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Little known makers

I thought it would be fun to share any makers you might know of that don't get the exposure they should. In my state we have a few but I am starting with one from California. Ivan Maras, I found Ivan in knife mag ( If you really want to know which one I will find it) Ivan mostly makes wood carving knives I asked him to make me a camping / hunting knife. It is forged 01 with a walnut handle. and a heavy 9/10 oz leather pouch sheath. He leaves a few forging marks on the ricasso as evidence of the process. The rest of the blade is highly polished and flat ground.
He even gave her a name "Roxanne". We don't hit the woods as often as I would like but when we do I am always glad she is with me.
I am going to contact Ivan before I post his contact info to make sure he is OK with it.( I should have done that before writing this) One last thing Ivan is a Christian and his mark reflects that if it means anything to you. It does to me.

I would like to hear about any makers you know of that might not have the exposuer they should have. Or ones from your home town / state.

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by J. Neilson on March 2, 2010 at 6:39

I'd mention Keith Bagley of Maryland. He's a wonderful smith and ornamental ironworker as well as bladesmith. He's actually the fella who got me started forging steel and making damascus and he's been a great help to me and many others over the years. He's farrier and doesn't have enough time to work on knives the way he'd like but, retirement is coming.

Permalink Reply by lg&m on March 2, 2010 at 16:07

Thanks for the reply.

Permalink Reply by Eugene Coates Smith Jr on March 5, 2010 at 16:12

I'm a maker myself but not as accomplished as I'd like..have put the knifemaking on the back burner cause I'm
trying to get my gun business going (guns/knives go hand in hand)..anyhow..I know another maker here in the
foothills of the Blue Ridge Mtns of western NC. He has helped me a great deal and he makes some really beautiful
knives. His name is Watson Ward and he's a very private person so I won't give out any information on him
without his permission.

Permalink Reply by lg&m on March 5, 2010 at 17:34

Thanks, that sounds like the kind of maker I am thinking of . I would like to see a picture of both yours and his work.

Permalink Reply by Eugene Coates Smith Jr on March 6, 2010 at 16:43

I don't have any photos yet and I don't know if Watson has any either but
I can sure ask him...

Permalink Reply by lg&m on April 6, 2010 at 16:26

I am impressed by anyone who can make a good knife. The ones that can do it with a forage and not much else even more so. I would like to learn to be a blacksmith.

Permalink Reply by Trent Rock on April 6, 2010 at 19:00

You are gonna be searching a long time!!!
The patch knife was "invented" in the 1940's-50's by muzzle loader reenactors......

Permalink Reply by Eugene Coates Smith Jr on April 7, 2010 at 6:45

Blacksmithing/bladesmithing/knifemaking is a lot of fun! Unless ur willing to spend the money
to go to classes on blacksmithing u can still get the info u need from various books. One guy I
know, artistblacksmith.com (Dave Robertson from Ontario) is a great guy to get info from. He's
sure helped me. Another site to go to is purgatoryironworks.com run by Trenton Tye from GA.
u can find some of his videos on youtube or just go directly to his site. Hope that helps u some.
Also u can go to igoogle or bing.com and type in blacksmith. That will give u all kinds of
good stuff to look at!

Gene

Permalink Reply by Tim Noble on April 19, 2010 at 15:05

Bernie Garland in the UK is well worth checking out for good hard working hunting knives.

Permalink Reply by Steve Hanner on April 6, 2013 at 20:38

One fellow I strongly recommend is on FB, his name is Bob Ewing. He is older and a of all things a cowboy, at least when he was younger and around horses and rodeo's his whole life. He is also right here on iKC Another fellow I would also recommend is Gary Bolduc. He is here and on FB. He even does things like custom pipes. Pretty nice stuff from these two gentleman.

Permalink Reply by lg&m on May 21, 2013 at 20:16

Here is one from Bryan Breeden. I call her Tessa