Riverton Master Bladesmith Forges Beauty And Function Into Every Knife

RIVERTON — Audra Draper always knew she was blessed with creativity, but wasn’t sure if she’d ever find the right outlet for it — until she watched a knife being forged from raw steel.

“The minute I saw the flames in the forge, I was like, ‘Oh, I want to do that,’” she told Cowboy State Daily. 

She began learning the craft from master bladesmith Ed Fowler of Riverton in 1992.  

She became a journeyman bladesmith in 1996. And in 2000, Draper became the first woman to achieve master bladesmith status with the American Bladesmith Society (ABS). 

There’s a distinction between bladesmiths and other knifemakers, she said.

“Bladesmiths forge our own blades,” she said.

Audra and her husband, Mike, own Draper knives, working out of their shop near Riverton. It’s attached to a house they started building from the ground up when they bought the property in 1997. 

“We call this the house that knives built,” Mike told Cowboy State Daily. 

Building A Life Together

Audra was born in Blythe, California, but moved to Wyoming as a young child. She spent her teen years logging with her father.

She married young, had three children, and then was divorced. 

Later, she met, Mike, who also had three children; they married and set about raising all six kids and building a life together.

In the late 2000s, Audra went back to school to become a registered nurse, and still works occasionally in that field, but her main focus has been the family business.

They’ve had some setbacks. Mike suffered a back injury in 2000, which ended his career as a heavy equipment mechanic. He started making knives then, earning journeyman bladesmith status in 2003. 

He suffered a stroke in 2022 and no longer makes knives, but he’s since switched to custom laser engraving.

Audra’s knife business has remained steady. On Thursday, she did some work on the handles of a set of kitchen cutlery for a customer in Washington state. 

Fixed-blade hunting knives have been her mainstay.

She and her sons are avid hunters, so she knows well what goes into a making a good hunting knife. 

“You stick with what you know. I don’t really make fighters (fighting knives). I’ve never been in a knife fight,” she said. 

In addition to knives, she also makes other metal products, such as bottle openers. And she teaches monthly bladesmithing classes.

Reverse Psychology 

She was initially hired by Fowler to work as a ranch hand in 1992, not knowing at the time that he was a bladesmith. 

The first time she saw Fowler forging a blade, she was fascinated, and told him that’s what she wanted to do.

“He told me, ‘There are no woman knife makers,’” she said.

Looking back, she realizes Fowler was using reverse psychology on her. He knew her well enough to know that the best way to ensure she’d put everything she had into forging knives was to tell her that she couldn’t do it.

“He has a degree in psychology, so he knew how to do that,” Audra said. 

It worked, and Audra set about being the best bladesmith she could be. 

She and Mike said that for the most part, people let her work speak for itself, as she rose through the ranks in what had been a completely male-dominated field. 

There were instances of chauvinism now and again.

“At gun and knife shows, people would turn to me to ask about the process that went into making a knife they were interested in. And I would tell them, ‘You have to ask the maker,’” Mike said.

Audra recalled one male customer at a show years ago, who was being condescending toward her. 

When they finally closed the deal, the man made a sexist, inappropriate remake just as she was handing the knife to him.

“I wanted to stab him with it. Mike grabbed my sleeve. He’s always been the voice of reason,” Audra said.

There are currently 117 master bladesmiths recognized by the ABS, five of whom are women, she said.

The Allure Of Fire

In her shop on Sunday, Audra demonstrated forging a trivet, or a resting platform for a hot kettle, out of an old horseshoe. 

Her forge can heat metal to a pliable red hot in a matter of minutes, fueled by a proper mixture of air and propane. 

It’s also prudent to open the shop’s doors and windows when the forge is fired up, she noted.

“Carbon monoxide can kill you,” she said.

Once the metal is in the fire, that’s when the excitement starts, and that’s when I have to exercise patience,” she said.

The saying, ‘Too many irons in the fire’ was made for people like me,” she said.

Once the metal is hot enough, it must be pounded into the right shape with a hammer and anvil, something Audra has developed a feel for over the years. 

She said she’s drawn in by the beauty and power of fire. 

“Is not every one drawn by it (fire)?” she said. 

“I can’t even explain it, I’m just drawn to it,” she added. 

She noted that if she hadn’t gotten into knifemaking, she likely would have gone into glass blowing, which also involves fire, and shaping art through heat.

Function Or Beauty, Why Choose?

Later, she used powerful belt sanders to refine the Maplewood handle on one of the knives from the kitchen cutlery set.

For her, working on handles is hardly a chore; it’s also pure joy.

“Making the handles is just as much fun as making the blades. It’s a whole other avenue for creativity,” she said.

Audra realizes that most of her customers order knives that they intend to use, so they must be functional. Even so, she doesn’t think that should stifle her artistic touch.

“With knives, it’s supposed to be function over beauty, but I don’t see why it can’t be both,” she said.

Mark Heinz can be reached at mark@cowboystatedaily.com.