Tobin Visits from Austria, Shop Heater Season, and MORE Stainless Damascus! TFN

Happy Friday, folks!

It’s been a cooler week around Baker HQ as the temps around our little Appalachian community dip into the 20s for the first time this season. Jay even kicked on the shop heater a few times this week while the forges weren’t in use– surely a sign of the cold for this group of hardworking mountain blacksmiths.

Early this week our friend Tobin of Tobin Machines visited the HQ all the way from Austria. For over a year now we have been working closely with him on the RM-1 rolling mill, which we offer to the US! A true master in his field, Tobin dropped in to hang out and assist us in converting our shop mill to US settings. We always have a great time hosting folks like Tobin and talking all the nitty gritty that comes with this category of business and production! If you haven’t had a chance, check out the RM-1 details on our site! 

Our friend, Hans Molenkamp of Crimson Knife Co came through with another big ol’ pallet of Monster Energy drinks to (more than) re-stock our shop Monster fridge and keep the

guys high-octain and working like mad. 

Coy’s been out on the shop floor a good part of this week finishing up the plumbing of our air system for the Chambersburg, a final step we’ve been looking forward to wrapping up. Usually tied up in the early week with a thousand admin duties, it’s a nice throwback to have all the staff working around the shop at the same time!

We mentioned it a few weeks back but we've been migrating ALL customer service questions to Sam at Support@BakerForge.com in an effort to reduce lost communications with Maker's seeking a quick answer or detailed response. I'm sure some of you have been sent a DM on socials in response to a question and asked to shoot him an email- and we're sorry if the extra step is an inconvience but this was certainly the best way to ensure everyone gets a timely answer, so thanks for understanding!

Jay and the guys reported some refinement in the pattern milling of stainless this week. Grinding the patterns to clean them up after the dies has proved to be quite the arduous task so we turned to milling as an alternative and it’s proved to be a better option for SURE. Hard to produce in nearly every way or not, that stainless damascus train ain’t gonna stop! Another BIG drop coming this weekend for you stainless fanatics.  

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Inside the Media

This Monday’s Question reel WENT OFF, more than 130 comments in response to our query: “What is the SCARIEST thing a knife maker can do?”. Most responded with the buffing wheel, with some truly comedic responses like “Tell your wife you bought another big machine” or “Go full time”. They may seem a little simply, but these Monday community questions have become one of the things we love most about our media each week. It feels fun to invite the entire audience into a conversation while we all dive back into the work week. 

Traveling for my honeymoon for the next couple weeks has Waylon and my little media team working weird hours and communicating remotely, but our first week of the new schedule is about wrapped and I bet our social media audience could barely notice! Truly a nod to the systems we’ve set up to keep the media and marketing rollout smooth and consistent. I suppose I could have taken some time off but when you do what you love, you never want to give it up, even for a honeymoon!

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Sneak Peek 👀

The Matrix pattern you lost your mind over? It’s back—this time in stainless. We tweaked the layer count lower for that crisp stainless look, forged it in AEBL + 154CM, and Jordan at JB Blades already proved it on a test blade. This one’s gonna vanish. App opens Friday noon EST. Full drop Saturday 8pm EST.