Boss-Man DOWN & DOUBLE RipTide! TFN

Ah, Friday! Another week has come and gone and we’re closer than ever to the beautiful mountain summers of western North Carolina. 

The week started similarly enough to previous if not for one very important absence. Sometime late into the weekend our fearless leader, Coy came down with what he describes as the “full-blown flu”. With ferocity this unwelcome spring illness held hostage our otherwise quite resilient captain. Dramatics aside, Coy should make a full recovery and thanks to well-constructed leadership around our business, things remained nearly the same. 

One thing, however, was not the same as usual with Shop Lead and brother of our bed-ridden CEO, Jay Baker stepping in for a pretty major drop announcement on Wednesday. Jay has long been a helpful step-in for these situations, but as his time on camera grows, so advances his presence. It’s always cool to step back and appreciate the team we’ve grown, but the individual talents and skills that break through even throughout their time here is certainly just as exciting.

With Tuesday being the big “joke” day of the year, we anticipated Waylon’s creative take on

the now marketing-holiday. He didn’t disappoint with a confusing yet entertaining take on our normal “forge reels” with a backwards video showcasing billet production from end to beginning. In a quick glance you might not even notice but our loyal fans, being the attentive craftsmen they are, could tell something was off. Not the most marketing-worthy idea of the day, but cunning and fun nonetheless. Definitely give it a watch if you missed it!

As mentioned last week, production has hit new highs as our team pushes to maximize yield in each retail batch to build inventory for BladeShow. This week was no different as Jay and the guys cooked up an especially loaded weekend double-drop. If RipTide is your vibe (and I know it is for a lot of you) we highly recommend you download our Baker App to grab your layout and size a full day early TODAY.  

Find the Apple Store link here. 

...And the Google Play link here.

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Inside the Media

As a media team, Waylon and I knew our workflow would hit overdrive following the new Gator Piss product shoot and leading up to BladeShow. So far the rush hasn’t disappointed, Waylon has been neck-deep in video editing. Somewhere around Tuesday he accomplished his goal of collecting the week’s content so he could fully devote his attention to several long-form videos in production. In what I suspect may be a marathon till June our little department (i’ve never called it that before…) is passionate to turn out awesome content, both in detailed long-form video and engaging social media reels leading up to the big Show. Speaking of engaging social media content, we dropped another in our series asking the shop staff dumb questions during heavy work days. Always a crowd favorite among our audience, the staff classically hates a mid-day interruption. A response we might have suspected when we hired burly, bearded blue-collar men in rural North Carolina. The disdain aside; the boys always clap back with some hilarious takes and ya’ll LOVE this addition. On Thursday we asked the crew, “If you could have any super power to help you around the forge, what would you take?” Telekinesis took the firm W, but the question certainly spawns some fun thoughts. What power would YOU take?

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Sneak Peek 👀

This weekend, we’re unleashing a double-dose of RipTide greatness with two of our most celebrated layouts: O.G. RipTide in Ripple and RipTide Elite in Chevron. The O.G. returns with its classic 100-layer damascus cladding and core, accented by copper shims and a bold 1084 layer in that iconic ripple pattern. Meanwhile, RipTide Elite brings extra flash with 100-layer damascus, a copper-nickel-copper stack, and a thick 1084 stripe, all in chevron glory. We’ve prepped a substantial drop of these beloved steels, each bar flat-ground and polished to shine. Get in early on the Baker App Friday or join the full release Saturday at 8pm EST.