Fantasy Knife Maker Camp

glocktenman

glocktenman

Gold Member
Joined
Jul 20, 2008
Messages
2,036
Sometimes I see a custom made slip joint here I just can't imagine what it takes to make such an awesome knife. I'm really amazed at the craftsmanship and originality of some of these knives. We are among some great knife makers right here.

With that in mind.....Most of us have heard of fantasy baseball camp. Well, I'd like to see some of the traditional knife makers set up some type of fantasy knife maker camp. It could be a week long (maybe M-F) and have a limited number of seats. Could a custom made traditional slip joint be made in a week? I don't know. People who want to learn about knife making or help make a knife would be the market. Stay in a motel, breakfast and dinner on your own and lunch with the maker. Help make a knife and learn a truckload in a week. I'm not talking about getting secret knife recipes but just a great experience. I'll tell you, I would be very interested in taking part in a week of knife making and learning. I also think this could be very profitable for knife makers.

Any ideas or ways to help something like this happen?
 
One (or two at most) "campers" at a time might be feasable. I would guess most knifemakers like to show interested people what they do and interested people are hard to come by at a shop...uh...you know what I mean. :p
 
Well, I guess I'm one! I imagained that more knife collectors and enthusiast would jump at the chance to learn how to make a traditional slip joint with many of our great knife makers.
 
KnifeHead said:
One (or two at most) "campers" at a time might be feasable. I would guess most knifemakers like to show interested people what they do and interested people are hard to come by at a shop...uh...you know what I mean. :p
Click to expand...

Don't tempt me. I go through Terre Haute quite often and would love a tour.:thumbup:
 
I recently submitted an Article to Knife World about various knife making schools. One of the schools is taught by two Master Slip Joint makers and they create a traditional pocket knife is less than a week.

I will post if it gets published, but shoot me an email and I will send you some inside info. (The schools info can be found with some digging but I do still want to leave something to the imagination in re to the Article for the folks that subscribe to KW.)

Vince
 
I am REALLY looking forward to reading it Vince.


Over the years some makers have asked me to come up and spend time in the shop. I hope I will make the time to do it one day. I know it is something I would enjoy.

I have been to a few hammer in's and will say it is even harder than it looks to walk away with a decent looking knife. :D. (Take my word for it.)
 
I would love to visit a knifemaker's shop as well, but I'm afraid if I visited Kerry he would break out the leopard print uni thong again.

I look forward to the KW story.
 
Vince,
I just read your article in the Feb Knife World. Good job! How cool is it that one of the students at the Texas Slip Joint School gets to win the knife that Bill Ruple & Rusty Preston make in the school. BTW, their next class is March 11-13th and my tail is in it!

I might have to look into one of the damascus schools you listed in your article as well.

Thanks for all the information and congratz on a very good article for people who want to learn more about knife making.
 
Glade that you enjoyed it. Good Luck on that Collaboration knife! The one that I photographed for the Article was extremely impressive! And so far there are only two in existence.

You should come back after the class and do a review for us!

Hope everyone else enjoyed the article also.

Vince
 
protourist said:
Don't tempt me. I go through Terre Haute quite often and would love a tour.:thumbup:
Click to expand...

Show up with a 1 bottle each of Wild Turkey and Maker's Mark 46 and you'll probably be warmly welcomed. :D
 
Hillbillenigma said:
I recently submitted an Article to Knife World about various knife making schools. One of the schools is taught by two Master Slip Joint makers and they create a traditional pocket knife is less than a week.

I will post if it gets published, but shoot me an email and I will send you some inside info. (The schools info can be found with some digging but I do still want to leave something to the imagination in re to the Article for the folks that subscribe to KW.)

Vince
Click to expand...

Vince, that sounds like it is going to be a great article. I am fascinated by the skill and artistry that's involved in custom knife making, especially slip joints. I'm trying my hand at making my first fixed blade knife as we speak. Some makers here on BF have been kind enough to share information and even invite me over and give me the proper steel. I've got some bone that I'm working on dying at this very moment. I would be very interested in your article.

Michael

EDIT: My copy came yesterday but I've been busy helping my son with a project and never got around to it. Your article is in there now. Very nice!
 
Congrats on the article, Vince.

Randy, please convey my regards to Bill and Rusty when you attend, two excellent makers and great guys.

I've featured a couple of Rusty's stock knives here on the forum in the past couple of years (as well as several of Bill's of course).
 
Thanks Elliot, really appreciate the kind words.

Here are some better pics (than what is in the Article) of the Ruple / Preston collaboration knife. A knife like this is what some lucky Student from each Texas Slipjoint School will win. This one was loaned to me by Tom Ploppert who won it last year and he too makes custom slipjoints.

RuplePrestonWatch2.jpg


RuplePrestonTile.jpg


RuplePrestonFilework.jpg
 
Slip joint class- ocassionally the ABS had a slip joint class at Washington.Arkansas at their school. I ALWAYS WISHED I could go especially when John Perry was teaching the class.
 
Blues said:
Congrats on the article, Vince.

Randy, please convey my regards to Bill and Rusty when you attend, two excellent makers and great guys.

I've featured a couple of Rusty's stock knives here on the forum in the past couple of years (as well as several of Bill's of course).
Click to expand...

Will do sir, I can't wait to get out there!
 
Well, I attended the Texas Slipjoint School this past weekend and had a great time.

First, Bill Ruple and Rusty Preston are very genuine and hospitable oh yea; they're pretty fun fellas to boot!

On Friday evening we had a mixer of sorts where everyone got together to met, had some dinner and talked about knives and whatever crossed our minds.

On Saturday we kicked off at 0800 and they had a stack of information for each of us. We had knife supply catalogs, a class list of all the attendees, a step-by-step guide of the slipjoint build process used, a name badge to wear and nice Texas Slipjoint School baseball cap. Bill made the knife. The knife was a two blade style that Bill is famous for. The build went step by step and we were able to ask questions anytime we wanted........even some of the stupid ones I asked. (I've never made a knife so; I know I had a few of them!) I took a bunch of pictures along the way. Over that last eight-nine months I've read several books on knife making and watched two videos on slipjoint making. The books and videos are no comparison to this "in person" class where you can stop at any point and ask a question or ask for something to be repeated or to take a closer look at something. Rusty did a portion on file work and gave us all a great little tool for file work. It's a small steel flat in a square shape with the file process shown step-by-step on each side of the edge for the particular file work he was showing us. We looked at various knives and the file work on them. Bill did the file work on our slipjoint. They both had samples of incredible file work they had done. I learned a great amount that day. The day went fast and when we left that day, Bill had the knife in about a 75-80% completion. Enrique Pena even stopped by for a while.

We met again on Sunday at 0800 except for those who forgot about the time change! Bill finished the knife that afternoon and a lucky attendee was given the knife that we had just witnessed being made. It's a beautiful knife and if I hadn't seen it being made I wouldn't have believed it was done over the weekend.

This was a great opportunity for me to learn firsthand how to build a slipjoint the Ruple way. There were several attendees who had slipjoint making experience. I overheard several of them making comments such as "Oh, I've been doing that in the wrong order", "that’s a great idea, I'm going to use that" and "I like that over what I've been doing". Bill was a great teacher and told some of the experienced knife makers that they might find or see something they like or learn and can take that and put it in their knife making "tool box".

I'm going to attach some pictures of Bill, Rusty, the knife and the knife winner, Brad.


PS-Bills looks a little pissed in this first pic but he wasn't....It's just the way I caught the pic!
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top