Parking Lot Skate-Rink, Name-Dropping & the BADDEST “test blade” Ever! TFNMain:

Well, we were promised a storm of some significance and when we got up Monday for work we were not disappointed. Although the snow levels were over estimated, the late news it might be more of an ice-storm proved true. Our little Appalachian community was coated in a crisp shiny layer of ice. From tree branches to truck-door handles the tundra called for a day-off for any staff uncomfortable with risking the journey. Although that left the bulk of production at a standstill till Tuesday, the bare-bones staff took the chance to run a restock of our Nano-Ceramic Technology– Gator Skin. With a nice quiet shop as their backdrop Waylon & Coy got quite the inventory piled up. Folks have been extremely positive following the release of this sophisticated new product and now is a fantastic time to place an order while we have stock. Check it out, read more on what this unique solution offers and grab a bottle here!

I checked in with Jay in the middle of the week asking if he had any notes from the production team for the newsletter this week– his response had me laughing: “The parking lot is an ice skating rink”. No other notes, but this one seems worthy of a mention. Ya’ll know how these things go…it’s winter in the mountains! Anyway, bring your ice skates by and give it a whirl (just kiddin’).

Coy’s son, William Baker has been around the shop consistently weekly for quite a while lately. Whether he’s been given a task for his time or simply observes and helps out it’s always nice having the young man around and a great reminder of how much Baker is a family-built & run business. Supporting this company means supporting the families in the background making it happen from our production staff to admin.

And just yall wait….in THIS shop, THIS early… I bet he’s gonna be quite the steel-wizard himself one day!

Despite the day-late start to the week the manufacturing team crushed it this week. As if to catch up for the time lost we’re feeling very pleased with where things are headed into the spring! We are very close to announcing another HUGE move as part of our 2026 initiative to further support knife makers, especially the up-and-coming and new knife makers who are just learning about our materials. Stay tuned down the road soon as details emerge.

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Inside the Media

The week’s media kicked off with a Monday Question that prompted quite the response. We asked the audience to tag the most famous person they had met. A humble brag? Maybe, but we loved to see all of the funny & interesting people our community had met. If you missed it be sure to check it out and drop a name or tag! Plans changed for our media promotion of the drop this weekend when the team realized we had our FireStorm Dam-Core in a never-before-dropped pattern. Normally with new layouts or patterns some planning is required to send off a sample to Jordon of JB Blades down in Texas. No such accommodations were made for the new Chevron pattern including in this weekend’s offerings. Thankfully JB himself had ordered a custom MASSIVE bar of our FireStorm in Chevron just last spring for a pretty insane project– even affording us the chance to photograph his final piece in-studio. Although very different in size from our normal test blades we ran the media with what we had and with some sly editing I think Waylon nailed it. When purchasing your FireStorm - Chevron this weekend check out that product image. That’s one hell of a “sample” blade… With the week’s media wrapped up by late Thursday Waylon jumped back into editing an upcoming YouTube video we’ve been working on. I won’t tease it much but keep your eyes peeled for a release in the next week or two, another fun one to kick off a year where we hope to produce more entertaining & meaningful long-form content for our community.

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Sneak Peek 👀

FireStorm Damascus-Core This is the layout that helped build Baker Forge: alternating Damascus and copper layers over a solid 1084 core, delivering that fiery contrast and movement makers have loved for years. This time we've got it in two patterns: the classic Ladder, plus Chevron (which we've only ever done once before — a massive custom sword Jordan made for Blade Show Atlanta last year).

Lots of sizes, all flat-ground and ready.

App opens today (Friday) at noon EST for early access — full release Saturday 8pm EST.