1 week Ago
A constellation of sparks flies inside Kilroy’s Workshop as a helmeted worker grinds one steel blade after another by hand. Those brilliant blades, which are high quality enough to be used as a chef’s knife, says workshop owner Ron Hardman, are part of an order for hundreds of Air Force Academy sabers and minisabers. After almost seven decades of being made in Germany, Kilroy’s now holds the indefinite, exclusive contract to make the sabers, making it the first time they’ve been produced in the U.
S. Quite a feat for the homegrown shop that teaches blacksmithing, bladesmithing and welding to children and adults. “Upon the apocalypse, I’m picking up this saber, and it would work,” Hardman tells AFA staff members as he takes them through the saber-making process.
It’s steamy inside the workshop near the Powers Boulevard and U.S. 24 corridor.
Every time the oven, heated to 1,950 degrees F., opens, a burst of feverish air escapes, but each blade must be heat treated for 15 minutes to prepare it for grinding. Two shops away another worker goes about the business of finishing the grind on the blade; it’s precise work that allows no room for error.
Nearby another employee uses a CNC plasma table to cut parts for the scabbards. “We’re making all the components here,” said Hardman, who wears a black T-shirt emblazoned with an American flag-decorated anvil and the words “Forged in America.” Officially, the sabers are being made under Excalibur Outdoors, a sister company to Kilroy’s.
Excalibur is the production end and Kilroy’s is the school. “It’s absolutely an honor,” Hardman said. “We have a deep connection with the military.
On the Kilroy’s side there’s the Wounded Warriors Project, Operation TBI Freedom, Soldier Recovery Unit, 10th Special Forces Group — they all come through here. A few times a month we have active-duty groups come in. We have family days with the military.
” For the past four years, Kilroy’s has done the maintenance and repair work on the sabers, which included doing the etchings on 400 sabers that arrived minus the required Air Force Academy lettering. “We came to Ron begging for help,” said Kayla Ladd, AFA’s assistant director of merchandise and customer service. That mishap kicked off the conversation that led to Kilroy’s picking up the contract, which was signed this year.
And now two orders of 200 sabers apiece are methodically being cranked out, just in time to be priced at $450 and sold at Doolittle Outfitters at the AFA and online at shop.usafa.org this month.
Right now, they can output 10 sabers per day at six hours per saber. However, equipment is on the way that promises to slim the process down to one hour per saber. Part of the labor includes improving the handles: “We’re doing it legit, meaning instead of doing stamped steel handles, we’re doing traditional wire wrap,” Hardman said.
“We’re winding like you would historically have done — winding stainless steel wire around a handle to make it more authentic.” And replacing the old U.S.
Air Force crest with that of the AFA crest. “It’s a great enhancement,” said Naviere Walkewicz, an AFA graduate and senior vice president of alumni relations and business development. “I didn’t know the end of the handle was representative of the globe, because it looked garbled.
Mine looks like a skull, but the clarity he provides with the crest and globe details is something we’re excited for, for the cadets, grads and families.” Sabers have been an integral part of the AFA since its founding in 1955. “When it was founded most of the senior leaders were West Pointers,” said retired Lt.
Col. Steve Simon, who graduated from AFA in 1977 and works for the U.S.
Association & Foundation. “The academy said we’ll do it exactly how they (West Point) did it or do it exactly the opposite. Sabers were one of things we did adopt wholesale from West Point.
They showed up at the dedication ceremony and have been there ever since.” More than a decade after opening in 2013, Kilroy’s now has 4,000 students pass through every year. And of 27 staff members, 25 started as students.
The shop also has a reality TV claim to fame: 13 of its blacksmiths have competed on History Channel’s “Forged in Fire,” four of which were deemed champions, including Hardman, who competed with his daughter on a family edition of the show in 2019. “The fact the sabers are made local gives us more of a personal connection rather than them coming from overseas,” Simon said. “It appeals to grads and a lot of people.
” Contact the writer: 636-0270.
