who did the forged blade in "How to Make Knives"?

[Matthew Gregory]

This is something I want total clarity on, as it was the source of heated debate (well, at least I was heated) on a cold winter evening not so long ago, and I couldn't find anything to reinforce my belief...

In the book "How To Make Knives" by R.W. Loveless and R. Barney, there is a section on how a forged blade is made in the Moran shop. The knife is certainly a Moran-styled knife, the shop is his, etc - HOWEVER - Mr. Moran is NOT credited in any way. Having never met him, and with the images in this book being notoriously crummy, I can't distinguish whether or not the man is Mr. Moran.

If it is Bill Moran, why wasn't he given any mention? There's got to be a story behind this...

 

[A C Richards]

That would be Bill Moran himself. Just looked at the book again and yup old OLD pictures.

 

[Matthew Gregory]

...then why wasn't he credited anywhere in the book? Doesn't that strike you as odd?

Someone's gotta know the background on this...

 

[irbailey]

In the forward it says,

'Two of the finest knifemakers in history will take you into their shops and show you, step by step just how to make their knives'

A bit further on it says,

'Since you may be new to handmade knives, I will give you some background on two of these men'

After a description of Bob Loveless' work it goes on to say,

William F. Moran is one of that rare class of knifemakers. "The knifesmith". He forges every blade. Bill has been forging knives for well over 25 years and a few years ago redeveloped the hand-forged Damascus blade. This is an enormous accomplishment and would be enough to establish his fame, even if he had not been making fine hunting knives for many, many years.
If you want to make authentic period pieces in the original way, follow Bill into his shop and he will show you the tools and methods you should use.'

This along with the pictures of Mr Moran (pages 64, 68, 76, 79, and 86,) ought to provide ample evidence of who done the forging section in the book.

Hope this answers your question.

Ian

 

[A C Richards]

Yup in my book he is mentioned/credited on page VII in the forward.