About Me

Custom knives came into my life in sort of a strange way. I made contact with Lynn Nester, a friend I grew up with in the small West Texas town of Marathon. As we got reaquainted, I learned Lynn makes knives. He invited me to spend a weekend with him in Weimer and make a knife in his shop. This sounded interesting and about the 20th of October 2003 I had completed my first knife. I enjoyed the experience and wanted to learn more and make more knives. Lynn took me to Texas Knifemakers Supply and introduced me to Jim Lemcke. Jim was a wealth of information about knives, knife making, supplies, equipment, shows etc. and told me about a weekend seminar about making knives, called a Hammer-In, that was coming up in Central Texas. I went to my first Hammer-In, hosted by Johnny Stout and Harvy Dean in Johnny's shop in New Braunfels, in early 2004. The weekend was a total overload for me but I came home excited about all the information available, the people I had met, and really amazed at the quality and variety of custom knives I had seen. I have attended every Hammer-In since and have been encouraged and inspired by people I have met at every one. After each one I return to my own shop with new ideas and techniques to apply to my own knifemaking.

At the first Hammer-In Bill Ruple had a few of his slip-joint folders with him and I got a look at them. I had a hard time believing that his knives were hand made. They were too perfect. I decided I wanted to learn more about making folders so when I got home I ordered  several books about folders and read each of them twice and one of them three times. At the next Hammer-In I expressed my interest in folders to Bill and ask him if there was a school or siminar I could attend that would give me some hands-on instruction on building folders. Since then I have spent many hours with Bill in his shop learning how to build folders. Bill has been more than generous with his time and advice. He has helped me aquire some good equipment I have needed in my shop and has made several trips to my shop to help me install equipment and teach me to use it. Thanks Bill!