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Maple Ridge club hosts knife-making workshop

Local lapidary club always looking for new members
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A knife making workshop took place at the Maple Ridge Lapidary Club last Saturday. (Maple Ridge Lapidary Facebook Group)

Metal grinders and polishers were running full force last Saturday as a group of local lapidary club members joined a knife making workshop.

Eight people attended the workshop put on by the Maple Ridge Lapidary Club to make knives using old files and polished stone handles.

Walt Pinder, past president of the Maple Ridge Lapidary Club, described the event as a beginners style workshop, for people with little experience doing serious metal work in the past.

The knives were made using an angle grinder with a good silicone-carbide disc that was used to grind the knife shape into an old second hand file secured in a vice. All participants had safety goggles and gloves. And because the grinding caused sparks, a bucket of water was kept close at hand, along with a hose.

The final product could be used in a kitchen, said Pinder. In previous workshops people have made fishing knives, hunting knives, and camping knives.

“One guy made a letter opener,” he said.

READ MORE: Maple Ridge Lapidary Club turns 60

And the beauty of these knives is not one is going to be like the other.

“Nobody is going to make one exactly like yours. These are not factory-made. They are handmade and they come with all of the embellishments you want to put on your knife,” explained Pinder.

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Pinder enjoys teaching members of the lapidary club skills they have not acquired in the past, like using an angle grinder or making holes with a drill press. He teaches jewellery classes at the club and said they are often drilling holes in stones for one purpose or another or cutting rocks into slabs.

Pinder loves the unusual activities of the club. Members get to learn about rocks and minerals, stone sculpture and jewellery making.

For more information or to become a member call 604-466-4938 or go to mapleridgelapidaryclub.com.


Have a story tip? Email: cflanagan@mapleridgenews.com
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A knife making workshop took place at the Maple Ridge Lapidary Club last Saturday. (Maple Ridge Lapidary Facebook Group)
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A knife making workshop took place at the Maple Ridge Lapidary Club last Saturday. (Maple Ridge Lapidary Facebook Group)
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A knife making workshop took place at the Maple Ridge Lapidary Club last Saturday. (Maple Ridge Lapidary Facebook Group)
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A knife making workshop took place at the Maple Ridge Lapidary Club last Saturday. (Maple Ridge Lapidary Facebook Group)


Colleen Flanagan

About the Author: Colleen Flanagan

I got my start with Black Press Media in 2003 as a photojournalist.
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