Bio-sketch

I made my first knife in 1989. I always loved knives as a boy and decided to try my hand at making them when I was required to teach a craft to boys in our church related frontier camping fellowship. Those early pioneer style knives became popular in our group and soon spread to other camping outposts in the Northwest district. With feedback from my friends and customers along with abusive field testing of my own I soon found that the heat-treatment of the blade steel was the secret to a quality knife. The majority of the blades I make now are high carbon steel damascus in several of my own patterns and styles. Two or more carbon steels are heated to 2300 degrees and forge welded together by a hydraulic press of my own design. The press allows very good control on the hot steel for stretching and patterning for consistant flawless damascus blades. The forge is a factory made 3 burner forced air and propane model fitted with a thermocouple and a digital pyrometer. I am able to adjust the fire to achieve a stable high temperature for welding or a lower temp for forging a blade to shape.

I prefer natural handle materials and almost always lean to legal elephant (pre-ban) or mammoth ivory. There is just something about the look and warm feel of a handle made from ivory. The value of a well made knife with an ivory handle never fades. I hand pick each slab and pay premium prices for only quality materials. The way I see it, only the best will do.

My latest interest is in "bladed pistols" A couple centuries ago the pistol was still new and unreliable enough that gunsmiths of that time fitted blades on the guns in case of missfire and as a back-up. These dual threat pieces are a thing of beauty and rare in the original form but can be recreated although not to exact detail but still functional and fun to use. The history of the gunknife covers several centuries from the matchlock to the cap and ball. Some were fixed blade and some were fitted with folding knife blades. I like to make them with damascus steel and ivory. They come with a small powder flask and tool kit. All this stores neatly inside of a custom made velvet lined, leather bound booksafe.