This knife won the Best Amateur Knife category at the ‘06 Southern California Blade Expo show. I was a happy camper! But it wasn’t about the award so much as it was about the direction I’m heading as an apprentice bladesmith. An award is just a mark in the road, it tells me I’m on the right path. There’s so much to learn and perfect to make a “better” knife, and thats exciting!

A 52100 blade with a false edge on the clip. The stainless oval guard marks the beginning of a Sambar stag handle sandwiched between two chunks of eucalyptus burl wood seperated by nickel silver and red fiber spacers.

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I was reading thru the pictorial of Bill Moran “Master of The Forge” one evening and guess I was influenced a little when I went to the forge the following day. Not the handle obviously, but I loved the contours of his many different “ST” styles with that long clip flowing back to the ricasso. The blade is 5160 forged and differentially heat treated and hand rubbed to a 600 grit fine satin finish. The oval guard is nickel silver as¬¨‚Ćare the spacers in between the afzelia burl wood and water buffalo horn handle. The rope is 1′ hemp and yes the knife sailed through it in one swipe in good ol’ ABS fashion!

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I love stag-handled knives! This one has a buttcap of water buffalo horn and stainless steel. The blade is made of 52100 steel and sits in front of a stainless guard. It fits nice and snug in the tooled pouch sheath I made for it.

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I really like how this knife turned out. It actually came together better than I had pictured in my mind when I drew it out on paper. Again, I used 1084 steel for the blade and it’s hand rubbed to 800 grit with a nice false edge. The guard is stainless steel. The handle is amboyna burl with a black fiber spacer between it and the guard. I should have put a picture of the sheath I made in as well. I made it in a bootknife fashion. It has 3 rare earth magnets sandwiched in the layers of leather with a nice tight fit as the retaining system, and works really well! The sheath has a stainless belt clip riveted and stitched in place and¬¨‚Ćhas an inlay of¬¨‚Ćdark brown stingray hide on the front. All in all it’s a gorgeous but very functional package.

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This is another skinner I made with the integral finger choil,as some would call it. It’s made from 1084 carbon steel and¬¨‚Ćdifferentially hardened. It’s been tempered to 58-59 Rockwell C. It has Sambar stag handles with red fiber spacers and a vine pattern fileworked spine along the blade

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I made this for my dad for his birthday.¬¨‚ĆIts 9″ overall with a 4 5/8″ flatground blade forged from 1084 steel and differentially heat treated. The handle is Sambar stag and afzelia burl wood with nickel guard and buttplate. The knife came with a nice handtooled leather sheath. I hope my kids were taking notes on what makes a dad happy on his birthday!

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This knife is forged from 1084 steel and a little of the rough forging left in for a pretty but rustic affect. The blade is 3 5/8″ with an OAL of 8″ and differentially heat treated. The intregal fingerguard forged in I learned from Joe Keeslar, ABS Chairman and one of my ABS school instructors, while attending the the ABS school. Joe makes some of the most beautiful knives that exibit this pretty and rustic effect at the same time, that I have ever seen. Not to mention his exquisite leatherwork!
Anyway, this knife also has some pretty vine pattern file work on the spine. The handle slabs are cocobolo and pinned with mosaic pins for a nice finish touch. It comes with a nice tooled pouch sheath.

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Forged from 1084 steel and flat gound, this design makes a nice camp or field utility knife. The blade is 6″ with an OAL of 10 1/2″ and differentially heat treated. The fitting, or non-guard as I would call it, is nickel silver. The handle is sheeoak and has a real pretty pattern. The knife comes with a nice hand tooled pouch sheath.

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LOOTWUK stands for Little Out Of The Way Utility Knife. This small utility I really like because it’s very compact and carries nicely…..but always there when you need it. Forged from 1084 steel, it is 6 1/2″ overall with a 2 7/8″ flatground blade. This handle is made from Australian bluegum burl with nickel silver pins.
I made another recently for a customer that requested a thong hole with leather thong that came in very handy, he said, for quick access from the pouch sheath. On his I also included some¬¨‚Ćvine pattern¬¨‚Ćfilework on the spine and added another 1/4″ to the blade length at his request.

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My new site, cool huh….still under construction. Well, here’s my knife story about how I got started making knives…. the readers digest version. Having been interested in and used and collected knives for many years I went to a custom knife show with a thousand bucks in my pocket intent on getting a real nice custom folder. This was in February ‘04. After drooling over many prospective buys and realizing that I was addicted but in the long run wouldn’t be able to afford my habit, I decided to keep my money and invest in some knife making equipment.

I met a mastersmith at the show by the name of Red St. Cyr who was kind enough to allow me to bend his ear for some time and then he asked me if I’d like to visit his shop sometime. Wow! I think I just hit the lottery! Two months later I attended the ABS California West Coast Forging Clinic at Cal Poly. Bladesmithing, yeah baby! I found my calling, my life would now be complete. I started buying what equipment I could afford, a little at a time, but invested most of what I had available to attend the ABS School of Bladesmithing in Old Washington, Arkansas in October ‘04. Best choice I could have made and once again I’d like to thank my instructors Joe Keeslar and Jim Jackson for their encouragement and excellent instruction.

Anyway, I’m still mentoring under Red, another man who deserves my deepest gratitude for his continued support and instruction. So right now I’m an apprentice bladesmith making fixed blades of all types. I prefer to work with 5160, 1084, o1, and 52100 steels. I don’t do stainless because I do all my own heat treating and don’t have the¬¨‚Ćequipment for stainless steel…….yet. I’m saving my money for next year in hopes of making it back to Georgia to have my knives judged to acquire my ABS Journeyman’s stamp. I So if you’re interested in purchasing a knife from me, or, just want to talk knives drop me a blog.

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