MSE Students Debut Blacksmithing Club

Wildcat Forge is a budding student club, to become official in the next fiscal year, that is forming from the Material Advantage club. Its members placed third at The Minerals, Metals & Materials Society 2024 Bladesmithing Competition.

The club is made up of materials science and engineering students Kathryn Garrett, Dallas Green, Ranger Stevenson and Blaise Wilson, as well as Chuy Talavera and Alton Zhang.

The students worked together to forge The Copper Head, a traditional Japanese short sword tanto. The Copper Head honors Arizona through use of local materials including copper, rattlesnake leather and mesquite wood. Green has been a blacksmith since 2016 and was eager to help form the club: “I enjoy learning and being able to pass that on to others. Knowledge is worthless if it is not passed on to others,” he said.

See The Copper Head and learn more about the student club here.