Australian Blade Ed 3 Dec 2017

My patterns today still include what most people regard as hunting and camping knives but I
prefer higher end designs. They are more challenging to build but also far more satisfying
when they are done. There are a handful of folders and a few forged blades out there, but I
would realistically have to say I am a stock removal maker of stainless fixed blade knives.
I made my first knives in my early teens but didn’t fully invest myself until my early thirties.
A chance encounter with a copy of “Blade” magazine in 1992 pretty much tipped me over the
edge. Reading it over and over I decided “I’m going to have a crack at this”. With that
magazine as my only source of information I set about building a grinder. Thanks to an
Industrial Design Degree, that wasn’t too much of a stretch. Dodgy welds and all, it’s still the
same grinder I use today.
Blade steel was off-cuts of Bohler K110 (D2) and 420C scrounged from a machine knife
manufacturer. They were also kind enough to help me with heat treat. I took my first five
knives to a Gun Show as I had been told there would be knifemakers there. Up until then I
had no idea there were other people making knives. To say I was a little overwhelmed by the
work I saw is one hell of an understatement. Most of them were Australian Knifemakers
Guild members and many of them founding members. Later I learned most were the who’s
who of makers in Australia and had an average of twenty years’ experience. I can’t help but
feel they were cheated by their era. I think it’s a shame the internet was still in nappies and
they missed out on the opportunity to have their work seen by the world.