Hi Everyone,
This is my novel! I found out about John via Backwoodsman Magazine! I kept looking at his ad in the magazine for a couple of years! I think it was about November when I decided that I wanted to give my best friend Teddy a knife for Christmas! I’ve been lucky enough to have three best friends in my life! Anyway, I figured while I was ordering, I might as well order one for myself too! I went to John’s website first and looked around at what kind of knives he was making, and I think he had just made some kind of knife with a Tulip wood handle on it! I was kind of looking for a Kephart design, and his fit the bill perfectly, I decided to order two Kephart's with the Tulip wood handles! I e-mailed John, told him what I wanted, and asked how long it would take to get them once I made the order! He told me it would probably be about the middle of February, so I made the order right then! So, he was already that backed up with orders into February at that time!
When it came time to fill the big box that we send down to Teddy and his wife for Christmas, there was all kinds of stuff in the box for his wife, and I found this little bitty box to send to Teddy with an I.O.U. note inside it, that just said that I was remise in my duties at getting the Christmas present ordered in time for Christmas, and that his present wouldn't be ready until some time about mid-February! And that is all I told him! Just before John got the knives made, I asked him if he could just go ahead and mail them both to the two separate locations, and he said he would be glad too! I sent him Teddy’s address, and asked him to pick the prettiest one and send to me, and to ship the other straight to Teddy, and he said he would! Once I got mine I was hooked on JK's! And Teddy loved his too! It’s one of his prized possessions!
I e-mailed back and forth with John several times, and about the first time, I think is when he told me about his forum spot on BF! I had already been signed up with BF for about four years or so at that time but, I didn't really visit it all that much until one day I got an e-mail with a link to a sign-up sheet, for a give away knife from Bark River Knives! It turned out to be that I won that knife, so then I became a lurker for the most part but, still didn't visit BF that often! When John told me about his forum site, I started going there, and just really sitting by, and watching what was going on, and that was long before we got the knives that he made for Teddy and I! I think it was John that posted some kind of thread that hit my interest, and I just had to jump in and say something! That made John real happy, that he was the one person that got me to finally post my first response on BF!
I'll tell you, JK's are the only knives that I care about anymore! I still like to buy a production knife here and there, and especially if it is an older Schrade product but, most of the time I'd much rather save my money and buy one of John's patterns! He is a craftsman that is unequalled in my book, whether your talking about his product, his attitude and personality, or his personal service! What other knife maker can you go to that will make your own designed knife or his designed knife for you! He leaves that totally up to you! I don’t know of any! He cares about what kind of product he puts out, he cares about the customer’s he is working with, and his personal service is just unequalled!
I think there was one "Gathering" before I ordered the two Kephart's, and at that time I didn't know anything about it but, John mentioned it in one of the e-mails he sent me, that he was going to have a get together at his house on May 15th, and if I wanted to come that I was more than welcome too, and to bring Teddy too! At that point, I had been trying to get Teddy and his wife to come up, and visit with us for years! I always went to their house and visited, and you can’t get any better hospitality any place I know of in the world! So, I just wanted to reciprocate! But, they are older country folks, and about 10 years older than my wife and I, so they don't stray too far away from home! Teddy feels totally safe running those old roads down in his stomping grounds of southern Indiana but, if he has to cross that bridge into KY, and over into Louisville for any reason, and that doesn’t happen very often, he considers his self in a foreign land, let alone trying to make it around Chicago and all the way up to our place in Wisconsin! So, the next time I was down there visiting I told him about the May 15th thing, and that kind of stoked up his interest! I finally talked them into letting me come down and get them, and bring them up to our place a few days before the "Gathering", and then I would take them back home a few days after! Teddy and I went to the second "Gathering", and both of us had a ball! I think there were eight of us there that day, and we all just kind of hit it off from the minute all of us got there and met each other! I just came to feel like we were kind of a kinship! I think most of the people that hang out here on John’ forum are real good people! Like I've said before, "If you do something to make somebody else happy, and that person does something to make the next guy happy, and so on, and so on, then everyone comes out feeling happy! And that seems to be the way that John's family has really started! The first time I met John was at the May 15th thing, and he has the kind of personality that just makes you feel the same way! He gave all of us all kinds of little goodies to take home with us, he grilled lunch for us, and showed up how he makes his knives and heat treats them, which was really something to see, and what he had made that day was a tin knife for each one of us that were there! Well, that kind of really stuck with me! mqqn brought the hats that became the hats that John sold, and I'm not really sure how that deal went down but, mqqn had enough hats with him that day to give each one of us a hat! So from there after, at each one of the "Gatherings" that I have been to, and I've only missed one, and that was through no fault of my own! I always try to find some kind of goodie to take and share with everyone else that comes.
At the third "Gathering" is when outdoorsfan and Uncle Bill showed up, and they just seemed to fit right in with the family! Seems like for the most part, it is the same people that come every time! After you have been to your first “Gathering” I think everyone wants to come to the next one! Once in awhile, for circumstances beyond their control, one of the regulars can’t make it, and especially the ones that have to come from a long ways off! And every once in awhile we get a newbie but, it is always fun!
John is one of my best friends now! We get together once in awhile and go do something on our own! We always enjoy each others company, and whatever we go do! We are the same age, so we kind of know about the same kinds of things that we have seen in our lifetimes, so we have a lot in common!
Sorry, I know this has kind of turned into a novel, and I hope nobody minds! But, maybe someone will publish it as next months “Best Selling Novel”! That would really be great, and maybe I could get a payday for a change! LOL! I guess my tongue just gets to flapping and I can’t stop it! Like Robert Klein says, “Somebody help me stop my leg”! LOL! Anyway that’s my commentary on John, his business, and how he has treated me! It’s a JK family!
Oh, and by the way C Bryant, that is one heck of a nice collection of JK’s you have there!
