Mocotaugan Workshop – Traditional Metalworking in the Wild

Guided by Adam Logan from A.Woodsman, this unique weekend invites you to transform a simple campfire into a woodland forge. Using basic tools and natural materials, you’ll learn to craft your own Mocotaugan (crooked knife), chisel, and awl right in the forest.

What You’ll Learn

Over two immersive days, your experienced instructors will guide you through the traditional skills of toolmaking. Together, you’ll explore:

• The history and cultural significance of the Mocotaugan, including comparisons to European drawknives and shave horses.
• Selecting materials for the blade and handle – from reclaimed steel to forked branches, natural pitches, and root bindings.
• Operating a basic campfire forge with improvised bellows, using charcoal and hardwood coals.
• Core metalworking techniques: annealing, filing, bending, quenching, tempering, cleaning, and sharpening.
• Attaching the blade using either modern epoxy or field-ready pine resin or birch tar, finished with wire, cord, or roots.
• Making a chisel and awl from repurposed files – ideal for working with hide, bark, or wood.

Honoring Craft and Simplicitya

This course focuses on what can be created outside the modern workshop. By working with limited resources and natural elements, we pay tribute to the ancestral techniques of North America’s Indigenous toolmakers.

What You’ll Take Home

At the end of the workshop, you won’t just walk away with handcrafted tools – you’ll carry a new understanding of the forging process and a deeper appreciation for working with your hands. We’ll also provide a long strip of buckskin to safely wrap your blade for travel, keeping it protected and razor-sharp.

The Power of the Mocotaugan

The Mocotaugan – or crooked knife – is a beautiful expression of elegance and knowledge, shaped by deep familiarity with the land and its materials. Used for centuries to make canoes, paddles, baskets, and barkcraft, this tool represents a refined skillset. If you can make a Mocotaugan, you can make nearly any blade – from a belt knife to a sloyd knife and beyond.

This workshop is an invitation to slow down, reconnect with the elements, and craft something enduring with your own hands.