I attended the Southern California Knife Expo this weekend and there were several slipjoint makers there. Richard Rogers was there with his lovely wife. He quickly sold out, but I was able to see several of the pieces, albeit from behind a large crowd. There was a very nice medium toothpick with jigged-bone, a checkered ebony gunstock single blade, a two blade gunstock, and an assortment of small, single bladed fruit knives. he had two sowbelly stokmen, but they were immediately sold. Next, there was Bill Ruple. Bill's one of my all time favorite makers. He uses ATS-34 that he heat treats himself and his slip joints, at least in my eyes and handling, have a hard work quality about them (not that other makers can't be used hard as well) andhave superb fit and finish. I have one of his stockman models and have seen his trappers, but at the show he had three absolutely awesome split-back wharncliffe whittlers. The one that caught my eye had brown jigged bone. Rick Browne from Upland, CA was there and had an aweosme 5 blade stockman. The funny part was that I never got to meet him, but the knives were displayed on his table and it seemed that on the Fri and Sunday that I was at the show, there was nobody manning his table but the knives were disappearing. In fact, on Sunday afternoon, the only knife left on his table was the 5 blade stockman and his tabled looked like it had been abandoned! Michael Vagnino, another liner lock maker, fixed blade makker and smith, had a nive singleblade slipjoint. Chales Weiss, whom I think makes some pretty awesome bowies, had a few cases with a lot of slip joints in them. I don't know if they were made by him or is they were for sale. Lastly, Michael Fong, a fine linerlock maker, had a two blade trapper on his table. Very nice. It was a pretty good show this year. There was also an assortment of sellers and collectors displaying vintage slip-joints and Case collections.
Should we have a slip-joint forum? I think so. They are a very special genre of knives and deserve some discussion. The handmades do overlap with the custom forum in someways and are often discussed in that forum. I think people that admire handmade knives can definitely appreciate the workmanship and skill that goes into making a multiblade slip joint. Oh, yeah. Richard Rogers had an awesome knife at the show. He called it a bolster-release. The blade is opended with a thumbstud and closed by pushing on the bolster that lifts the locking mechanism. It was slick! Also, there was a purveyor that had a Richard Rogers "tactical" slip lockback with a chisel-ground tanto! Can you believe it?
Should we have a slip-joint forum? I think so. They are a very special genre of knives and deserve some discussion. The handmades do overlap with the custom forum in someways and are often discussed in that forum. I think people that admire handmade knives can definitely appreciate the workmanship and skill that goes into making a multiblade slip joint. Oh, yeah. Richard Rogers had an awesome knife at the show. He called it a bolster-release. The blade is opended with a thumbstud and closed by pushing on the bolster that lifts the locking mechanism. It was slick! Also, there was a purveyor that had a Richard Rogers "tactical" slip lockback with a chisel-ground tanto! Can you believe it?
