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Joe Kertzman

Read the Paul Ryan Hunter Interview

 

Paul Ryan Hunter, Outdoorsman, Vice Presidential Hopeful

BLADE‘s sister magazine, Deer & Deer Hunting, is receiving a ton of big league attention for its interview about Paul Ryan hunting deer. It’s offering the full Paul Ryan hunter Q&A as a download from this page on Deer & Deer Hunting.

That’s Paul Ryan deer hunting with a bow in his home state, Wisconsin, in the photo at left. It shouldn’t come as any surprise, since the area has a long tradition of hunting deer and other game species. Here’s a snippet from Paul Ryan deer hunter himself:

 

“I’m just pretty typical for a Wisconsin guy. I love hunting and fishing,” Ryan said. “Bowhunting is my passion. Studying the strategy, preparing food plots, the strategy of where a dominant buck is living or will be moving and then being in position to get a shot, that’s really exciting. Half of it is getting ready for the shot.”
A good deal of the Paul Ryan hunting interview covers everything before the shot. BLADE would’ve liked to sneak in a few questions about the knives he uses, but the time allotted for the Paul Ryan hunter interview was brief. We suppose he had just a littlebit on his plate.

 

Still, BLADE celebrates Deer & Deer Hunting‘s Paul Ryan deer hunting interview. It shows how mainstream hunting is with a lot of people. It must only follow that knives play a role with these folks, too.

 

Click here to read the Paul Ryan deer hunter interview with Deer & Deer Hunting.

Loveless Dagger Worth Keeping in the Collection

As preeminent Bob Loveless knife collector John Denton says, “The dagger is up there with the New York Special. It is really beautiful, and I just keep those back in the collection.”

Denton continues, “Bob was not as much about fit and finish as Steve Johnson, but more about making a knife feel so good in the hand. He always said, ‘Make a knife look so good you want to pick it up, and feel so good you don’t want to put it down.’ And that worked. His design and balance were critical to making the knife market shoot to the moon.

“People have been telling me since the 1960’s when they got a Loveless knife, that it was so pretty they did not want to use it, but Bob wanted it to look good, and he also wanted people to use them.”

The dagger in a full, tapered tang, Micarta handle and double guard looks and feels good. It is from the John Denton Collection. Photo courtesy of Denton.

Practicality Was Art To Bob Loveless

“Bob wanted his knives to be working tools, not just art objects. In his mind, practicality was art to Bob Loveless,” Steve Johnson is quoted by Durwood Hollis as saying in the book Knifemaking With Bob Loveless.

As a young man in the early 1970’s, Johnson worked with Loveless as a junior partner in the business, learning to build knives. In fact, for several months, Steve lived with Bob in the same house. A full-time maker, Johnson freely admits that the time he spent in the Loveless shop made a huge difference in his life. 

Pictured is one of the few knives marked “Loveless Johnson” reportedly still in existence. The image is courtesy of John Denton and the John Denton collection.

Merritt-Loveless Knives Do Indeed Hold Merit

“The Loveless knife design is all about function,” Jim Merritt once noted. “A Loveless knife is made for the guy who wants to have the best knife possible for field work.” Merritt worked side-by-side with Loveless in his shop for 30 years, and toward the end was making Loveless’s knives on his own, with Bob pitching in and helping whenever he could.

This pair is a prime example of the combined efforts of Bob Loveless and Jim Merritt. Their skill as knifemakers is simply without peer.

The knife photo is by Durwood Hollis and was used in the book he authored titled Knifemaking With Bob Loveless.

Loveless Crooked Skinner Gets Crooked Little Smile

In my posts on the Greatest Loveless Knife Designs, I’d be remiss if I didn’t include a matching camping knife and skinner set. The Bob Loveless Lawndale-made crooked skinner at right in the Hiro Soga photo features a 4.5-inch skinner blade, a nickel-silver guard and ebony handle. The camp knife is wrought from 1/4-inch stainless steel stock with a 6.5-inch clip-point blade, full tang and ebony handle.

The knives are in the John Denton collection, and were showcased stretching from top to bottom on page 149 of the book Knifemaking With Bob Loveless

Loveless-Parke Is Part Drop Point, Part Skinner

Spending a day with the Loveless-Parke drop point would be like spending a day in the park. What I love about this knife is that it is a drop-point hunter, but it has that high grind and skinner-like hump along the blade spine toward the tip. 

Only 36 knives bearing the Loveless-Parke logo were ever produced (Parke was an investor in Loveless’s knifemaking business for a short period of time.) This knife, made in 1967, is an example of that effort. It features a brass singe guard and stag handle with a hidden tang. And because I was born in 1967, it’s all that more sweet to me.

The knife photo is by Hiro Soga, the knife is from the John Denton collection, and it was featured in the book Knifemaking With Bob Loveless.

How ‘Bout a Bob Loveless Big Bear Classic?

If you’ve been following these posts on the Greatest Bob Loveless Knife Designs, then you knew, didn’t you?, that the Big Bear would rear it’s oversized but beautifully bladed head?

This particular Loveless Big Bear Classic fighter boasts an amber-stag handle, which makes it one of the few made, and no Loveless bolts. Its approximate value, you ask? I’m glad you did—$35,000. That’s a lot of bear bones. 

Thank you, Dave Ellis, for the image and information. Visit Dave at www.exquisiteknives.com and www.robertloveless.com

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