Miles Vollman, Vollman Forge, lives with his wife, Sarah and their eleven-year-old son, Frank, in Red Deer, Alberta. He is a mechanic by trade and is the foreman at Peterbilt Red Deer. In 2016, after a year of watching "Forged in Fire", Miles looked at the huge box of scrap metal at work and thought he would make a knife. He started with a cutting torch, then, after a year or so, he decided to make a forge. But Sarah, concerned about the family’s safety, quickly put a kibosh on that idea! Instead, she agreed he could buy a “proper” forge. But, he made most of his own tools, his hydraulic press and 2x72 belt grinder. Miles says the first few knives were more like “knife-shaped objects” than knives.
However, he persevered, and after watching Alec Steele and other knifemakers on YouTube, his knives started to look like knives and held an edge. But he knew he could do better, a sentiment that has never left him. After 10 years, he says, “even my knives that I hold in high esteem I know there is always something I could do better.” He comically adds, “I have a big pile of failures and some of them have been really painful! But I have a passion for forging because there is always more to learn and another rabbit hole to go down.”
Miles calls himself a “Rat Rod Maker”. He says “I didn’t get to knifemaking to do something easy. I want the challenge and have my own style. His style is a raw, textured and aggressive look with high-quality workmanship, functionality, and endurance. He likes a tactile feel and darker colours that he achieves using gunblueing. He is constantly making new designs but the one that he most often uses is a stiletto dagger that he makes with refined fluted handles and leaves the blade with obvious grains or hammer marks to give a rough-textured look. Miles says, “There is a fine line to keep my raw Rat Rod esthetic and ensuring a high quality product that “will last longer than the people who have bought it.” He stands by his work as a mechanic and does the same with his knives, tools, and everything he makes.
Miles says his three biggest knifemaking challenges have been figuring out heat treating, determining the blade hardness, and balancing the time with his family and full-time job. He has managed the heat treat and blade hardness by purchasing a good quality quench oil and pottery kiln so that he can control the heat for high carbon steel. He recently acquired a hardness tester. The time challenge he is able to manage because he is a night owl and most often wanders off to the shop at 10:00 pm when everyone else is asleep. He will work until the wee hours of the morning. He says, “It’s easy to get lost in a podcast like the forged side chat, and before I know it, it’s 3:00 am, and I’ve finished sanding a new blade.”
Miles is self-taught however, the past few years, he has become involved in the local knifemaking community by attending Hammer Ins, the Red Deer Knife and Gun Show, and the Wetaskawin Metal Arts show. He has joined the Western Canada Knife Association and the American Bladesmith Society. He says the knifemaking community is unique because people are willing to share what they do and often say, “I do it this way and you do it your way, there is no right or wrong way to do something but we can learn from each other.”
He sells his knives at shows, medieval events, and he does a significant amount of custom knives. Miles also makes tools, hammers, hatchets, punches and copper roses. He likes to tell his customers, “If you can think it in your head, I can put it into your hand”.
Materials – For blades, he likes using wrought iron and also steel cable that he gets from a local rigging company, 1084, 1095, 1045, 1080 Hex, and 15N20. For handle material, he uses stabilized maple burl that he has started stabilizing himself.
If he were to do it all again, he wouldn’t do anything differently except to reach out to the knifemaking community earlier. He is happy with the steady progress he has made over the years. His biggest learning curve has been using materials and consumables economically, especially propane and belts.
Words of Wisdom – “Don’t be afraid to fail, especially when you forge. Take risks and make mistakes. There is nothing wrong with having a big pile of failures because if you're not failing, you're not learning. Try new things and make what you can’t do into what you can do!”
See Miles with Dave Makes Knives demonstrating making a copper-wrapped steel cable billet. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8KVvzmR6HqY
See more of Miles knives at: https://www.instagram.com/vollman_forge/?hl=en
Comments