I have wanted
a new knife made for myself for a long time but, could never decide on a style
that I liked. I wanted something early but, not a dagger no double edge. One
late night I was going through some of the older post on the Contemporary Makers blog site and came
across some early style knives made by CLA artisans Ken Gahagan that I liked. So I got with CLA artisans
Ben Hoffman of Hoffman Reproductions to talk about what he could do for me.
After showing him the photos of Ken’s work and what I was looking for he came
up with a European style hunting knife. He drew up some sketches of what he had
in mind, and I made some changes and well this is what we came up with. Ben did an
outstanding job on the knife. I received it in mid October and used it to field
dressing my turkey and was hoping to put it to use on a deer but no luck on
that. The knife is light and holds a fine edge. I made up the sheath for it but
I’m not sure that it is what I want so that may change in the future.
If you would like to see what Ben has to offer you can send him a e-mail to hoffmanreproductions@yahoo.com or call him at 1-740-828-2304
Here are some photos that Ben sent me as he work on the knife. The one thing that impressed me was that the handle was fitted to the tang by burning it in for the perfect fit.
No epoxy used.