Rhode Island resident Joshua Prince is the founder of Princeworks Forge. Working out of Barrington since 2016, Prince focuses on sculptural knives and creates world-class, unique chef knives and culinary blades.
Prince believes that “everyone is capable of creating beauty” and makes his point when it comes to carving out a brand-new knife.
A condensed version of his conversation is below; the full interview can be found here.
“One of the main reasons I do this has to do with the process that I enjoy so much, and not so much the results,” Prince says. “Every project, at its best, will start with a concept for me.
“I’ll just sketch something that’s impossible, and then I’ll try to develop the actual technique to get to what I’m trying to do. Then I’ll go out to my shop and I’ll light the forge.”
Using the right tools
Temperatures inside the forge can climb between 2,300 and 2,400 degrees Fahrenheit, Prince says.
Once the steel is at the proper temperature, Prince uses his tools to shape the blade.
“Once I begin working the steel, the temperature goes out of it, and the risk of destroying the material increases as you work it down to lower temperatures,” he says. “But it can always be just put back in the forge, brought back up to the appropriate temperature, and worked again.”
Prince calls forging “the most romantic visual part” of making knives.
“There’s these beautiful moments of material, and sparks, and fire,” he says. “The glow of the material, very kind of enchanting.
“The way I know I’m done forging is usually exhaustion.”
The hardening of the steel gives it the metal its properties. Prince is seeking hardness, toughness and perhaps even flexibility as he examines the blade. Then he grinds it. It is an important process because it transforms the metal from a crude blade to a refined knife.
A ‘catch and release’ process
Then Prince chooses the material for a handle, a slow process that can take weeks.
The sharpening process follows to make the blade a useful tool.
“I would kind of sum up my process as catch and release,” Prince says. “I catch the idea, I go through the process to create it, and then I release it.”
“Designing and forging these objects is a passionate pursuit,” Prince writes on his website. “It gives me great joy when people take an interest in what I am doing and share the excitement by choosing to own something I have conceived and labored into existence.”
