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 sta

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