What a great weekend, if only the fish were biting!

[Atlas Knife Company]

I had a great weekend in Branson, Missouri. I got to meet two great full-time, professional knifemakers, Gary Mulkey and Dennis Smith. Gary runs the knife shop at Shepperd of the Hills in Branson, and Dennis works the knife section of the blacksmith shop at Silver Dollar City, also in Branson. My son Graham and I spent two hours with Gary watching him make damascus, looking at some of his knives and damascus patterns, and just chatting about everything from whiskey to weightlifting. If you ever get a chance to see Gary's knives, check out the wood grain damascus. It's simply the most striking pattern I've ever seen, barely edging out Deker's redwood burl pattern. We spent about 15 minutes chatting with Dennis while he was at work. Sorry for bothering you, Dennis. He has made over 1000 RR spike knives and I have no idea how many others. He had a very neat RR Spike/damascus San-Mai dagger. He is also making cast aluminum handled knives which are also pretty nice. Normally you think of cast handled knives as junk and I assure you that these were very nice.

However, I was unable to meet Ray Johnson this time, as he is still recovering and wasn't there. I met him once a few year ago, before I got into knifemaking. His knives were superb and I wish him well in recovering.

Unfortunately, I took no pictures so I guess it didn't happen. . .