- Joined
- Feb 17, 1999
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Last year in Sept. 2001 at the Blade West show,Phyllis and I spent quite some time late in the evening chatting with Ed Fowler about knives. During the time chatting, I had glued to my hand one of his smaller versions of the Pronghorn. Earlier in the day, I had visited with him and also bill Burke and had looked at their knives for the first time in person.
I'll admit, being primarily an "art knife" collector, I was not overly attracted to the Pronghorn visually but when holding it, and having gone to Ed's seminar where he related the virtues and features of his ideas behind the "high performance knife", I became more taken by this knife to the point of finally contacting Bill Burke and ordering a 3 1/2" Pronghorn with an expected delivery of August 2002.
Why not order a Fowler? Good question with 2 answers. Delivery time and cost.
Because we were already making another extended trip west which included a cruise to Alaska and 3 knife shows, we planned a stop at Bill's in Salmon, Idaho to pick up the knife which he advise was ready in an email of August 2002.
Upon arrival, we learned that he thought I'd get to his place Sept 14 (our departure for Alaska day) and the knife was a work in progress. He then showed me a larger version which I felt was just fine.
Of course as many of you know, Bill often enters the cutting competitions and he showed me his new competitive knife that he has cut 11 1" hemp wrapped together with one stroke at the shop.
Last Sept. he and Ed told Phyllis and me how they are doing more interesting work with 52100 in forging and heat treating and that they have been able to consistently do 400 cuts of the 1/3 strand of the 1" rope.
But before we get to far into the story, lets look at some other images of this fine knife. Some brief statistics. It is 52100 forged with #12 leather sheath and brass guard with the traditional sheephorn handle. In this case Ramboulet sheep was used. The horn is shaped somewhat by Bill to fit to the hand. This partiular knife is 10 1/2" overall with slightly over a 5" blade. The widest part of the blade is 1 5/32" from a forged to 1/4" stock.
This side is the obverse with Bill's initials imprinted thereon.
The reverse side: 2 views
note the temper line
oops too many images they say. looks like a multi parted thread here
I'll admit, being primarily an "art knife" collector, I was not overly attracted to the Pronghorn visually but when holding it, and having gone to Ed's seminar where he related the virtues and features of his ideas behind the "high performance knife", I became more taken by this knife to the point of finally contacting Bill Burke and ordering a 3 1/2" Pronghorn with an expected delivery of August 2002.
Why not order a Fowler? Good question with 2 answers. Delivery time and cost.
Because we were already making another extended trip west which included a cruise to Alaska and 3 knife shows, we planned a stop at Bill's in Salmon, Idaho to pick up the knife which he advise was ready in an email of August 2002.
Upon arrival, we learned that he thought I'd get to his place Sept 14 (our departure for Alaska day) and the knife was a work in progress. He then showed me a larger version which I felt was just fine.
Of course as many of you know, Bill often enters the cutting competitions and he showed me his new competitive knife that he has cut 11 1" hemp wrapped together with one stroke at the shop.
Last Sept. he and Ed told Phyllis and me how they are doing more interesting work with 52100 in forging and heat treating and that they have been able to consistently do 400 cuts of the 1/3 strand of the 1" rope.
But before we get to far into the story, lets look at some other images of this fine knife. Some brief statistics. It is 52100 forged with #12 leather sheath and brass guard with the traditional sheephorn handle. In this case Ramboulet sheep was used. The horn is shaped somewhat by Bill to fit to the hand. This partiular knife is 10 1/2" overall with slightly over a 5" blade. The widest part of the blade is 1 5/32" from a forged to 1/4" stock.
This side is the obverse with Bill's initials imprinted thereon.
The reverse side: 2 views
note the temper line
oops too many images they say. looks like a multi parted thread here
Anyway thanks for the kind words everyone. The test blade that Murry talked about has a three inch blade and all the standard "Fowler" treatments. Here is a picture.
ops
