- Joined
- Feb 28, 2002
- Messages
- 13,348
Greetings all,
I first met Tad and had the opportunity to look over his knives back in February at the Little Rock show. He had a very impressive table across the board, but my favourites were his guardless forge-textured recurve choppers. I had been wondering how that basic look would translate into a double-guard bowie design. Looks like Les Robertson was wondering the same thing, because the very knife I had been pondering popped up on his site in the past week or so. It now has a new home.
As luck would have it, Tad had kept hold of a couple in-progress pics, so we can have a peek an a couple earlier stages:
Blade ground:
Guard fitted and flash shot shows off the hamon:
Gorgeous spalted maple handle in place:
1095 blade measures 9 ¼” in length with a 14” overall length.
Given my recent exposure to his work, I was no means surprised by just how nice this piece is. Tad is playing a very strong value hand with his work at present. His designs are sound – the handles in particular are at a level that most makers take much longer to attain. No rookie broomstick handles here. And the fit and finish throughout is very well done.
The blend of finishes here - forge texture, fine satin and a beautiful hamon really makes a strong visual impression. Scary sharp edge on this puppy, too. Just the way I like it.
Bottom line – the only thing “entry level” about this piece is the price. A matched camp knife / hunter set based on Lorien’s cool design is already on order.
Keep up the great work Tad.
Roger
I first met Tad and had the opportunity to look over his knives back in February at the Little Rock show. He had a very impressive table across the board, but my favourites were his guardless forge-textured recurve choppers. I had been wondering how that basic look would translate into a double-guard bowie design. Looks like Les Robertson was wondering the same thing, because the very knife I had been pondering popped up on his site in the past week or so. It now has a new home.
As luck would have it, Tad had kept hold of a couple in-progress pics, so we can have a peek an a couple earlier stages:
Blade ground:
Guard fitted and flash shot shows off the hamon:
Gorgeous spalted maple handle in place:
1095 blade measures 9 ¼” in length with a 14” overall length.
Given my recent exposure to his work, I was no means surprised by just how nice this piece is. Tad is playing a very strong value hand with his work at present. His designs are sound – the handles in particular are at a level that most makers take much longer to attain. No rookie broomstick handles here. And the fit and finish throughout is very well done.
The blend of finishes here - forge texture, fine satin and a beautiful hamon really makes a strong visual impression. Scary sharp edge on this puppy, too. Just the way I like it.
Bottom line – the only thing “entry level” about this piece is the price. A matched camp knife / hunter set based on Lorien’s cool design is already on order.
Keep up the great work Tad.
Roger
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