About Me

I, like many other knife enthusiasts have been interested in knives since I was big enough to carry one. I always was intrigued at the workings of a pocket knife,  the various types and was always interested in how they worked-exactly. Well, in mid 2004/5 I joined various knife forums and met people who worked on them ,embellished them and knew how they worked, with thier encouragement I took apart my first slipjoint pocket knife and from there it was history. No knife was safe from some sort of upgrade. As time went on I became more educated about how to trouble shoot knives and how to fix minor and major problems. I bought books and studied them and read them cover to cover, many times. 

       My Dad being a retired bladesmith really helped too. He had never ventured into the pocket knife world, but was an expert on fixed blades and heat treating. He encouraged me to try making a fixed blade and I did, then a week later I made another, and another and another. My first fixed blades were crude and had more flaws than I care to admit, but it was all a learning experience, well.....it still is! My skills have drastically improved over time and will continue to.

      Now, as time goes on I experiment with things I have never tried before, It is an always will be a learning experience for me, with each project I complete I learn something new. There is no end to the learning process!

I would like to answer once and for all the question I get time and time again of "why was I banned from bladeforums.com in 2007?" and to dispell roumors spread by people who have second and third hand knowledge of the situation and in truth was not even around when these events took place.

To make sense of why I was banned we must go back a few months prior to when the ban was instated. I had a personal business deal with a member/moderator with the screen name of "Blues". I don't know if he is still a member or a moderator and I really don't care.  It goes like this,"Blues" contacts me via personal email asking to have 2 cold steel slipjoints rehandled in jig bone. One in red bone one in brown bone. Very simple, he sends the knives, I do the work, I return the knives. He seems happy but raises a concern about the "hue" of the handles. After a few emails back and forth it seems he is 100% happy and even went so far as to leave positive feedback on this website!

In the months that followed he would continually email me 2-3 times a month harassing me over my postings on bladeforums.com claiming I was advertising and needed to puchase a knifemaker membership in order to post on the forums. It was my understanding that in order to sell items you produce or advertise services a knifemaker membership was required; but not to post photos and contribute to the forum. I explained to him I was not advertising, I was only sharing photos with other members, trying to contribute to the community.  I had never advertised or otherwise solicited goods or services on the forum, in fact I had never even gotten a request for either stemming from my forum posts. Except maybe the work request from "Blues" (mods are above the law, remember?). I repeatedly explained this to "Blues" but he continued to repeat himself over and over. This does not surprise or confuse me because "Blues" was in law enforcement and as we can see in thousands of examples all over the internet. Whenever they are verbally challenged they usually either ignore your logic and repeat themselves until the get compliance like mindless robots; Or they become angry and violent and use thier authority to abuse others. So I blame his lack of communication skills not on him but on the training that was instilled in him in the academy.

Anyway, after serveral emails covering the span of a few months I told him not to worry or email me again becuase I was deleting my account and would cease to contribute to bladeforums.com based solely on his unjust harassment. Moments later I attempted to log onto bladeforums.com to post a farewell message to my friends and close my account. Upon attempting to log on I was notified that I had been banned. The reason listed was for AND I QUOTE: "Rude emails and Sassing a mod". No one sent rude emails, if any emails could be construed as rude it would be his. All of my emails were polite an collected. I contacted then owner of bladeforums.com "Cougar Allen". He refused to investigate the actions of his moderator and said that he supported the actions and choices of his moderators and it was out of his hands. So there it is folks. The backgroiund as to why I was banned from bladeforums.com.

THE END

The only Factory Authorized repair station for now defunct Schrade USA produced knives 1904-2004