Well I really don’t know where to begin
This really is not my kind of thread but Steven is my friend and I like to support him being that it’s Christmas and all
Ever since I can remember I have collected anything to do with the outdoors and knives have always been a huge sickness for me and of course a tool that was used every day.
I can remember walking my brothers trap route with him when I was probable 6 years old. He always carried a large sheath knife it was a Buck Bowie styled blade with a black handle that I still have today.
My father who was a great man an immigrant Italian thought if you where a boy as soon as you could walk you where a man and I can remember he supplied knives and guns to us when we where very young.
When I think back on it,it makes me laugh how we got turned loose with lever action 30 30’s at about 8 years old to roam the fields, streams and woods.
Recurve bows sling shots and pellet guns and .22’ where given and unsupervised at about 6.
Knives where a give me and I can remember an old Puma white hunter that was a constant companion ever since I can remember.
Hell we even carried pocketknives to school and I can remember my brother bringing in traps for a show and tell at school. Can you imagine bringing a bag of leg traps and conibears into a school today? My times have changed.
My mother grew up on a farm and she did not have much to say about the constant flow of knives and guns.
I can remember my dad bringing home bags of guns from poker games. My mother would yell to check if they where loaded. I traded a lot of these guns to J.P. Moss for knives when I got a little older they where mostly old service revolvers and cheap semi auto’s.
I always had a keen interest in blades more so than my brother and at a very young age read anything I could find on blade lore.
This bloomed into a deep fascination with Japanese Swords that still exists today. The reading of how these magic old blades performed and how they where fashioned brought me to an early understanding of a properly forged blade and I can remember looking at the other kids like they where stupid when they did not understand the merits of a good knife made of proper steel
Since every day we used and abused knives and from my reading I new there had to be something better out there than the production stuff of the day.
That’s what lead me to the custom knife world. There was no Internet but there where ads in the back of gun magazines. I would write letters and if there was a phone number I would call.
Like I said I get drawn in to collecting things and my interests rotate with the seasons sometimes it’s guns then it rolls into Bows and then back to Japanese swords. Right now it seems to be fly rods. Awhile back I even went thru a Bull Whip Phase.
My interests may vary but I seem to always come back to the knives. My taste has gravitated to forged fixed blades. I can appreciate the fine art knives out there but I prefer the more user-oriented pieces where the focus of the maker is performance.
I like Bowie style blades and Japanese influenced pieces.
I have knives from many makers but the two makers that dominate my collection are Bagwell for forged stuff and Hartsfield for stock removal.
I am kind of not looking for knives right now but I will always pick up a piece from Bill or if an interesting Hartsfield becomes available even though I am shying away from stock removal stuff I will have a look.
Some makers that I hope to acquire are White, Andrews, and Hanson. There are to many others to mention that I have interest in but I think two of the greatest young Smiths out there right now are Jason Knight and Burt Foster.
I picked up my Knight at last years blade and I just happened to speak to Burt tonight and will be picking up a special blade that was ordered awhile back at Blade this year.
