Full Blast

Josh Radnor is an Actor, Director, singer/songwriter and my Kenyon College classmate. You may know him from his films ‘Happythankyoumoreplease’ & ‘Liberal Arts’ or as Lonny Flash on the Amazon series ‘Hunters’ and of course as Ted Mosby on the smash CBS sitcom ‘How I Met Your Mother’. I know him from 3rd floor McBride, the freshman year dormitory we lived in at Kenyon College. This was an extr...

I wanted to originally call this episode “The Full Blast New Year’s Show with Noah Vachon”, but we really just had a good time talking and catching up it didn’t matter that it was the end of the year. When you talk to Noah Vachon, it’s a totally easy and engaging conversation that the “end of the year wrap up” plans were thrown out the window; so is that goofy title. Noah graciously returned to th...

Everyone’s favorite lunatic, Fingal Ferguson is back to hang out with me on a Christmas episode. We talked food and life on Gubeen, the family farm during this high octane food holiday. Fingal is fantastic and the time soared as we recounted our own Christmas stories and life in general. FF has an open door policy and we had some nice words for our beautiful and talented Maker community on this jo...

Alex Pole is a Blacksmith and published author of the beautiful cookbook: ‘The Forge Kitchen’ and his newest book: ‘Blacksmith: Apprentice to Master’. We had an awesome time catching up and talking about both books which really captures Alex’s voice. The Cookbook is beautifully shot with each recipe created by a chef that is inspired by cookware from Alex’s shop The Forge. Using forged steel to co...

Niko Tavernise your friendly neighborhood set photographer returns for another installment of “The Downward Spiral Podcast”. DSP is a podcast Niko and I started 10+ years ago and now when he’s free we bring back the days of talking about our lives sprinkled with stories of mankind’s depravity and finding the humor in it. (Definitely check out the previous episodes in the Full Blast archives) This...

Pat Quinn is the Executive Director of Center for Metal Arts in Johnstown PA and has returned to the podcast in time to talk about the release of the new 2022 classes available at CMA. Besides talking about the school we had an engaging conversation about forging, sculpture and what Pat is focusing on in his life’s work. The eloquence and passion Pat exudes is inspiring and makes you want to spark...

This is the second annual Black Friday Special with 2 of my favorite people. Jonathan Porter of Doghouse Forge and Ben Snure Return for Cowboy Talk, the current price of Rattle Snake Antidote and the shocking origin of everyone’s favorite insult and obscenity. My favorite part of radio growing up were shows that went on during a holiday so these are my favorite podcasts to do. Ben and Jonathan are...

Brian House is a maker who sold his computer business to put all his efforts into his new Grinder Business: Housemade Industrial. Home of the Revolution Project. He’s also a knifemaker, YouTuber and host of the Work For It Podcast on the Makers Network. We had a great time when he first came on and I’m glad he made it back. We talked about a lot of things and had a fun time as always. I’m fascinat...

At the age of 19, Josh Smith was the youngest person to get the Mastersmith designation from the American Bladesmith Society. Now he is the President of Montana Knife Company, one of the fastest growing production knife companies in the United States. The ground swell of support in the hunting world is a testament to the belief people have in Josh and the person that he is. Knife drops selling out...

Steve Pellegrino is a knifemaker and owner of Pellegrino Cutlery in Philadelphia. We had a great conversation meandering around in his early love for rocketry and what it’s like having Jimmy Diresta as a professor at the School of Visual Arts. From starting a stage fabrication shop in New Jersey to being an Apprentice at a straight Razor company in Portland, Steve has seen a lot and has had his sh...

Tomer Bother and his wife Noam created the iconic company Florentine Kitchen Knives and have solidified themselves as having one of the most recognizable designs in the custom knife world.  The lines, colors and design decisions didn’t come from no where. Tomer’s days in industrial design school gave him the foundation of considering the important direction in product design: ‘Form follows Functio...

Onur Caglar and Ben Snure are back for another fun filled episode. Both guys are super talented makers from totally different sides of the world who have a similar sensibility that transcends borders. We talked shop a little and went in to a list of awful jobs, dumb criminals and funny stories. I love having these guys on just to laugh and get nothing done…zero….its the best, we just laughed and l...

After a big weekend at Catskill Mountain Makers Camp, the Modern Forge Team is back with the entire roster: Cliff Dufton, John Erianne, Jesse & Carrie Savage. We talked about all the fun we had, people we saw, and projects we worked on. It was a great weekend and we also covered what we’d do differently next time. There was a lot of chop busting and we had a terrific time. Many thanks to all t...

The Modern Forge is an award winning blacksmith team consisting of Cliff Dufton, John Erianne, Carrie Savage,Jesse Savage and Me . This episode was to pregame the upcoming Maker Camp event- at the last minute Cliff was unable to be on the podcast and the great Ben Snure took his place.  The Catskill Mountain Maker Camp is located in East Durham, NY at Blackthorne Resort. It’s an event with Blacksm...

Julia Sexton is the writer I want to be. We met a few years ago when she wrote an article on me for Edible Hudson Valley. When the piece came out I was floored at how accurate she was down to the smallest of details. How did she paint such a vivid and complete picture when we only spent a couple of hours together?  Julia’s writing has the distant echoes of Hunter S. Thompson gnashing his teeth int...

I’ve always wanted to do a comic book episode and think how comics characters established generations ago translate though history. I had my friend Keith Decent stop by and we explored the real origins of some of these iconic characters and looked into the parallels between comic companies attracting young fans and how social media is introducing young people to the maker community. We talked abou...

Leah Aripotch returns to the podcast fresh on the heels of  being on the Netflix Show: Metal Shop Masters. This is the premier season where 7 Metal Artists & Fabricators compete against each other for $50,000.  Leah was awesome and we shed some light on what it was like filming a television show in the fall of 2020 while Covid19 was raging. How does that change the mindset behind the scenes. W...

Believe it or not it’s hard to meet an actual born and raised New Yorker. When 2 meet there are a lot of stories, with lives briefly crossing paths unknowingly. At one time I lived 14 blocks from Jimmy Diresta in the East Village of Manhattan. That’s a little over half a mile. Most places in America that makes you neighbors. We had an incredible conversation about living in NYC and witnessing the...

Tony Aiazzi is my business partner at Feder Knives. Ive known him for 20 years and he’s one of the smartest guys I know. From his early days making submarine sandwiches in Reno, Nevada to becoming the executive Chef at Aureole in Manhattan, Tony has had some amazing experiences. We talked about his time Cooking in France, what it takes to be the Chef on a cruise ship and how we met working togethe...

Steve Schwarzer is one of the longest serving Master Bladesmiths of the American Bladesmith Society (The ABS).  He has pioneered canister damascus and pattern welded technologies that are being used today. In addition to that he’s a world record record holder in weightlifting, a martial artist and Airboat racing champion.  Where did this all come from? We covered a lot of his youth, with a father...

Niko Tavernise returns for another installment of the Downward Spiral Podcast, a podcast series he & I did over 10 years ago. Every so often, when Niko isn’t on a Film set, he stops by and we pick up where we left off. All the previous and future episodes with the title  ‘The Downward Spiral…’ is us getting together and recapturing the misery that is the DSP. This episode was recorded the day...

Fingal Ferguson is a fifth generation farmer at Gubbeen, one of Ireland’s most sought after Smoked Meat and Cheese Makers in West Cork. He’s also a world class Knifemaker and all around charming guy. Anytime his name comes up, its followed by: “is one of the nicest guys you’ll meet”. This is true. Fingal’s parents made a shift in the direction of the farm where they slowly started producing cheese...

Ilya AKA @slavicsmith is an artist, sword maker and scholar who just won the 2021 “Best Sword” Award at this year’s Blade Show in Atlanta. He also has a Youtube Channel with Matt Stagmer and Chris Cash called That Works. (both I had interviewed previously) We talked about his winning sword “The Heretic”  and its relevance to the philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche, how growing up in Russia prepared...

Ben Snure and Onur Caglar are two funny guys from completely different backgrounds: A Texas Cowboy and an English Fighter who’ve both have taken the Maker world by storm. Ben had told me months ago that he and Onur had been messaging about how no one would be able to understand them if they were on a podcast together. I said we’d do it here and the first episode was hilarious! But unfortunately th...

Niko Tavernise, Hollywood set photographer and long time friend, joins me for the fourth installment of The Downward Spiral Podcast. This was a podcast we started over 10 years ago. Now he comes back on Full Blast every often to fool around. This episode Niko tells his time traveling with bands and recounts a crazy story meeting the Dalai Lama with some other famous musicians. The image we talked...