Burt Foster small damascus integral

Gary W. Graley

Gary W. Graley

“Imagination is more important than knowledge"
Knifemaker / Craftsman / Service Provider
Joined
Mar 2, 1999
Messages
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Just back from the Ashokan Seminar and picked this little gem up from Burt Foster, a Master Smith out of Bristol, Virginia.

I bought it off his belt and took it as is, so the sheath is a little worn but
that was ok. It came with a neat sheath, he had seen this design before and
it works pretty well, basically one piece of leather wrapped around and around
and then snaps onto the front of the sheath, if you need to take it off to go
into a store, you just unsnap and it slides off.

Blade is about 3" long and made up of 01 and 15n20 steel

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Nicely done integral

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and also nicely done is the desert ironwood handle with nickel silver domed pins

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Sharp as can be also
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Thanks again Burt, lovely knife!
G2
 
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That's a heck of a good looking knife. It has beautiful flowing lines, and the steel's pattern is fantastic.
 
Very nice little knife. Beautiful damascus, beautiful wood.

Great score. Congratulations!

Kind regards,

Jos
 
Thats a real nice piece, the whole thing look great.

I like it alot :thumbup:
 
That felt great in the hand, too... I'm jealous! Guess I'll have to get him to make me one.

Great pictures, too Gary... you really are talented!
 
Nice, G2, great looking knife you got there. The Damascus pattern really seems to work with the flow, including the integral bolster.

Send it to Cheyenne for some real world testing!;)

Win
 
Hi Gary,

Very nice piece you picked up there.

I liberated the knife below from Burt's belt at the Northeast Hammer-in last year. I've used the heck out of it - cuts like a little laser.

Enjoy yours!

Roger

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Nice one Roger! Burt should probably hide the knives on his belt a little better
if he wants to hang on to them! :)
G2

edited to add, yes, Win, I was contacted by our mutual friend already, but she's
staying here in Northern PA ;)
 
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hehe, deja vu all over again eh?
and yes, it is an amazing workmanship on that knife, must be why he
was made a MasterSmith most likely! a title well deserved, you should
see RogerP's collection !

G2
 
Beautiful knife Gary. You just can't say too many good things about Mr. Foster's work. I've always liked that one you carry Roger. It's great seeing them both.
 
thanks guys, I had sharpened her up when I got home and she was sharp
but felt it needed just a tad bit more, so took her to the ceramics for a few
passes and wow, very sharp now, hair flinging' just the way I like em' :)

and adding this shot I took of her at Ashokan before I bought her from Burt;

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Such nice lines throughout the knife, the grain in the wood appears to flow into
the damascus pattern, pretty cool,
G2
 
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Thanks Michael, while I generally prefer wharncliffish blades, this one has a bit of
a long straight edge before rising up to the tip, very cool knife, on the way home
from Ashokan, a LONG ride, I kept having buyers remorse, but then I'd taker her out
of the sheath and say, nope, I did the right thing ;)
G2
 
Now, I do feel a little bad, played a trick on Burt Foster, but only because
I saw that he was being joked with by so many others at Ashokan that I knew
he could take a joke, short story longer, the knife above like I say I bought off his
belt, the night before he was cutting up his steak with it so there was some light
surface patina there and the edge needed sharpened up from hitting the glass plate
yeah, glass is pretty tough no matter what knife you have ;) and the sheath was
wear worn a little, but being I wanted to take it home, he allowed me to do so in it's
present condition.
He said get some flitz or something like that and that surface stuff will disappear and
of course he was right.
So I got home and emailed him the following email;

Hi Burt,
It was good to meet you, I missed last years seminar I hear tell you did some very nice demos there!

Love the knife, my wife's uncle Warren Strout, who I rode out there with, had some flitz
and let me borrow some and the blade looks great now. I also sharpened it up from your
steak attack last night, razor like edge. And I guess you didn't have a chance to even
the pins in the handle with the wood, took me a little while, but I was able to get those
flush with the wood now, probably should have let you take it home to finish it up, but
you know how folks are, hate to part with something so soon!

Thanks again,
Gary Graley aka G2

hehe, he told me later when he got this email he read it to Jason Knight who he was riding
with and they both were like WHAT THE HECK???
Sanding down the beautiful Nickel Silver DOMED PINS ????

I emailed him later the next day to let him off the hook, but yah, it was a gotcha kinda
thing...

Of course I'd never do that, but the way I salted in the phrase with the other work that
needed done, it read like it really happened, which was the intent ;)

Sorry Burt, won't do that again to ya!

G2
 
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