Post by hmoosek on Dec 27, 2022 19:51:39 GMT -6
Does anyone collect knives? I’ve been a knife nut since elementary school. I don’t know how many I have. I collect cheap knives mostly. I’m too frugal to drop big bills on knives. I guess that’s one of the reasons I got involved in blacksmithing in the mid 90’s. The first knife was made from a hunk of steel I found while walking in the garden. I’m reasonably sure it fell off one of the farm implements long ago. I had no idea of the steel, but I put it in my homemade forge and hammered it into sort of a knife shape.
Along about that time, I met a fellow online in one of the knife forums. He just happened to live a few miles from me. He invited me over and we instantly clicked and struck up a great friendship. He had a nice knife shop. He didn’t forge blades, he used a knife grinder. Over the years, I learned a great deal from him. He and I would meet every Saturday morning at the local cafe and afterwards we would head to the flea market to see what kinds of knife supplies we could find. He was one heck of a scrounger, but he told me “Boy, you know what you’re trouble is? You step over a dollar trying to save a quarter.” He was right, I still do that sometimes.
I lost my buddy November of 2016 at the age of 72. He didn’t wear a mask while grinding or sanding. He kind of made me nervous sometimes. I remember one afternoon, he grabbed a blanket of forge material, threw it on his living room floor and started wacking on it with a pair of scissors. I’m pretty sure that stuff had asbestos in it, but I’m not 100%. Not knowing, at a minimum, I’d would have liked to see him with a dust mask.
When I returned to college, he followed. Since he was a veteran, he could take classes for very little out of pocket cost. We would meet at the library in between classes and talk about all kinds of subjects, but mostly just visit.
After graduation, I had to go to work, but I managed to spend some of my off days in his knife shop and sometimes we would go to other knife makers shop when they had what’s called a hammer-in. It’s basically just a knife makers reunion where you shoot the breeze and discuss what everyone is making.
While looking at cheap knives on ebay this evening, I thought about him and wondered if he would giggle at me looking at cheap knives.
I sure miss him sometimes.
Along about that time, I met a fellow online in one of the knife forums. He just happened to live a few miles from me. He invited me over and we instantly clicked and struck up a great friendship. He had a nice knife shop. He didn’t forge blades, he used a knife grinder. Over the years, I learned a great deal from him. He and I would meet every Saturday morning at the local cafe and afterwards we would head to the flea market to see what kinds of knife supplies we could find. He was one heck of a scrounger, but he told me “Boy, you know what you’re trouble is? You step over a dollar trying to save a quarter.” He was right, I still do that sometimes.
I lost my buddy November of 2016 at the age of 72. He didn’t wear a mask while grinding or sanding. He kind of made me nervous sometimes. I remember one afternoon, he grabbed a blanket of forge material, threw it on his living room floor and started wacking on it with a pair of scissors. I’m pretty sure that stuff had asbestos in it, but I’m not 100%. Not knowing, at a minimum, I’d would have liked to see him with a dust mask.
When I returned to college, he followed. Since he was a veteran, he could take classes for very little out of pocket cost. We would meet at the library in between classes and talk about all kinds of subjects, but mostly just visit.
After graduation, I had to go to work, but I managed to spend some of my off days in his knife shop and sometimes we would go to other knife makers shop when they had what’s called a hammer-in. It’s basically just a knife makers reunion where you shoot the breeze and discuss what everyone is making.
While looking at cheap knives on ebay this evening, I thought about him and wondered if he would giggle at me looking at cheap knives.
I sure miss him sometimes.
