What started you collecting customs?

R

Rod Neep

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What started you collecting custom knives? I'm sure each of us has our own story.

Below are two of my knives. My latest custom, which I received a couple of months ago, and the one that started it all.

1. A Mel Fassio twist damascus with mammoth scales - love it!
fassio1b-800.jpg


And below... the one that started it all.

It is as if it was yesterday. My dad took me into town and bought me my very first knife. It was 1956, and I was 11 years old. You can imagine how it felt to own this one as a youngster. Carbon steel blade 3 7/8" long, 7 3/4" long overall, with real stag, and bands of leather, brass and black & red composition of some sort, with a chunk of a fairly scarce metal - aluminum at the blunt end. It isn't a beauty by today's collecting standards, but to me it is still worth everything it was to that 11 year old back in 1956.

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Regards,
Rod
 
I was 7 in 1956, and although I had a knife at that age mine certainly wasn't on par with yours. I probably didn't know anyone that owned a knife on par with it. Still everyone I knew back then had a knife and they were meant to be used. I knew what stag was back then, it was the handle material on Roy Rogers' Colts. Roy was my hero, and I wanted stag, but the closest I could come was plastic meant to look like stag.

I got my first stag handle knife while I was in the Navy. I didn't find out there were other knifeknutz on the planet until 1998. I went to my first custom knife show that year, and there wasn't a doubt in my mind that custom knives were in my future. More than that custom knives with stag handles were in my future.

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I bought my first handmade knife, (a GenO Denning #6 in stag) in 2000, and was having customs made to my design before the year was up. The focus of my collection is still stag. I buy handmade, customs and production. Of course there is a certain pride of ownership of a custom knife, but a good knife is a good knife.
 
What started you collecting customs?

This forum.

I have been interested in custom knives for thirty years, but had never purchased one until I started hanging around this place. Getting to communicate directly with many knifemakers and finding out what great people they are really got me wanting to purchase my first custom. Getting to see photos of so many great knives made it impossible for me to not get one. After that it has just snowballed.
 
PhilL said:
I was 7 in 1956, and although I had a knife at that age mine certainly wasn't on par with yours. I probably didn't know anyone that owned a knife on par with it. Still everyone I knew back then had a knife and they were meant to be used. I knew what stag was back then, it was the handle material on Roy Rogers' Colts. Roy was my hero, and I wanted stag, but the closest I could come was plastic meant to look like stag.
Click to expand...
Hey... Roy Rogers was extremely popular with us kids here in England too. And yes, a real stag knife was the ultimate for any kid! It felt like a million dollars to have one :)
Rod
 
The year was 1989, and I was 19 years old when I bought my first custom made knife.
I went to a local gun show and met a man there that had different knives at his table that did not look like the Gerbers and Case knives that I was accustomed to. I started talking to this gentleman and found out that he actually made all of those knives that were sitting on his table. I was astonished and since then I have been hooked.
The man at that table was Jimmy Lile. If I only knew then what I know now, I would have bought everything at the table.


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I was surfing Ebay, looking for a Kershaw knife to buy for a friend for a birthday gift. I came upon a beautiful Michael Smith mammoth ivory/Devon Thomas damascus kinfe with a ruby thumb stud. $700 later I was a "collector". I never knew such beautiful works of art existed. I started to read as many books as possible, and started surfing knife sites on the internet. I was intrigued by the use of natural materials and the mechanical beauty. My first show was the 2003 AKI, where I purchased two Tim Herman knives. I now have 42 knives in my collection. Kious, Walker, Steinau, Frank, Schwarzer, Olszewski, Fogarizzu, Jernigan, John Smith, Pachi, Bennica, Kressler, Minnick, Stephans, Reed, Sawby, Ankrom, Corbit, Eaton, Embretsen, Gustafsson and Khalsa. I have knives engraved by Skaggs and Cover. I don't know if this will ever end!
 
I went for an after-dinner walk by myself 3 years ago and when a small group of "youts" came up the other side of the street I realized how small and slow to deploy the 1-1/2" bladed Frost lockback I had in my pocket was. The "youts" kept walking but I started asking around on a gunny list about knives, and that led me to a CRKT Crawford Kasper Folder.

I really liked it, and I started asking, who is this Crawford guy? I did some web surfing and I was so jazzed by what I saw that I ended up buying a "Hangnail" on eBay, though I was shocked that I would spend NEARLY FORTY DOLLARS!! on one knife (I have spent a bit more since).

Hangnail.jpg


That led to more Crawfords and now I have, well, several of his knives. Of course I soon found out about some of the online knife knut groups and became exposed to other great makers, so that now I have, well, several knives by other makers.

I joined the local knife club, Southern California Blades, and have helped out at Knife Expo. It is a great hobby and it not only keeps me off the streets, but it leaves me with no money left over for drinking, gambling, or other vices!
 
I always carried a pocket knife as a kid and had just one fixed blade. Never thought about collecting knives until years later and really didn't know a thing about customs. I had this idea about a bowie knocking around in my head and at the end of 2001 I finally got hooked up with the internet and started looking for someone to turn my 'dream' knife into reality. I sent my drawing to Ken Largin with all my specs and in a few months, I had my very 1st custom made knife! One knifemaker I had contacted pointed me in the direction of Blade Forums and a whole new world opened up!
 

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I suppose that thing which started me on the road was the desire to know more about mankind. Specifically, the people behind the knives.

Each and every one of them has his or her own story to tell. For me, it just happened to be Ray Kirk. He's truly one of the nicest guys I know. This will probably embarrass him because I found him to be a really decent chap, who despite his vast knifemaking knowledge has never made a big deal of it.

Thus, I know his knives really his character - tough, durable and truly reliable under all circumstances.

I know there are quite a number of such people out there. I will take my time finding them and then their knives (situation permitting) and thus enrich my own life through contact with them. :) :)
 
This place!
I knew about custom knives, saw the ads, read the occasional magazine.
I had the attitude that it would be crazy to spend that much on a knife.

The forums taught me what makes a good knife and a great knife.
I also learned that knifemakers are people too and 99% of them are great people.
Once I knew what I was looking at, I knew I had to have a couple :D
 
Another vote for this place. I used to see custom knives when I'd wander into the Gun Exchange in San Francisco, back in the 70's and 80's, but never made the connection as to what they represented.

If I'd only known then, what I know now, I'd have been broke a lot sooner! ;)
 
I was about thirteen or fourteen years old when I read an article about custom knives and I was hooked since then. " Knives! That is what I want to make for a living!" I though. Soon after, I placed orders for my first customs and bugged a local gunsmith to make me some knives from car springs. Later I placed my first order with a foreign maker - John Salley, a talented but not too often heard of maker from Ohio - and picked up my Salley blade while living as an exchange student in Minnesotta. When I got back to Brazil, there were a few new makers showing up on the local gun magazine and I placed orders with them. Soon, I would become Brazil first custom knife dealer - a nice excuse to buy more knives and learn knifemaking, and I even made money!
Those were good times, when everything was new and we would all get excited about a black micarta handle (not availabile locally then). This thread sure brought me some good memories! :)
 
In 1999 there was not going to be a knife show in Texas so I decided that this was a crime that I would rectify. I had been to several shows by that time but never put one on. I had only collected the old antique factory knives up until then and never even knew a knifemaker. I was overwhelmed by the number of tables that I was selling to knifemakers and figured I had better investigate this handmade knife thing. I checked out some guy that was signed up to come to the show that year named Bradshaw and thought what the hell I will order a couple of knives from him. The rest is history, now I am buying 10 handmades to 1 antique knife. Of course I enjoy all aspects of knives from buying and collecting to buying and selling. I also absolutely love putting on the show every year.
 
I had always thought knives were kind of cool, but had never been exposed to anything beyond the standard factory fare. I had a Buck folder and fixed blade and thought that was pretty much the top of the mountain. Some time in the early '80s my Dad and I took what was to be the first of several trips together to Dallas to see the Cowboys play. I was amazed to come across a knife store in a North Dallas mall that had several shelves of customs. I spent pretty much the entire day Saturday in there and walked out with a Robert Hajovsky dagger (which now resides chez Coop). The next year I picked up an awesome Warren Osborne fixed blade fighter, and discovered the existence of knife magazines and the "Knives" annual.

Perusing the adds in the knife magazines I sent letters off to a number of makers whose knives appealed to me (remember when there was no e-mail, no internet, and you actually had to use this thing called a pen and write on this stuff called paper and put a stamp on it and everything?) My next two knives were from a coupla guys I knew precious little about at the time, but sure liked the look of their knives: Fisk and Crowell. I've been a forged blade nut ever since.

Cheers,

Roger

PS - The Fisk Arkansas Camp knife - which I ended up selling over 10 years ago to help fund the purchase of my wife's engagement ring - still ranks as one of the finest knives I have ever owned.
 
My first real knife show, actually the ECCKS first show, I had been reading the magazines, Blade, Knives Illustrated and I saw a big show comming to Jersey, so I went, met AG Russell, actually he cut himself and had to go get stitches :eek: that must of been embarrassing, and I met Bud Nealy, who at the time was a starting knifemaker.

I had saved money all year to go, figuring on buying a couple of BM's and Spydercos, I wound up being impressed with what Bud had to offer, and to top it off his shop was only 20 miles from where I live. :cool:

I bought a blued 01 Aikuchi from him, I still have the knife and the original box and receipt and the knife is a user, not a closet queen.
 
As a kid, I remember wanting a buck knife at the sporting goods store. Neither the saleman or my mom would go for me having it. Then there was a knife that I thought about stealing one time from my elementary school jamboree... I must have been very young, I thought it over and decided I couldn't do it, eventhough I was tempted by the opportunity, I wouldn't have been able to deal with the guilt over it.

Years later I developed a renewed interest, from making small carvings and sculpture. I needed a good knife. And after a few years of interest in old pocket knives and Marbles knives, I wandered over to the customs at the Blade Show. At first, it was either way too expensive or too flashy. Now, I enjoy seeing it all for how much imagination is there. And there is a little bit of everything for all tastes.
David
 
In the mid 70s a guy I worked with found a copy of AG Russell’s Cutting Edge catalog in the trash and showed it to me. I really had no idea such a world existed. I subscribed to the catalog and was hooked. Once I stumbled onto this forum things escalated. AG’s Cutting Edge is now a internet site and no longer a paper catalog and I have more knives than money or sense.
 
I've been a knife nut sence I was six years old. I had a small collection of old pocket knives. My father started making knives in 1981 and I got interested and made a few along with him.In 1990 we sold the family business and bought a farm here in Missouri, with no job or money after I built our house, I started making knives fulltime. Fixed blades at first them folders and damascus. I made mostly high end folders and autos for the last eight years or so. Then after Danbo bugging me to make him fixed blades over the years, I found Blade Forums and all the beautiful bowies posted here not to mention a great group of guys and the bowie / forged blade bug bit me bad, I guess I'm a certified bowie nut now thanks in part to you guys here. I also still like folders though and at present make more of them than the fixed blades. BTW, I do a little bowie collecting also, it's all fun :)

Don Hanson lll
 
Hey, Don. Collecting bowies, eh? How about I trade you this really special bowie I picked up a while ago, for one of yours. The maker's name is Pak Istan or something like that. ;) :D
 
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