Steve Shackleford

The Bob Dozier 10^th anniversary 9-11 knife sporting a damascus blade that includes steel from the South Tower of the World Trade Center brought $1,525 in an auction that concluded earlier this week, with proceeds going to the New York Police and Fire Widow’s and Orphans Benefit Fund.

The bid for the winning knife—the folder was featured on page 50 in the December BLADE®—was submitted by retired New York City firefighter Keith Kaiser.

Forged by Daryl Meier, the knife’s blade includes a piece of South Tower steel and 1095 carbon steel. The pre-ban ivory handle boasts scrimshaw scenes by Sandra Brady. On one side is “We Remember 9-11-2011” commemorating the 10th anniversary, and the New York city skyline, including a shadow outline of the Twin Towers in place of the missing jet in a flyby jet formation, and a soldier saluting. On the flip side is a scene of firemen fighting the fires of the Twin Towers before they fell, an American flag, and the words, “Lest We Forget 9-11-2001.”

“There will never be enough to repay our debt for what [the first responders] paid,” Dozier noted. “All proceeds from the auction of this knife will go to help the families of the firefighters and policemen who lost their lives that day.”

For more information contact Bob Dozier Knives at info@dozierknives.com or visit www.dozierknives.com.

Knifemaker Claude Montjoy of Clinton, South Carolina, passed away Sept. 23. He was 74.

A member of the South Carolina Association of Knife Makers, Montjoy was a full-time maker who sold his first knife in 1982. He made knives by the stock removal method and built folders, including slip joints, locking liners and interframes, and also hunters, boot knives, fighters and some art knives.

Services were held Sept. 24. Condolences may be expressed online at www.grayfuneralhome.com.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that memorials be made to the First Baptist Church of Joanna, 301 Magnolia St., Joanna, SC 29351.

Ray Appleton, maker of the “I.Q.” and other puzzle-type, “multilock” custom knives, passed away Saturday. He was 88.

The tall, lanky, likable Appleton caused quite a sensation with his puzzle/multilock knives in the late 1980s. Beautifully carved, anodized titanium folders, they were way ahead of their time (see “Ray Appleton Redefines the Folding Knife,” January/February 1988 BLADE®). One of their main endearing features is that Ray would build them with hidden mechanisms, etc., so you had to figure out how to open them.

BLADE field editor Ed Fowler, a long-time acquaintance of Ray’s, had nothing but good things to say about the talented maker. “Ray was my hero when I was a kid in high school and remains a hero to me,” Fowler observed.

According to Ray’s son, Ron, an accomplished maker in his own right who will display his knives at the upcoming Art Knife Invitational, Ray had not been in a knife shop in at least seven years. Ray had moved to Montana to live with his daughter and spend time with his grand kids and play on the computer.