Conversations with Jesse Hu

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jesse Hu

Hi Jesse, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I started blacksmithing and making knives around 8th grade, which was about 8-9ish years ago at this point. I wouldn’t necessarily say that I started my journey then though cause it was just me messing around with bricks, charcoal, and a hair dryer maybe twice a year. Later in my Junior year of high school, with the help of my dad, I got myself a nice anvil, a nice propane forge, and a belt grinder. This is where my journey really got started and I started forging at least once a week. At the very start, I made a lot of small blacksmithing projects to hone my skills that I saw other people make on YouTube. I was never “classically trained”, and purely taught myself by watching other people make things on YouTube.

After self-teaching myself the basics I started making more and more knives, starting with chef’s knives and slowly transitioning into making larger pieces like short swords and “katanas”. Around the beginning of my Sophomore year at college (University of Michigan), I competed on the show Forged in Fire in their Gladiators of the Forge segment. I won a total of 8 battles and took home $50,000. It was super stressful but the most fun I have ever had in the given timeframe. I used the money to completely deck out my shop with the tools that I thought were the most useful.

Nowadays I am finishing up my degree at the University of Michigan, and plan to go full time on YouTube later on. I make essentially full-on knife making documentaries and try to make different and cool knives every time.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It has been fluctuating between it being a very bumpy road and a semi-smooth road.

The first problems that I faced were that materials and tools were very expensive for someone who basically had no income. My parents helped me a lot at the beginning but I had to “fend for myself” eventually. I used a bunch of tools that weren’t the greatest at their intended job and salvaged materials from train museums. I also sold my work fairly cheap at the beginning just so that I could have an income at all to pay for things. Nowadays it’s a bit easier bit it’s always something that I have to think about.

Another problem was I actually experienced many periods of burnout that came from overwork and feeling like I was making the same stuff over and over again. I took a couple breaks from doing any work that were up to several months long. I would always feel terrible about it though because my anvil and grinder would just be sitting unused, but I couldn’t bring myself to do any work. Everything that I sold early on was commission based and I didn’t have much creative liberty. It thought this wasn’t too big of a problem at the time because I was getting paid, but it didn’t dawn on me how difficult it was to maintain a passion and a fire when I couldn’t experiment or try anything new.

I go to university in a different state than my shop. I go to school in Michigan and my shop is across the country in Arizona. I cannot work for more than half of the year. This makes it very difficult to talk with customers regarding timelines because I cannot promise anything soon, and some clients don’t want to deal with the longer timelines. This was something that I had to deal with earlier, but nowadays I see it as a blessing because I can take a break and refresh my passion and my fire.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I am a bladesmith. Sometimes I call myself a knifemaker or a blacksmith but I believe bladesmith to be the most accurate description of my title. This is because I always include forging as a part of my process and I pretty much only forge blades.

I make primarily high-end kitchen cutlery, but I sprinkle in things like Damascus Katanas, Bowie knives, and Anime Swords to keep things interesting.

I am mostly known for my time on forged in fire, but in the knifemaking community I think I am more known for my YouTube videos and my work. Like I mentioned before, I make high-end kitchen cutlery with integral bolsters and mosaic damascus steel, and as far as I know, there are less than 30 people that make similar work to me in that sense.

I am most proud of the fact that I can create the level of work that I do in an efficient timeline. I can start a mosaic damascus chef’s knife on Sunday and have a completed work before the end of the week. I do things in a very systematic and thoughtful way, and I think that sets me apart.

Alright so before we go can you talk to us a bit about how people can work with you, collaborate with you or support you?
As of right now, I don’t really want to work with other people perse because of my school schedule and lack of time, but to support me people can take a look at my work on www.jhublades.com or watch my YouTube videos on my channel https://www.youtube.com/@jhublades

I am not taking orders for work anymore because I am trying to transition to making work that I like to make and listing it on my website for anyone to buy. The commission process ends up being very exclusive and I don’t necessarily want to be that kind of maker.

Pricing:

• Mosaic Damascus Chef’s Knife: $5,000+
• Katana: $10,000+

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.jhublades.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jhublades/?hl=en
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@jhublades