- Joined
- Jul 11, 2003
- Messages
- 3,258
...and a windfall.
One of my neighbors who lives just down the road is quite an interesting fellow. His name is Paul Blanchette. I would say he is 75 if a day, and just as active and healthy as an old billygoat. He's a retired moldmaker. Now for some of you who may not know exactly what a moldmaker does, he is primarily a sculptor who fashions an item and then makes a mold to reproduce that item.
After the huge textile factories died off in New England, plastics became a large industry here. Soon, large amounts of plastic goods were being blow-molded, such as bottles, picnic coolers and toys, or roll-molded, such as kayaks. All the little solid plastic things you see are all injection-molded. From keychains to airplane model kits, to swizzle sticks. Hot plastic is injected under pressure into a clamshell mold of these parts and the final product is trimmed, polished and sent on its way. The point here is that someone has to make the first piece. The model. The prototype. That's what my old friend, Paul Blanchette did for a living for many years. It requires a lot of talent.
Now ordinarily, Paul's story would not be a huge enough to post here in a knifemaker's forum. There are lots of mold-makers out there after all. Paul is also a knifemaker. He hasn't made a knife in 20 years that I know of, but the ones he made were spectacular. I'll get to that in a minute.
Did I also tell you that Paul is also a fine engraver? Oh yes! Big time. He learned the old way, under James Meeks, and his work is flawless. Sadly, such a wonderful talent has largely gone unused. He has engraved many guns and knives, but mostly for friends and himself. I suppose it was something he just HAD to learn to put another notch in his belt as many of us do. Its the same with his knifemaking work.
As I write this, I am hoping that some of you older folks will remember an old old OLD issue of Knives Illustrated with the picture of a huge bowie on the cover. The blade and guard are engraved with acute, detailed scenes of Native Americans in battle, buffaloes, and cavalry. The pure and creamy ivory handle has a cabochon of solid gold on each side and the pommel. the cabochons are sculpted in the likeness of the great chiefs, Geronimo and the like. The knife is like looking at an old issue of American Rifleman at some fine old shotgun, highly-embellished with elite engraving and gold. A true masterpiece.
That was Paul's work. Today he dubs around in his shop and fools around with rifles and gunsmithing-type stuff. He's into rifle accuracy and such. He collects Randall's, but never makes a knife.
Last Sunday, I saw Paul at the town recycling center. We chatted for a while. It's always great to talk to someone who you connect with... you know, REAL talk... not just BSing smalltalk with a neighbor with whom you wish to keep good relations. We had a great chat, but the end of it was that I told him I was fulltimer knifemaker now, and invited him to come to my shop.
He did come over, and was thoroughly impressed. He had been out of knifemaking so long! He saw my LN dewar and had to know what that was. He marvelled over my BIII, and the belts. We had a good visit.
He did not come empty-handed either! He brought me a big box full of handle materials! There was 25-year-old rosewood, thick black linen micarta, Wenge, cocobolo and what looks like some faux ivory. :thumbup:
So that's the story of Paul Blanchette. The deeper you dig into this business, the more you find. Its really not about the knives. It's all about the people who make them.
One of my neighbors who lives just down the road is quite an interesting fellow. His name is Paul Blanchette. I would say he is 75 if a day, and just as active and healthy as an old billygoat. He's a retired moldmaker. Now for some of you who may not know exactly what a moldmaker does, he is primarily a sculptor who fashions an item and then makes a mold to reproduce that item.
After the huge textile factories died off in New England, plastics became a large industry here. Soon, large amounts of plastic goods were being blow-molded, such as bottles, picnic coolers and toys, or roll-molded, such as kayaks. All the little solid plastic things you see are all injection-molded. From keychains to airplane model kits, to swizzle sticks. Hot plastic is injected under pressure into a clamshell mold of these parts and the final product is trimmed, polished and sent on its way. The point here is that someone has to make the first piece. The model. The prototype. That's what my old friend, Paul Blanchette did for a living for many years. It requires a lot of talent.
Now ordinarily, Paul's story would not be a huge enough to post here in a knifemaker's forum. There are lots of mold-makers out there after all. Paul is also a knifemaker. He hasn't made a knife in 20 years that I know of, but the ones he made were spectacular. I'll get to that in a minute.
Did I also tell you that Paul is also a fine engraver? Oh yes! Big time. He learned the old way, under James Meeks, and his work is flawless. Sadly, such a wonderful talent has largely gone unused. He has engraved many guns and knives, but mostly for friends and himself. I suppose it was something he just HAD to learn to put another notch in his belt as many of us do. Its the same with his knifemaking work.
As I write this, I am hoping that some of you older folks will remember an old old OLD issue of Knives Illustrated with the picture of a huge bowie on the cover. The blade and guard are engraved with acute, detailed scenes of Native Americans in battle, buffaloes, and cavalry. The pure and creamy ivory handle has a cabochon of solid gold on each side and the pommel. the cabochons are sculpted in the likeness of the great chiefs, Geronimo and the like. The knife is like looking at an old issue of American Rifleman at some fine old shotgun, highly-embellished with elite engraving and gold. A true masterpiece.
That was Paul's work. Today he dubs around in his shop and fools around with rifles and gunsmithing-type stuff. He's into rifle accuracy and such. He collects Randall's, but never makes a knife.
Last Sunday, I saw Paul at the town recycling center. We chatted for a while. It's always great to talk to someone who you connect with... you know, REAL talk... not just BSing smalltalk with a neighbor with whom you wish to keep good relations. We had a great chat, but the end of it was that I told him I was fulltimer knifemaker now, and invited him to come to my shop.
He did come over, and was thoroughly impressed. He had been out of knifemaking so long! He saw my LN dewar and had to know what that was. He marvelled over my BIII, and the belts. We had a good visit.
He did not come empty-handed either! He brought me a big box full of handle materials! There was 25-year-old rosewood, thick black linen micarta, Wenge, cocobolo and what looks like some faux ivory. :thumbup:
So that's the story of Paul Blanchette. The deeper you dig into this business, the more you find. Its really not about the knives. It's all about the people who make them.
