As a child, my father always placed great value on a knife. ” My knife is part of me, I feel naked without it,” he would often remark. We spent most of our time together in the outdoors. We would go fishing, turkey tracking, practice archery, and hunt whitetails. Of course, my mother wasn’t fond of a child owning a sharp object, so they were kept from my grasp. I remember visiting a cousin who brought me into his room to show me his knife collection. From that point, the knife became the pinnacle of tools in my mind. It wouldn’t be many years until I was able to hold my own knife in my hands.

Through high school and college, I studied primitive survival skills. As the knife became my ideal tool once again, I began my search for the perfect knife. After testing many blades and liking parts of each knife I found, I happened upon making a knife out of simple tools. My skills took off from there, as I aimed to make it better and better each time. My journey has brought wonderful mentors into my life such as master smith Victor McCrackin and bladesmith Evan Miller. Over time I have been able to afford better equipment and my quality has been steadily improving.