Butch Deveraux (Riverton, Wy)

2knife

2knife

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Mar 13, 2002
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At this Blade Show I met a truly remarkable couple, Butch and Shannon Deveraux. They reside in Riverton and Butch is training with Ed Fowler, making knives in Pronghorn style. I was highly impressed meeting he and his very supportive wife; he brought three of his own knives to Blade. Butch has a great attitude, and wears a cowboy hat comfortably. Good luck to him, I hope to hear much more from him in the future.
David
 
David, Thank you very much for the kind words. It was great meeting you and we enjoyed visiting with you. It is folks like you that definitely make the shows special for us since I feel it is not just about selling knives(however that does help pay the bills) :D Just to give you an update, a gentleman we met at the show is now here in Riverton attending Eds High Performance Blade seminar and I've been helping to instruct him. He had looked at my knives at the show and when he first arrived here he told me he was very interseted in my work. He has now purchased the large knife I had at the show which was my second knife I've ever made. I am very happy and honored that he appreciates my work and I know it's going to a good home.
We hope to see you at future shows and look forward to keeping in touch.

Best Regards
Butch and Shannon
 
I too met Mr. Deveraux and his wife at the Blade Show. I was very impressed with his work and the blade tests that he has been conducting. The bent blade was awesome! Ten 180 degree bends and it looked like you could straighten it and put a handle on it. I'd like to learn more about the technique that he is applying under Ed Fowler's guidance. Lin Rhea
 
Lin, it was great meeting you and we very much enjoyed visiting with you and seeing your knives. You do very nice work. I really appreciate your compliments on my knives and your interest in how they perform. I want to clarify that the flexed blade I showed you is the results of years of experimenting and testing by Ed Fowler with the help of Eldon Perkins and Bill Burke. I am happy to be joining them in thier quest to continue to make a better and stronger blade. That blade I showed you was actually forged by Bill Burke at the last Ed Fowlers Hi Performance Blade Seminar. I just want to make sure that the credit is given to the proper people. All of my knives are forged and heat treated using the same processes that that blade was made by. I test every one of my knives for edge flexing ability on the steel rod and cutting the hemp rope. I am now finishing a 5160 blade that I will subject to a series of tests including the flex test and will test it to the point of destruction just to see how it performs. I will let you know how it does. There is a discussion on the Shop Talk forum that I think you'll find very interesting. http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=348016 I will be helping Ed test some 5160 steel that Dan Gray has found an outlet for so it will be readily available to makers that are interested.

I look forward to corresponding with you more and hope to see you at future shows.

Butch
 
Butch and Shannon,
I look forward to seeing you both again too. Thanks for update, and I wish you the best success with all that you do. Keep in touch, friends. :)
David
 
Thanks, Butch. I'll be watching for the results of your testing and will check out the thread you mentioned. Keep up the good work. You're helping a lot more people than you probably realize. Lin
 
I'm proud to announce that I'm the proud new owner of Butch's second knife (the first looks set to stay on his belt.)

Here's some pictures of the knife. You'll be able to see them up close at the big kife shows for a while, because I have left the knife with him to exhibit till he makes a better one.

bdno2leftsmall.jpg


bdno2rightsmall.jpg


For a man who has only completed three knives, he forges and makes knives better than many journeymen I have seen. He's a natural, and I suppose his many years of welding, hammering and such can't have hurt.

Butch (and Ed and Jeff) are great teachers. I have learned more then I could have dreamed for during my five days at the Willow Bow Ranch. The place is steeped in knife lore. As I type, I'm sitting next to Ed and trapping hall-of-famer Jake Korrell swapping stories about knives and country living as it used to be. You have to spend some time on the ranch to understand the lifestyle that these knives are intended for.

To cap it all, Tina's cooking and hospitality is unsurpassable. It's great to go to sleep with a full belly, a couple of blades annealing in the Paragon and all the fresh air you can breathe. :D

Regards,

Dan Ko
 
....or can anybody join this lovefest?!?!:D
I,TOO, met Butch and his wife, Shannon (of "magic fingers" fame!) at Blade and was extremely impressed with the work they are both doing to aid the Fowler household. Not only is Butch doing a super job in helping spread and advance the quest for the perfect high performance blade by his work under Ed's expert eye, but the lovely Shannon was seen at various times during the show, applying "the laying on of hands" to Ed's shoulder pain through the use of what appeared to be some sort of reflexology!! Here's hoping July will hold a flow of relief for Ed's torment.
Butch's work is quite remarkable in that he told me he had never made a knife before beginning his study with Ed in April. When questioned, Ed admitted with a sly grin that he thinks he found a "keeper"! Here's to the continuation of a fruitful relationship! Please do keep us posted when possible and tell Ed I've carried my new "Gentleman's Pronghorn" everyday since buying it from him at the show Saturday and after viewing the DVD, am already yearning for something a little bigger to complement it.:cool:
 
I may never have the opportunity to own a Fowler, but am really happy to see that Ed has found another talented student to train. Audra Draper and Bill Burke are fantastic bladesmiths and carry on a worthy tradition.
 
Larry, no invitation required. Just jump on in anytime. :D It was really great meeting you and I'm glad to hear you're enjoying Eds knife. I knew you'd of regretted it if you hadn't bought it. We thank you for your kind words and compliments and we'll definitely keep in touch. Ed is going in for surgery on his shoulder July 8th so we're all praying that he'll be back to pain free hammerin soon.

Geode, I hope you may someday have your opportunity to own one of Eds knives. They are truly a remarkable knife. I've owned one of his for over 10 years and have used it extensively. He has a way of making every aspect of his knives almost perfect in form and function and I am very honored that he's willing to teach me. One other gentleman that you'll definitely want to check into is Eldon Perkins. He has also been learning under Ed for several years now and his knives are truly beautiful peices. He is a great guy and a very good friend.
 
David, maybe we'll see you at a show sometime. Thank you for the compliments on my(now Dans) knife.

Butch
 
Butch,
You're welcome friend. Hopefully I'll see you again at Blade next year.. I'm still wanting to seriously put together something more comprehensive as a photo book for Ed's knives, pictures of knives over the years, a look at some of the history. It's only a scrapbook and a dream at this point, I'd have to find some creative ways of making it happen and I'd need to spend some time with Ed and some of his students. Let me know if you have any good ideas. (my email: 2knife@excite.com)
David
 
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