J Neilson is a judge on an amazing reality show called Forged In Fire.
Forged in Fire is an American competition series that airs on the History channel and is produced by Outpost Entertainment, a Leftfield Entertainment company. In each episode, four bladesmiths compete in a three-round elimination contest to forge bladed weapons, with the overall winner receiving $10,000 and the show’s championship title “Forged in Fire Champion”.
James – commonly known by his first initial J – is not Mickey Mouse. Check out his biography.
J. Neilson has been making knives for 20 years and is one of the best all-round bladesmiths in the world. He was recognized in 2008 when he achieved the rank of Mastersmith in the American Bladesmith Society, a title held by less than 115 people worldwide.
J Neilson’s work
His website has a bunch of his beautiful knives.
Living on the edge
My wife and I love watching Forged In Fire.
So much so, in fact, that we tried our hands at forging and it was a lot tougher than we expected. A friend, who is a bladesmith, spent the weekend with us, teaching and guiding us as we made our own knives from scratch. It was a lot of fun but extremely exhausting, giving me a new respect for the show’s judges and contestants.
Our conversation
I invited James for a conversation about his work, Forged In Fire and he gave me a tour of his workshop.
