North House Folk School

Kjetil, or “KJ,” grew up in Norway in a medium-sized town called Skien in Telemark. He spent most of his childhood on the family farm with his grandfather. He was exposed to handwork early, and by the time he was 12 he started his first fire in the forge, though it got quickly extinguished when his uncle thought the barn was on fire. In 1999, he moved to South Dakota to finish his B.S. in mechanical engineering. After graduating, Kj worked as an engineer and quickly discovered it was not for him. He has been a log home builder and forged metal as a hobby to make some of the tools he needed as a carpenter. For the last six years he has been on his own, done carpentry work, furniture and forging--everything from church hardware to cutting tools. This fall he’ll finally build a blacksmith shop of his own with the name “Tufte Smie.”