Australian Blade Ed 1

Maker Interview – John Nash
John Nash is a retired Insurance Loss Adjuster who has lived in Cairns in Far North Queensland Australia for the
past 47 years. A private pilot, knife maker, amateur boat builder, trophy maker, archer and bowyer he took to
completing a novel he started in 1978, when a serious health issue forced a ten month sabbatical from his profession
in 2004. He has since published four more novels and resides, with his wife Narelle in a hillside home overlooking
the Pacific Ocean. He has two adult sons who also live in Cairns. What follows is his story.
Look, as far as making knives, what happened was, in 1998 my wife commenced managing a
retirement village. When we resided there, the men were outnumbered by the women, but as for the
men, with the exception of one guy, none of them had a hobby. One guy painted, did art landscapes
or something. I couldn't believe it, that they're all sitting around there waiting to die, basically.
So I thought I needed a hobby, and at Bowhunters, of course there was Bill Hill, who made knives. I
was fascinated by his knives as they were so beautifully made. Anyway, one of the other bowhunters,
a bloke from the Tablelands, had some steel, some 440C steel. He gave me a piece, and said, "Here.
Do you want to have a go at making a knife?" So, I went back home, and using a mate's linisher, I
made three knives. One for me, one for my brother, and just a spare one. I put Corian on the handle
of two of them, and timber on the handle of another one.
When I was finished I got them hardened at Wilkinson's up in Atherton. Took me hours to clean up
the mess they'd made as they obviously used the same oil as they did for truck springs and the like. I
took them to Bowhunters one day and showed them to Bill. Bill spent, I'd say half an hour or more
looking at them from every direction, and every which way.