The BLADE Magazine Cutlery Hall Of Fame® is proud to announce three most-deserving inductees for 2022: the husband-and-wife team of Mr. and Mrs. Aldo and Edda Lorenzi and Bill Ruple.
All will be formally inducted in a special Cutlery Hall-Of-Fame ceremony and breakfast during BLADE Show 2022 June 3-5 at the Cobb Galleria Centre in Atlanta.
One of the most prolific, long-running supporters of custom knives in modern cutlery history, the Lorenzis forged a name known in knife circles far and wide while operating their G. Lorenzi retail knife store in Milan, Italy, where they sold knives of some of the greatest knifemakers of all time, including Cutlery Hall-Of-Fame members Buster Warenski, Bob Loveless, Michael Walker, Jimmy Lile, Gil Hibben, Ron Lake, Frank Centofante and many more.
Meanwhile, hailing from Pleasonton, Texas, Ruple is one of the most successful slip-joint makers of the 21st century, winning many awards for his traditional pocketknives, and also serving as a teacher and mentor to an entire generation of award-winning slip-joint makers from Texas and elsewhere.
Aldo and Edda Lorenzi (Francesco Pachi image)
Aldo And Edda Lorenzi
Aldo and Edda Lorenzi operated G. Lorenzi retail cutlery store in Milan from 1959 until its close in February 2014. The Lorenzis regularly attended the world’s most important knife shows, buying scores of knives for sale in their shop. They bought so many knives at shows, in fact, that the Lorenzis’ presence often determined a show’s success or failure. The support and exposure they gave to American makers in particular by selling their knives in their store in one of the most exclusive shopping areas in Milan was pivotal in introducing American custom knives to Europe.
In 1995 they won The Knifemakers’ Guild’s prestigious Nate Posner Award “in recognition for outstanding service in the promotion of handcrafted cutlery.” They also won the BLADE Magazine 2014 Industry Achievement Award for their decades of supporting the custom knife industry. For five years ending in 2019, they sponsored the Aldo and Edda Lorenzi Award for the Guild Show and the BLADE Show, with each event’s award-winning maker receiving $1,000 cash and a plaque—10 awards and $10,000 in all. The Lorenzis also are most supportive of the William F. Moran Foundation and are one of the Foundation’s first chartered member couples.
An exterior display window (shown here in the background) from the original G. Lorenzi shop is a centerpiece of the Lorenzis’ new museum. It was one of the store’s six “eyes” that communicated with window shoppers in one of Milan’s most exclusive retail districts, the counters of which, over the years, displayed more than 18,000 types of items. In the foreground is a display case of some of the Lorenzis’ favorite custom knives. (Francesco Pachi image)
“More loyal ambassadors of the art cannot be found,” one sitting Cutlery Hall-Of-Fame member noted of the Lorenzis. “Their store was like a museum, always welcoming visitors and ready to educate them on fine cutlery and custom knives. Several prominent collectors got their start by buying a custom knife at the Lorenzis’ store.”
In fact, the Lorenzis have assembled their massive collection of over 2,000 knives (including 150 custom knives by the world’s best makers spanning the past half century), 700 books, 1,000 magazines and prints, and related items in a new state-of-the-art museum in Milan (December BLADE®, page 60). The museum contains the knives in elegant oak display cases, a recreation of the copper-paneled room that featured the small entrance door to the G. Lorenzi store in Milan, a wooden portable knife grinder used by Aldo’s father and the store’s namesake, Giovanni Lorenzi, almost a century ago, and much more.
Bill Ruple
Bill Ruple
In the eyes of one sitting member of the Cutlery Hall-Of-Fame, Bill Ruple, an award-winning custom knifemaker specializing in traditional pocketknives/slip joints and multi-blades, has done as much as anyone to promote the knife business. Bill served on the board of the Texas Knifemakers Association, taught many how to make traditional knives and is very free with his knowledge. In recognition of this fact, he was presented with the BLADE Show 2019 Aldo and Edda Lorenzi Award. The award went to a knifemaker who excels in terms of teaching and mentoring his or her fellow makers in the art of knifemaking.
Having built knives for 34 years, Ruple is a premier maker of slip joints and possesses a selfless willingness to teach others how to do it, usually in his shop in Pleasanton, Texas, and also at BLADE University, the BLADE Show, BLADE Show West and other venues. He has helped many get started with the slip joint, one of the oldest yet most challenging folders to make. His kindness and patience validates something other makers know all too well—that he is most willing to share knowledge with and encourage, critique and mentor makers everywhere.
A selection of Bill Ruple’s slip joints in an array of open, closed and spine images show Bill’s awesome talent and versatility as a knifemaker. (SharpByCoop image)
Bill has taught quite a few who have become award-winning makers in their own right, including Rusty Preston, Luke Swenson, Tom Ploppert, Phil Jacob, Bubba Crouch, Toby Hill, Enrique Pena and others. A number have gone on to teach also, spreading Ruple’s knowledge to others who no doubt do the same as well. Bill does not limit his shared knowledge to just stock removal makers, receiving the American Bladesmith Society’s President’s Award for teaching ABS members how to make slip joints. Finally, Bill has donated some of his knives to knife shows and other cutlery organizations to raise funds for their various needs.
Hall Of Fame Criteria
Selected by a vote of sitting Cutlery Hall-Of-Fame members, the inductees are selected based on the following criteria: demonstrated extraordinary service to the knife industry; displayed honesty, character and integrity; advanced the industry by the creativity and originality of their works or contributions; as ambassadors or outstanding contributors, have furthered the positive impact of the knife industry on the world at large, and, in summary, have demonstrated a worthiness to be a member of this prestigious group.
The latest inductees exhibit all these qualities and more and represent a most worthy Cutlery Hall-Of-Fame induction class of 2022.
Both will be formally inducted into the Cutlery Hall Of Fame the Saturday night, June 3, of the BLADE Show at the Cobb Galleria Centre in Atlanta during the BLADE Magazine Awards Reception (tickets required). The BLADE Show will be June 2-4.
According to a fellow Cutlery Hall Of Famer, de Asis has been a major pillar in the knife industry for more than 35 years. He founded Bali-Song, Inc., which later became Benchmade Knife Co. From a fledgling business in a garage to a major force in the cutlery industry, Benchmade is among the top knife manufacturers in the world. Les was a major influence in the renaissance of the butterfly genre of knives, which continues to enjoy a large following of knife fans. He was a founder of the American Knife & Tool Institute (AKTI), one of the earliest and most successful of the organizations protecting the rights of knife enthusiasts and the knife industry, and remains a driving force in the organization. He raised the bar significantly on the quality and function of automatic knives for military, law enforcement, first responders and general use, and Benchmade remains a leading manufacturer of autos today. The AXIS™ Lock designed by William McHenry and Jason Williams and introduced into production by Les helped maintain the revolution in locks for folding knives that persists today.
James L. “Jim” Batson is one of the world’s most noted bladesmiths and authorities on both bladesmithing and Cutlery Hall-Of-Famer James Bowie and bowie knives. The Batson Bladesmithing Symposium near Bessemer, Alabama, is one of the world’s most respected and best attended annual hammer-ins, attracting bladesmiths, knifemakers and knife enthusiasts from around the world, and has been doing so for almost 30 years now. Through his symposium and his many nationwide seminars teaching the art of bladesmithing, Batson is a standard bearer of the American Bladesmith Society’s stated goal of educating any and all on how to best make knives of forged steel. He has scoured the countryside in Texas, Arkansas and the Southeast, and combed through the archives of dozens of libraries and city and town halls in search of information on bowie knives and the life and times of James Bowie. He also has written extensively on both subjects.
Batson is an award-winning master smith in the American Bladesmith Society (ABS) and two-time ABS chairman. He led the ABS through some of its most successful times in recent years and shows no signs of slowing down. In the February 2014 BLADE®, he was ranked No. 9 among the top 13 knifemakers from 1989-2000. “Jim is a great bladesmith, a great leader, a great historian, a great bowie authority, a great writer and a retired rocket scientist,” wrote one Cutlery Hall Of Famer. “I challenge anyone to match that record!”
The Cutlery Hall Of Fame is the only such body to recognize all members of the knife community. Nominated and voted on by living Cutlery Hall Of Famers, the inductees must have a) demonstrated extraordinary service to the knife industry; b) displayed honesty, character and integrity; c) advanced the industry by the creativity and originality of their works or contributions; d) as ambassadors or outstanding contributors furthered the positive impact of the knife industry on the world at large; and e) in summary, demonstrated a worthiness to be a member of such a prestigious group.
Dan Delavan
Dan Delavan
Along with his wife Pam, Dan closed the Plaza Cutlery retail knife shop in the South Coast Plaza Shopping Resort in Costa Mesa, California in January after 44 years as one of the world’s most forward thinking of brick-and-mortar cutlery stores. Dan was in on the ground floor, helping his parents, Del and Lois, open the store in 1974.
From the outset, Plaza was a pioneer in selling knives in a mall setting and custom knives in general—the latter at Dan’s insistence and something only a handful of stores at most did at the time. Plaza was a leader in hands-on customer service; sharpening while you waited; in-store meet-the-knifemaker events; custom and factory knife exclusives; the latest factory knives, swords, kitchen knives and assorted knife accessories; and later and through to today, online knife sales, including Randall knives and customs.
The Delavans started what would become the California Custom Knife Show in the early 1980s and made it into one of the industry’s premier cutlery events, including a visit from Sylvester Stallone that helped pave the way for the Rambo knife revolution that transformed the knife culture in general. Dan and Pam sold that show and started another one that was very successful. They recently sold the latter and it will continue under new management.
Dan also helped start the National Independent Cutlery Association, a buying group for domestic cutlery shops that boasted 100 member stores at its height. NICA helped its members in their business relationships with knife manufacturers and importers, had an annual knife and knife exclusives, and otherwise aided in furthering the availability of fine cutlery to its members’ customers nationwide.
An image from 1975 of Dan Delavan in the old Plaza Cutlery knife store one year after it opened.
Phil Lobred
Phil Lobred
Phil may be best remembered for commissioning what is arguably the most important knife of the modern custom era: the King Tut Dagger Reproduction by fellow Hall-Of-Famer Buster Warenski.
Beginning in 1983 Phil coordinated the annual Art Knife Invitational, an intimate gathering of the world’s elite knifemakers in San Diego, who in turn offered their knives for sale to the world’s elite custom knife collectors. The show took about a 10-year hiatus but returned as a biennial event and continued to draw the elites worldwide. It continues under the direction of Phil’s daughter, Sandee.
For a time in the 1970s Phil shared his home with Hall-Of-Famer Gil Hibben. Hibben made knives in Phil’s garage, with Phil by his side. Later, with Phil in tow, Gil enjoyed an audience with a special fan of Hibben knives: Elvis Presley. Phil and Gil visited with Elvis until the wee hours, a meeting that remains the stuff of legend.
Phil’s vast knowledge of custom knives and also 19th-century dress bowies proved an invaluable source of information for many, including BLADE. Perhaps Phil’s most important contribution was his faithful patronage and support of the custom knife industry. He bought and collected the knives of many makers from the early 1970s on at a time when the industry needed such buyers/collectors desperately to survive. As a Hall-Of-Fame nominator noted, “Phil was the definition of a knife collector, always talking and promoting knives. Then he started his Art Knife Invitational and that changed the custom knife industry forever.”
The King Tut dagger repro Lobred commissioned Buster Warenski to create.
Any discussion of the greatest custom knifemakers of the modern era must include the late Buster Warenski, a member of the BLADE Magazine Cutlery Hall-Of-Fame.
While best known for his reproduction of the King Tut Dagger in the late 1980s, Warenski’s influence on custom knives, knifemakers and the Knifemakers’ Guild was immense and, in many ways, continues to this day. One of the early Guild voting members, he was considered among the best custom makers from the get-go. He excelled not only by the example of his workmanship but also by his leadership, serving on the Guild’s board of directors for a number of terms, including as president (1977-79).
A member of the BLADE Magazine Cutlery Hall Of Fame, Buster Warenski was one of the greatest knifemakers ever. (SharpByCoop.com photo)
The workmanship of his knives pretty much spoke for itself. He could make just about any fixed blade, folder or sword, and make it extremely well, though it is his art daggers for which he is most remembered. He taught himself how to engrave and although he may not have been the best engraver, the early examples of his engraving held up among other knives of the time.
But then it always seemed that Buster found a way to make his knives the best—and one way was marrying Julie, who learned how to engrave and became one of the best, lending her talents to Buster’s knives and making them even more fabulous. (Julie Warenski-Erickson continues to engrave today and is married to knifemaker Curt Erickson.)
Perhaps the greatest tribute to any knifemaker is one from one of his peers who also happens to be one of the world’s best makers—in this instance, Steve Johnson. As Steve noted, “Putting myself in even the same sentence as a ‘fellow knifemaker’ with Buster makes me uncomfortable. No one will ever attain the skill and ability as a knifemaker as this great man did.”
For the latest knives, knife news and much more, stay tuned to www.blademag.com.
Largest class as HOF honors living and deceased legends.
The BLADE Magazine Cutlery Hall of Fame® is proud to announce its new inductees for 2025: Harvey Dean, Stanley Fujisaka, Rick Dunkerley, Dr. James Lucie, Alfred Pendray, James Schmidt, and Daniel Winkler and Karen Shook.
In a procedural change new for this year, the Hall of Fame has expanded the number of annual inductees from three to seven, the latter including four living and four deceased individuals. (The team of Winkler and Shook is count as one inductee.) They, along with Dean and Dunkerley, are this year’s living inductees, with the balance being the deceased ones.
The new Hall of Famers will be formally inducted, including the posthumous inductions of the deceased members, during BLADE Show 2025 June 6-8 at the Cobb Galleria Centre in Atlanta. The induction ceremony will commence the Saturday morning of the show, June 7, at 8 a.m., and will include a breakfast in the Kennesaw Room of the show’s host hotel, the Renaissance Atlanta Waverly. Tickets are required in advance and are limited. For ticket information email [email protected].
Harvey Dean
Harvey Dean
According to a nominator, “Harvey Dean earned his American Bladesmith Society master smith rating in 1992 and since then has taught an impressive number of students the art of bladesmithing. He became a member of the ABS Board of Directors in 2004 and served four years with distinction as ABS president from 2015-19. He continues to serve on the ABS board today. He was inducted into the ABS Hall of Fame in 2016. He has won an impressive number of judging awards for his knives, including at BLADE Show Texas, multiple times at the BLADE Show, from the Antique Bowie Knife Association and others. His knives have earned him membership in the prestigious Art Knife Invitational, limited to 25 of the world’s top knifemakers by a vote of the member makers.
He is a marvelous bladesmithing teacher, a master leader, a master administrator, and a master ambassador for the forged blade.” Along with award-winning knifemaker Johnny Stout, Harvey coordinated two annual knifemaking seminars in New Braunfels, Texas, for a number of years. He has also passed the knifemaking torch to his son Dillon, who creates utility fixed blades of his own. Concluded the nominator, “Harvey is among those named in the book Greatest Living Knifemakers written by Cutlery Hall-Of-Famer Steve Shackleford. I know of no one man deserving of being named to the Cutlery Hall Of Fame more than Harvey.”
Rick Dunkerley
Rick Dunkerley
Rick Dunkerley began making knives in 1983 and started forging them in 1992. He specializes in mosaic damascus folders, winning judging awards for a number of them, as well as an occasional fixed blade. Among others, he’s won judging awards for his knives at the Oregon Knife Collectors Association Show, Montana Knifemakers Association Show, BLADE Show and BLADE Show Texas. His knives have earned him membership in the prestigious Art Knife Invitational, limited to 25 of the world’s top knifemakers by a vote of the member makers. He held many hammer-ins during the ’90s and brought in the best instructors of the time.
Rick has always been generous with information and is an excellent teacher. He’s taught at such venues as the Texarkana College/Bill Moran School of Bladesmithing, the Batson Bladesmithing Symposium, the Massachusetts College of Art, Saskatchewan Western Development Museum, Northern Minnesota Blacksmith’s Association, Northern Rockies Blacksmith’s Association and Western Canada Knifemakers’ Symposium. One of his students, Josh Smith, was the youngest ever to achieve both ABS journeyman and master smith status, and today runs the Montana Knife Co., a factory knife production operation with 80 employees. According to a nominator, “Rick has been on the board of the ABS and does the top shows worldwide. He has paid his dues, is a hell of a guy, always willing to share his knowledge, and makes world-class knives.”
Stanley Fujisaka
Stanley Fujisaka
Stanley “Stan” Fujisaka went full-time making knives in 1984 and was a prolific builder of award-winning folders and fixed blades. He was a beloved mentor in his Kaneohe, Hawaii, knife shop to a number of Hawaiian and other makers, including Scott Matsuoka, Les George, Cutlery Hall-Of-Famer Ken Onion and many more. Stan played a key role in encouraging Onion to patent his famous SpeedSafe assisted-opening mechanism. As a result and as Cutlery Hall-Of-Famer Dan Delavan wrote, “Ken went on to become the savior of Kershaw Knives.”
Stan also generously assisted knifemakers who fell victim to floods, shop fires, medical issues and more. He was a regular exhibitor at knife shows, donating many knives for door prizes. He collected custom knives and promoted them and the custom industry in general by supporting the Bay Area Knife Collectors Association Show, The Knifemakers’ Guild Show and other knife events. Together with his good friend, Cutlery Hall-Of-Famer Jim Sornberger, Stan co-hosted dinners for knife collectors, area celebrities and others, all of which helped promote custom knives. Finally, when it came to being a goodwill ambassador to the custom knife industry, few if any could rival Stan for his many gifts—including flowers, Hawaiian coffee and boxes of chocolate-macadamia nuts—that he doled out to friends, customers and other patrons at the shows where he exhibited.
Dr. James R. Lucie
Dr. James R. Lucie
According to a nominator, “Dr. James R. ‘Jim’ Lucie was Cutlery Hall-Of-Famer William Scagel’s physician and signed Scagel’s death certificate in 1963. This was the beginning of Dr. Lucie’s Scagel knife-collecting avocation. Scagel is considered by many the father of the modern custom knife. Dr. Lucie discovered his passion for knifemaking in 1990 when he took a class on bladesmithing from Cutlery Hall-of-Famer Bill Moran. Jim was a very talented maker and received several awards for his contributions to the knifemaking community. He assisted other makers often. In 2001, the ABS created the Dr. Jim Lucie Award, which it bestowed on Jim as its inaugural recipient. The award was ‘presented for the unselfish contribution to the preservation of the forged blade. The person receiving this award has gone far beyond the call … and exemplifies the type of person needed to keep … bladesmithing alive.’
Jim also received an ABS Special Service Award in 2002 ‘in recognition of his meritorious and unselfish services on behalf of … the forged blade.’ He also received the ABS Chairman’s Award for Outstanding Service more than once. He was a talented bladesmith, hand-forging mostly Scagel recreations of the highest quality. He improved on Scagel’s designs when it would enhance the knife. Jim dedicated three decades to researching Scagel’s life and collecting his works. Jim’s efforts culminated in Scagel Handmade, a massive hardbound book detailing Scagel’s life, with photos of over 200 knives and other Scagel items. Dr. Lucie hosted a hammer-in in 2001, with over 500 people in attendance. He shared his knowledge of Scagel’s techniques by giving speeches at many bladesmithing events. Late in life, Jim donated his blacksmithing, grinding and finishing equipment valued at $62,700 to the ABS. His actions consistently exhibited honesty, compassion for others and a dedication to the bladesmithing community.”
Alfred Pendray
Alfred Pendray
Alfred “Al” Pendray was a rock to the many bladesmiths he taught and influenced over the decades. “I learned so much from him,” noted ABS master smith Charley Ochs, “not only about knives and metallurgy but also about life and social interaction as a person.” Softspoken but never at a loss for words on the subjects that mattered to him, Alfred possessed an intricate knowledge of many things, including wootz steel, bladesmithing/knifemaking and knife history in general. He had a solid work ethic and led as much or more by example than the spoken word. He knew when to express his views and when not to, a trait sadly lacking in much of today’s discourse. Alfred is co-author—along with Dr. John Verhoeven, a former metallurgical engineering professor at Iowa State University—of articles appearing in eight scientific journals, four bladesmith publications and BLADE on the nature of “genuine damascus,” or wootz steel.
Pendray was granted patent number 5,185,044 on a “method of making damascus blades.” He was a speaker at the Symposium on Damascus Steel at New York University in 1984. He also spoke at the International Conference on Damascus Steel in Germany in 1985 and the same conference in 1992. He lectured at the Imperial College in London, England, in 1992. He joined The Knifemakers’ Guild in 1982 and was awarded his master smith rating by the ABS in 1983. He received the ABS award for the Bill Moran Knife of The Year in 1991 and was elected to the Guild board of directors in 1992. He received the ABS W.W. Scagel Award in 1998 and is a past recipient of the Guild’s Red Watson Award. He served as Guild president from 1998-2004. In September 2001, he was featured on the nationally syndicated Paul Harvey radio show. In 2003, he was inducted into the ABS Hall of Fame.
James Schmidt
James Schmidt
According to a nominator, James “Jim” Schmidt was instrumental in raising the level of knifemaking to compete with the finest crafts ever made. Most importantly, he elevated the pursuit to an art but never forgot the meticulous details of the craft. His knives are immediately recognizable and he influenced so many who came after him in meaningful ways. A spectacular book by BLADE® field editor Mike Haskew memorialized the man and his knives: JAMES A. SCHMIDT, The Great Master. A few passages from the book: “As a custom knifemaker he knew few peers. As a mentor and teacher, he was without equal”; “A man of few words, he allowed the results of his skill, precision, and limitless creativity to speak for him. In silent, stunning beauty, they thundered”; and “He welcomed those who were earnestly interested in improving their bladesmithing and knifemaking skills into his shop … and shared with them the light of precious knowledge that he realized should be readily and freely given rather than hidden.”
In the 1970s, along with Jimmy Fikes and Don Fogg, Jim formed the New England Bladesmith Society to promulgate the skills and techniques of knifemaking. Before long the groundbreaking Ashokan Bladesmithing Seminar was born. Jim was a principal organizer, lecturer and demonstrator. He was one of the earliest members of the ABS and one of the earliest ABS master smiths, and a member of the ABS Hall of Fame. He was a constant member of the Art Knife Invitational, a winner of the Red Watson Award from the Knifemakers’ Guild, the Beretta Award for Outstanding Achievement, and many other honors from a number of custom knife shows. In time Jim decided to let someone else win an occasional award and became a judge at many shows. His approach was to be meticulously but fairly critical and always encouraging. He was indeed the ultimate teacher, his profession for most of his life.
Daniel Winkler And Karen Shook
Daniel Winkler And Karen Shook
ABS master smith Daniel Winkler and Karen Shook first made their mark in the world of knives with custom reproductions of historical knives and tomahawks. Daniel made the knives and hawks and Karen made the accompanying authentic period sheaths, and the two became internationally known for their work. Daniel and Karen taught for the ABS for many years and Daniel was in the vanguard of the Society’s early cutting competitions. The two were at the forefront of early American historical arms and their period pieces were among those featured in the 1992 feature film, Last of the Mohicans. In 1994 a Navy SEAL Special Warfare operator asked Daniel to make a tomahawk because there was nothing on the market that worked for the SEALs at the time. According to a nominator, “Karen designed a sheath the SEALs liked and over the years she and Daniel did more special projects for the SEALs, ultimately inspiring the two to form Winkler Knives II.” Added another nominator, Daniel and Karen’s operation “soon became the cutlery armorer of many top Special Ops teams, from the SEALs to Delta Force, and to those of other nations as well.
For many years Daniel and Karen quietly made the knives, axes and sheaths without seeking glory or publicity for their work. In fact, they insisted that their generosity and unselfishness remain a secret among those who discovered it. It was only upon mention of their work in the book No Easy Day, in which the SEAL Team member on the Bin Laden take-down mentioned he was carrying a Winkler knife, that Daniel and Karen’s work became known to the general public. With such demand, they have expanded into a mid-tech operation and from there into that of a cutlery producer.” Today, Winkler Knives has a 35,000-square-foot facility employing one part-time and 28 full-time workers. “Few have transitioned into the changing markets as well as Daniel and Karen,” the nominator noted, “and none have done so with such humility and class.”
Dowell, Harsey and Fogg join the ranks of other greats.
Custom knifemakers T.M. “Ted” Dowell and William “Bill” Harsey Jr. and ABS master smith Don Fogg have been voted the 2024 inductees into the BLADE Magazine Cutlery Hall of Fame®.
The three were elected by a vote of sitting members of the Cutlery Hall of Fame and a panel of industry authorities, the latter assembled by BLADE® Magazine. The vote was finalized April 25.
The trio will be inducted formally in a special ceremony during the 43rd Annual BLADE Show June 7-9 at the Cobb Galleria Centre in Atlanta. The ceremony will be held Saturday, June 8, at 8 a.m. in the Kennesaw Room of the Renaissance Atlanta Waverly Hotel, the host hotel of the BLADE Show. For ceremony ticket information, visit [email protected].
Dowell was one of the founding members who established The Knifemakers’ Guild, the grandaddy of all modern knifemaker organizations, in 1970. Along with fellow Cutlery Hall-Of-Famer Bob Loveless, Dowell wrote the Guild’s original bylaws. Ted was Guild president in 1975 and coordinated the organization’s first custom-knives-only-no-guns show. He helped Cutlery Hall-Of-Famer Phil Lobred establish the Art Knife Invitational in the early 1980s. Lobred credited Dowell with making the first modern integral knife, a design Ted introduced in 1972 in his basic hunting knives and which eventually evolved into some of the most ornate of integral art knives. Integral knives in general turned into a category of their own and remain popular to this day. Ted passed away in 2012.
Fogg and Murad Sayen formed a partnership called ‘Kemal’ in 1980. Kemal created some of the best art knives ever, including one pictured in Esquire Magazine. The accompanying article helped bring the beauty of art knives to the world. In 1981, Bill Moran and Fogg received the first ABS master smith ratings. In 2006 Don was inducted into the ABS Hall of Fame. He long has shared his vast knowledge. He revealed the art of Samurai and Viking sword making and developed the W’s damascus pattern. He shared the drawings of his best gas forge and his gas heat treat oven for swords. He built one of the first 20-ton hydraulic forging presses for making damascus. Today the press is as popular as a power hammer. He also was instrumental in starting the ABS bladesmithing school in Auburn, Maine.
Harsey has made and designed knives for 38 years, during which time he has been one of the most prolific and recognizable names in the industry, working behind the scenes and designing for Al Mar Knives, Beretta, Chris Reeve Knives, CRKT, Gerber, Ruger and Spartan Blades. He worked and consulted with and designed for Cutlery Hall-Of-Famer Col. Rex Applegate, including the British SAS Collaboration Knife. Bill designed the U.S. Army Special Forces Green Beret Knife, aka The Yarborough, for Chris Reeve Knives, a serialized version of which was presented to each graduate of the Special Forces Qualification Course. He also designed the official knife of the Canadian Special Forces and the U.S. Navy SEAL Silver Trident knife, and worked on the Neil Roberts knife project.
The elections bring to 74 the number of members in the Cutlery Hall of Fame, the world’s only shrine to the giants of the entire knife industry.
Long-time knifemaker and knife-thrower Bobby Branton will demonstrate how to throw knives at the 2013 BLADE Show May 31-June 2 at the Cobb Galleria Centre in Atlanta.
As he has done at the BLADE Show for many years, Branton will bring his knife-throwing target and assortment of his custom Pro-Flyte throwing knives. He also has thrown tomahawks on occasion in his seminars. Word is he might be throwing some new factory hawks at this year’s BLADE Show, too.
Bobby Branton (left) discusses knife throwing with patrons during his seminar at the 2012 BLADE Show.
Branton’s seminars are always casual and impromptu. He chats informally with his audience and encourages questions, comments and other open dialogue. It’s a seminar suitable for the entire family.
In fact, you never can tell who might show up for one of Bobby’s seminars. Past special guests have included Ernest Emerson, among others.
Branton has been active administrating the American Knife Throwers Alliance over the years, and has hosted many knife-throwing events near his shop in Awendaw, South Carolina.
Branton will throw his knives during his seminar the Saturday of the BLADE Show at 10 a.m. in “The Courtyard”—otherwise known as the parking lot of the host hotel, the Renaissance Waverly. Admission is free to all BLADE Show ticket holders.
