Companies on the cutlery side seem to be weathering the COVID-19 era better than those in most other industries, in no small part due to online knife sales. BLADE promised to check on the custom side of things for you, and, though maybe not quite as well as their production brethren, the custom knifemakers we asked about it seem to be holding their own.
Already Practicing Social Distancing
Having employees work from home is one of the measures factory knife and other companies have taken to ensure long-range social distancing and to help control the spread of the virus.
Many custom makers, of course, work out of their home shops and have done so for decades, so they were a step ahead of the game in that regard from the outset.
Moreover, many makers take orders and sell their knives through their own websites, on social media, via email, and through advertising in knife magazines and elsewhere. As a result, not unlike their factory counterparts, they have experienced some success in that area, too. Purveyors who sell the makers’ knives are an added bonus as well.
Ironically, the early lockdown and also the downturn in another industry—travel—actually bene fitted at least one knifemaker.
“Good For My Business”
“Honestly, COVID has been real good for my business. At the beginning when everything was closed, we suddenly had a bunch of free weekends when travel all got canceled,” noted Jason Fry. “I used that time to do a lot of knife work. In the first three months of COVID, I have one customer that bought four of the six knives I put out for sale. Product has continued to move well, even at the $500+ price points.”
Another boost to custom knife sales early on was the federal stimulus and unemployment checks.
“Our sales went up a whole lot when the stimulus checks were sent out and people on unemployment were getting that extra $600 a week,” noted Linda Hibben, wife of BLADE Magazine Cutlery Hall-Of-Fame® member Gil Hibben.
Linda added that while things had slowed down a bit in late summer, Gil continued to accept orders.
“Believe it or not, the Rambo III bowie and machete are still selling,” she enthused. (Along with the third Rambo movie, the Rambo III bowie debuted in 1988.) “We have had several di fferent bowie orders and combat-type knife orders recently.”
“Orders Are Down Overall”
ABS master smith and BLADE contributor Wally Hayes indicated he was still taking orders via email, messenger, Instagram and Facebook, but had “lost a bunch” also.
“I would say orders are down overall,” he stated. Helping take up the slack for Wally are the damascus watch dials he builds for a watchmaker in Oslo, Norway.
Supplies Still Plentiful
As for having enough supplies to fill knife orders, maker George Brackett said he had everything he needed to make about 70 forged knives, with 32 orders “in the pipeline.” After he gets the go-ahead from his doctors following some recent surgery, he’s going to start making knives again.
Fry indicated he’s experienced no real issues with supplies yet, and intends to order bulk every few months.
“I haven’t tried ordering steel lately,” he added, “but belts, etc., haven’t been a problem.”
On the down side have been the cancellations of a number of knife shows, including BLADE Show 2020, the latter a place where many makers would have sold a significant number of knives and taken a large number of orders. (BLADE Show 2021 is set for June 4-6 at the Cobb Galleria Centre in Atlanta.)
If it weren’t for the fact that other knife shows aren’t the go-to venues they once were due to online sales and other factors, such makers no doubt would be hurting more than they are now.
Contracts Still In Place
Another bonus for makers such as Gil is the collaboration agreements they have entered into with factory knife companies. In fact, his long-time contract with United Cutlery is going great knives, including a knife design in the works celebrating his upcoming 65th anniversary as a knifemaker in 2022.
“We have new designs coming out with United on a regular basis,” Linda wrote, “so all is good!”
Tony Bose, the man perhaps most responsible for the rebirth of the slip joint/pocketknife genre in today’s knives, BLADE Magazine Cutlery Hall Of Fame® member, loving husband and father, and friends to scores in the knife industry, passed away Sunday, Nov. 22, 2020.
A Shock to the Knife Community
Reactions poured in from the knife community.
“Heartbreaking news!” knifemaker Bill Ruple noted on his Facebook page. “Tony was my hero in the knife community!! He broke ground for all of us in the slip joint community!!”
Added knifemaker Bobby Branton, “Through his knowledge and willingness to share with others, [Tony] has played a huge part in keeping the custom slip joint movement alive. His contributions and work with Case knives have made his designs affordable to collectors around the world.”
Chimed in knifemaker Luke Swenson, “We lost a fine knifemaker and a better person and friend.”
A Love Of Traditional Pocketknives
Tony Bose championed slipjoint knives and other traditional styles. (Kerry Hampton image)
Things didn’t come easy for Bose from the get go. Born in 1946, he lost his right eye at 6.
“Most of his life has been affected one way or another by that loss, but perhaps it was the defining moment in steering his career in the direction of self-employment and self-discovery,” Cutlery Hall-Of-Fame member Ken Onion said in his speech inducting Tony into the Cutlery Hall Of Fame in 2019. Tony’s father also was disabled, so Tony sought work to help his family make ends meet. His disability made finding employment difficult, especially at a time when employers were reluctant to hire the disabled.
One of the things that helped Bose persevere was his affection for slip joints.
“He’s had a deep love for traditional pocketknives for as long as he can remember. He always had one, mostly something worn out or someone gave him,” Onion observed.
In high school Bose made money sharpening knives until he saved up enough to buy a brand new Case knife. Eventually he started making fixed blades in his spare time.
“His focus was to acquire the necessary equipment to build folding knives, and that he did,” Onion continued.
In 1989, Bose became a full-time maker.
“His goal was to make traditional folding knives and improve upon them using the best materials he could find, and to perfect the craft,” Onion said.
Bose was self-taught and, due to the difficulty he encountered in finding information on making knives, he vowed to share his knowledge with other makers to keep the interest alive.
Gradually, Tony began to establish himself, making slip joints and selling them at local knife shows. He began winning honors for his knives at various events, including Best Folder awards at the 1994 East Coast Custom Knife Show and, in 1995, at the world’s largest and most important knife event: the BLADE Show in Atlanta.
Bose’s Career Takes Off
The Bose/Case collaboration will be remembered as one of the most successful in modern knives. (Case photo)
The turning point in Bose’s career came in 1999 when, at the request of Mark Zalesky, now editor of Knife Magazine, Ed Jessup of Case called to see if Bose would be interested in working with Case. Tony agreed and the Case/Bose collaborations went on to transform an industry.
Tony and Case did not limit their working agreement to knife collaborations only. Tony became a crowd favorite at Case consumer events and swap meets nationwide, conducting knifemaking seminars, meet and greets, and otherwise serving as an ambassador for all things Case.
It was a relationship beneficial to both parties and the entire industry in more ways than one. In the case of Case, not only did it swell company coffers, it also improved Case knives—no small feat for one of the world’s leading names in cutlery.
In the process of combining on some of the world’s best slip-joint collaborations, Tony and Case refocused attention on slip joints in general. Add the impeccable custom slip joints that Tony continued to make, and custom knife aficionados bought more of them. That influence included other custom makers as well, and more of them switched from making other knife genres to building slip joints.
A Legacy of Teaching and Inspiration
Almost as legendary as his knives is Tony’s legacy of teaching anyone who wanted to know how to make knives.
“Tony takes the time to be sure students understand what he’s trying to teach,” Onion said in 2019. “He’s improved the level of quality in a big way at Case and has taught them to do the impossible. He consistently strives for perfection. He’s very inspirational and has been a muse to the company. He’s respected and loved by everyone.”
Tony Bose poses with his plaque during BLADE Show 2019 after being inducted into the BLADE Magazine Cutlery Hall of Fame alongside Hall of Fame Member Ken Onion (left) and family.
One of the most accomplished of all of Tony’s students is his son, Reese. The younger Bose has become so adept at making slip joints that he is considered among the world’s best.
Concluded Cutlery Hall-Of-Famer Dan Delavan, “Tony Bose is another maker who made what he liked, slip joints, when there was not much demand, and then the market took off. His work is still the best and the most sought after.”
What about knives is susceptible to the cancel culture?
By Steve Shackleford
The so-called cancel culture that’s plagued our nation for some time now has somehow managed to overlook our beloved knife community—at least so far. Of course, this is not to say that the “woke mob” hasn’t attacked a number of personages revered not only worldwide but in the knife community as well, such as presidents George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, both of whom carried knives of various types, including some really cool pocketknives that have been featured in BLADE®.
In fact, some knifemakers, including Ernest Emerson through his Emerson Knives, Inc., and ABS master smith Jerry Fisk, have built and sold knives with handles made of wood taken from the trees on Washington’s Mount Vernon estate. Many other presidents have connections to knives as well, but, for now, their statues or monuments haven’t been toppled, spray-painted with graffiti, or otherwise vandalized by the wokesters—or at least not like Washington’s and Lincoln’s have.
All of which got me to thinking: If the woke mobsters were to come after the knife community, what might they single out? There are some words knife enthusiasts use that could be targeted. Stockman, for instance, would no doubt enrage those who might demand it be called stockperson instead. However, if you ask for a stockperson at a knife store, instead of a knife the attendant might bring out Hank, the 38-year-old shelf stocker from the storeroom.
Another pocketknife pattern name that might ruffle wokester tail feathers is boy’s knife. Somehow I don’t think changing the name to girl’s knife would placate the mob, either. The next-door neighbor, Mr. Wingtip, referred to me as a juvenile delinquent when I was a kid, but juvenile delinquent’s knife probably would send the culture cancelers into conniption-fit overdrive. I’ll just leave the “solution” to that one to woke R&D. As for Boy Scout and/or Girl Scout knives, I’m not even going there!
That brings us to the venerable gent’s knife, but BLADE has chronicled a trend that has been ongoing for quite a while now—women embracing gent’s knives for their own use. As a result, whenever we do stories on gent’s knives, we include them under a gent’s/lady’s knives umbrella. On the other hand, who am I kidding? I would likely get “bricked” by the woke mob for that one, too.
One knife term that might fire up the wokey-dokers is butt—as in butt of the handle, aka the end of the handle. My wife Susan is always saying “pardon my appendage” when she bumps into me, so maybe we could change butt to appendage. On the other hand, we could just tell the cancelers to butt out, eh?
Slip joint is another knife term that might raise some woke-brows. Joint is also another name for prison—think “the joint”—and with so many wokester calls to abolish prisons, slip joint might have to be replaced with slip halfway house or some such. Speaking of which, the defund the police movement means all knives designed for law enforcement would probably come under attack from the mob and would require replacement with some other knife name—social worker knives, anyone?
On the other hand, I can think of at least one knife term that the woke troopers would probably embrace wholeheartedly—pig sticker.
With that, consider this installment of “Unsheathed” canceled!
The knife community lost three dedicated contributors recently with the passing of knifemakers Michael Holtschulte, Bernard Sparks and Ralph Turnbull.
Ralph Turnbull
A full-time knifemaker for almost 50 years, Ralph specialized in knives in the latest materials, including mosaic damascus, tigerwood, white and black ebony and others. He made a wide range of models, including though not limited to folders, fixed blades and even butterfly knives.
We had just published a story on one of his folders written by J.T. Hill (J.T.’s No. 1 Knife Hero) in the July issue when we got word Ralph had passed on June 6—the anniversary of D-Day. He was 85.
The last time I saw Ralph Turnbull was at the inaugural International Custom Cutlery Exposition in 2015 in Kansas City. Mrs. Raenelle Turnbull was there with him, as usual, and Ralph was smiling and sassy as he almost always seemed to be. Though he was 81 he looked at least five years younger—he always did look younger than his age—and talked about how he had beaten just about everything old age had thrown his way.
He said he’d had bypasses, diabetes and one other malady that I can’t recall, and talked about how the doctor told him he’d lived through the biggest killers.
While Ralph recently succumbed to the inevitable fate that eventually awaits us all, his attitude toward life is one I will always envy. To paraphrase the old sports saying, it wasn’t that anything beat him—he simply ran out of time.
Bernard Sparks
(Image via Bernard Sparks Facebook page)
Born in Dingle, Idaho, on the longest day of the year, June 21, 1931, Bernard Sparks began making knives part time in 1967.
According to Mrs. Vicki Sparks, Bernard was among 16 makers who met in 1969 to discuss forming The Knifemakers’ Guild. He served on the Guild’s board of directors for a time. His full-time job was as a teacher, which he retired from in 1996, at which point he turned to making knives full time until the spring of last year.
Over the decades, his obituary noted, he made several thousand knives. He was one of the first makers to use Vascowear, a high-speed tool steel, for blades. Bernard passed away on his birthday. He was 89.
BLADE field editor Ed Fowler remembers Bernard and Vicki, who survives her late husband.
“Bernard was one of the very early makers and a good one, totally honest, and made great knives,” Ed wrote. “They were high quality, well designed and each blade had a very practical geometry for its intended purpose. He and Vicki are a tribute to all that is good about our community.”
Michael Holtschulte
(Image via holtschultehandmadeknives.com)
Michael Holtschulte was born Nov. 17, 1956. He served three years as an Army combat engineer during the Vietnam War. He built knives for 28 years, making and selling over 12,000 of them over that span.
In a December 2013 BLADE® story that asked if a soldier had just one knife what it should be, Michael said he preferred a fixed blade with a 6-inch blade of 1095 or 5160 carbon steel.
“I would say that because a knife is a tool that becomes a multitool,” he reasoned. “One knife would have to do all the chores of self-defense, cutting, chopping and skinning game.”
He passed away May 10. He was 63.
I never had the pleasure of meeting Michael, though I did get to talk to him on the phone, and he was most professional. As his daughter Lisa wrote, he expired while forging a knife for a customer.
“My dad put his whole life into making knives and he passed getting to do what he loved,” she stated. “I remember how absolutely smitten he was that you guys did an article on him, and it was by far one of his proudest accomplishments.”
I’m sure I speak for the entire BLADE staff when I state we are humbled that we were able to inject a moment of pride into Michael’s short time on this earth.
BLADE’s Cutlery Hall Of Fame Welcomed Five New Members In 2021 At Induction Ceremony In Atlanta.
BLADE Magazine Cutlery Hall-Of-Fame® member B.R. Hughes set a most appropriate tone for the Hall’s 2021 inductions early Saturday morning of the BLADE Show in the Kennesaw Room of the Renaissance Waverly Hotel.
“Over the years I’ve noticed one thing about the man and lady selected for the Cutlery Hall Of Fame,” said one of the co-founders of the American Bladesmith Society in his speech inducting Joe Keeslar. “They are not so interested in themselves so much as they are others.”
In addition to Keeslar, B.R.’s words apply equally well to the four other new inductees: Beverly and Billy Mace Imel, Jay Hendrickson and Jim Sornberger.
Joe Keeslar
Joe Keeslar
Speaking of Keeslar, along with Sornberger, Joe was voted into the Hall last year. However, since the pandemic canceled BLADE Show 2020, it also postponed their formal inductions until this year—none of which dulled Keeslar’s appreciation for B.R.’s speechifying ability.
“[BLADE® editor] Steve Shackleford contacted me last spring and told me I would be inducted into the Hall Of Fame … The first thing I did was call Mr. Hughes and asked him to do my induction speech. You can see why. I asked him to give his best $20 speech,” Joe deadpanned to laughter from the 60-or-so gathering of the inductees’ families and friends. “I think I’m going to have to give him a few dollars to make up for that.”
In his baritone voice and measured manner, B.R. outlined Joe’s early history as a United States Marine Corps veteran of the Vietnam War, marriage to Suzanne, making knives and also fine muzzleloading rifles, and getting his college degree. In 1989 Joe earned his ABS master smith rating and it was also about that time Suzanne, who, in her job as a professor at Murray State University, started taking her students to France in the summer to enhance their French language skills.
“Naturally, Joe had to build a shop over there so he could make knives, and he taught many Frenchmen how to make knives,” B.R. noted. “He also was asked to demonstrate at the Thiers Knife Show, the second largest knife show in France. This practice continued for years. He’s been a wonderful ambassador in preserving the art of bladesmithing.”
Joe went on to become chairman of the ABS, serving in the position longer than all but two others, ABS master smiths Bill Moran and Jim Batson, both members of the Cutlery Hall Of Fame. He’s taught knifemaking at the William F. Moran School of Bladesmithing, Haywood College, hammer-ins in Alabama, Arkansas, North Carolina and Ohio, played a lead role in the rapidly expanding ABS youth program, and taught classes for the first four years of BLADE University. He also authored two how-to books: Handles and Guards and Forging and Finishing the Brut de Forge Knife. Joe thanked three people in particular: Suzanne, their son, Kurt, and B.R.
“Suzanne and Kurt have given me so much over the years in terms of support,” he began, “but the thing they gave me most, they gave me time. Time is a special commodity. You can’t put it in a box or on a shelf and come back in a week and retrieve it. The time is gone. You have to use it when it’s available to you. They gave me time to be me, to do what I wanted to do, in this case the knives and some with the guns, too.”
He also credited B.R. for 30 years of friendship. “I trusted his judgment on the things that came up when I served on the ABS board of directors,” Joe said. “He was there as my mentor and savior, he was helping me decide on the things I needed to be involved in, understanding how the ABS works, what our goals are and all the things I needed to know.”
Jim Sornberger
Jim Sornberger
Cutlery Hall-Of-Famer Ken Onion gave the speech inducting Sornberger and outlined Jim’s pre-knife career, which was pretty impressive in its own right. “Guns, knives and tools were the things that molded Jim,” Onion began. “His grandfather gave him a Rudy Ruana knife when Jim joined the Boy Scouts, and his uncle in Redding, California, owned a gun shop with a large knife display. It was there Jim met Harry Morseth in the mid-fifties.”
Sornberger joined the Army in 1963 and became an advisor in Southeast Asia, moving around Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Laos and other countries. After his discharge he joined law enforcement and shortly thereafter became a deputy with the Santa Clara sheriff’s office. From there he became an agent for a federally funded narcotics task force for several California counties, and later worked as a narcotics intelligence officer for military and other agencies in and out of the state.
Following a work-related injury, Jim focused on one of his lifelong loves—making jewelry—while recovering. One of the places that sold his jewelry asked him to make knives. He became a regular attendee and table holder at the San Jose gun show, where he met such storied knifemakers as D.E. Henry, Dave Pitt, Ron Richards and Bob Holt. They and others started a knife show—the Bay Area Knife Collectors Association Show—for which Jim wrote the bylaws. “BAKCA,” as it was known, enjoyed what Onion called “30 years of great shows and wonderful memories.”
Jim joined the Knifemakers’ Guild in 1976 and served on the board of directors, including a stint as vice president. By the late ’70s he’d won several awards for his knives, including his San Francisco-style dress bowies. In 1981 the industry was having quality control issues with 154CM stainless steel, so Bob Holt and Jim started H&S Supply and sold ATS-34 stainless in large quantities, as Onion noted, “essentially introducing it to the entire knife industry.”
Jim gave thanks to his two grandfathers for the time they spent with him and serving as his role models. “It’s really nice to be rewarded for something you’ve done a good part of your life and still enjoy doing—and I’m not quitting,” the 75-years-young Sornberger reassured the audience. “I’ve still got plenty of years left, I think.”
Indeed, for the man Onion called an encyclopedia of the history of the custom knife world, who continues to write for KNIFE Magazine and other outlets, and who travels worldwide, the best may yet still be to come.
Beverly & Billy Mace Imel
Beverly & Billy Mace Imel
Beverly and Billy Mace Imel served as secretary/treasurer on the Guild board of directors for 15 years and were rocks in terms of doing the behind-the-scenes work that was so important to the running of the organization. In fact, when Billy first started making knives in the early 1970s, Beverly did all the bookkeeping for Billy’s knifemaking operation and has ever since, the two celebrating their 61st wedding anniversary June 11. Notably, they are the first married couple to be inducted simultaneously into the Hall. (Cutlery Hall-Of-Famers, Mr. and Mrs. A.G. and Goldie Russell, were inducted separately.)
A tool-and-die maker by trade, Billy was inspired to make knives in 1972 before going on a hunt. He saw a Ted Dowell integral hunter and decided it would be a good knife for the trip, but it cost $100—too much for him to pay for a knife at the time. One thing led to another and Billy tried his hand at making knives, and soon discovered how much work it took to make a good one. Someone saw them and asked Billy how much he wanted for one. “Bill said he never thought about that but he wasn’t charging a hundred because that damn sure isn’t enough, so he said two hundred,” Jim Sornberger winked in his speech inducting the Imels.
Billy joined the Guild in 1973 and the Imels eventually exhibited at shows in Japan, Europe and elsewhere, basically doing everything together. In the process, Billy became one of the world’s best knifemakers. “In the mid ’70s there were several people I was really fascinated with who did a really good job on their knives, the fit, the finish, the detail and the sharp lines,” Sornberger recalled. “And Billy was No. 1 on my list.” A long-time member of the NRA, Billy also made knives for the speakers at the association’s annual convention, including one each for Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush.
In 1984 the Imels were elected Guild secretary/treasurer and Beverly in particular changed forever how the position would be viewed. “She was unbelievable,” Sornberger stressed. “This was in the day before portable phones and you didn’t have a stenographer to take notes, but no matter what we asked her during business meetings—How much did it cost? How many tables did we have? Who made a motion at this meeting?—Beverly had the answer. She’d just tell ya’, boom, who made the motion and who seconded it, and how she got all that stuff I’ll never know. She was the backbone of the Guild for 15 years.”
Regrettably, the Imels were unable to attend the ceremony but sent a heartfelt written thank you instead.
Jay Hendrickson
Jay Hendrickson
As inductor Johnny Perry noted, when Jay Hendrickson started making knives in Frederick, Maryland, in 1972, it wasn’t long before he learned there was another bladesmith in the neighborhood who just so happened to be the best in the world at it—Bill Moran. Jay met Moran, visited Bill’s shop now and again, and, through practice and dedication, became a bladesmith and joined the ABS.
Jay earned his ABS journeyman smith stamp in 1986—the same year being elected to the ABS board of directors—and his master smith stamp in 1989. Around that time, he was instrumental in establishing the William F. Moran School of Bladesmithing and also taught bladesmithing there, writing and illustrating the manuals used in some of the courses.
He was elected ABS chairman in 1991, succeeding the only chairman the ABS had ever known—Mr. Moran. In all, Jay served on the ABS board of directors from 1986-2018. He and his wife, Nancy, helped develop and coordinate the Bill Moran Hammer-In in 2003 in Frederick and kept it running for two more years before Mr. Moran’s passing in 2006.
Jay was co-chairman of the All-Forged-Blade Expo in Reno from 2003-07 and was instrumental in forming the William F. Moran Jr. Museum and Foundation in Frederick in 2006. He was president of it for 10 years, and today remains on its board of directors. The museum includes a number of Moran’s top knives, “a dressed-up version” of Moran’s knife shop and much more.
“All the effort Jay has put into the museum and foundation is immeasurable,” Johnny noted. “It required years and years of responsibility, but Jay bore it well and got the job done.”
The inductee gave special thanks to his wife, Nancy. “I wanted to thank her for all her help over the years, taking care of all the details, all the flight reservations, all the laundry, all the packing of suitcases. Sometimes when she gets tired she even lets me mow the lawn,” he said to audience laughter.
Jay went on to relate the story of when he was a kid shopping at a sporting goods store with his dad, who told the young Hendrickson to go pick something out for his birthday. Jay went to the magazine rack in the back of the store and saw the Gun Digest Book of Knives.
“I’d been making some knives, nothing big, but I’d been making them since I was a kid, and I looked at the book and it looked interesting,” he recalled. “And I looked down at the bottom and I see the names B.R. Hughes and Jack Lewis. Well, I didn’t know who these characters were but it didn’t matter, so I thumbed through it real quick and said this is a deal!”
Jay’s dad bought the book and Jay read it and told himself, “I can do this.” Looking at B.R. seated in the room, Jay remarked, “B.R., you helped me out a lot with that book and little did I know that one day I would get to meet you, serve on the ABS board with you, and over the years you would help me quite a lot with my knifemaking.
“I remember when B.R. got inducted into the Cutlery Hall Of Fame and he said something like he didn’t think he was worthy of this but he wasn’t going to give it back. Touché—the same with me.”
If you’re lucky enough to attend a knife show in-person this year, take advantage of the time to use your smartphone—or even a camera, heaven forbid—to help establish the provenance of the knife you buy.
A provenance that not only can you show proudly to anyone and everyone who might be interested in the cool little enclave of makers that comprise the knife industry, but also to help increase the knife’s value.
What Is “Provenance?”
Provenance, in case you don’t know, is defined by Webster’s as “place or source of origin,” and proof of it is something those who deal in the world of collectables value almost as much as the collectable itself.
Such is the case in the world of edged collectables, where the knives of certain makers can be extremely valuable. Being able to prove beyond almost a shadow of a doubt that one of those makers made the knife you assert he or she has made can mean hundreds if not thousands of dollars of difference in the amount of money you can get for it—if and when you decide to sell it.
In later years, if you keep the knife and its provenance together, it can mean even more money and prestige than that.
What Forms of Proof Count as Provenance?
Even if you can’t make it to a knife show in 2020, such as this scene at Jerry Van Eizenga’s table during a past BLADE Show, you can still request signed business cards, specs, receipts and photos from the knifemaker through the mail. A notary public isn’t out of the question, either. (file photo)
Provenance can take any number of forms, including dated written and signed documentation, sales receipts, product boxes (with the overall condition of those boxes playing a large part in value, too), etc. The more legitimate examples of proof you have, the better the provenance is.
Among other forms of such proof are photographs, and such photographs can come in any number of renditions.
For instance, once you buy the knife from the maker at his or her table, you might ask if it’s OK if you:
photograph the knife on the maker’s table, perhaps even with his/her autographed and dated business card situated next to the knife;
have your photograph taken with the maker, with you and/or he or she holding the knife; and
any other image you can think of to date or memorialize the occasion.
And you don’t have to stop there. You can keep the maker’s autographed business card from the photo, any kind of signed and dated receipt, knife specs (including name of knife, steel, blade length, handle material, lock, any unusual facts or descriptions of how the knife was made, etc.) and so on, and store it all with the knife.
If you feel even more enterprising, bring a recorder and record the maker’s answers to questions concerning the knife.
Of course, you will need to ask the maker’s permission for all of the above beforehand, but, if you’re paying the maker’s asking price for the knife, chances are he or she is going to be more than happy to comply and help you establish the knife’s provenance.
Provenance Benefits Both Ways
After all, the more money you get/more prestige you establish for the knife is probably going to benefit the maker’s ability to get top dollar for/reinforce the collectability of his/her knives, too.
Besides, it helps you establish a better rapport with the maker and is all kind of fun to boot.
We recently published a picture of a custom knife with a price one observer indicated was exorbitant. This person questioned why we had published it.
When we publish the picture of a knife, we try to include the price. In the instance of a factory knife, the price we list is the manufacturer’s suggested retail price. In the case of custom makers’ knives, where possible we preface what the maker charges for the knife with “The maker’s list price”—for example, “The maker’s list price: $500.”
…And Value is Another
The reason we do it that way is the price is the one the maker is asking for the knife, not the collector value. We are no more going to change the maker’s asking price for a custom knife to reflect what we think the collector value is any more than we would do the same to a factory knife. It simply is not our place to do so. (Besides, it could open us up for legal action.)
We don’t list the collector value for custom knives because:
a) such values can be subjective;
b) such values are subject to fluctuation, sometimes almost overnight;
c) we simply may not know the collector value;
d) any number of other reasons; or
e) all of the above.
Why Doesn’t BLADE Publish Collector Values?
Now, sometimes we will list prices based on knife-show-opening bids, secondary market values, purveyor’s list and other prices, etc., but we never publish collector values for custom knives.
BLADE® is a knife magazine, not a price guide. Our mission is to show the work of as many makers as possible to as many knife buyers/collectors as possible, and let the latter decide what they want to buy and whether it’s worth the price.
Kyle Gahagan made this 10.5-inch blade with forge-welded 1075 and 15N20 steels. The guard uses the same steel, and the handle is ringed gidgee wood. Maker’s list price: $3,500.
Do Knifemakers Charge Too Much?
The fact that some makers charge too much for their knives is no news flash. The temptation to make as much money as possible from one’s labors is always there and is understandable—if done within reason.
However, to do so beyond reason not only is unfair to buyers, it also is likely to backfire on the makers in question by turning off buyers, thus dampening the makers’ future knife sales. In some cases, it may drive the makers out of business.
Stan Buzek based his slip joint on a Bill Ruple two-blade trapper. The hollow-ground blades are Damasteel damascus and 3.5 inches each. The fileworked liners are 416 stainless steel. Closed length: 4 3/8 inches. Buzek’s list price to make a similar piece: $1,950. (SharpByCoop photo)
On the other hand, if we publish a maker’s knife and list price and the maker gets feedback on how out of touch the price may be, it might serve as a teaching moment and help the maker get his prices more in line with reality—and help keep the maker in business.
Now, there are some makers who charge four, five and, in ultra-rare cases, six figures for their knives—and get it. And more power to them.
However, they get those prices by the grace of their creativity, ability, reputation, knowledge of the knife market and more, not because they simply ask for them.
