What Is the X-Rhea Knife Course at UAHT's James Black School?

UAHT's James Black School plans to offer an X-Rhea Knife Course taught by Master Bladesmith Lin Rhea, according to a report from Texarkana Today. The report, carried through Google News, names the course and instructor but does not include enrollment dates, pricing, or a curriculum breakdown, so those details should be confirmed directly with the school before anyone plans travel or buys materials.

What is the X-Rhea Knife Course?

The course name and instructor come from Texarkana Today's report on UAHT's James Black School. Beyond that pairing — the school's name, the course title, and Lin Rhea's role as instructor — the available report does not specify class length, tool requirements, student capacity, or cost. Readers who want registration specifics should check the original story and the school's own channels, since program logistics for bladesmithing courses typically come from the host institution rather than wire coverage.

Who is Lin Rhea?

The report identifies Lin Rhea as a Master Bladesmith, a credential that signals formal certification within the knifemaking trade rather than a casual title. No biographical detail beyond the Master Bladesmith designation and the instructor role at this course appears in the cited report. Prospective students interested in his background should look for the school's own course listing or Rhea's own public materials, which were not part of the material reviewed for this piece.

What does the "Master Bladesmith" title require?

The designation referenced in the report is most commonly associated with the American Bladesmith Society's certification path, which is widely documented in the bladesmithing field. That process generally requires a smith to first earn a Journeyman Smith rating by submitting forged knives for judged review, then advance to Master Smith status through additional submitted work and a performance test — historically described as cutting through rope, chopping through a nail, and bending the blade without it breaking. The exact standards and current requirements are set by the certifying body, not by this report, so students weighing a course taught by a Master Bladesmith should treat the title as a baseline credential rather than a guarantee of a specific teaching style or curriculum.

Why is the program named after James Black?

James Black is widely described in historical accounts as a 19th-century Arkansas blacksmith credited with forging an early version of what became known as the Bowie knife. Arkansas has long promoted that lineage in connection with its blacksmithing and bladesmithing education, and a school carrying his name signals a tie to that regional history rather than a claim about the specific content of the new course. The cited report does not elaborate on the school's history beyond the name itself, so readers looking for a fuller account of James Black's life and craft should treat this as background context rather than a sourced detail from the Texarkana Today report.

What other knife-forging courses are opening around the country?

The UAHT announcement follows a broader pattern of instructional bladesmithing programs opening or expanding in recent months. A Portland, Oregon, blacksmith has separately begun offering knife forging classes to the public, according to Breakthrough Blacksmithing's own reporting. That program and the UAHT course are run independently of each other, with no indication in either report that the two are connected, but together they point to continued demand for hands-on forging instruction outside traditional trade-school settings.

Where can students get registration details?

Anyone interested in the X-Rhea Knife Course should start with the Texarkana Today report that first carried the news, since it is the originating account of the course and instructor pairing. Specific logistics — start dates, tuition, required tools, and whether the course is open to the general public or limited to enrolled UAHT students — are not part of the material reviewed here. Institutions offering bladesmithing instruction typically publish those details through their own admissions or continuing-education pages once a course is finalized, and that would be the next place to check for anyone planning to apply.

Key terms

• Master Bladesmith: A certification level, most commonly associated with the American Bladesmith Society, that follows an initial Journeyman Smith rating and additional judged submissions plus a performance test.
• Bowie knife: A large fixed-blade knife style historically linked to 19th-century Arkansas smiths, including James Black, whose name UAHT's program carries.