Kohai999
Second Degree Cutter
- Joined
- Jul 15, 2003
- Messages
- 12,554
Sorry for the delay, hope the community finds this still relevant.
Our flight on Friday from SoCal was scheduled to leave at 7:20am, so I made sure that we were at the airport at 6:35am, wouldn't you know that we made our plane with exactly 1 minute to spare...that's right, TSA took 30+ minutes to get us through the line. The flight was enjoyable, turbulence free, and Mrs. Garsson deigned to join me on this trip. I asked her to for a couple reasons...1) I had been to Missoula before, and know it to be breathtakingly beautiful country and 2) Don Fogg was scheduled to attend, and it was imperative for me to have my wife meet him. Don't call the man Sensei for nothing, you know?
We booked a room at the Edgewater DoubleTree, arrived there about 12:30 pm, rooms were clean, well appointed, vaulted ceilings, we had a river view, and the restaurant, Finn & Porter, was really top flight for a hotel restaurant. We went for lunch, I had the Turkey club on croissant, my better half had the French Dip....very, very good food. For a $1.00 upcharge, I enjoyed salmon chowder..well worth it. Unfortunately, while we were eating lunch, Steve D'lack walked by the window....in shorts.....I had a shot of whiskey to try and wash away the image....but it didn't work.
We showed up at Josh's around 2:00 pm. A nice, sunny breezy day ensured that the mosquitos/biting black flys were not able to swarm, which was pleasant. The first people we saw were Keith Montgomery and Don Fogg. Had never met Keith before, so recognizing him was not expected, but DAMN, Don shaved off his facial furs, and lost about 20 lbs due to eating right and playing racquetball, and I didn't recognize him. We were able to catch up a little anyway. BS'd with far too many people to mention, but did get to meet Hans H. who is just a prince. He walked from the hotel in Missoula, to Josh's abundant 21 acre spread, about 18 miles, simply amazing...silly, maybe even a bit goofy, but still amazing.
Then they fired the bowling ball cannon. Josh gave a little speech, the cannon fuse took about 2 minutes to reach the blow hole, but dang, did that bowling ball, which formerly belonged to a teacher of Josh's, go about a mile and a half, much further than we could see, although you could hear it, like "baying dogs" according to Josh. Really quite a show, that. Afterwards, we hung out in mixed groups, shooting the breeze. Rick Dunkerly had a very nice engraved, inset black MOP folder with damascus blade that he was passing around, and Josh's wonderful mother was chatting with my wife, Josh's daughter Demi was showing a bunch of us the knife she made with daddy's help...it had a pink handle of all things.
Josh decided to fire the cannon a second time, and swooped by with his mighty steed, the ATV Arctic Cat....and asked me if I wanted to load it.....so I rode off into the sunset on the back of Josh' s fine transport...but didn't load it, because the boys were still cleaning it, and I am sensitive to the sun like a vampire, and ran off looking for some shade....they fired it again around 4:30 pm, and by that time, the Garssons needed to get back to the hotel, and change for the show. I asked my wife to dress nice for the show, the rationale being that the makers put in their best work at shows like this, and we honor them by displaying a bit of personal style. We made it to the L.A. Design Gallery around 6:30 pm.
Downtown Missoula has a bit of "Land that Time Forgot" feel, quite comfortable, slower paced, wider streets, we drove around for a while to find a good parking spot.; My wife drove, she hates the way I drive...too much New York/Deathrace 2000. :lol: The gallery was on the smaller, intimate side, but nicely appointed and laid out.
The makers were:
Dean, Harvey-showed up with three knives, I think, a folder, an Ivory handled D-guard bowie, and I can't remember the other one. The D-Guard was stellar.
Eaton, Rick-I noticed one folder that Rick had, his own damascus, nicely done, pretty sure he had two knives, but cannot remember the other one.
Fogg, Don-made ONE knife for the show, a seax-like carbon fighter with habaki, hamon and carved handle......bargain priced at $2,000, should have been $3,000 at the very least. Most everyone in the room wanted that knife, it went to my good friend Gary House, who was about tickled speechless to get it.
Frank, H.H. -had one of his folding daggers with embellishment if memory serves.
Fuegen, Larry-brought 4 knives, a Cowboy bowie, folding Bowie, Goblin Folder and a Revival folder with pearl handle. Buddy picked up the Cowboy bowie, the KnifeArt guy got the Goblin, the folding bowie didn't move at the show, and my wife got the Revival folder. She uses it as a letter opener.
Sawby, Scott-came with two inlaid self-lock folders engraved by his wife Marian. Mike Donato wound up with both of them.
Smith, Josh-the host showed up to party, with five knives(?) The winner was his damascus push dagger. This was a really elegant knife, with amazing proportions.
Wood, Owen-pretty sure that he had 3 knives, folders, for sale. Herringbone damascus blades in the triangular dagger shape he has been doing lately....his table was always crowded, so I didn't get a real good view
Young, John-saw a stag handled fighter, a hunter, and a bid-up stag handled chute. I dropped on the fighter, but didn't get drawn. John's prices remain very fair for a maker with a 6 YEAR waiting list.
Gotta be honest here, REALLY wanted Don to bring one of his American Bowies with the clip point, and hoped that John Young would bring a straight up Wilderness, since that didn't happen, my personal knife buying juices were not stoked, so it became a social event for me, which at this point is as good if not better than a buying trip. It was so nice for me to be able to introduce my wife to Don, to Deborah Dean, to re-introduce her to Linda Fuegen, everyone really. When Don Fogg was going through his wife's illness, at the same point, my wife was limping along with a cane, in daily pain due to a ruptured disc and direct pressure on her spinal cord, so in addition to everything else, Don and I were able to share this with each other....absolutely impossible to watch without it tearing your heart up.
Josh had a really nice spread of food and drink. There was open bar with the usual liquor, top shelf, and a nice mix of beers, mostly local, as well. The caterer provided duck tacos, ensalada caprese on skewers, beef and chicken satay, as well as some other tender vittles. I headed upstairs with my scotch, and spoke briefly with Buddy and Laura Thomason and went out to the patio to smoke the Gurkha Legend Churchill I glommed off of Harvey Dean, which Buddy Thomason shows below. I was joined by Mark Strauss of Knifeology and Paul Schindler of KnifeLegends. Real nice convivial chat, even when disagreeing. After a bit, Jeremy Muir and his lovely girlfriend joined us....we all had a nice visit......my wife got to chatting with Deborah Dean and Linda Fuegen, and didn't hardly see her for the rest of the night, made fun of Don Fogg's sheathwork and then the show was over....and it was still light out, just amazing.
I was going to tattoo Erik Fritz on Friday night, but it was 9:30 pm when we got back to the hotel, to change out of my suit, and head over to Josh's, it would have been after 2:00 am by the time I got back and I was tired, so my wife and I went for a late night bite to Finn & Porter, and went to bed.
On Saturday, we woke up early(about 6:30 am), and ordered room service. I got house-made corned beef hash with eggs, hashbrowns and toast, wanted champagne, was too early for them, so I settled for club soda. Wife dropped me off at Josh's around 9:30 am, and Don Fogg was in the middle of his forging demo. Don had a whole program on Saturday, the whole process from forging, grinding, and heat treating to finishing a basic and clean hunting knife blade...all during that one day. After Don was done with his forging, Josh had Larry Fuegen lecture about sheath making. I cracked my first Montana-made beer of the day, and Harvey Dean and I smoked a morning cigar about 10:30 am, a CAO Black Corona. Harvey told me a story about a very interesting knife that he built for a very interesting person.....very interesting. After Harvey ambled off, I had a chance to show Don Fogg a knife that Nick Wheeler had at the ABS Reno Expo two years ago, and the sheath that he made to go with it....told Don that Nick didn't know fast knife making, but he sure was great at it. Don informed me about Nick maybe 6 years ago, or so, with pride and appreciation....it was a good moment.....after that, got a chance to play show-and-tell with a few choice pieces that I brought with me to Nick, Hans H., Buddy and Laura Thomason and a few others...that was a lot of fun....at one point, Josh's father told me that Josh got a great price on the land he bought because it was covered with some sort of tenacious weed, and Josh beat that land into a real special place, i'll tell you first hand, the justifiable pride in Josh's father's voice made quite the impression on this citified slacker, that's for sure.
Rick Eaton took some time to show me some very impressive engraving he has been working on, and his son Jed took the time to introduce himself.....I didn't even know that Rick had any children. Jed told me that he hoped to join the US Military Special Forces, which I think is a great and noble goal.
Then, it was lunch time, a nice catered meal from the golf course that was close to Josh's house, King Ranch Golf Course. They came out with chicken fried steak, corn, mashed potatoes and gravy, and I enjoyed it, but it was a tad heavy for a hot summer day....tasty though. After lunch, there was more demoi'ng as Don Fogg moved onto heat treating the knife, and then there was a mini knife show in one of Josh's tent covered areas....good multi usage of space. Bill Burke had an extremely nice fighter, traditional tanto, and pre-sold katana, they were all very nicely done. Gary House also had a splendid fighter, that was unfortunately not equipped with a ferrule, othewise would have been quite tempting....some dealers set up as well, so there were some nicely mixed offerings. Got a chance to visit with my very good friend, Bob Crowder, such a great time!
After a bit, it started getting to be close to 5:00 pm and I had to make tattoo needles(solder, actually) was doing this while Erik Fritz was tempering Don Fogg's blade, and a number of people were milling about Josh's "clean-room" part of the shop, also Marlene Marton was modeling Josh's armor, helm and such...pretty whirlwind, and a whole lot of fun.....Josh brought me another great Montana beer, and we shot the breeze while I finished up making needles, and we were the last one's off the property, to go to the King Ranch Golf Course, and have a fine prime rib dinner.
Dinner companions were primarily Dave Lisch and Blake Snowden, and it was very fine company. Blake enthralled the table with hunting stories, and Dave told tales of his biker days, and of course we were all talking about knives. After dinner, pretty much everyone went back to Josh's, where the fine pyrotechnic team assembled successfully launched a 75 lb anvil about 15 feet into the air. Dave Lisch decided he wanted a swordfighting lesson, but I didn't have the heart to tell him that every beginner is spastic with a sword, and I didn't desire a concussion after a good meal, but there you have it.
At about 8:00 pm, I started tattooing Rob Lindquist with a tear on his finger, then Wade Colter, requested a top hat wearing skull smoking a cigarette on his forearm. The top hat was Matt Diskin's suggestion. Have known and been friends with Wade Colter for 15 years, and he might have mentioned getting a tattoo once, but here he was getting it. After Wade, Erik Fritz got a Rob Simonich logo buffalo on his meaty bicep. Erik simply asked me for a tattoo about a week before we left from SoCal, so there was enough time to pack the gear...it was an honor to be asked. The final tattoo of the evening went to Cameron Eggly, the photographer Eric Eggly's son. It was about midnight when I finished.....said my goodbyes to everyone, hung out with Matt Diskin back in Missoula for a bit and crashed.
Didn't do much of anything on Sunday because I was wiped out, and it turned out that I was coming down with a cold, but didn't seem to affect anyone else, including my wife.
I'll PROBABLY write up the AKI show, but this will be my last review for a while. They are taking too long to finish in a timely manner, and it is a lot of work.
Best Regards,
STeven Garsson
Our flight on Friday from SoCal was scheduled to leave at 7:20am, so I made sure that we were at the airport at 6:35am, wouldn't you know that we made our plane with exactly 1 minute to spare...that's right, TSA took 30+ minutes to get us through the line. The flight was enjoyable, turbulence free, and Mrs. Garsson deigned to join me on this trip. I asked her to for a couple reasons...1) I had been to Missoula before, and know it to be breathtakingly beautiful country and 2) Don Fogg was scheduled to attend, and it was imperative for me to have my wife meet him. Don't call the man Sensei for nothing, you know?
We booked a room at the Edgewater DoubleTree, arrived there about 12:30 pm, rooms were clean, well appointed, vaulted ceilings, we had a river view, and the restaurant, Finn & Porter, was really top flight for a hotel restaurant. We went for lunch, I had the Turkey club on croissant, my better half had the French Dip....very, very good food. For a $1.00 upcharge, I enjoyed salmon chowder..well worth it. Unfortunately, while we were eating lunch, Steve D'lack walked by the window....in shorts.....I had a shot of whiskey to try and wash away the image....but it didn't work.
We showed up at Josh's around 2:00 pm. A nice, sunny breezy day ensured that the mosquitos/biting black flys were not able to swarm, which was pleasant. The first people we saw were Keith Montgomery and Don Fogg. Had never met Keith before, so recognizing him was not expected, but DAMN, Don shaved off his facial furs, and lost about 20 lbs due to eating right and playing racquetball, and I didn't recognize him. We were able to catch up a little anyway. BS'd with far too many people to mention, but did get to meet Hans H. who is just a prince. He walked from the hotel in Missoula, to Josh's abundant 21 acre spread, about 18 miles, simply amazing...silly, maybe even a bit goofy, but still amazing.
Then they fired the bowling ball cannon. Josh gave a little speech, the cannon fuse took about 2 minutes to reach the blow hole, but dang, did that bowling ball, which formerly belonged to a teacher of Josh's, go about a mile and a half, much further than we could see, although you could hear it, like "baying dogs" according to Josh. Really quite a show, that. Afterwards, we hung out in mixed groups, shooting the breeze. Rick Dunkerly had a very nice engraved, inset black MOP folder with damascus blade that he was passing around, and Josh's wonderful mother was chatting with my wife, Josh's daughter Demi was showing a bunch of us the knife she made with daddy's help...it had a pink handle of all things.
Josh decided to fire the cannon a second time, and swooped by with his mighty steed, the ATV Arctic Cat....and asked me if I wanted to load it.....so I rode off into the sunset on the back of Josh' s fine transport...but didn't load it, because the boys were still cleaning it, and I am sensitive to the sun like a vampire, and ran off looking for some shade....they fired it again around 4:30 pm, and by that time, the Garssons needed to get back to the hotel, and change for the show. I asked my wife to dress nice for the show, the rationale being that the makers put in their best work at shows like this, and we honor them by displaying a bit of personal style. We made it to the L.A. Design Gallery around 6:30 pm.
Downtown Missoula has a bit of "Land that Time Forgot" feel, quite comfortable, slower paced, wider streets, we drove around for a while to find a good parking spot.; My wife drove, she hates the way I drive...too much New York/Deathrace 2000. :lol: The gallery was on the smaller, intimate side, but nicely appointed and laid out.
The makers were:
Dean, Harvey-showed up with three knives, I think, a folder, an Ivory handled D-guard bowie, and I can't remember the other one. The D-Guard was stellar.
Eaton, Rick-I noticed one folder that Rick had, his own damascus, nicely done, pretty sure he had two knives, but cannot remember the other one.
Fogg, Don-made ONE knife for the show, a seax-like carbon fighter with habaki, hamon and carved handle......bargain priced at $2,000, should have been $3,000 at the very least. Most everyone in the room wanted that knife, it went to my good friend Gary House, who was about tickled speechless to get it.
Frank, H.H. -had one of his folding daggers with embellishment if memory serves.
Fuegen, Larry-brought 4 knives, a Cowboy bowie, folding Bowie, Goblin Folder and a Revival folder with pearl handle. Buddy picked up the Cowboy bowie, the KnifeArt guy got the Goblin, the folding bowie didn't move at the show, and my wife got the Revival folder. She uses it as a letter opener.
Sawby, Scott-came with two inlaid self-lock folders engraved by his wife Marian. Mike Donato wound up with both of them.
Smith, Josh-the host showed up to party, with five knives(?) The winner was his damascus push dagger. This was a really elegant knife, with amazing proportions.
Wood, Owen-pretty sure that he had 3 knives, folders, for sale. Herringbone damascus blades in the triangular dagger shape he has been doing lately....his table was always crowded, so I didn't get a real good view
Young, John-saw a stag handled fighter, a hunter, and a bid-up stag handled chute. I dropped on the fighter, but didn't get drawn. John's prices remain very fair for a maker with a 6 YEAR waiting list.
Gotta be honest here, REALLY wanted Don to bring one of his American Bowies with the clip point, and hoped that John Young would bring a straight up Wilderness, since that didn't happen, my personal knife buying juices were not stoked, so it became a social event for me, which at this point is as good if not better than a buying trip. It was so nice for me to be able to introduce my wife to Don, to Deborah Dean, to re-introduce her to Linda Fuegen, everyone really. When Don Fogg was going through his wife's illness, at the same point, my wife was limping along with a cane, in daily pain due to a ruptured disc and direct pressure on her spinal cord, so in addition to everything else, Don and I were able to share this with each other....absolutely impossible to watch without it tearing your heart up.
Josh had a really nice spread of food and drink. There was open bar with the usual liquor, top shelf, and a nice mix of beers, mostly local, as well. The caterer provided duck tacos, ensalada caprese on skewers, beef and chicken satay, as well as some other tender vittles. I headed upstairs with my scotch, and spoke briefly with Buddy and Laura Thomason and went out to the patio to smoke the Gurkha Legend Churchill I glommed off of Harvey Dean, which Buddy Thomason shows below. I was joined by Mark Strauss of Knifeology and Paul Schindler of KnifeLegends. Real nice convivial chat, even when disagreeing. After a bit, Jeremy Muir and his lovely girlfriend joined us....we all had a nice visit......my wife got to chatting with Deborah Dean and Linda Fuegen, and didn't hardly see her for the rest of the night, made fun of Don Fogg's sheathwork and then the show was over....and it was still light out, just amazing.
I was going to tattoo Erik Fritz on Friday night, but it was 9:30 pm when we got back to the hotel, to change out of my suit, and head over to Josh's, it would have been after 2:00 am by the time I got back and I was tired, so my wife and I went for a late night bite to Finn & Porter, and went to bed.
On Saturday, we woke up early(about 6:30 am), and ordered room service. I got house-made corned beef hash with eggs, hashbrowns and toast, wanted champagne, was too early for them, so I settled for club soda. Wife dropped me off at Josh's around 9:30 am, and Don Fogg was in the middle of his forging demo. Don had a whole program on Saturday, the whole process from forging, grinding, and heat treating to finishing a basic and clean hunting knife blade...all during that one day. After Don was done with his forging, Josh had Larry Fuegen lecture about sheath making. I cracked my first Montana-made beer of the day, and Harvey Dean and I smoked a morning cigar about 10:30 am, a CAO Black Corona. Harvey told me a story about a very interesting knife that he built for a very interesting person.....very interesting. After Harvey ambled off, I had a chance to show Don Fogg a knife that Nick Wheeler had at the ABS Reno Expo two years ago, and the sheath that he made to go with it....told Don that Nick didn't know fast knife making, but he sure was great at it. Don informed me about Nick maybe 6 years ago, or so, with pride and appreciation....it was a good moment.....after that, got a chance to play show-and-tell with a few choice pieces that I brought with me to Nick, Hans H., Buddy and Laura Thomason and a few others...that was a lot of fun....at one point, Josh's father told me that Josh got a great price on the land he bought because it was covered with some sort of tenacious weed, and Josh beat that land into a real special place, i'll tell you first hand, the justifiable pride in Josh's father's voice made quite the impression on this citified slacker, that's for sure.
Rick Eaton took some time to show me some very impressive engraving he has been working on, and his son Jed took the time to introduce himself.....I didn't even know that Rick had any children. Jed told me that he hoped to join the US Military Special Forces, which I think is a great and noble goal.
Then, it was lunch time, a nice catered meal from the golf course that was close to Josh's house, King Ranch Golf Course. They came out with chicken fried steak, corn, mashed potatoes and gravy, and I enjoyed it, but it was a tad heavy for a hot summer day....tasty though. After lunch, there was more demoi'ng as Don Fogg moved onto heat treating the knife, and then there was a mini knife show in one of Josh's tent covered areas....good multi usage of space. Bill Burke had an extremely nice fighter, traditional tanto, and pre-sold katana, they were all very nicely done. Gary House also had a splendid fighter, that was unfortunately not equipped with a ferrule, othewise would have been quite tempting....some dealers set up as well, so there were some nicely mixed offerings. Got a chance to visit with my very good friend, Bob Crowder, such a great time!
After a bit, it started getting to be close to 5:00 pm and I had to make tattoo needles(solder, actually) was doing this while Erik Fritz was tempering Don Fogg's blade, and a number of people were milling about Josh's "clean-room" part of the shop, also Marlene Marton was modeling Josh's armor, helm and such...pretty whirlwind, and a whole lot of fun.....Josh brought me another great Montana beer, and we shot the breeze while I finished up making needles, and we were the last one's off the property, to go to the King Ranch Golf Course, and have a fine prime rib dinner.
Dinner companions were primarily Dave Lisch and Blake Snowden, and it was very fine company. Blake enthralled the table with hunting stories, and Dave told tales of his biker days, and of course we were all talking about knives. After dinner, pretty much everyone went back to Josh's, where the fine pyrotechnic team assembled successfully launched a 75 lb anvil about 15 feet into the air. Dave Lisch decided he wanted a swordfighting lesson, but I didn't have the heart to tell him that every beginner is spastic with a sword, and I didn't desire a concussion after a good meal, but there you have it.
At about 8:00 pm, I started tattooing Rob Lindquist with a tear on his finger, then Wade Colter, requested a top hat wearing skull smoking a cigarette on his forearm. The top hat was Matt Diskin's suggestion. Have known and been friends with Wade Colter for 15 years, and he might have mentioned getting a tattoo once, but here he was getting it. After Wade, Erik Fritz got a Rob Simonich logo buffalo on his meaty bicep. Erik simply asked me for a tattoo about a week before we left from SoCal, so there was enough time to pack the gear...it was an honor to be asked. The final tattoo of the evening went to Cameron Eggly, the photographer Eric Eggly's son. It was about midnight when I finished.....said my goodbyes to everyone, hung out with Matt Diskin back in Missoula for a bit and crashed.
Didn't do much of anything on Sunday because I was wiped out, and it turned out that I was coming down with a cold, but didn't seem to affect anyone else, including my wife.
I'll PROBABLY write up the AKI show, but this will be my last review for a while. They are taking too long to finish in a timely manner, and it is a lot of work.
Best Regards,
STeven Garsson
