AJ Hubbard Damascus

H

Hubbard

Joined
Jul 24, 2015
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This is a knife that my grandfather (Arthur J "Bud" Hubbard) made for me when I was born. He passed when I was still young and I never got to learn much about his hobby. I know virtually nothing about knife making so if anyone cares to shed some light on what I have I would appreciate it. So far I have just found one of his patents related to the way he made the damascus which was interesting. Alternatively, if anyone has one of his pieces I would love to hear about it.

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Very nice knife. I don't know anything at all about your grandfather, other than it seems he had some serious skills and a good eye. Is there an inlay in wood scale? If you don't get a better response, you can have your thread moved to the Bernard Levine identification forum.
 
That might be stainless damascus on that knife. I can think of one knife, Tom Overeynder gents folder(owned by Mark Strauss) that has Hubbard stainless damascus on it. Great looking knife and I would love to hear what the patent was for.
 
I've always enjoyed the knives made by your grandfather...even have a one or two. He was on the forefront of stainless Damascus and made his with very thin pieces of stock and a lot of them.

He even ground a few blades for Les De Asis for a very limited run of balisongs.....a great knifemaker, IMHO.

That's a very nice folder you have, glad you do.
 
Wow!
Your Grandfather made me two knives; a skeleton boot knife and a reblade for a Pacific Cutlery balisong!
Thank you for the post.
rolf
 
Here is a picture of the Tom Overeynder Knife with engraving by Ray Cover Jr. and a Hubbard Damascus blade. The picture is by Coop. Hopefully the picture is displaying properly but I had to click on the link.
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I have a Howard Hitchmough fixed blade made with your grandfather's steel. He was a pioneer of Stainless Damascus.:)
 
I did one of my first articles on a puukko your Grandfather made back in 1994. As mentioned above he took thin pieces of stainless steel, like shims, and forged them together to make his Damascus, which was beautiful and functional too. John
 
Thanks for posting the thread.

As well as being recognized as a significant contributor to stainless Damascus development techniques your grandfather was obviously rather good at making knives too!

A beautiful piece:)

Sam
 
I recall a Blade(?) Magazine article about A.J. (Bud) Hubbard, featuring his “Precision Engineered Damascus” as he called it. That’s what the patent was for. He took thin layers of differing stainless steels, stacked them up, wrapped them in a steel packet, and forge welded them all together to get his layers.

The Spring 1993 (Vol.7 #2) issue of Knives Illustrated magazine had an article about the gas forge that Mr. Hubbard built for himself.

I later met your grandfather at a knife show in Windsor, CT. He had some pretty impressive knives with him. One that I was particularly impressed with one knife he had made. It looked just like a Marine Corps Kabar, but it had one of his stainless Damascus blades. I talked with him for a bit but, as I recall, he seemed to be a bit hard of hearing. (Or perhaps I was annoying him and he wanted me to go away. :rolleyes:)

Arizona Custom Knives currently has photos of nine AJ Hubbard knives, some of which are particularly interesting.

Here is a little sgian dubh that your grandfather made. I picked it up used on eBay. The blade is 154CM, and the guard, escutcheon and buttcap all appear to be nickel silver. The handle is Blackwood or Ebony.





 
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I just happened to see this thread today, right after Chris posted I guess. I remember the article he cites, and I remember meeting Bud at a show in the early 90s.

He did beautiful and innovative stuff :thumbup:

As it turns out, I happen to have the forge He built - when Bud stopped making knives, RJ Martin acquired the forge from him. RJ never really go into forging (don't feel bad- he did pretty good doing his own thing :D) and he gave it to me for a song when I visited his shop one time!

prettiest forge you will ever see, thermocouple and everything

I'll see if I can take some pictures and post them

Bill
 
Bill, you reminded me that I eventually ended up with Bud's MSC surface grinder. It's kind of nice when old tools find new owners to use them. :)
 
Hubbard, check your "Visitor Messages". Since you haven't listed an email, I sent you a visitor message with info on someone who could help you out.
 
That Sgian Dubh is beatiful.

As are the Hubbard knives on the Arizona site - especially the traditional Bowie, which pops up first in a search for Hubbard.
 
I met Bud years ago. He lived on Cutlers Farm Road in Monroe, CT. His widow still lives there. He gave me a tour of his workshop. It was interesting to see how much home made equipment he had. He also told me about several patents that he had. One was for making Damascus blades. I ended up buying a 10" Bowie knife from him. It is a work of art,

Ralph Lipeles
 
billf said:
I just happened to see this thread today, right after Chris posted I guess. I remember the article he cites, and I remember meeting Bud at a show in the early 90s.

He did beautiful and innovative stuff 👍

As it turns out, I happen to have the forge He built - when Bud stopped making knives, RJ Martin acquired the forge from him. RJ never really go into forging (don't feel bad- he did pretty good doing his own thing :D) and he gave it to me for a song when I visited his shop one time!

prettiest forge you will ever see, thermocouple and everything

I'll see if I can take some pictures and post them

Bill
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Please do, I have the (not exact same forge) that i have just completed.
 
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