just received an interesting email from a Fort Worth Star Telegram news reporter. Here's hoping cut'n'paste works on this forum
Im a reporter with the Star-Telegram. I had an interesting coversation with a man named Jim Pugh today. Decided to do a little research into the mans past since he mentioned hes a former Fort Worth police officer and found a knife blog where you were asking if anyone had any information on him. Turns out, our paper did a column on him several years ago. I couldnt post on the blog since Im not a member, but here you go if youre still interested.
Deanna Boyd
Fine-knife creator carves out a slice of the good life
By Bob Ray Sanders
Source: THE FORT WORTH STAR-TELEGRAM
Credit: Star-Telegram Staff Writer
Sunday,May 4, 2003
Edition: FINAL, Section: Metro, Page 1
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SANDERS: A master craftsman would like to find someone to train in his trade, but he doubts whether young people today have the patience to learn a painstaking skill.
Until last week, when I met one of its native sons, I had never heard of Iraan, a town in the far West Texas county of Pecos.
According to the Texas Almanac, this town of 1,252 has several industries: oil, gas, tourism, ranching, meat processing and health care, which means that it has a hospital.
It is the birthplace of the Alley Oop comic strip.
Although this is not in the almanac, Iraan also is the birthplace of Jim Pugh, 76, a resident of Azle who is a five-time Bronze Star winner, a former Fort Worth police officer and one of the world's most famous makers of collectible knives.
Diabetes has affected his depth perception, so for the past two years, he has not made any more of his delicately handcrafted wildlife and art knives.
The ones he has saved and keeps in a "cyanide-protected" safe in his workshop are to be used -- sold -- for his and his wife's retirement. One set of five knives is valued as high as $75,000.
"As far as I'm concerned, I'm through making knives," he said.
Pugh wishes that he had someone to whom he could pass along his craft, but he believes that young people today simply don't have the patience, desire or commitment to learn such an intricate skill.
As for him, even as a youngster he was always willing to accept a challenge, and it was that self-motivation that got him into the knife-making business in the first place.
Raised on a sheep ranch, Pugh moved to Odessa in 1939; he brags about being the first trombonist in the high school band there.
He calls himself a "draft dodger" during World War II.
"I ran and joined [the Navy] before they could draft me," he explains.
He dropped out of school to join the service because he thought he would be able to play his trombone in the Navy band.
After boot camp, where he didn't get to blow his horn at all, he went to San Diego to try out for the band.
He said he was told, "I think you can play a machine gun much better than that trombone."
Pugh ended up on a 480-foot aircraft carrier that saw much action. He would receive his fourth Bronze Star at Iwo Jima and his fifth in the taking of Okinawa.
He returned home in 1946, later moved to Fort Worth and became a police officer.
When President Kennedy was in town the morning of Nov. 22, 1963, Pugh was assigned to work security and was on detail in the kitchen of the Hotel Texas, where the president would walk through on his way to address a waiting breakfast crowd.
"That little Jackie was the most beautiful woman I've ever seen," he said.
Pugh spent 10 years on the police force before giving it up.
"I was taking home $128 every two weeks," he said, adding that in order to make ends meet he worked as a guard at several other places: the South Fort Worth State Bank, an armored car company and the Buddies supermarket on North Main.
"Anyway, I finally decided I had enough of it," he said.
He would get a job at Bell Helicopter as an experimental machinist and in one year, with overtime, made more money than he ever had -- $8,000. But he was laid off in 1969.
That's when he went into his dirt-floor garage and started making knives.
"I had $25," he said. "I sold my first knife for $45, and it only took me two weeks to make it." The next one sold for $65, and the one after that for $105.
The business was started.
Gold was $21 an ounce then, he said, and he began to incorporate the precious metal into his work, making a knife with a gold buffalo head on the top of the handle and a gold buffalo hoof as the guard. It sold for $5,000.
"I had a creative instinct, and I knew quality had to be there for wealthy people to want it," he said.
Using gold, silver, ivory and ebony wood, among other materials, Pugh made more exotic knives and was on the road at gun shows and at art and wildlife exhibits.
His leopard knife, with a gold leopard's head and a full gold leopard sculpture inside the blade, sells for $10,000 to $12,000. In his animal head sculptures, Pugh often uses diamonds or rubies for eyes.
The design and quality workmanship make his knives museum-worthy pieces.
He also has designed jewelry and belt buckles using the same technique.
To pass the time these days, and to generate extra income, he sharpens chef knives, and he has become the area distributor for an infrared heating pad that promises to relieve chronic pain.
Although he is unable to practice his beloved craft, he knows he has come a long way from a sheep ranch in Iraan.
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