“We all endure hard things.” – Steve Nolte

Enduring Hard Things

“We all endure hard things,” Steve said as he looked earnestly across the table. “It means you’re heading toward something better.” 

Steve calls this process of enduring hard things, “Purposeful Sacrifice.”

“There is purpose in sacrifice,” Steve explains. “It is a refinement process.”

It’s likely that no one understanding the refining process better than Steve Nolte.

Steve is an imaginative knife maker who is driven by an incredible passion for self-expression through his work. His creations are often noted for their unique style, elegance, and technique. As a result, his pieces often sell for thousands of dollars. He has developed a beautiful style that blends steel, stone, bone and wood into one-of-a-kind creations. His use of vibrant colors and strong lines make his work stand out among other knife makers, due to his innovative handle designs. He spends hours and hours refining the steel that he’s molding to become a knife blade under his editing, skilled eye.

Yet, the interesting thing about Steve, as an artist, is that his experience in life has been the gateway to his impressive refinement skills. He applies those honed skills beyond his art of knife crafting, because he first developed such skills to build his own character.

“We endure hard things; accidents, illness, all kinds of suffering. The key to maintaining happiness through it all is to recognize hard things as a refinement process,” Steve clarifies.

When we adopt this point of view, when this happens, we have the internal strength, steel, to continue on. Once a person knows that all crushing suffering or darkness endured is part of a birthing process, they begin to understand refinement. It’s all part of a natural process of becoming better, something more than we otherwise would be.

Steve is an all or nothing guy, so his passion for knife making puts him in his shop anytime he can get there. And, after a year or so of working entirely on his own he met RW Wilson, an old-time, more experienced knife maker. Steve credits RW with really teaching him about the most powerful aspects of the refinement process, related to knife making. 

“RW has been my mentor and has helped me more than I can thank him for. I also have had opportunities to work with other knife makers that have had a great impact on me. Brad Vice from Alabama Damascus continues to give me pointers and furnishes me with steel.”

These craftsmen, and his own life experience, have taught Steve that irritation often precedes instruction. And, it was this recognition that resonated with Steve as he developed his master skills as a knife maker.

“It’s true for crafting steel and it is also true for crafting individual character.” Steve instils.

Enduring hard things will allow us to become something of beauty and strength if we’ll allow it to. It is one of the most powerful aspects of refining character.

“We all endure hard things,” Steve teaches, as a master craftsman of knives and life. “It means you’re heading toward something better.”

Watch the latest segment of my television show on American Dream TV.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1pxSGTePKXi1QKkw1IRVrIcFJqKVpEfky?usp=drive_link