Lorien Design DesRosier Rebuild... Build

RyanW

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I am sure most of the Bladeforums community have heard the terrible news by now that Adam and Haley DesRosier's Knife shop was lost to an accidental fire a few days ago... The out pouring of support from the knife community has been nothing short of amazing, I am hoping to help in a small way.

I have put up a Mike Quesenberry knife from my personal collection to get some funds rolling their way ASAP. If you are interested you can find that Here: http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/s...ifit-Sale-Quesenberry?p=15590003#post15590003

My good friend Lorien Arnold has offered to donate one of his designs for me to make a custom "One Off" blade to make and sell to help Adam and Haley down the road, I will keep you posted here in this thread on the progress of that Project!

... Ryan
 
Hey, thank you so much, Ryan.

I'm honoured that you've provided me with this opportunity to contribute a small part to Adam and Haley's rebuild- to get them back where they belong... behind the anvil and forge!

One of the more tragic of stories to come from news of this calamity, is the fact that the two dogs who were part of the Desrosiers family perished in the fire.

I'm going to design two knives; a delicate hunter/caping knife, and a burly trail blazing knife. I need to find out some more about the shop dogs, as their story will infuse the design, but you will certainly see hints of the Desrosiers approach to design. These patterns will be one off, not to ever be reproduced, unless to help get Adam and Haley back into fighting form.

I'll try and keep it very simple, since Ryan has already given so much. 1095 with hamon and etch, slab handles. Maybe we'll be able to get a sheathmaker to contribute. If not, I might take on that role.







 
Two Knives!!! Great idea Lorien, David Brown has graciously offered to donate Kydex sheath work if that fits in with your design ideas Lorien.
 
David Brown has graciously offered to supply a sheath for this project.
I'm going to design a package, where both knives fit into the same scabbard.
 
I received the following message from Haley this afternoon. It's very touching, and I am once again honoured to be involved in this process, unfortunate though the circumstances might be.

Lorien,

Well we call them puppies but really Shadowynn had just turned 11 this December. She was my dark chocolate angel, I got her as a little curly, button nose thing when I was 20. I was publishing a book of poetry at the time and the Author’s picture on the back cover was a cropping of me picking her up at the airport and the delight of having her in my arms the first time.

You probably know I love critters, wild and otherwise and have bottle fed and eyedropper nursed just about everything you could imagine but of all the little hearts I’ve connected with over the years Shadowynn was my favorite. She went everywhere with me, commercial fishing, freight hauling, she would ride beside me on the floor of the excavator while I worked and sleep at the foot of my bed or beside my bunk at night. If I ever tried to leave her on the big boat to do a job on the beach she would hurl herself over the rail that was above her head height to land in the water and come to me.

I took her on a two month boat trip to the Western Aleutians her first year. Because there was no vet in our small town I got her fixed in Kodiak on the way out since there was also an intact male dog aboard. She was such a tough little thing and didn't seem to care about the pain pills they gave me one way or the other so I didn’t use up the bottle. She was almost healed up when the serious caribou hunting started and I decided to wait a couple more days before I let her climb all those hills with me. I had to lock her in the galley and could barely stand her sad howls as we motored away.

As soon as we returned that night I ran to let her out and found quite the scene of debauchery. She had managed to climb the bunk rails and find the pain pills, chew open the bottle and indulge. She was sprawled out in my bed with the remains of a shredded styrofoam pillow drifting around her and her big brown eye were so dilated they looked solid black. Of course I panicked and fed her charcoal while she grinned at me but she turned out to be as bombproof as a chesapeake.

We explored Kiska island which along with Attu was the only US territory occupied by the Japanese during the war. They lived in dugout tunnels and we had opened some of them up and were wriggling down to check out the artifacts left behind. I was tamping down the panic around the edges that you get in close spaces deep underground when something shuffled down behind me and ran into my legs. I couldn't get my flashlight on it fast enough, then I realized in was Shadowynn. She’d squeezed into the shaft behind me and as usual was game for whatever I was doing.

I was pretty fascinated with the first caribou I shot and since I was into fur tanning a lot kept petting the hide and talking about what I could use it for. Shadow got visibly jealous and kept trying to get me away from it. Pretty loyal pup.

My brother had a standard poodle that I used to duck hunt with and he was incredibly clean, dodging all the puddles and dirt and could run full speed through a skiff load of fishing rods with out stepping on a single one.

Even though I had gotten Shadow from an English hunting line I assumed she would have similar tendencies. Yeahhhhh not so much. Much stockier than the show poodles you often see, if there was a mud puddle she would find it and walk through it.

We spent a lot of time flyfishing together and if I set my rod down in an entire meadow she would find it and sit on it. She had the looks and bounce of a poodle and taking her into town meant a lot of people stopping me to ask what she was since I never gave her the foo-foo haircut. I remember once when she was in her prime someone telling me how beautiful she was. In classic form my little princess sat down in front of them bolt upright, crossed her legs like a show dog and then gave this huge belch that pooched out her cheeks and proceeded to blow the foul air onto the person. That was Shadowgirl.

When Adam and I got married she gave him the serious cold shoulder, absolutely deaf to his commands and even dominance displays when we were dancing or hugging. What a little stinker.

She tried to play with Neva but she usually played too rough having grown up with a land otter for a companion she hadn’t really learned to tone it down. Neva was like the perfect golden-blonde who I teased Adam was always making my dog look bad. Everywhere Neva went people loved her for how gentle and friendly she was.

In about a year our blended family quieted right down and I found Shadow choosing to lay by Adam’s chair after a good squirrel hunt and being gentle with Neva. One of my favorite things about Shadow is that when I let her out of the house in the morning she would go tearing out ahead of me to the shop and then run back to me grinning and bouncing and then throw herself towards the shop again. It was like having sometime yelling “Oh boy!! We get to go to work again!!Yipeee!!” of course her food was in there but it sure made starting my daily grind pretty happy.

Every so often she would come find me at my bench and do a little happy dance, sometimes coaxing me outside with her to play hooky up the river. She was always there for me, ready to party when things were great and she gave great hugs when things were tough. She was fishing in the salmon crick underneath the bridge when we got married, and would be sitting on top of my four wheeler when I would get back from a day trip to town. Just waiting there at the skiff landing till Mom got home so we could go kill something and she could eat it.

She was pretty much the most lovable, intelligent brute you could come across. Of course I’m unabashedly biased.

I think the most ducks she brought back in one consecutive retrieve was 7. She brought back a goose on Thanksgiving this year but the last one was a little diver duck I shot for her then we took it home and cooked it up for her.

The last thing we did together was a ride in my little rowboat on the high tide. She was up in the bow checking everything out. There was a little deer laying down by the water so camouflaged you couldn't even see it until we floated past just a few feet away. It didn't move and Shadow didn't bark at it, we all just enjoyed each other and this amazing life God gave us. I can’t believe she’s gone, I wasn’t ready to let her go.

This is probably way too much info to send you. I guess I’m just taking advantage of a listening ear.

Thanks again Brother,
Haley





















**********


So, here's the package I've patterned up. It's still at a preliminary stage, but other than nailing the lines down and refining it to the point of easy digital interpretation, this is the plan for the most part.

The original idea was for Ryan to make a one off of this package, but that sort of limits how much I can contribute, so what I'd like to do is get a bunch of these water jet cut, and then sent to various dedicated makers who could easily turn them into functional knives, and ultimately into financial support for the Desrosiers.


 
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Thanks for sharing the letter from Haley, I am always in awe of their posts on Facebook living in Alaska unbelievably self sufficient. So much love for nature. I am sorry for the loss of your pups! Heartbreaking...

Update: Aldo and Pete Bruno of NewJerseySteel Baron have graciously offered to provide the Steel and Water Jetting on this project!!! I will be making one of the sets. If you are up to the task and able to donate your time and remaining materials to build one of these sets let Lorien or I know!

Thank you BRUNOS!!!!
 
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Good stuff.

Do you have a steel picked out?
 
Do you think there would be any possibility of having a raffle for one of the knives?

I don't know about others, but I would love to be able to help, but do not have the money to buy one of these knives. If there was a raffle I could afford some chances.

I know that buying raffle entries for that beautiful Bikes for Kids knife gave me the chance to fantasize about having the knife. And that definitely made it worth buying the entries for me, even if I didn't win. I'd appreciate a similar chance again.
 
I don't know about raffles and stuff. Right now we're just winging it :)

The idea is for the individual makers to arrange for the sale of their finished 'Alaskan Brothers' and to remit 50% or more of the sale price to the Desrosiers. Some might raffle, some might auction, others will direct sell.

The ideal spec for the package is .250" 1095 for the chopper, and .125" ATS34 or analog for the karda. However, we'll likely be getting .188" 1095 for both as we don't want to over burden the donor of the steel with asking for fancy stuff and extra work- they've already stepped up big time!

**********

Makers taking part in this project include;

Ryan Weeks
Peter McKinley
Travis Fry
Schuyler Lovestrand
Ian Hall
 
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I put together another thread in the C&H forum HERE
 
Just received a welcome and surprising, (sort of) message from The Gentleman from Texas, Mr. Paul Long;

I'll make the sheaths (leather) provided they will increase their asking price by $300 from the sheath and then pass 100% of that on to Adam and Haley. They have to be listed as a participating maker by you or Ryan and then they have to contact me to make arrangements for transfer back and forth.


Paul must be one extremely strong individual, carrying around such a huge heart!

PS. this doesn't count for Ryan's contribution, as David Brown has already offered to supply a kydex sheath with his knives.
 
we're up to 5 participants!
 
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