My name is Jamie Boley and I am a bladesmith.(Sounds like a support group introduction, doesn't it?) This story starts about the same as every other knifemaker. I liked knives from a young age and at one point wanted to learn to make them. A friend of my dad's made knives and was my first teacher. At that time, I spent a little time playing around with stock removal. When I went to college, I couldn't spend much time working on knives. I did spend time talking with knifemakers, learning the process, and working on ideas. Until getting a workspace setup, I didn't spend much time using this information. I also took several jewelrymaking courses that I also use while making my knives.

Once I had a reasonable amount of time and space, I once again started playing with stock removal. I used files and a cheap, little grinder to shape them and did almost all the work by hand. As time progressed, I built more equipment. I built my grinders, forges, treadle hammer, and eventually a rolling mill and hydraulic press. Once I moved into a house that had a garage, it became the shop. I setup my equipment and got my forge built. I realized that forging is a lot more fun then just stock removal and spend a lot of time hammering away.

My interests are many, and most of them involve building and creating. In addition to knives, I make jewelry, chain mail, (the armor, not the annoying letters), wine and mead, garden art using copper and steel, and occasionally bows and arrows. There are other things that I play around with, but the vast majority of my interets lie in building things.

Why Polar Bear Forge? Well, I like polar bears.