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Grail Acquired!

Triton

Triton

Gold Member
Joined
Aug 8, 2000
Messages
36,011
Oddly enough despite thousands of posts I rarely talk about my own collection. Mostly because in general I'm collecting quality examples of swords, spears, halberds and other Western European medieval style (non-antique) weapons. That's not of particular interest in most of the sub-fora here so... <shrug>. However, there is one folder that I've been chasing. I did a quick search and apparently my first post about it was back in 2007. That folder is the Peter Marzitelli "Big Snarly J." I first saw it in Blade magazine in that same year of 2007. Apparently Peter only made about 350 or so folders period, I have no idea how many of this model he actually made. Not long after coming out with that model he quit making folders entirely because he spent so much time trying to make them perfect that he was losing money on them. I toyed with the idea of trying to talk him into making just one more, but I never did and unfortunately Mr. Marzitelli died a year or two ago. Every year or so I would put something in the "Wanted to Buy" section but was never successful. Along the way I purchased one of his Megaladon folders on the big auction site and a fixed blade right here on Bladeforums. However, they still weren't the Big Snarly J. A Big Snarly J sold at Arizona Custom Knives years ago but other than that no joy. Then about a year ago I saw one come up on the big auction site. I was stunned it looked like the exact one pictured in the magazine. (Heck with so few of them produced it might BE). It was ridiculously expensive, not compared to some of the swords I've purchased but still for a pocketknife... whew. So I watched. I waited. I saved pennies. Finally a few weeks ago I pulled the trigger. The knife is now in hand. It turns out it's everything I hoped. It has a very smooth action and feel excellent in the hand. Centering is good and lockup seems solid. Honestly for the money spent I'll probably never carry or use it. But darn it, I own it! Check out the pictures! I know it's not the latest super steel and it doesn't have some trick gizmo or something. However, after nearly 20 years I've chased this one down. If you have given up on that grail knife. Don't. You never know! What is your tale of your acquired Grail? How long did you chase it? How did you finally acquire it?


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Great story!! And congratulations on finding your grail!!

I’ve thought I chased and found my grail many times over and realized I’m still searching. Not sure what it will be or when but it may be a large hand forged Bowie by a master smith or something of that nature.
 


This Tom Krein Alpha is my Grail knife. It's not a super crazy story, but I was on a date with my fiancee when Tom was live auctioning a similar knife on his Facebook page, and she was getting irritated because I kept looking at Facebook.

I ended up getting carried away on bidding, but there was a Zuckerberg snafu, and Tom recognized the winning bid even though there was a five-minute anti-snipe rule. The winning bidder and I both had extra bids within the window that Tom didn't see.

He felt so bad about it after that he messaged me and said he would honor the last price he saw for the winner ($100 less than his last actual bid ) and make me something similar to my preference for the same price.

This is essentially the same knife, but I asked to have an orange peel finish on the titanium ideas of the diamond milling on the original that I thought hid the Moku-ti pattern too much, and to have antique bronze anodizing on the hardware instead of the black on the original. Both knives had Nichols Intrepid pattern stainless damascus and Tom's compound grind.

Not a long story, but a great knife from a stand-up maker, and one I'll probably never spend as much on again.
 
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Flatsman007 said:
Great story!! And congratulations on finding your grail!!

I’ve thought I chased and found my grail many times over and realized I’m still searching. Not sure what it will be or when but it may be a large hand forged Bowie by a master smith or something of that nature.
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That's great! I think what you are saying is that you will know your grail when you find it rather than it being a particular knife you are chasing. That's A different and cool way to look at it.
 
madcap_magician said:


This Tom Krein Alpha is my Grail knife. It's not a super crazy story, but I was on a date with my fiancee when Tom was live auctioning a similar knife on his Facebook page, and she was getting irritated because I kept looking at Facebook.

I ended up getting carried away on bidding, but there was a Zuckerberg snafu, and Tom recognized the winning bid even though there was a five-minute anti-snipe rule. The winning bidder and I both had extra bids within the window that Tom didn't see.

He felt so bad about it after that he messaged me and said he would honor the last price he saw for the winner ($100 less than his last actual bid ) and make me something similar to my preference for the same price.

This is essentially the same knife, but I asked to have an orange peel finish on the titanium ideas of the diamond milling on the original that I thought hid the Moku-ti pattern too much, and to have antique bronze anodizing on the hardware instead of the black on the original. Both knives had Nichols Intrepid pattern stainless damascus and Tom's compound grind.

Not a long story, but a great knife from a stand-up maker, and one I'll probably never spend as much on again.
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That is also a cool story and a beautiful knife. It seems like every successful hunt for a grail ought to have a great story!
 
Congratulations friend! Nice story and I'm very glad you finally got the knife you were looking for :)

For me, I haven't been in the high-end sector of this hobby very long, but ever since I got a Spyderco Bodacious two months ago, my search has kind of stopped since this knife does everything I want from a blade. But, I'm still young and there's so much more to find and try out, may be I don't even know yet what I'm really looking for:)
 
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