I have been obsessed with knives my entire life. I remember
vividly walking around antique shows with my parents, as a
child. Everything about it - the smell of antiques, the air,
the time of year... But especially - the glass display cases,
which had old knives in them. I somehow convinced my parents
that I wanted to collect rare knives, but in reality, I wanted
to play with them, cut things and show my friends. I still
have many of those early knives tucked away...
My father and I would go fishing in Canada every year (for
northern pike and large mouth bass) Sitting outside the Opinicon,
in the evening, watching the sunset - my father would teach
me how to sharpen a knife by hand (with a stone) The blade
would become so sharp that I would constantly cut each finger.
My father gave me a very nice black handled knife, that I
promptly lost - throwing into the wood dock (and, bounced
off into the water...) I was heart broken.
At one point, I took one of my fathers small pocket knives
(I remember it being a small folder with an amber jigged bone
handle) It still pains me to remember losing it in the woods,
trying to throw it into a tree... In fact, that single event
brings me to today - how I started ADM Knives.
Throughout the years, I have watched e-bay for custom knives.
My first real custom was by Ray Rantanen. It's a gorgeous
damascus hunter with elk antler handles and a beautiful leather
sheath.
At some point in early 2007, I found a forum (USN)
and signed up. There, I read many posts from knife makers
and collectors. I enjoyed seeing all of the beautiful knives
that were hand made.
Meanwhile, my father had talked about retiring in the next
year or so. I began to get the idea of having a custom knife
maker design a knife that resembled the knife that I stole
from him as a child (something he could use around the house,
cutting cardboard boxes and assaulting saplings in the backyard
which needed to be trimmed) I thought that it would have
to be razor sharp and have amber jigged bone handles. Things
weren't going as I planned though and it seemed as if I would
have to wait a very long time to have one built. I then got
the idea, "I'll try my hand at building him a knife".
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