I'm looking to get a custom knife done

Edwood7

Edwood7

Joined
Mar 31, 2010
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I'm looking to get a custom knife done. Iv recently bought a tomahawk from a kind forum member; modeled after the one carried by Magua of the las of the Mohicans movie and I want to get a knife to pair it whit.
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Something like this one. Can any one recommend a good craftsmen, that can make something like this knife. I'm willing to spend as much as 400 dollars, any advice would be welcomed.
 
What's on the end of the handle? Can't really see it enough to tell.Are you looking for an exact replica or something just in that basic style and shape?

Several makers here can help you out.You just need to do a little research and homework to see who you want to work with.
 
Edwood7 said:
I'm looking to get a custom knife done. Iv recently bought a tomahawk from a kind forum member; modeled after the one carried by Magua of the las of the Mohicans movie and I want to get a knife to pair it whit.
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Save your money, buy from Daniel Winkler.....that is all.

Best Regards,

STeven Garsson
 
All due respect to the suggestions so far, but you might also do yourself the favor of looking up John Cohea (Google is your friend). He does some pretty great period pieces also. Your budget may be a little short for the really good stuff. As STeven said "save your money" and maybe increase the budget a little.........or a lot.

Good Luck!

Paul
 
R.H.Clark said:
What's on the end of the handle? Can't really see it enough to tell.Are you looking for an exact replica or something just in that basic style and shape?

Several makers here can help you out.You just need to do a little research and homework to see who you want to work with.
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I'm looking for something similar not an exact replica. That's a bear

Head carved al the end of the handel.

Thanks
 
sheathmaker said:
All due respect to the suggestions so far, but you might also do yourself the favor of looking up John Cohea (Google is your friend). He does some pretty great period pieces also. Your budget may be a little short for the really good stuff. As STeven said "save your money" and maybe increase the budget a little.........or a lot.

Good Luck!

Paul
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I'm familiar whit his Winkler Knives II line but well, only have 400 dollars : (
I now his work is worth every penny but I dot have that many penny's. I'm looking at John Cohea. Any other makers that might help?
 
It would be a long stretch of your budget to get to a Daniel Winkler / Karen Shook period piece. It would be much less of a stretch to get a terrific piece from John Cohea. He did this large belt knife for me not too long ago:

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He made it to match this war hawk:

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Both pieces are superbly done - and his sheath work, as you can see, is really something special,

I would definitely drop him and line and see what can be done. Costs you nothing to inquire and he is a terrific guy to deal with.

http://jmcknives.blademakers.com/

Roger
 
RogerP said:
Both pieces are superbly done - and his sheath work, as you can see, is really something special,

I would definitely drop him and line and see what can be done. Costs you nothing to inquire and he is a terrific guy to deal with.

http://jmcknives.blademakers.com/

Roger
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All this is true and fact Roger, but if memory serves, the fantastic sheath John made for me was not spectacularly ornate, and still cost around $200.00.

How much was yours(in the ballpark), for frame of reference?

The Winkler II knives are right around $400.00, and I'm pretty sure that John is going to be a bit more than that....just sayin'.

Best Regards,

STeven Garsson
 
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Hi STeven,

My belt knife was priced as kind of a part-2 of a package deal with the hawk and display stand (shown below), so I'd rather not post it in the event that it doesn't reflect John's asking price for a stand-alone piece.

I'm sure John could give the OP a quote based on the piece he has in mind.

The Winkler II knives are terrific -and a great value - I suspect I will end up with one myself. But they are not period styled and the OP says he wants this knife to match up with a Last of the Mohicans-type hawk. Obviously, that's something that Daniel and Karen could knock right out of the park on a custom order if the budget permitted. A custom Cohea would likely provide a middle ground in cost, but closer in concept to what I think the OP has in mind.

Roger

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The primitive/frontier knives/sheaths which Daniel and Karen have become so famous for are going to run from about twice to about ten times OP's budget figure.

Though it could appear that possibly the primitive look would come at less cost than a highly refined look, it takes quite a bit of time, effort, skill and resources to get Winkler and Cohea pieces to have that "authentic" primitive look.
Karen Shook shared some of her processes and procedures for making her sheaths look "old" and they were pretty time consuming and intense. And some of the decorative trim items (beads, claws, ivory) are in fact old artifact materials. Anyone ever wrestled a porcupine for it's quills? ;) :D:D :)
 
John's instuctional DVD on how he makes his sheaths was nothing less than eye-opening. It's always been obvious that a lot of work goes into them, but I had no idea just how much.

Roger
 
If the "name" is not particularly important (and no disrespect to those named above) there are several other period makers that are virtually unknown outside the re-enactors world and yet they make top quality authentic goods at prices generally much less than those in the "custom knife world"
First off I'd check through the CLA site:
http://longrifle.com/forsale/default.asp?categoryID=all&age=Contemporary

On page 8 for instance there is a nice 7" bladed rifleman's type knife with quilled sheath for $395.00 and there are often otehr hand made knives with sheaths at some what less money. For a bit more money there are a couple of knives with sheaths by one of the best Lally House. This site is well worth investigating.........

Just a few other makers in the genre are:
Dennis Miles - Double Edge Forge
Kyle Willyard - Old Dominion Forge
Tim Ridge - Swamp Fox Knives
Matt - ML KNives
CD Lyles - Curt's Blacksmith's Shop
George Ainslie - Prairie Elk Forge
Mike Mann - Idaho Knifeworks
Wick Ellerbe - Ellerbe Knives - Wick makes some of the best mid-18the Century knives at a very reasonable price.
These are all "period" artisans, many of them using only the methods used "in Period" to produce their goods.
Many others are listed here......
http://longrifle.com/artisans/artisanlist.asp#Tomahawks,

Another option is to buy a good original butcher knife off Ebay, etc. and have a period sheath made by one of several workers in the genre (see the CLA artisan's list above as well as those mentioned above). This would represent the most common knife used on the frontier from the 1740's through the 1880's.
 
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I have a quite large collection of knives and sheaths from all different makers . I will say I have around 20 + pieces of John Coheas knives, hawks, pipe hawk, friction folders and large bowies. His work is outstanding and is priced very reasonable for what you are getting. I would never have gotten that many from one person if I wasnt happy wit his product. If you call him I,m sure he can more than fill your needs. KT.
 
byoffcr said:
I have a quite large collection of knives and sheaths from all different makers . I will say I have around 20 + pieces of John Coheas knives, hawks, pipe hawk, friction folders and large bowies. His work is outstanding and is priced very reasonable for what you are getting. I would never have gotten that many from one person if I wasnt happy wit his product. If you call him I,m sure he can more than fill your needs. KT.
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thaks ill give him a call.
 
Edwood,

You have a lot of good suggestions here. Karen and I would be happy to make a set for you but it would be out of your budget range and we have about a 2 to 2 ½ year backlog on forged pieces right now. John Cohea is another good option. He is doing some really nice stuff but I have no idea what he is prices are. Tell him your budget and see what he can do for you. The names Wild Rose gave you are another option or you could check out www.nmlra.org and see if there is a Black Powder Rendezvous close by you could attend. There are always a lot of good Primitive Knives for sale. Most events have a “public day” that you don’t have to be dressed out.

Another thing you might try is to contact Randal King. He made Magua’s Bear Head knife from “Last of the Mohicans”. He has a knife production company now and I am not sure if he still does custom pieces but you could always ask. http://www.randallkingknives.com/

I did Magua’s Tomahawk for the movie. It was a reproduction from an original piece in the museum at Fort Meigs. The one in your post looks good but I can’t tell who made it. Maybe he could make you a matching knife.

Daniel
 
I agree wuth wildrose, You can't go wrong with the CLA and one of the House brothers[no relation].
Gary
 
I want to thank those that recommended me and my work in this thread, it is appreciated!Edwood, you have some terrific rcommendations in this thread, any of whom could probably make you exactly what your looking for within your intended budget.
I could also help you out, however my larger knife/sheath packages tend to run a little more, but maybe if we scale it back a little something could be worked out.As Roger noted, a inquiry costs nothing!
Another name you might want to look into would be Rich McDonald.He and his wife Jeannie do very nice work also.
 
DWinkler said:
Edwood,

You have a lot of good suggestions here. Karen and I would be happy to make a set for you but it would be out of your budget range and we have about a 2 to 2 ½ year backlog on forged pieces right now. John Cohea is another good option. He is doing some really nice stuff but I have no idea what he is prices are. Tell him your budget and see what he can do for you. The names Wild Rose gave you are another option or you could check out www.nmlra.org and see if there is a Black Powder Rendezvous close by you could attend. There are always a lot of good Primitive Knives for sale. Most events have a “public day” that you don’t have to be dressed out.

Another thing you might try is to contact Randal King. He made Magua’s Bear Head knife from “Last of the Mohicans”. He has a knife production company now and I am not sure if he still does custom pieces but you could always ask. http://www.randallkingknives.com/

I did Magua’s Tomahawk for the movie. It was a reproduction from an original piece in the museum at Fort Meigs. The one in your post looks good but I can’t tell who made it. Maybe he could make you a matching knife.

Daniel
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Thanks Mr. Winkler as always very helpful, I’m locking him up right now. The maker of the hawk is Stephen Osborne of the North River Forge. Im trying to get a hold of him, no luck yet. Thank you all for your help, this is going to be a good learning experience.
 
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