- Joined
- Nov 8, 1999
- Messages
- 103
I am a new member as far as post are concerned. I recently got a new email account just so I could post here since my other email account wasn't accepted.
However I have been lurking around here for about a year if your can believe that and I just want to say thank you to all the professional knife makers and the hobbits that post here is an effort to help each other out.
I got the bug to make knives in 1990 when as a young Marine I was slated to go to Desert Storm if the land war killed off enough of my brothers. My wife was 8 months pregnant with our first kid and my E-3 paycheck was always spent before I got it. I decided that I really needed a good knife to take and didn't want depend on the mass heat-treated Kabar that the lowest bidder would supply to our armories.
I bought a used Meat Cleaver at a flea market. It was thick and rusted and pitted on both sides. It had one handle scale left and when I held it up the old man behind the table smiled at me and said 25 cents would buy it. I quickly bought it and rushed home.
I knew right away what type of knife I wanted to make to have in my fighting position. I had been reading Blade Magazine, Knives Illustrated, and Fighting Knives and had seen a spread done on a Knife maker you might recognize, Phil Hartsfield. I called Phil and told him of my plans to make a Kukri like the one he had just released and asked for his permission to make one that might resemble his. Not only was Phil polite and helpful but he said he would mail me one of his catalogs so I could see a really good picture of the blade. I offered to pay for the catalog, I didn't really have the spare money, but he would not allow that. In a few days sure enough I had a beautiful catalog and a typed letter, not a form letter. I still cherish that catalog and the letter to this day.
I took my meat cleaver to the auto body shop on base and had a marine the worked there start to torch out the blade. While we were doing it the Auto Body shop supervisor came over and became my first knife-making teacher. See he had made his first knife out of 01 after his tour of Vietnam where he had broken his KaBar off in a VC when he had pinned him to a tree after his position was overrun.
With Gunny Jacks tutelage I cut the blade into the design and rough ground it in the shop. I then took it to the wood working shop and ground the blade on a full size 6x48 belt sander. I then went back and heat-treated it with Jack with a Torch and a bucket of water. A wrapped handle of Nylon cord and flat nylon tape, Samurai Wrap, was then done at my house and it was glued on with Devcon 2 ton Epoxy.
Finally I made my first sheath out of leather.
The moral of my story is this. There are plenty of others like me, people that love blades, and love creating them.
These forums have increased my knowledge by bounds and leaps and I would like to personally thank all of those knife makers that sacrifice some of their time, time that could definitely be used making more knives, spending some time getting out of the dog house with the wife, of just plain relaxing.
Who would think that you could actually correspond so easily and read pure knowledge from such well-known makers as?
Kit Carson, Darrel Ralph, Alan Folts, RJ Martin, At Barr, George Tichbourne, and all the others I have failed to mention.
Lastly I would like to thank another maker that opened his shop to me and gave freely of his knowledge to me. Bill Engle of Boonville M.O.
Thank you all gentlemen we all benefit from your knowledge.
[This message has been edited by Dt_Trainer (edited 13 November 1999).]
However I have been lurking around here for about a year if your can believe that and I just want to say thank you to all the professional knife makers and the hobbits that post here is an effort to help each other out.
I got the bug to make knives in 1990 when as a young Marine I was slated to go to Desert Storm if the land war killed off enough of my brothers. My wife was 8 months pregnant with our first kid and my E-3 paycheck was always spent before I got it. I decided that I really needed a good knife to take and didn't want depend on the mass heat-treated Kabar that the lowest bidder would supply to our armories.
I bought a used Meat Cleaver at a flea market. It was thick and rusted and pitted on both sides. It had one handle scale left and when I held it up the old man behind the table smiled at me and said 25 cents would buy it. I quickly bought it and rushed home.
I knew right away what type of knife I wanted to make to have in my fighting position. I had been reading Blade Magazine, Knives Illustrated, and Fighting Knives and had seen a spread done on a Knife maker you might recognize, Phil Hartsfield. I called Phil and told him of my plans to make a Kukri like the one he had just released and asked for his permission to make one that might resemble his. Not only was Phil polite and helpful but he said he would mail me one of his catalogs so I could see a really good picture of the blade. I offered to pay for the catalog, I didn't really have the spare money, but he would not allow that. In a few days sure enough I had a beautiful catalog and a typed letter, not a form letter. I still cherish that catalog and the letter to this day.
I took my meat cleaver to the auto body shop on base and had a marine the worked there start to torch out the blade. While we were doing it the Auto Body shop supervisor came over and became my first knife-making teacher. See he had made his first knife out of 01 after his tour of Vietnam where he had broken his KaBar off in a VC when he had pinned him to a tree after his position was overrun.
With Gunny Jacks tutelage I cut the blade into the design and rough ground it in the shop. I then took it to the wood working shop and ground the blade on a full size 6x48 belt sander. I then went back and heat-treated it with Jack with a Torch and a bucket of water. A wrapped handle of Nylon cord and flat nylon tape, Samurai Wrap, was then done at my house and it was glued on with Devcon 2 ton Epoxy.
Finally I made my first sheath out of leather.
The moral of my story is this. There are plenty of others like me, people that love blades, and love creating them.
These forums have increased my knowledge by bounds and leaps and I would like to personally thank all of those knife makers that sacrifice some of their time, time that could definitely be used making more knives, spending some time getting out of the dog house with the wife, of just plain relaxing.
Who would think that you could actually correspond so easily and read pure knowledge from such well-known makers as?
Kit Carson, Darrel Ralph, Alan Folts, RJ Martin, At Barr, George Tichbourne, and all the others I have failed to mention.
Lastly I would like to thank another maker that opened his shop to me and gave freely of his knowledge to me. Bill Engle of Boonville M.O.
Thank you all gentlemen we all benefit from your knowledge.
[This message has been edited by Dt_Trainer (edited 13 November 1999).]
