Ezra Meeker –  friction folder
in “lightning strike” carbon fiber
and Damascus.



Ezra Meeker was a pioneer of Washington Territory. He came across the Oregon Trail with his wife and infant child in 1852. In 1853, they moved into Washington Territory and finally settled in the Puyallup Valley for over 50 years.*
Along with his many accomplishments, Meeker founded the city of Puyallup as well as being its first mayor. During his life time he made the arduous trek along the Oregon trail 4 times.

 On one of his sojourns through Oregon he had the misfortune of his wagon breaking down. When he went to the local blacksmith he told Meeker that he could repair the wagon for x amount of money and the knife around his neck. Meeker said no, that he used the knife daily. The blacksmith insisted that if Meeker wanted the wagon fixed that the knife was part of the price. The deal was made and the knife was given to the blacksmith. Time passed, and alas the blacksmith did as well. His estate was sold and my mentor ended up with the Knife. He disassembled the knife and we made templates from it. The original knife, that Ezra carried, was straight high carbon steel with a brass handle.

* Wasco-history

Preparation:

It was a hard week leading up to “test” day on Saturday. Thursday night at 8pm it seemed like it was falling apart. I was finished with my test knife. It was all hand sanded and looked good. I started hacking at some more 2×4. A few hits into it and I hit a knot. The edge wrinkled. Failed. I had pushed the heat treat to close to the edge of the blade. How could I get a knife heat treated with all of the crucial steps in one day? To my relief I had made nine blades and had not finished #5 to test because I had figured out my process. Well, I weighed the pros and cons of the heat treat being absolutely correct, and # 5 became my new test blade. Saturday morning the blade passed with flying colors. My test blade is made from 5160 high carbon steel.

my JS practice and test blades

Test Day:

Geoff Keyes, Rick Lucas, Jim Wernex and I all tested together. Master smith Tom Ferry and Master smith Michael Rader were there to witness and sign off on the test. About thirty people turned out to watch us test. After the test we had lunch. Geoff’s wife made us her award winning chili.

the four of us all Passed !!

JS Test Blade Before & After

After lunch we all went back out to the shop and I forged a blade. Many in the group had not seen a blade forged out before. When I was done I had a drawing for anyone interested in having the blade. I finished heat treating the blade and sanding it. The winner has a nice blade and memento of the day.

Forging Demo

Whats up next:

The second part of the ABS JS test is to make five near perfect knives and submit them for judging. I had Planned on trying for the “Blade Show” in June, but with input from others feel like that is not enough time to get them ready. So I will be getting my five knives ready for the ABS show, in San Antonio, come January 2012. Stay Tuned….

A special thanks to MS Ed Caffrey who wrote a great post “creating a blade that will pass the ABS JS performance test”. It definitely helped me through the process.

I have been a member of the ABS for four years (which fulfils the 3 yr. requirement) and am doing the “performance” part of my test on the 26^th of February, the last Sat. of this month.

Geoff Keyes, Rick Lucas and myself will all be testing at Geoff’s shop in Duvall. We will be starting at 11 am and will go through all three performance tests one at a time. We will have lunch at Geoff’s place afterwards. If you want attending send me an e mail, an RSVP, through my contact page and I will email you directions. Geoff will need a head count for food.

I will give a quick rundown of the performance test.

Performance test:

I will be making a knife that is about 15” overall. The test proceeds as follows
step 1) cut through a 1 inch free hanging rope with one swing (tests edge geometry)
2) chop through a 2×4, twice. The edge can’t roll or chip out. (Tests edge toughness)
3) without re-sharpening, the blade must still shave arm hair (tests edge holding ability)
4) put the blade in a vice and bend it 90 degrees without breaking

To learn more about the American bladesmith Society JS performance test go to: ABS JS test page

If I pass the performance test then I have to make five perfect presentation blades and take them to the Blade show in Atlanta Georgia. There will be a panel of six MasterSmiths that look at the knives and Judge if they are Journeyman Smith quality. If I pass that then I will receive my JS stamp and in three years I can Test for my MasterSmith stamp.

I will be posting on my blog if I pass my performance test. Wish me luck and follow my progress throughout my endeavor.

Specifics:

Date: Sat. February 26^th
Time: 11:00 am
Place: Duvall Wa, JS Geoff Keyes knife shop
Event: Dan, Geoff, Rick’s performance test followed by lunch

His clean, simple design lends itself well to this traditional art form and is very comfortable in the hand.The knife design has been used by his students in class, as aluminum trainers, for the last two years. One of his students, Scott Germino, thought it would be great to make it into a real, functional blade. He located me and commissioned me to make the knife, and I had the pleasure of presenting the knife to P.G. Hufana at their year end award banquet.

I had the pleasure of seeing Arnis in action. I was invited to visit one or their training seminars. Their fighting style is quite effective. They teach hand-to-hand, grappling, stick fighting and edged weapons.

P.G. Hufana has graciously invited me to more seminars and I will be showing some of my wares at upcoming events. I also hope to be able to draw from their knowledge of knife use and historic edged weaponry.

P.G HUFANA fighter:

Blade: RFF “firemoth” Damscus
Handle: Kamagong (Philippine hard wood)
Features: “flame” redwood burl stand, Kamagong, fighting stick, cradle

Blade: 4 7/8 inches
Overall: 9 ¼ inches

P.G. Hufana with the “”fighter”

Check out P.G. Hufana:

Bellevue Martial Arts Academy
Hufana Traditional Arnis International
World Filipino Martial Arts Association
Voices of the Masters Trilogy Project
14510 NE 20th Street, #100
Bellevue, WA 98007
(425) 643-8488

http://www.Arnisador.com
http://www.WorldFMA.com
http://www.VoicesoftheMasters.com

The new north-west school opened its doors at the end of July 2010. Both Dave and Tom are committed to furthering the craft of the forged blade. Their own work is outstanding. Not only does the school benefit from their skill but they are bringing in world class makers to also teach 2-3 day classes. Classes are affordable. For the price of a custom knife you can learn to make your own quality piece. Learn in just a few days what the instructors have found over years of knife making.

Not only can you take classes but “Studio 4″ is also available to work in. It is fully equipped with Large milling machine, surface grinder, 2×72 belt grinders, forges, anvils… a knife makers dream shop. Day rates or rent it on a regular basis.

Contact Dave Lisch at: http://davidlisch.com/contact.html

A few Classes offered:

“Slip Joint Folders” – Master Smith Mike Vagnino -Sept. 3-4 2010

” Fixed Blade Forging” – Master Smith Jason Knight -Sept 17-19 2010

” Damascus Forging” – Master Smith Tom Ferry -Nov 5-7 2010

Click to Enlarge

The Triune is a dagger style, boot knife. It’s name Triune means ” three in one”. The three pieces that make up this Triune are: Steel (damascus), Stone (amolite), Wood (african blackwood). All mounted to a solid one piece steel frame of blade and handle base.

I really enjoyed this piece. It was challenging for me, in that, this is the first time I have done relief carving in a knife. All the area around the thumb pad and index ledge were carve with a dremel.

I came up with an original design concept I call the “Pinch Grip”. If you hold the the knife with your thumb in the recess in the top of the handle, and you index finger underneath in front of the handle legde, you can hold the knife with only two fingers. The knife is very secure pushing or pulling. The design works very well. In the future I plan on implementing it in some “Day2Day” carry models ( my field grade knives).

Triune 3 views

Triune on manzanita burl stand

It was and amazing weekend. There was so much to learn. MS Tim Hancock’s first hour alone filled up a multiple of note book pages. To talk to some of the worlds best makers and just hang out was incredible. MS Shane Taylor was even nice enough to offer advice on the knives I brought. There were a couple of tips for improvement and some things he liked. He liked the look of my knife,”Doc’s fighter”. It is hard to find a better group of people than custom knife makers.

Thanks MS Josh Smith for opening your property and sharing with us. Great Guy. Great knife Maker.

Josh Smith, Larry Fuegen, Tony Copley fire off the
Bowling Ball Cannon!!!

Bill Burke, Larry Fuegen

Shane Taylor and Josh Smith send up a UFO.

Jürgen Steinau, and Owen Wood

Tim Hancock

Montana the beautiful !!

I have been working on the this concept for a several months now. I am very perticular and have sketched many different designs. As inspiration goes, it all came one day in a concentrated effort. A few adjustments here and there, a tweak or two and I had three good designs. The G2 was born in thought, conceived in lead, rendered in wood and now sits tangibly on my work bench. It has been well received by the initial people I have shown it to.

Since I have more than one good design, that came from the process, I will be making them at a later date to give my customers more styles to choose from. I will be calling these knives “Day2Day” carry knives.

For now I will be focused on the G2. I want to carry it for a while to see how it packs and functions. I will adjust it to serve it’s best. Tentatively there will be a few available at the end of July. Here are a couple of pictures.

_ _ ___Click to Enlarge___ _ _

Designed on Paper Wood Template

New Knife

A hunter commented to me that he would like just a short blade to use, nothing else. With that thought in the back of my mind I came up with the “Fat Belly” skinner. It is down to basics, with a Forge textured all metal handle. The blade is a short 2 +” making it packable in most jurisdictions. It has a fat belly to give it a good draw, with an up swept tip for excellent piercing. The handle has at least 3 good grips, for control in various functions. The handle also has two thong holes for lash points, and my high visibility “SiteLine” to help find a down blade in the field. And last but not least a Kydex sheath with Tec-lok for multiple carry positions. My favorite being the handle down on the side of the belt. It can be drawn very discreetly.

I have made the blade in 1080 high carbon steel and W2. W2 gives it a little more attitude and a great hamon line.

a short story:

I friend of mine visited my shop with his son. We went through the basic tour and questions. At the end of our time together I found out his son was stationed in Iraq. He was here in the States on R & R, and would be going back in a couple of days. I pulled out the “Fat Belly” skinner that I had been using and told him to take it with him. He was delighted and so was I. It was very little sharing a knife with him, while he puts himself in harms way protecting people and guarding ballot boxes. I am anxious to find out if he used it and how well it performed. God bless and protect our men.

click to view

One of the people interested in the G2 was a boy under 12. He had been saving money up for a new video game and when he asked how much for the knife, it turned out to be a little more than the game. He said to his mom “I could buy the knife first and then save up more for the game.”. How cool it feels when someone appreciates your work that much. I was compelled to give him a railroad spike knife that I had with me. His mother is ordering a “G2″ for him for Christmas.

Shhhhhh….don’t let him know, it’s just between you and me.