How it started..
I grew up in a ranching and hunting family and one of the very first lessons I learned was the importance of a good knife. From capeing and skinning big game as a guide to cutting baling twine while feeding livestock required knives that fit the bill for real rugged use.

I haven't found very many factory or custom knives for that matter that would hold an edge and not fatigue the hand. As a young kid I listened to my Uncle tell stories of forged blades make by “Tinkers" and Blacksmiths and being lucky enough to have a forge in the shop I recall trying mostly unsuccessfully to make some knives out of files. But the experience proved useful later.

I found myself less and less happy with factory knives as I got older and the need for hard use knives became greater until one day I used a fillet knife made from a band saw blade. A nice knife in general, but wow! It flexed, it cut, if felt good in the hand. Then I remembered the old forge and a passion was born, suddenly I had a stack of books and a forged knife.As they say, knowledge is power and I am hard to satisfy, each knife got better and better. The more I've learned, the less I found I knew and it’s still that way, even today... Always finding ways to improve .

On to the internet and behold a huge community of mostly good folks with mostly solid information that I was lucky enough to come into the folds of some the best Knifemakers and Bladesmiths of our era and they were willing to give answers to my questions freely, for that I am grateful. In paricular Mike Fitzgerald,Ray Rogers,Kevin Cashen,
Chuck Burrows,Sandy Morressy and a host of others I couldnt begin to name here.

From basic knife making, I've gone on to study hand ergonomics, metallurgy, proper forging and the ancient steel of Damascus. All this has eventually lead me to learn Blacksmithing with a full time Blacksmith,whom I worked with and learned under for 4 years, as well as a lot of tool design. The most important thing I learned was to test, test, test for ones self.

I have never accepted someones word as gospel, I find out for myself, darn happy I take that approach, I think you will be too.