Inner City fighter - John M. Smith

Michael Starr

Michael Starr

Gold Member
Joined
Jul 17, 2003
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816
Here's one I just picked up - vintage late 80's early 90's.
Haven't received it yet but I'll assume its W2, as it was a favorite steel of the maker's, the guard & ferrule are wrought iron and a nice stag handle.

You won't often find Mr. Smith's knives in the aftermarket as most owners just don't seem to let them go. I missed a bowie of his a couple of months ago from Dave at Nordic Knives and was determined not to let this one slip away.

I own a few more pieces of John's work and have a couple of fighters by David Broadwell that used his damascus steel but would love to see other knives. I tried to "search" but can't get anything to show up.

If you happen to have some of John's work, please post a picture. Thanks.
 

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Back when I first started checking out forged knives, his stuff and that of Jim Crowell were knives that really caught my eye as far as the type of stuff that I would have liked to have made. What happened to Mr. Smith?
 
Thats a great knife. I would like to see better pics when you get it.

In the realm of practical, working bowies, very few makers were/are as good as Mr. Smith.
 
I wanted that one as well, but bidding got out of my range. Will post pics later of an Inner City that a customer of mine owns.

This should free you up to sell me one of your "old" ones :rolleyes:

Edited to add- I talked to John many years ago, when I was first getting into knife making. He was very knowledgeable and very free with giving info... a really nice guy. At the time he had just stopped making knives, but did some copper work among other things.

Here is another example, this is one of the very last ones John made. Blade is about 9.5", W2, Ti guard, Coca Bola handle. Blade has some sort of black ti coating.
DSCN0527.jpg
 
Last edited:
RMLamey said:
I wanted that one as well, but bidding got out of my range. Will post pics later of an Inner City that a customer of mine owns.

This should free you up to sell me one of your "old" ones :rolleyes:

Edited to add- I talked to John many years ago, when I was first getting into knife making. He was very knowledgeable and very free with giving info... a really nice guy. At the time he had just stopped making knives, but did some copper work among other things.
Click to expand...
Is he still making damascus for other knifemakers?
 
RMLamey said:
I wanted that one as well, but bidding got out of my range. Will post pics later of an Inner City that a customer of mine owns.

This should free you up to sell me one of your "old" ones :rolleyes:

Edited to add- I talked to John many years ago, when I was first getting into knife making. He was very knowledgeable and very free with giving info... a really nice guy. At the time he had just stopped making knives, but did some copper work among other things.

Here is another example, this is one of the very last ones John made. Blade is about 9.5", W2, Ti guard, Coca Bola handle. Blade has some sort of black ti coating.
DSCN0527.jpg
Click to expand...

NIIIIIIIICE!!!:thumbup::D That is about as good looking a piece of cocobolo as I have ever seen.
 
That's a classic fighter. Wonderful work. :thumbup:
 
Michael, I saw his work in the late 80's I used to think looking at one could kill you. Very cool.
 
Matt,

Thanks for posting the pic of my baby. I bought it from John in the early to mid 90's at the Vegas knife show. It's incredibly light and fast for it's size. Last time I talked to John was 6-7 years ago. He had just come back from a shoulder injury and was mainly doing work with copper and concentrating on his family. He said he would make me a Damascus Inner City, but it never happened.

Christian
 
RMLamey said:
I wanted that one as well, but bidding got out of my range. Will post pics later of an Inner City that a customer of mine owns.

This should free you up to sell me one of your "old" ones :rolleyes:

Edited to add- I talked to John many years ago, when I was first getting into knife making. He was very knowledgeable and very free with giving info... a really nice guy. At the time he had just stopped making knives, but did some copper work among other things.

Here is another example, this is one of the very last ones John made. Blade is about 9.5", W2, Ti guard, Coca Bola handle. Blade has some sort of black ti coating.
DSCN0527.jpg
Click to expand...

Matt the more I look at this knife it just freaks me out how much I Like it. If the guy ever wants to part with it let me know. Bye the way it was good talkin to ya today take care bud.
 
Joe, the member a few posts above yours owns it, cobrachris. Some of the earlier John Smith Bowies had very abrupt and angular clips, wish I had some pics of those but lost them a few years back.
 
I remember seeing a couple of pics of a slender single guard version of the inner city knife back in the day. Those were very nice too and rather unique looking.
 
Sorry guys, my Inner City will never be for sale. If you've ever picked something up and it felt like a part of you, then you know how I feel about that knife. I don't remember seeing an Inner City with a single guard. John did make a knife called the Lightning Rod, which had a sharp clip that went 3/4 of the way back. I think the blade was 7 1/2-8 inches. They were very wicked looking. I would love to get my hands on one of those.


Christian
 
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