman's
privar and forge or melt it downand cast cast. Yeah you can do
melting it, yeah, casting itso casting. So there are there are

(37:14):
there are some large manufacturing foundries whoare working with these college teams. So
they make their design, figure outwhat uh what allys they want to use,
and then they're going to these majorfoundries, so they do get a
certain amount of experience on seeing howthese things are poured. And then you
know, giants sand casting or investmentcasting, how do they do them?

(37:35):
Might Honestly, it's outside of it. I know this is a tool and
not a weapon, but it couldbe used as a weapon. So I'm
going to kind of segue that intoso, well, historically is it something
is it something that casting wouldn't normallyhave been done historically speaking? Or is
that inaccurate to say, because I'veI've seen the swords being cast and I'm
like, that's not something that Ifeel like they would cast being it and

(37:59):
then forge a sword. But theyes man with steel, Yes, but
bronze. All the bronzewords were cast. So before the time, what made
it change from hey, let's casta sword to let's cast an ingot and
forge sword other than the material beingused? Or where is that the main

(38:20):
Because well, because maintaining the heatto pour steel is beyond and steel is
malleable at heat, but really highheat for liquid. Bronze melts at a
much lower temperature. So your forgesback in the day or your founders back
in the day could melt the bronzea lot easier crucible steel to make it.

(38:45):
I think you got to get nearthree thousand degrees. I'm not sure.
I didn't, you know, Idon't make steel, but wow,
so yeah, so it it tooka different kind of a forging prior a
foundry process to to make the ingotthat would then be drawn out through forging
into a bar or a billet orwhatever shape you need. So but now

(39:10):
the technoledge, that's it. Iwas just giving a pup of Woots steel,
which is the steel that was originallycalled Damascus steel. And uh so
I'm a friend of mine out inCalifornia and it has been working very hard
to recreate a lot of the ancientsteels, and so he just gave me

(39:32):
a puck to work with. That'sawesome. That too. Yeah, I'm
very excited and I'm sitting here upby, but it's like one of those
things that I need enough time,like a solid week to start it.
And as opposed to you know,running off this way, running off that
way, that's not something you rush. Yeah. Yeah, and so until
May, I'm kind of just flyingjust a lot of different directions. Did

(39:54):
a hammer in yesterday. I've gotpeople coming next week to stay at the
house and study, so, youknow, doing the teaching things. So
awesome, Yeah, how is theteaching thing going, because that's that's something
you really wanted to do at it. The next week is my uh is
my Uh, my guinea pig,gentlemen, I talked to one line.

(40:19):
He's bringing his son. Uh.He wants to build something for his retirement
from the navy, and his son'sgoing to take a night. He and
his son will be given a knifemaking class and they'll be staying here for
the weekend. So you know,that's very cool. A couple of a
couple of days in the forge andyou know, a couple of nights here
hanging out. That's that's too cool. So speaking of things that have been

(40:44):
happening in the forge, what isthat big beautiful piece that's behind you.
It's the thing that changed my diningroom into the great hall. That's awesome.
For years, I've had this idea. Uh okay, so let's let's
start at the beginning, back intime. My family has a lot of

(41:10):
of genealogy and and you know,documented genealogy. My my mother's maternal line
is the Blue family b A llo U and they go back to the
founding of Rhode Isdol. So they'vebeen here since the eighteen sixties, sorry,

(41:35):
sixteen sixties. Wow. And mymy maternal grandfather was so jealous of
that book. He did a bunchof work on the mccornac family, and
and did a genealogy with some othermccornacs, and they came over I think
in the eighteen eighties the Scottish line, and then we did a by much

(42:00):
more, you know, I hadI did a genealogy thing recently, and
my cousin was following the the Bakerline back through history and it's all very
interesting stuff. So I decided tomake a basically an art piece with swords.
So each one of those swords representsa historical character from my family.

(42:22):
Are they any particular order? Startingwith the not date range or anything.
If you start over here at eleven, that's the oldest member I know in
the family, or and the localdestdocumented member of the family. And that's
a I don't I can't, Idon't know how to pronounce it, something

(42:43):
like jenenbon Balu. And he washe was with the Norman conquest, so
he was with during the Norman invasionin ten sixty six. And that's a
Norman sword. Now I don't knowit's his sword. I don't know if
you carried that stord, but it'sthe one I apply to that character.
And then there's the rape year isanother blue that I've identified from the fifteen

(43:07):
hundreds, late fifteen hundreds. Histwo sons or his son and his nephew,
or the two Bakers, or thetwo balloons that come to Rhode Island
and or Boston and eventually down hereto Virginia, and those are sorts of
represented. Then the Bakers were borderreavers in northern England on the Scottish border,

(43:30):
so there's an English sword for that, and you know, so it's
all It's all these characters. Andwhat I'm gonna do is I'm going to
write up the documentation and put themtogether and hopefully possibly maybe do a calendar
next year of the sword, thehistory of the sword, the history of
the type of the sword, andwho it was in my family, and

(43:51):
how it relates to the character inmy family. So I'm interested to see
that. It's kind of deep deepI've into family history. Are you going
to do any kind of release ofthat once you have it all printed up
and type down? Yeah? IfI if I do. If I'm just
like I said, I get theseideas, but my follow through is absolute

(44:12):
garbage. So if I can findsomebody to work with on it, I
want to do like a calendar Isaid, Like I said, with all
the swords through history, starting atthe oldest and moving through and you know,
putting the documentation down it again whenthe sword was, when the sword,
you know what style the sword is, who generally used it, why

(44:35):
it's related to my family member,and go from there. That's awesome.
I mean it's a lot of fun. And it's fun when people come over
and they go, well, who'sthat sword, and I'm like, good,
yeah, yeah, there's two swordsmissing. I'm doing one for my
son and uh and I haven't gottenmy sword up there yet. So is

(44:58):
your sort of going to be ascott basket Hills when I was thinking,
well, I do have. Ialready have a Scottish basket that hild up
here for my grandfather and the McCornackfamily. So I am not quite sure
what I'm doing for myself. Probablya pirate cutlass, just just because and
my son's sort he's he wants toget his maternal side involved and so sort

(45:25):
of the beliarus, the Russian JewishCossacky kind of thing. Probably probably a
Cossack sword for him, so that'dbe awesome. Now you've got if I'm
correct. You've got some some knivesthat are starting to be produced that Baker

(45:45):
Blades will be selling, Is thatright? Well, yeah, I mean
the things I make. I've started. I've played with some manufactured blades this
year. I'm not again. Theycame out really good. I like them

(46:07):
a lot, and I'm gonna takethem with me. But there's something in
my brain that says, I didn'tmake all of this. You know,
I didn't make it from start tofinish. Yep, you know. I
had the shape, you know,laser cut and then quenched for me,
and then I put the handles anddo the grinding and put the handles on

(46:27):
them. So to me, Ikind of feel like I'm cheating. It's
stuck for me. Well, it'snot fortunate, absolutely stupid. Wherein if
I make something from you know,if I make something myself from scratch,
you know, it's so cool.Every part of that is pretty much me.

(46:49):
I've shaped the handle, I've youknow, hammered the metal life you
know, stacked it and even builtthrough the leather work. So those are
the things I'm more excited with stelling. And on that note, the next
month, first week and next monthis the Texas Select Nice Show, Yeah,

(47:10):
the Texas Select Custom Cutlery event hostedby Phoenix Knives at the Austin County
Fair Convention and Expo Center in Belleville, Texas. Yeah, there you go,
there's the flyer for it. Yeah, and Jay's going to be down
there too, and I haven't seenJay in months, so it'll be fun,
nice nice. So yeah, twoof the forges and fire judges yourself

(47:36):
and like you said, and Jayand you've got some let's see the I
want to pull the schedule up herebecause when you plan your trip, there
are there are some things that youneed to know about. And one of
those things is happening at twelve thirtyand that is the sort well no,

(47:58):
no, of the Historic Swords seminaron the stage. Yeah, that day
is that's hosted by a one DavidBaker. So what can we make reminding
me, yeah, you better getto work on your talk there. What
can we expect from the Historic Swordsthe seminar, that's a lot of sounds.
I'm bringing a bunch of swords,some of the ones that are on

(48:19):
the wall probably come with me.What I like to when I when I
do, is I actually did atalk yesterday at the Hammering that was here
in Richmond. I try to dispelsome of the myths about swords right off.
Uh, you know that that there'sthere's not a best sword. You

(48:40):
know that there's that that it's nota blood group, it's damn fuller and
the body doesn't have suction. Godnever understood that. Stupid arguments makes me
crazy. Blood grove just sounds cool. That's why people call it the blood.
It lets the blood out because thebody. Has you ever poked a
hole in yourself? Yep, yousuck anything in? No, No,

(49:05):
it'll it will bruise the bone ifyou poke a deep enough hole. I
did that starting immediately. Yeah.I got my first boning knife for Christmas
because everything pressurized. Yeah, we'vebeen butchering like uh, we've been getting
some like primal cuts of meat andthen I've been butchering them at the house.
And the the bench made blade thatthat my parents got me, that

(49:25):
is one of their really nice skinningknives, went right through the tip of
my finger and nailed the bone inmy middle finger, and that joker.
There was no suction, but therewas a lot of pain for about a
month. Anytime I touched it,I would go to pick up my coffee
back. Oh, son of like, did you burn yourselves like that?
When you reach into your pocket yourake it? Right? Yeah? Yeah,

(49:51):
that's it. That's it for sure. No, I've had the the
the disgusting store on the knuckle ofthis hand for months because every time I
reach into my pocket for something,I rip the scab of leaking all over
everything. So but anyway, sothe historic stuff that I that I do
is I bring examples that are andthe examples I have are all based on

(50:14):
existing, you know, types ofswords, and I let people touch them,
I let people feel them. Ilet people pick them up and see
why things are certain ways. Yeah, you know what what why is?
Why is scale important? Whise balancedimportant important? Why is weight important?
And where are the important and howdo you apply them? And things like

(50:37):
that. So it's it's a lotabout making swords and making them for what
they are, which is weapons.I mean, I know a lot of
guys who make beautiful, beautiful,beautiful swords and they will look great above
the fireplace and they'll lit great hangingon the wall. But any of these
swords behind me, I'll grab afight with them. When they're made is

(51:00):
weapons. They're made to be weapons. I hope I never use one as
a weapon, but there that's whatthey've made for. And to do that
properly you have to understand certain thingsabout how to make them and what the
parts are and where the parts go. And a lot of times there's parts
that when you see them in booksyou just don't see all the things that

(51:22):
are inside the hill. Yeah,you know, things that are behind the
guard. When you see it inthe cabin and the museum, then those
are the things that you know.It's interesting when you're studying something and you
have been building the things that you'restudying for a few years and then you

(51:43):
get your hands on an original ortwo, or in my case there was
four, and you go, oh, crap, I've never made one of
these right in my life. Everythingout the window, start over again.
You know, the dimensions are wrong, the thicknesses are wrong, the weights

(52:04):
are wrong, the balances are wrong. Everything's wrong. But you only get
that by getting your hands on somethingthat's been built properly or to the proper
specs, or has the proper portsinvolved in it. So that's a lot
of what my talk is about andthey're also buying a box of pool noodles,

(52:25):
so they will have time and peoplewho have never cut before. Now,
as long as everybody's being smart andsafe, I usually let people who
have never cut before cut on poolnoodles, and everybody says the same thing.
It's pool black, cut it withmy pocket knight, and they move
out of your way. They fallover, they bend around your sword.

(52:49):
If you don't do it right,and you just look like a nuts.
What's harder to cut the pool noodleor the to Tommy Matt. It takes
more power to cut the Tommy Matt. It takes a very sharp blade and
very good alignment. But Tommy Mattusually doesn't move out of your way.

(53:12):
I mean you either just don't haveenough energy to muscle through, or you
don't have a sharp enough blade,or your alignment's terrible pool Noodles. If
your blade isn't sharp, it doesn'tcut. If your alignment's not right,
it doesn't cut. If you're ifyou change a lot of people scoop when
they're cutting. They make a motionlike this as opposed to going straight through.

(53:35):
If you change your alignment during thecut or scoop. It doesn't cut,
so it just it shows you whenyou're doing it right and when you're
doing it wrong. And it doesit at a price range that's a lot
lower than to tom Yeah, it'sa Tommy matter, expensive and a pain
in the butt. Yeah, youknow it don't come pre yere old.
You gotta roll the damn things up, you know, and pay for them

(53:58):
and soak them. And then youscrew up. You're cut and you cut
too low and you screw that manup. Well throw that out. They're
going to start over. Yeahthing youcut high enough to where you can just
use it again. Yeah, Yeah, the pool noodle. You can't get
through three cuts out of every oneof those things. Yeah. And if
if you're getting them now where they'relike a little out of season, right
before pool noodle season really kicks in, you can get them. You might

(54:21):
be able to get them on sale, buy them by the case. Yeah.
The Dollar General has them right now, two dozen for twelve bucks,
just right across the street. Likewe were looking at it. Yeah,
yeah, we need them where forsome of our kids programs this summer And
we were like, well, wherecan we get pool noodles? And we
saw them and I was like,we're buying them right now because they're going
to be three dollars apiece here inabout a month and a half. So

(54:43):
yeah, that's it. And atthe end of summer come fall, you
can have a cutting competition at yourplace. That would be awesome. Once
they're all cut up, you canstill use them as insulation. That's perfect.
But for me as somebody who teachesthis stuff, for me as somebody
who builds these things, and forme isn't as as somebody who really enjoys
the history of these things. Theexperience of having your hands on one of

(55:08):
these things often changes how you lookat them, how you approach them,
how you build them, and andyou know, I just want to see
more people building. I want tosee more people making. And it's a
great way to excite people into doingit. The first time they cut,
they go, I need to geta sword and a box of pool noodles.

(55:29):
Then they send your videos of themin the backyard or a machete beating
the hell out of the noodles.Yeah, beating, fitting in with the
blade and a lot of noodle flogging. That never makes no, that's perfect.
That's uh. That's gonna be thisthis episode's YouTube short with Deep that's

(55:58):
what you can look forward to Texasback in my stage name as So that's
the Historic Sword Seminar where you cannoodle flog with Dave Baker on uh on
April April sixth. Not bringing theirchildren, Yeah, there you go.

(56:21):
Even with the discounted rate for kids, they're just not coming anymore. Yeah.
So no, I mean I'm reallyexcited. I I mean, we
we've talked before that I don't reallycome from the knife world, and uh,
you know, it's one of thethings that that I've really enjoyed has
become becoming part of the community.You know. It's so I haven't done

(56:46):
a lot of blade shows and thisthis is actually only the second Blade show
I've actually taken things to sell at. So what are you taking to sell
at the Blade Show? No,there's there's a bunch of stuff. I've
got some let's get a prey,a couple of cutlasses, a couple of
other swords. I've got a bunchof knives from Scottish dirks to you know,

(57:08):
upscale buffalo skinners to some Viking saxesand things like that. So oh,
that's too cool. It's it's allit's all over the place. I
mean, I kind of remem brain, but you know, I go on
these deep dives down things, andand since the since we stopped filming the

(57:28):
show what in September, I've kindof taken these months to work on this
project behind me. And one ofthe things that that this is about is
to try to make things as accurateas I could with using some techniques that
I may not have used before andjust dial into craft as opposed to the

(57:52):
past eight years which I've been prettymuch just working for the show, and
everything I built had to be builton such a a compressed timeline that I
didn't get to finish anything the wayI wanted to finish them. Yeah,
you know, there's as soon assort up there. I handstanded the blade
for two days straight. Wow.That will make you crazy, by the

(58:15):
way, Yeah, no doubt,no doubt. Yeah yeah we uh,
Matt and I once as a punishmentfor did we lie? Is that what
it was? Lie? Or theftomaterials or something like that. Yeah,
we my dad and his brother purchaseda sixteen foot trailer that they put diamond
tread plate like a diamond tread platefloor in and I got left out in

(58:37):
the rain before they sealed it.And so our punishment for the day was
we were given a handstanding blocks andwe were told to we were even given
blocks. I don't think we weregiving blocks, giving paper, yeah,
yeah, paper and all right sand, Yeah, we're giving paper and gloves
and told this needs to be shinyby the end of today so that we

(59:00):
can seal it. And then ifwe asked, so, how do you
do this? How long is thisgoing to be? Oh, they'd come
over with a power tool. Youshould just go like this, yeah,
so we can use that. Yeah, no, no, I can't use
it. You cannot use that.Here's this This is how you should be
on plate is a bad thing.It was you know, young knees back

(59:22):
in the day, and it wasout in the hot sun. So we're
just like, oh, this isawesome, you know, greatest thing ever
to see a power tool do thatin two seconds. And then at the
end of it, I think wewere given orders twenty five cents each and
we thought, venning machine, We'regoing to get a soda out of this
at least. Nope, not somuch. And that's what you have to
give to tithe. Now. Iwas. I was one of the most

(59:47):
I guess, solid lessons we've everlearned. Who was a thorough well thought
through punishment. Yeah, yeah,for sure. Yeah. And we did
a horrible job standing it. Imean, we did the best we we
thought we could at the time,and then they came back, you know,
with their power tools and finish itup. Yeah. It should.

(01:00:08):
I remember painting whiteboard fence one summer, driving by and throwing dust all over
it and having back and saying,well, you got to repaint that.
There's dust all over it. Thatis one of the things I think that
that is lost somewhat on our currentgenerations is having the older men just stand

(01:00:30):
around and and quote supervise the project. Yeah. Digging post holes. Yeah,
you got a post hole digger inthe summer in California desert. Yep.
Wait, every time you hit theground, your shoulders brake, the
bounces, then your cousin gets herewith the iron bar and digs it out,

(01:00:51):
and then you get the post holedigger out. It's like, oh
my god, you know you can. It's like the lines not straight.
Move that hole over. It startedin the right spot. I swear.
Yeah, yeah, those were thosewere the good old days. Honestly,
you know, it's it's so hardto you know, the whole spare of

(01:01:19):
the odd, spoil the child thing. You know, beating children is not
conducive to anything. But there werehard learned lessons when I was a kid.
The punishers. Punishments were never,you know, being hit. I
think my mom spanked me once.My dad spanked me once. I think
that was it. But man,go out and you you have to pull

(01:01:43):
the weeds. It's one hundred degreesout in the riverside in the summer and
you need to weed everything over therebecause you know, you forgot to water
the grass and it's all ground outand that was your chore. You didn't
do it. This is the paymentfor what you didn't do. The consequences,
and they weren't, like I saidmy family, they were not physical

(01:02:05):
consequences other than the fact that youhad some really nasty, hard work to
do. Then my mother could justlook at the ground and say I'm so
disappointed, and just my heart tothrow it on the sacrificial alter. Yeah.
I think our mom was said tobeing able to control our entire friend

(01:02:28):
group with just a couple of looksbecause that was that was it. That
was all. That was all.Yeah, yeah, there were a lot
of your middle name, oh brutal. There were. There were three women
when I was growing up that knewmy well, four women who knew my
middle name, my mom, DorothyNelson, Marge Carpenter, and my aunt.

(01:02:49):
And if I heard my middle name, I knew I was of those
women had the right to punish me. Yeah, it was gonna be a
bad time if that was the case, right or not. I've not done
weeding the Carpenter's yard yet, yep. Yeah, that's that's it. It

(01:03:10):
was. There was a lot ofthe you know, we wanted to go
hang out our our granddad had liketwenty acres and we so we always wanted
to go be out at his placebecause we could we could go shoot skiet
out there, or you know,we could go help out with with the
animals, or learn how to youknow, ride the tractor and all that.
And then yeah, yeah, wecould do all kinds of stuff.

(01:03:31):
And then there was the hey,you're gonna go do some yardwork at your
granddad's house because he needs it doneand this week, you know, these
are all of the notes we gotfrom your teacher and your principal, and
so we we want you to knowwe're sending you out there with two five
gallon Jerry cans and you were mowingthe front ten acres with this push mower.

(01:03:53):
It's like, but he's got atractor. It's like, yeah,
but he he does. But youknow what else, he he has a
Saturday where he gets to sleep inbecause you're going to go do it with
this push mower. And you're goingto do it away from the house so
that you don't disturb him, Likeokay where they Yeah, our mother doesn't

(01:04:14):
want you to use this chainsaw,but climb up in that tree. The
time. And I had to talkwith my cousin about this recently. A
lot of the work we did itwas an adventure, Oh no doubt.
My cousin's four years older than me, so and I was, I'm sure
for a number of the years Iwas just the pain in the ass.

(01:04:35):
It was tagging along. But itwas an adventure. We were you know,
we were digging irrigation ditches, orwe were you know, cleaning out
this. We were moving pipes,we're driving tractors, we're bringing in,
Hey, we're doing all these cowboythings. I mean we're feeding cattle and
moving cattle and every whole treasure.Yeah, and you'd get to it.

(01:05:00):
Only hurt when you got to toyou know, done with all your chores
and you got to lunch, andit was going to be the hot afternoon.
You wanted to go over the riverand swim, and that's when you
realized that you had a punishment coming. Yeah, yeah, you're gonna be
You're gonna be stretching barb wire allafternoon instead of instead of fiction, you
know. So and again it wasit wasn't. It wasn't often we didn't

(01:05:25):
we didn't get punished because we didn'tdo a lot of dumb stuff. But
every once in a while we didsomething incredibly stupid. They like blow something
up or catch something on fire andput a bullet through something that didn't need
a bullet, and then then youcaught Hell. Yeah, there were rules.
There were The rules were This iswhat I love about my childhood.

(01:05:45):
There were rules that were set andthey didn't change. There was consistent.
The rules didn't change. Uh Andand you know if you've broke them,
you knew you were breaking them,right, you didn't have to guess.

(01:06:06):
You knew you were breaking the rulewhen you did what you did. And
sometimes breaking the rule is just amatter of being dumb, you know,
and not thinking before you did something. And that was one of the rules,
think before you do it. Sothat's not fun. Yeah. Yeah,

(01:06:29):
I had an idyllic childhood. Itruly did. Yeah. Yeah,
so, you know, hard stuff, injuries, whatever, you know,
I would not change any of it. And I know that many many people
just don't have that. They didn'thave that. Yeah, they don't look
at the things that I thought weremagic. They just don't look at magic.

(01:06:54):
Yeah, right right, Yeah,well my sister didn't. They drive
by the ranch and pushed me outby the gate, and my sister would
go, I'm not gone. Yeah, she had, you know, got
hay fever and her eyes swollen upwith the cats and you know, so
there was there was She didn't enjoyit, and me I was. You

(01:07:15):
know. The joke was that thatI had no skin on my knees until
I was like fourteen. It wasjust perfect. You know. They were
always running around and falling down.I mean it was you know, and
falling down. It's I still havea phobia about shorts because of tearing myself
to shreds on the decomposed of granitethat was there was all the playgrounds and

(01:07:36):
and and the ranch and everything else. So I mean, you know,
I remember my mother once, thisis a great one. My cousin and
I were doing something. I can'tremember what he was. He was at
my house or something. So anywaywe were. We were muddy and messy
and out in front of the grocerystore while my mom was in getting groceries.

(01:07:57):
Because you could do that with kidsabout that back then you could.
You could leave them outside the grocerystore and they'd be there when you got
back. And some women said,this is what we two raised in a
barn, And my mother responded,you don't think we let them in the
house, do you. It wasn't. We don't think we led them in

(01:08:18):
the house. It was it was, uh, we don't. I don't.
You don't think we let those inthe house. Didn't even give us
a human thing, just the monstersthat were over there, a man,
the little beasts. We take themoff and we take them home and hose
them off before they're allowed inside.That that was kind of the way the

(01:08:39):
way of things. I mean,I remember the first time we found out
what a twenty two bullet would doto a sealed can of barbisol and they're
done that. Yeah, and thenand then we found out how much Yeah
yeah it was you know the hairspray lit on fire. Oh yeah,
lit a candle and then shot athrough the I think that was when we

(01:09:02):
burnt something yep. Yeah, thatyou spun with flames coming out of it,
which is awesome. Probably had iton top of the hay bail yep.
The safest place for it, yeah, for sure, dry grass.
Yeah. Well, the hay balekeeps it far enough away from us to
where we don't get hurt, right, That was that was always the logic.
I just laughed at. You know, somebody, somebody online called me

(01:09:25):
a gen x or the other daysgen x. We didn't play with lawn
darch We invented them. That's backwhen they had the sharp metal tips on
them. Yeah. We didn't havenot the plastic plastic big wheels. We
had metal metal cars. Yep.Things had razor blade edges. Put them
in the sun and cook on them. Yeah. Yeah, I missed the

(01:09:47):
metal slide. I remember taunting abull and being able to go to the
haystack. That's when I was akid. Called the meat grinder. Yeah,
it was a hold. It wasthis old fire in you have one
of those metal ones and they hada seat on it that was you know,
teeny and you stuff yourself in there. But the pedals, all the

(01:10:08):
rubber had fallen off the pedals,and the petals weren't on any kind of
a slipping gear. No. Oncethey started rolling, they were moving,
so they missed gets. So thosethings are down near your feet and you're
trying to keep your feet off ofit. And I lived on the street
that was like this steep, Soyou got up and show. We actually

(01:10:30):
bolted two by fours to the sidesso you could drag them as brakes.
There you go, Yeah, that'sperfect. We showed children bled on the
meat grinder, no doubt that.We were pretty sure it was going to
happen when they finally threw that thingaway. Yeah. So there is one
question that people in the reven Repgroup and front I didn't do it.

(01:10:55):
Yeah. Well, so the revenRep Group, the David Baker fan page,
the Forging and fire Green, everybodywants to know the same thing.
And I know you probably don't havethe answer for it, but I got
to ask you anyway, when's thenext season of the show coming out?
Man? Okay, So this isand this is straight up what I know.
And you know, I literally wasin contact with one of our execs

(01:11:17):
like a week and a half ago. The network is shuffling things all over
the place. They don't know wherethey're going to fit us in. There
are thirty shows, twenty five tothirty shows that have not been aired that
we've already filmed, right So thoughthat's that's a season, that's that's a

(01:11:40):
year of programming. Basically, youknow, show fifteen repeat fifteen, Show
fifteen repeat fifteen. Yeah, soseason ten basically has not aired. We
weared I think eight pieces of contentthey were part of season ten, and
now there's there's the twenty or moreleftover. We don't know when they're coming

(01:12:01):
back on. The show has notbeen canceled, but we won't be filming
again in this calendar year because they'vethey've got the shows, so we don't
know when they're going to relaunch.You know, we're all hoping they'll make
a big deal out of They justnever have. I mean that the network's

(01:12:23):
never really made a big deal outof the show. We've kind of carried
our own weight since the beginning,which is impressive. But at the same
time, I would love to getthe show to a new market. I
would love to get the show toto a new audience. I think,
you know, I think we're advertisingto our our existent existing audience right now.

(01:12:47):
So it would be really fun toreally introduce new people to the show
and bring more people to the ideaof you know, making and building and
you know, watching these these Smithsthat come compete, we're just so amazing.
You know. You guys have kindof become darlings of the streaming services

(01:13:10):
because just about every streaming service oncea piece of forged in fire. We
were watching, uh, we wereworking our way through the new series bad
Batch on Disney Plus and just yeah, it suggested for us. We was
like, do you want to watchBlue Eye because we've got an eighteen month
old who who doesn't want to watchthe show. He just wants to listen

(01:13:31):
to the theme song on repeat.And then and then we've got you know,
the new episodes of bad Batch thathad come out, and right next
to that, was forged in fireand I know we've seen on Netflix and
Hulu and we've seen every streaming serviceloves forged in fire. Right. So
the backstory on that, as faras I understand it, is any networks

(01:13:58):
was going to raise some so theysold their entire catalog to Disney Plus and
their subsidiaries or their connected things.So Netflix has two or had two seasons.
I don't know if that their contracton that is run out. Disney
Plus has like one through five andthen eight and nine and you know,

(01:14:26):
and then nothing that hasn't aired,and then Hulu has I think the same
thing Disney has. I think they'reconnected somehow, don't know. So,
yeah, so there's a lot ofservice and there's like a there's like a
Samsung Force and Fire channel. Whatit's like you can get it on your
phone or something. I don't know. That's so, But here's the But

(01:14:47):
the thing is is that other thanbeing in a suggestion box for you because
you've watched some sword shows or whatever, there's just never been an AD,
yeah, which is crazy to me, outside of outside of the History Channel
television channel itself, They've just neverbeen an AD all right. So that's

(01:15:11):
gotten to the size we did withjust by you know, word of mouth
basically is really impressive. And I'mproud of the guys I work with,
and I'm proud of the whole teamthat put this together from you know,
Brittany are editor, she's fabulous,and Dan, who's who's been running the
show for the last few years.Great, great work. But it would

(01:15:34):
be so much fun to push itto, like I said, a larger
audience to people who have never beenexposed to it and wouldn't go looking for
it. Yeah, and that's that'swhere I really want to get the show.
So that's you know, over thenext year, since I basically got
a year off, you know,learn learn to be a selling of Bladesmith

(01:15:58):
again, which I haven't been doingfor years, and and and promote the
show in ways that whatever ways Ican find that are outside of of the
box that were kept in right,Yeah, which is things like your show.
I mean, I love you guys, and you guys have been great.
I mean, shit, what's thisthe fourth time we've been together?
I think I think this is numberfive. You are not only were you

(01:16:21):
our first legitimate guest and I don'tknow if I've ever told you this before,
but it took me like so,I sent Dave a message on Facebook.
He replied. So first I freakout a little bit because Dave Baker
replied to my message, and thenhe and then he sends me right,
so this was my fanboy moment.So then he sends me some contact info

(01:16:44):
and I sat on it for likeweeks because I was like, I don't
know what to say to him.I don't know what to do when I
get David Baker on the phone.And so when I finally call and say,
hey, uh, you know thisis Lucas. I send you the
message and you're like, yeah,cool, I don't have your number saved
to my phone, and you know, I don't really pay attention to tell
that stuff. I was like,all right, great. We talked for
like a half an hour and itwas it was a great conversation. We

(01:17:08):
really hit it off. And thenI took another couple of weeks before I
was like ready to book him.I was like, nope, I called
him. It's definitely David Baker,it's real. And then they were like,
all right, so so when arewe going to get him on the
show? And I was like,I don't know because now I'm so nervous
about like doing the interview, andnow yeah, this is this is the

(01:17:28):
fifth time. And I can't tellyou how much I appreciate you being so
gracious. Remember you remember that firstinterview the right Oh yeah, no,
the part that I don't think Iever told you that is, I for
completely forgot about it. Yes,I remember that. It was a Sunday
afternoon. I had a couple ofdrinks. You can call up. Are

(01:17:53):
you ready? I'm like, yeah, yeah, absolutely. The whole time,
let's we can do this. Thewhole time, the camera was kind
of going, oh yeah, Iwas. I was rambling. I was
all over the place. It washilarious. It was absolutely hilarious. It

(01:18:15):
was I mean I ramble anyway,but dude, that was so great.
There were a couple of ramblers fromway back. Yeah, it was so
so great for us. You weresuch a gracious first guest. You guys
have been fun. You've been goodto the show, and you know,
you guys were pretty much I thinkmy second podcast I've ever done, so

(01:18:36):
really yeah wow, yeah, SoI really enjoyed the entire thing. And
again, it's it's when I firstheard your name, the reverend and the
reproband, I'm great or religious show. They're gonna ask me to our Lord

(01:18:57):
and Savior. Well, you know, so you guys ask great questions.
We have fun. Yeah, andhonestly, you know, you get to
a certain age and if it's notif it's not making your life better for
it's not fun. That's the truth, man, that's it. Well,

(01:19:21):
well, you know, speaking ofhaving some fun, we end all of
our interviews with a segment that wecall controlled routiness. And controlled routiness is
just a series of rapid fire questionswhich you can answer with as short or
as long a reply as you wouldwish. I expect nothing from us by

(01:19:42):
way of reply responses. We askthese questions and to get us going,
I'm going to turn it over toBig Mambie. What's up? You got
our first question for cr Yeah,we're talking about every day carries. The
last time, well, I guessthe first time when I talked and having
your everyday carry, you told methat at the time you were carrying a
skinner around. I thought was interesting. Is people to get into making They
got into it largely because they weren'thappy with the selection out there, they

(01:20:05):
couldn't afford whatever the selection was outthere, and then you ask them what
they carry, and it's never theirown stuff. Why is that? Yeah?
I think a lot of makers justmake things and and off that goes.
It's the cobblers kid never has shoes, the you know, the the

(01:20:27):
the hairdresser's kid always has a shaggymop on their head. A lot of
makers make things so they can getthem out in the world. I make
things, and then I panic aboutgetting them out in the world because someone
might judge them and tell me I'mnot good at it. So I think
a lot of it has to dowith the fact that, you know,

(01:20:49):
you put something on your hip,you carry it for two three days.
Someone goes, oh, that's cool. What do you make those? Yeah?
I make those? Do you sellthem? Yeah? Well here,
can I have that one? Yeah? Sure, here, no way it
goes. Yeah. And guys whoare making things on h on a commission
basis, where you're you're you're takingindividual orders to make things, they're always

(01:21:10):
behind, so they're never making anythingfor themselves. Yeah, it's true.
I guess if you're carrying your ownstuff, you're either happy enough with it
that you're not selling it, oryou're just not happy with it, and
nobody else is either, so allkinds of stuff. My thing is,
I always like having a knife onme, but I don't. I don't

(01:21:31):
like going into places and intimidating people, not not intentionally, of course,
but even subconsciously when you sit downand you've got you know, because I
carry you like a fairly large Fucoknife, or I'll carry this sometimes a
lot of people look at that andthey see that leather hanging off of me,
and they think it's a god.And you know, people get intimidated

(01:21:55):
by seeing a big knife, andand even short knives and big scabbards intimidate
people. So you know, I'vestarted carrying the one I carrying out.
It's not it's in some cases ina different room. You know. It's
three and a half inches with alittle short tear drop handle. It's not
big, it's you know, it'sit's a nice you know, Damascus blade

(01:22:17):
with you know, the nickel lineon it and everything else. But I
kind of just carry it as abusiness card, you know, And not
to say I don't use it,but yeah, intimidating people by what you
wear is just not something i'm into. If I'm working, I've got a
kniphone. If I'm if I'm traveling, I've got a kniphone. If I

(01:22:40):
you know, out in the outin the swamp, I've got a kniphone.
But when I go to dinner,I've got something that you know,
nobody nobody's seeing. It's not concealed, right. But in some of those
things are our knives by other people, whether it's you know, really small
flip knives that I have and thingslike that. It's more just to have
the tool than it is to showoff the fact that I've got blades on

(01:23:04):
me. Speaking of going out todinner, how irritated are you whenever you
get a steak knife? It isdull are irritated. The problem is,
if you've got a steak that asteak knife can't cut, you got a
shitty steak. It's a fair pointand be able to cut a steak,

(01:23:29):
that's true. And if you've gota steak that you can't get a table
knife through, then you got achef who doesn't know how to cook a
steak. That's fair, or you'vegot a restaurant dead by its really cretdy
meat. Or you have poor tasteand how your steak cooked. I don't
want well done. I usually don'tget steak or grilled meat when I go
out because I'm really good at cookingit. I enjoy the steaks I make.

(01:23:50):
Well, there's a couple of steakhousesthat I love, you know,
up in Connecticut, there's one inNew York. There's a couple. But
it's like, get something that Idon't usually cook as opposed to something that
I like. My stakes a certainway, and I know places that make
them that way, and I certainlymake them that way myself. So yeah,
right on hypothetical. Okay, followme on this, all right,

(01:24:15):
it's the middle of me. BenAbbott calls you and he says, look,
Dave, I know your birthday's comingup in June. I want to
celebrate, and I will. Iwill make for you anything that you want.
I will forge for you any knifethat you want, any sword that
you want. What are you askingBen Abbott to make you for your birthday?
Well? The cool thing with Benis that Ben's a blacksmith as well

(01:24:41):
as bladesmith. Yeah, and blacksmithingis something that I'm looking more and more
at and enjoying more and more ofAs a housewarming gift, Ben Ben made
me a boot scraper with my Band BB logo. Really yeah, an
old school one, you know whereit's it's two wrought iron pieces that are
curled with the metal plate in betweenand on the metal plate is to be

(01:25:04):
That was my housewarming. Yet that'spretty cool, you know, that's just
so over the top, perfect forsomeone like me who loves old stuff.
So I would I would probably askhim to do uh like a a smithed
sign holder for at the end ofmy driveway. All right, I'm putting

(01:25:29):
eventually I all put up a signthat you know, says Baker Blades and
you know, Baker's Landing the homeof Baker Blades or something like that.
I haven't figured to sign out yet. That would be but yet something like
that where he can show his hisblacksmithing skills, which I think, are
you know, easily on par withhis blade smithing skills right on, Yeah,

(01:25:49):
incredibly talented man. All right,you're up. What was your favorite
thing that you smithed other than aScottish basket hild and start to find probably
the original one of the border reaverit's a it's what's considered an Irish basket

(01:26:12):
hilt. It's very similar to aScottish It sounds like you just skirted the
way that you were going to answerthe question from Scottish to Irish. Well,
the thing is, it's not anIrish hilt. The British back in
the day called anything slightly Gaelic Irishokay. And these these were actually a

(01:26:33):
common hilt type for British horsemen.The border reavers carried swords like this.
They were kind of an English versionof a Scottish baskethilt. But I got
the opportunity last year two. Iwas commissioned to make a copy of an

(01:26:56):
original. Uh and the gentleman whoI did it or had the original?
So I was able to hold theoriginal measure the original way the original The
blade on the original is horrendously rustedand in rough conditions, so he wanted
a version of the sword as ifit were ready to use. So I

(01:27:17):
got to do that, and thenI made myself one. That's too cool,
all right? Yeah, last question. You have had so many different
facial hair phases since you began forgedin fire. You are known for your
very well manicured mustache. So I'veI've got a question. Are you,

(01:27:40):
when it comes to shaving, youshave with a safety razor with something that
you forged on your own or doyou just shave with a Scottish basket hilt?
Actually that basket hild over there,the Horneck basket hill you could save
with a funny question years ago,uh years and so you know you asked

(01:28:06):
me a question about saving and shaving. We go down another rabbit holes to
it. I'm in so years yearsago, I spent a year right and
do it writing with a fountain penonly okay, and not not a fountain
pen, but one thing you hadto dip. And the reason for that
was to slow myself down. Justjust tried to slow down my thinking and

(01:28:28):
really concentrate on what I was writing, so I didn't leave letters off and
reverse things and everything else. Andwe had some fun with it. Then
I got into a safety razor,you know, double edged, you know,
open top, and shaving with that, and honestly, nothing really shaves

(01:28:49):
closer than that. You know,people say, oh, this one's got
nine blades and it's got suspension.Yeah, that's cool. But he go
to a hospital, and what dothey say, shave you with a single
edged razor? Period, go toa good barber. What does he use
to trim everything? A single edgeraisor. And then when I bought this

(01:29:11):
house and I was remodeling the bathroominside the wall, I found in a
little blue cardboard box a German straightrazor German maid. It's somewhere, probably
in the forties or fifties. Bylooking up the company, so I put
an edge on it and gave myselfa straight razor shave a couple of times.

(01:29:31):
I was still not wearing a fullbeard at fun. But I think
that's that's on the bucket list.That's on the man list, as far
as I'm concerned, is to giveyourself a straight razor shave at least once
in your life. But do itwith good equipment. I'm giving myself plenty
of razor burn trying to figure thatout. Yeah, razor burn is not

(01:29:53):
the hard part. Cutting a chunkof your cheek off is the hard part.
Oh yeah, just you know,slow and steady, but it's cool.
And if you can't, if you'vegot a barber that that's licensed to
do it, go to a barberand have one done. It's fantastic.
Yeah, I have had a onedone by a barber and it is magnificent.
The hot towel and the hot shavingcream and the whole thing. Honestly,

(01:30:15):
make an event out of it.You know, if you have a
lady friend or you know your yourplan going out to dinner something, have
her go to the spaw and getthe nails done. Go to a barber
and get the full treatment. Ohthis shampoo and the haircut and the whole
thing. You come out feeling likea new human. It's one thing to

(01:30:35):
have your cheek shape to bring yourselfto something you should do, all right.
You should do it on a dailybasis. And I think the ritual
if you shave, the ritual ofshaving can be your morning start. You
know, get yourself the you know, the badger hair brush. Oh yeah,
and the sofa and heat up thewater in a hot towel for a

(01:30:59):
minute. But it don't take thetime. It's it's great. I mean,
it's one of those things that whenyou when you get into doing,
I mean, now I go,I'm done. But taking that time,
honestly, remembering doing that is whyyou know, a few months ago,
I shaved everything off because just becauseI hadn't done it in forever. So

(01:31:20):
I lathered up and trimmed everything withthe scissors and you know, got the
got the safety raisor out and didall that. So yeah, I think
I think pampering yourself is a reallygood thing to do. And having a
bit of a ritual shaving with asafety raiser and soap in a brush is

(01:31:41):
a great way to have that inthe morning for a start. It's pretty
cool. I think truer advice hasnever been spoken. That is, and
the days where I used to haveto shave my my whole face, we
did get the the pro wrasso andthen our folks got us the Badger hair
brushes for Christmas. That it was. It was magnificent. You can get
you can get this shaving cream witha lot of eucalyptus in it and yeah,

(01:32:04):
oh yeah, a little bay rumto finish. Uh huh yeah,
I mean, you know, Idon't I don't know when it happened,
but historically those putting yourself together inthe morning before you walk out the door
rituals or a part of what mendid, and you didn't only do it

(01:32:29):
for yourself, but you did itfor the people that you were going to
interact with during the day and takingthe time to do it to look put
together. Now, granted, Igo to the hardware store and jeans that
so dirty they can stand up bythemselves and beat up cowboy hat and God
don't knows what the hell I smelllike. But if I plan on going

(01:32:49):
somewhere that's the the public, youknow, I try to take the time
and and it's it's a it's youshow a sign of you show a level
of respect for the people you're goingto be interacting with by taking care of
yourself. Yeah, and it doesn'treally cost you anything but a little bit

(01:33:12):
of time. There you go,Dave Baker, we cannot tell you how
much we have appreciated your friendship tothe show. Thanks so much for being
on tonight. Man, Thank youmy pleasure. I'm not going to see
in Texas. That's our plan aslong as baby at the time. Man.
So yeah, So Kirsten, Ican't help. Well, you know

(01:33:35):
what, I'll have a similar process. I'll run that buyer and we'll see
how it goes. So I'm notcompared to her to count well, you
clarify it. Yeah, that's athat's a good move, dude. Thanks
so much for being on the showMan, We appreciate it. Thank you,
and then happy, happy, savePatrick's day. David freaking Baker.

(01:34:00):
Yeah, yeah, dude, it'sgood to uh, it's good to have
you back in the sundle. It'sgoing to be back on on the Reverend
Reprobate after a little bit of ahiatus. And I don't think there's anybody
better way to do it, anybodybetter to do it with then with a
guy who kind of got us askicked off on the show. So as
a what's the best way to putit so that I don't get your jocko

(01:34:21):
go flung at me as an amateurhobbyist and Blake Smith yourself, Yeah right,
very amateur. Yeah, what doesuh like? Where's where does somebody
like David Baker rank for you?As far as you know when it comes
to it, Hey, these arethe people that are influential on what I'm
doing with my craft probably number one. I really like his stuff, I

(01:34:45):
like his attitude, I like hispersonality. I just it's a good,
good dude to talk to you.I've gotten the chance to talk to somebody
else that was really influential to meand get some hands on time with him.
Harvey Dean. Oh yeah, HarveyDean is amazing. He really like
Abs Master Smith, right yeah,Abs Master some of his stuff and that

(01:35:06):
I've gotten to see and really influencedme. He he spent some time to
show me some forging techniques. Hedidn't have to do any of it,
you know, and just took thetime because we had a mutual connection through
through one of our uncles. Ohreally, yeah, Uncle Ronnie. So

(01:35:26):
Uncle Ronnie and him talked a lot, and Uncle Ronnie is like, hey,
you want to talk to this guy. And I was like, if
he'll talk to me, sure,that awesome. Yeah, And so I
got to go around his forge andtalk to him about his various things,
and he told me what works bestfor him what doesn't. So aside from
having some hands on experience like thatwith somebody who is a master, yeah,

(01:35:48):
David Baker for me is he's rightup there, if not number one,
He's the dude that I'm just like, oh, yeah, I want
to listen to everything that this guyhas to say and you know, whatever
he's willing to share, just likewith anybody that's a master in their craft
and take what I can and tryto use it. I understand about a

(01:36:11):
third of what he says whenever itcomes to fording stuff, and that is
only because you and I have hungout and I watched the show like that's
that's it. You know when hewas talking of you, guys were talking
about, oh, well, youpour the ingot and then you make the
thing. I was like, Iknow what an ingot is from You've made
ingots? Yeah, from you andfrom Forged and Fire and from Skyrim.
Those are my frame of reference foringots. Man, thanks so much for

(01:36:38):
filling in as as today's reparmate.Dude, I really appreciate it. Doing
these shows with you is always ablast, and it fits the title of
the show. You know, we'retwo best buds. Interfering people we have
no business talking to today is supremeevidence of that. And of all the
best friends that I've had, youhave been the most consistent. Have been
my best bud since your birth andsince you know my ability to remember,

(01:37:01):
so I appreciate you being here andon this piece of the adventure with me.
Y'all, make sure to check outall of the stuff from David Baker
that's in the show notes. TheTexas Select Custom Cutlery Event is happening Saturday,
April sixth and seventh, from nineto four. J Nielsen and David
Baker are both going to be there. You can check it out at Texas

(01:37:23):
selectevent dot com. Links to thatand a few other things that he talks
about are in the show notes.Make sure that you email people over at
the History Channel and let them knowwe want Forged and fire back. Tell
a friend about them, And thankyou all so much for dealing with the
six month hiatus that we've taken.Thanks for continuing to check out the channel,

(01:37:45):
for liking, for subscribing, forbeing supportive, for all the notes
people have sent us letting us knowthat you're thinking about us, that you're
praying for us, and we justappreciate it more than you will ever know.
You guys, stay hard, keepjamming, and we'll see you.
Hey, gang, I'm Baker,and uh this is why you should never
listen to the Reverend and the Reprobateunless you're drinking