Back from Josh's hammer-in

Something I forgot to mention, The first night I was there the mosquitos started coming out in droves. I had planned on sleeping in a tent, but Bruce Bump and Art Swyhart offered me the use of a cot they had in their motel room. I accepted their kind offer. Thanks guys, I really appreciate it.
 
Steven Kelly -- do you mean to say you missed the CKCA write up about the 2008 Blade show? It is in the CKCA forum and I even think that you might be mentioned. Glad to see you participating with the internet forums now.
 
It seems like it was a fun event. I'm looking forward to pics of the knives.
 
Murray White said:
Steven Kelly -- do you mean to say you missed the CKCA write up about the 2008 Blade show? It is in the CKCA forum and I even think that you might be mentioned. Glad to see you participating with the internet forums now.
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Hi Murray,

I did see that post. You were mostly correct there. But I was asking Ed if he could remember the Macarena though. We already know how to line dance!!
:eek:
 
Day one of the demonstrations started out with Tim Hancock's basic damascus demo. This was followed by Larry Fuegen on knife design. Then Harvey Dean showed folks how to make a D-guard bowie, followed by Tim on basic forging. That was it for the morning.

Lunch was breaded veal cutlets and was very tasty.

First off in the afternoon Larry gave a talk on carving, and then Tim demonstrated polishing. Larry then did a carving demonstration. The final demo of the first day was Harvey showing how to make feather pattern welded steel. This demonstration was frought with problems, but Harvey persevered and ended up making are a billet with a very good looking pattern. All in all, a day where I learned a lot.

At three o'clock some of the makers that weren't at the previous evening's show put on a small one of their own. I am going to apologise in advance, because I know I am going to miss some names. Note to myself, take better notes. Tom Ferry had some beauties. My favorite was the mammoth ivory handled knife that Jeremy mentioned earlier. His collaboration with Jon Christensen was also stunning. Henry Torres really impressed me. He had an African blackwood handled San Francisco style knife that was to me one of the nicest knives there. David Lisch had a beautiful pattern welded fighter and a giraffe bone handled hunter that looked great (yes I did type that). Michael Rader had three very nice integrals, and a binder full of photos of fantastic knives and swords. Gerome Weinand showed some slipjoints with the handles and blades made from stainless pattern welded steel that he made himself. These were very nice, and exceptionally well priced. John Davis had some beautiful knives, as did Ed Caffrey. Tim Couch and Steven Kelly also had some fine knives for us to check out as well.

Bill Burke showed me a couple of his MS test knives and a mammoth ivory handled knife that brought. He also had a beautiful frame handled fighter that Coop took photos of. All were outstanding. I also got to see the blade of the knife that he is making for me. I will be starting a thread on the making of this knife in the not too distant future. Many of the other makers had a knife or two that they brought out during the three days for people to see and handle. It was great getting to handle and check out so many knives.

After the show wwe headed out for dinner. I had salmon and it was delicious. After dinner I gave a talk on knife forums that I think went pretty well. I also introduced the Custom Knife Collectors Association to the group. Many there already new of this new organization from the seminar that was done at Blade. Some had already joined. More mentioned that they planned to do so in the near future.

After dinner we went back to see Tony Nielson, his brother Randy Nielson and a friend of theirs, Kerry Johns all pass their JS performance tests. These guys did really well and aced their tests. There was a bit of a moment when during his 2 X 4 cut that he had run into a knot. He handled it with ease. Great job guys. Congratulations!

It was getting late, so I headed off to get some sleep. At that point I had only had three hours sleep in the last two days.
 
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Keith Montgomery said:
...... Many of the other makers had a knife or two that they brought out during the three days for people to see and handle. It was great getting to handle and check out so many knives.

After the show wwe headed out for dinner. I had salmon and it was delicious. After dinner I gave a talk on knife forums that I think went pretty well. I also introduced the Custom Knife Collectors Association to the group. Many there already new of this new organization from the seminar that was done at Blade.
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1. The point of going to shows is to handle the knives.....that is where you get transmittal of direct knowledge. The point of having an invitational knife show is that you have motivated, pre-qualified BUYERS attend(hopefully).

2. Thanks for representing the CKCA...we have actually had good representation of the organization in the person of Tom Ferry.....he did a great job of stirring up makers at Blade to join....he is an absolute credit to the community!

Best Regards,

STeven Garsson
 
At Josh's I got the opportunity to have some great conversations with Mastersmith James Rodebaugh. We haven't seen much of him in the last while, and as far as I am concerned, that is a real shame. He makes great knives. Well, get ready to start seeing more from him in the near future. He is planning on coming back with a bang and he will be taking part on the forums.
 
Chuck, Brenda and Jessica Bybee of Alpha Knife Supply were at the show and I enjoyed getting to meet them. Their tables were covered with some of the nicest mammoth and walrus ivory, stag and walrus jaw bone scales that I have seen. There were hundreds of pairs of mammoth ivory scales of many different sizes. A large walrus ivory tusk that had outstanding colour. Dozens of stag carvers, rounds, scales and some beautiful amber stag. I haven't seen much stag of this quality in a long time. Anybody looking for this stuff should give them a call, they have a tremendous selection.
 
It was great to meet you Keith.
Rodebaugh was fairly impressed with you and you definitely got him to think about the forums...he'll be here.
 
Keith Montgomery said:
The final demo of the first day was Harvey showing how to make feather pattern welded steel. This demonstration was frought with problems, but Harvey persevered and ended up making are a billet with a very good looking pattern. QUOTE]

This was completely my fault. I built a cutter for Harvey's demonstration that did not hold up. After some modifying he was able to make the cut. It was a great lesson that not everything we do goes smooth. The lesson is that even if it's going rough stick with it like he did. The pattern ended up being killer.
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Sunday was the last day of the hammer-in. The first demonstration was fitting handles and guards by Tim . Next was Harvey on silver sheaths. Larry Fuegen then gave a talk on leather sheaths. The final time slot was filled by Harvey with the second part of his silver sheath demo.

This event was a tremendous source of info for me. I really enjoyed getting to meet everyone. The amount of talent at this show was awesome. It's always nice to be able to put faces with names.

One of the real treats of the hammer-in was getting to meet Wade Colter. Another was being to put together a deal with Harvey Dean for a walrus ivory handled Huckleberry Bowie with gold pins.

The names of two of the demonstrators for next years hammer-in were announced. Don Fogg and Owen Wood. That's a great start and I hope to be able to attend.

After saying my goodbyes it was time to head home. I decided to take a different route home. It wasn't nearly as scenic, but was all on interstate highways where I could go seventy five miles an hour. Everything was going fine until I hit the border. There were five booths, but only one of them was open. It took almost two hours to get through. Sitting in a car for two hours when the temperature is over ninety degrees, sucks. Anyway, I got home around 1:30 AM and got on the forum for a little while to wynd down before going to bed.

It was a great time that I once again want to recommend to all collectors that want to learn more about what goes into the making of their knives.

Thanks Josh, I had a great time.
 
A couple of things I forgot.

Gary Rodewald also showed some very good looking knives during the small show that happened on the second day.

It was a pleasure to meet Jan DuBois, who was at the show representing the ABS.
 
It was nice meeting you Keith. I want to thank you for convincing me to participate in the forums. I very much enjoyed our conversation.
Thanks again,
Shane
 
Keith - Your grip on the details is admirable. Even though I was there, I still learned a lot from this great thread. Thanks!
 
Keith Montgomery said:
At Josh's I got the opportunity to have some great conversations with Mastersmith James Rodebaugh. We haven't seen much of him in the last while, and as far as I am concerned, that is a real shame. He makes great knives. Well, get ready to start seeing more from him in the near future. He is planning on coming back with a bang and he will be taking part on the forums.
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Glad to hear James is gearing up for future work. I really like his work. Hope he jumps in on the forums, also.

Thanks for your report, Keith. Sounds like a wonderful hammer-in to have been a part of.

- Joe
 
Here are a couple of the photos that I took at the show. I really like that big, colorful walrus ivory tusk.

This one is a small portion of the beautiful ivory that Chuck Bybee had.

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And this is Josh's Searles inspired bowie.

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I am lucky enough to see quite a few of Rodebaugh's knives. Many are not photographed... and more is the pity. I happen to have one in hand that didn't go to its intended. Jim doesn't make a lot of folders, but I like this one. Please forgive the photos, I'm not good at taking knife pictures. I just thought y'all might like to see some.:thumbup:
 

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I agree James does great work. I usually get to see some of his blades in Denver at the PKA show every August - mighty fine stuff and great attention to detail.

Keith - There was a price tag on that piece of tusk, wasn't there? I think it was between 5 and 6K!! Please correct me if I'm wrong, but that's what I remember.
 
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