Byron Ray of Wolf Dog Armory joins Bob "The Knife Junkie" DeMarco on Episode 472 of The Knife Junkie Podcast (https://theknifejunkie.com/472).

A self-proclaimed IT nerd by day and bladesmith by night, Byron's knife company is named after the family dog, and he sees his knife-making as therapeutic, calling it "The Art of Recreational Hammer Therapy."

Byron's great-grandfather was a blacksmith, and though Byron never knew him, his anvil sat behind his granddad's shop while he was growing up. He used that anvil to pound out spears and knives from a welding rod, but when he bought a knife blank and put a handle on it, he was hooked.

College, a career, and raising kids put knife-making on hold for a few decades. After finding an old railroad spike at his granddad's shop, Byron began researching how to make a knife out of it.

In 2013, Byron made his first "soup can" forge and made several knives with it, graduating later that year to a brake drum coal forge. Eventually he created his own propane forge and adopted a more professional process; after all, bladesmithing will be Byron's encore career.

Wolfdog Armory produces traditional American-style fixed-blade knives, from hunters and scalpers to choppers and bowies.

Find Wolf Dog Armory online at www.wolfdogarmory.com, Instagram at www.instagram.com/wolfdogarmory, and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/wolfdogarmory.

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