Good evening to all. My apologies for being remiss in not responding sooner but my kids start school back next week and I've taken some much needed time with them prior to their return to the rigorous schedule of elementary school and all that goes along with it.
I will not get into a war of words on this site, as honestly I'm not much of a forum kind of guy or an individual looking for confrontation, etc. I like to spend time with my family, work in my shop and do my best to be a valuable member of this crazy society in which we live.
I tell you this to say that out of respect for any of you guys offended or troubled by me or my work, it is not nor was not my intentions. Quite the contrary actually. Not my style at all. Again, I enjoy my time on this earth doing something I love and trying my best as a man to support my family and be as much of an active part of their lives as possible. Simply that. Not to go to shows, compete in competitions, try to win accreditations, etc. Not what I want to do. My grandfather who was an incredible man taught me what a knife was. He was a man of extremely humble means and if something broke, he fixed it, himself. Whether running a very crude grinder to make a piece of steel sharp or replacing an old oak handle on a knife that he just couldn't part with.
Do I use CNC'ed blades in a portion of my work? Absolutely I do. Are these "cheap/junk", I do everything in my power to make sure they are not and work very closely as well as having investments in several machining operations. Do I buy knives off eBay? I do not. I know this will get backlash, but I just don't buy from ebay. Do I have very solid relationships with very good people in the knife industry that have helped me design styles, etc and then help to produce ideas, absolutely I do and most of these connections were made through the help of some very very good knifemakers I have gotten to know in my area. This is one reason a long time ago I decided to join forces from an investment standpoint within the machining industry. One thing I absolutely love is consistency and durability. Putting practices in place to insure this is of the utmost importance to me. I want a very good end product that I can absolutely stand behind. While my business model might not look like yours, it is the one that I can guarantee and live with. Do some of my knife styles look like others, of course they do. How many times can the traditional trout fillet be redesigned? I'm not attempting with this to start a long war of words or a "he said, she said". I'm trying to explain to the angry mob that my intentions are not to detract from the integrity, hardwork and intensity that a master blade smith is doing in his work. As a result many of them reap countless rewards and vast sums of money per knife. I congratulate them for this and wish everyone in this community the best! Again, I don't degrade other makers, I don't knock their work, I honestly look at my work as a business for me to support my family, not a competition and certainly not an ego boost. Plain and simple. I am man enough to give any one of you guys my address, phone number, etc and will gladly have you to my shop, or talk to you man to man. I have nothing to hide from you or anyone and am man enough to welcome any of you into my world to see me as a person. I am a good person and not this disrespectful thug many of you seem to be portraying me as. I am sorry if you think/thought otherwise.
One thing I will defend is this. The oyster knife design is my design. I will stand before the Good Man above and tell you that exact fact. Has it been copies and reproduced, mass produced now with a hidden tang and with a full tang...it has. Am I worried about it? Not one bit. This is absolutely a free market and a society in which capitalism is encouraged. So no business idea, product etc is safe from this type of duplication. If I would have ever thought so, I would have attempted to seek a patent, etc. But how in good faith would I do that if I'm using a trout fillet design or traditional chef design that had been around long before any of us here were even breathing on this earth. You can agree or disagree with me, it's totally your right and I'm respectful that a person's opinion is just that...theirs!
I have taken steps to remove any misleading verbiage (or at least my tech buddy is working on it) to ensure there are no claims that are not 100% correct on the site. The use of "FROM blade...to sheath" is not 100% correct, although the intent at the time was to say it was going "From" one thing to another. No matter, it is being removed and hope you know I'm doing this because I have enough respect for the knife community to do so.
I will leave this discussion with two quick thoughts I take away from the last few hours of reading this stuff. 1) The "removal" of posts, etc were done because often they were laden with profanity and comments that I would not let me child look at. Plain and simple, it offended me and I don't condone that in their worlds. 2) There were attacks on me and my family. I will take any words thrown at me, but I will not put up with that crap towards my loved ones. Zero tolerance there. 3) The rude comments about me "not working hard", etc...they were uncalled for. I literally bust my rear end, everyday, from sun up to sun down. My work ethic is not something I will have questioned. Who is to say that the "starting point" to be a valid hard working knife maker is from the steel billet...why then could one not say that a "real hard working" knife maker is starting with the gathering of ore from the ground. It doesn't make sense to me that a person can blindly attack my character because he or she thinks something is only done one way or it's not "right". I'm sorry but I don't agree with that.
Once again, I appreciate the comments. I honestly do. I'm just a normal simple guy trying to do a good job at life. I provide for my obligations and my family, I buy tons of goods from all kinds of kind people across the world that generates revenues for them, I employee several guys who depend on our hardwork to support their lives, I pay my taxes, and I donate countless items, money and time to more causes than you could possibly imagine.
What I don't do is offend, disrespect or get involved in people's business or lives. Sorry if I have interfered with yours in some way. Do what you will with this response, gather and process your own personal thoughts. I am stopping for a second as a fellow human being, not a knife maker, and telling you all that I respect each and every one of you as a fellow being. I hope in some little way you might be able to gleam just a tad that I'm not that bad of a guy in all honesty.
All my best to everyone and I am sorry for any trouble, offense or hardship I might have unintentionally exposed you to. Feel free to let me know if you'd like to discuss any of this live with me, I am open to it anytime!
