As I stated in my opening post, I have really enjoyed the entire process and interaction with Bruce in him making this knife for me.
A part of this was my finally getting a chance to meet Jere Davidson. Edmund Davidson (no kin to Jere; they share the same last name just by chance) and I have become pretty good friends over the last year or so and it's hard to like and appreciate Edmund's super fine knives without also liking/appreciating Jere's work. Jere has been engraving Edmund's knives for A LOT of years.
Jere (and Edmund for that matter) live only a couple hours from me so after he finished with the engraving and gold inlay I went to his shop to pick up the guard and frame/rear bolster assembly and was amazed by the beauty and preciseness of his work. He's a hand engraver (hammer and chisel, even makes many of his tools) and the deep relief, detail and straightness of his borders are incredible.
After looking over the work and considering the entire knife design we decided the knife would benefit from him taking it farther. He got to work on it and I returned a week later and picked up the pieces which again surpassed my expectations.
Though this sounds like I'm promoting Jere, that's not my purpose and Jere certainly doesn't need my help. I just wanted to share my experience in meeting this amazingly talented artist and down to earth truly GOOD GUY. Just one more example I have found as to why for me it's much more that just the knives.
Here a photo of Jere working on one of Edmund Davidson's pieces.
Photos from the David Darom Book, Edmund Davidson "The Art of the Integral Knife".
