You guys are going to want to hit me.

Keith Montgomery

Keith Montgomery

Joined
May 9, 2000
Messages
29,205
Right off I am going to tell you why you are going to want to hit me. I don't have pictures of the knife that I am about to describe; sorry.

Well, as you know I have gotten the knife I have been waiting for for a few months longer than I first anticipated. The knife is one of those small urban Bowies by John Fitch. It is a take down with fantastic damascus blade, blued fittings (guard and pommel), a beautiful stag carver handle and a Kenny Rowe sheath with a clip instead of a belt loop. I can't stop fondling this knife. It is exceptional.

The blade came heavily blued and I took it upon myself to remove enough of the bluing to polish the blade to a level that I would be happy with. This has been a tremendous success. I also like the idea that I have had something, however small, to do with the way my knife turned out.

By the way, the reason I ended up with this fantastic damascus blade is that John substituted it for the 52100 that I had ordered as a way of making up for problems I had in getting my knife. That was way above what was required as far as I am concerned and I would really like to thank John for his generousity in doing this for me.

When I scan the pictures John took while making the knife (I will do this very soon), I will post them. When I take some pictures of the finished knife, I will post them as well (not quite as soon as the scans).
 
Hey Keith,

Do you mean that the pattern in the damascus wasn't visible because of the blueing? That is weird. What did you use to remove the bluing? Did you sand, or did you use something like flitz. I hope you have before and after pics, because I am having a hard time visualizing he blade. I usually love blued damascus.
Kyle Fuglesten

Glad you like the knife. Now hurry with the pics
 
Keith I do want to slug Ya! I too have over blued and covered up some nice patterns and color in damascus. I found that an old product called Never Dull will remove the excess and never scratch the finish. I did my Paladin Bowie this way. I had no idea there were some cool colors under the bluing.
 
Ok Keith if that is how you want to be about it !! Head or gut?? just joking . Would like to see Pic's of it !:)
 
Your knife sounds nice. He makes a beautiful knife!
By the way, and I apologize profusely if this is not the thread to bring this story up, but I had nothing but problems in getting the knife I ordered from John Fitch. This was about a year before he became a MS.

In fact, I never did get the knife because after being told what I considered to be a lot of made up stories from him, I told him to keep the knife. Let me explain.
At the time I ordered my knife I was quoted a certain price by John.
This was just prior to John getting a lot of press and some great articles made about him.

It was only a coincidence that John's knives more than doubled in demand and increased significantly in price from the time I ordered it to the time I was to receive it. And deservedly so!! This was obviously due to all the new great publicity John was getting and the fact that John makes a super fine knife!

After being told several times by John that my FINISHED knife was on its way to Kenny Rowe for the sheath and after calling Kenny to see if he had ever gotten it (which he hadn't) I got very discouraged.
I felt something was up. I finally called John 4-6 months after the last time he had told me the knife was sent to Rowe. Prior to calling John this last time, I called Rowe and asked him if he had gotten it this time because I wanted to upgrade the sheath a little. And he had not seen the knife but Rowe told me what a "deal" I was getting on a knife that John was currently selling for hundreds more. At that moment I felt that I knew what was going on with John and my knife.

When I called John to ask where my knife was he acted like he didn't understand what had happened to it. He told me to hold on a second while he went to check. He came back to the phone and said that the knife is sitting in his kitchen in the box still waiting to be sent to me for some odd reason. He said maybe his wife had lost my address and couldn't send it to me. I didn't ask John this question but my knife hadn't even been sent to Rowe yet for the sheath so why would she have boxed it and tried to send it to me?

To test my belief about what was going on, I told John that I realize his knives are worth a lot more now than when I ordered mine so I said he can have my knife to sell to make the extra money. He said to me "no, I'll go ahead and send it to you." He didn't seem real enthusiastic about this though. So I said to him and insisted "please keep it and sell at the upcoming show and make the extra money." He told me thanks and said he could sure use it. This response proved he never intended to release this more valuable knife to me unless I pestered him. After a few more words I said bye, he said thanks and bye and that was it.

Nevertheless, John makes a GREAT knife and I would like to have had one in my collection. But, I never will order one from him.

Please let us see some pictures of your handiwork on this knife. And again I apologize to you if this reply was ill timed!
 
RWS, sorry to hear of the problems you had. My experience with John was quite different and though there were delays, I never felt any concern that there were underlying reasons for the delays.

I can get a digital camera from work and take pictures of the knife, unfortunately it is already too late to get pictures of the blade as it originally arrived.
 
Originally posted by RWS
...At the time I ordered my knife I was quoted a certain price by John.
This was just prior to John getting a lot of press and some great articles made about him....
Click to expand...

This response may not be appropriate either, but...I'd like to offer my own experience in a similar situation.

Last year (or year before?) I sent knifemaker Terry Primos a casual email asking him about the price of a fighter I was interested in. He replied immediately and told me what the current price was. I thanked him for his time and sat back for a while. Meanwhile, Terry was also getting more publicity and his prices were increasing (understandably so). So I finally got off my duff and ordered the knife I wanted, knowing full well that I would be charged the "current" price at the time I ordered it (which I of course expected!). When I asked Terry what the amount was to put on the payment check, he told me the "original" amount he had quoted me. I insisted that I pay the "current" price and the answer was something like, "Nope, that's the price I quoted you when you first asked about the knife and that's the price I'm charging you. End of discussion."

Make of this little anecdote what you will.
 
It's been three days... WHERE'S THE PIC?;)
Don't make a bunch of us come there to Canada and give ya a whuppin'!
 
When I get home tonight I will post the scans of the pictures that John took while making the knife and I will see if I can get some pictures of the knife as well. I won't be able to post those for a day or two though.
 
I am going to post each of the pictures individually using the forum software.

This is strips of metal that will be welded to make the billet of damascus.

attachment.php
 
The blade sitting on a stump with the stag carver that will be used for the handle and the metel that will be cut for the guard.

attachment.php
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top