Goodbye folks - I won't be able to make anymore knives

Joined
Aug 26, 2004
Messages
610
I love making knives and I really enjoyed this path I've chose for my life, but sadly a change must come.

Mid 2012 I started to have some weird health issues, that ultimately turned out to be diagnosed as lung cancer, already extended to the pleura.

I had to stop working for a month or two, but eventually I managed to resume working, though at a much slower pace than before.

Chemo/rad wasn't helping much, and about 10 days ago, probably due to lower defenses, I got a previous condition come back in force, forcing my wife to rush me to the ER to have an emergency surgery. They kept me at the ICU until today, when they finally cleared me to go rest at home.

As a result of both of these conditions, I won't be able to keep working on knives or anything physical anymore.

I've already had the people with pending orders contacted on an individual basis, so this is my general farewell to knife making. I wanted you guys to know directly from the source so to speak.

I've enjoyed this journey immensely and for the last decade, it allowed me to interact with people all over the world. I started making knives because I loved them, and I hope all the ones I've made in all these years keep on serving the owners as intended.

I'd like to thank each one of you that purchased a knife from me and allowed me to live this dream of me for this long, and to everyone that ever saw a knife from me and thought it was a decent looking piece of cutlery.

From now on, all correspondence sent to me will be handled directly by my webmaster.

This is the last knife I've made, finished about 15 days ago, after several months of working on it

criollojerry6.jpg


Show must go on.

Ruben Calo
 
Rubin ,
Although don't have one of your knives , I have admired many you have posted on the forums. I hope that things turn around for the better for you . You are a heck of a knifemaker!
Best wishes ,
Joe Sangster
 
Ruben,

I wish I could say something that would make it better. All I can do is pray for you and your family.

Stay in touch.

Greg
 
Mr. Calo,

I don´t know you personally but I´ve enjoyed watching your beautiful knives and am truly sad to hear about your sircumstances.

My best wishes for you and your family.

Brian
 
Sorry to hear that. All the Best from me and my family to you and yours.
 
It has always been with great anticipation that I clicked open Ruben Calo post to see your next creation. I never saw one I did not like. You have my prayers and hope for the best.
 
Wishing you the very best, Ruben. That knife you posted is a beauty that will stand for a long long time and go from hand to hand for generations. One thing I get a kick out of is knowing that some of my knives will go on long after I quit making them. Jim
 
I don't own any of your knives either,but i have admired many of your creations.Having just lost my sister (41 years old)from cancer,I can relate to what you are going through.May god bless you and watch over you,take care and rest easy Ruben..
 
I'm so very sorry to hear about this. I ran across your website a few years ago while looking at Ariel Salaverria's site and was moved by your craft. There's nothing anyone can say that will make this better but I did want to share excerpts from the following speech by Jim Valvano (An American basketball coach).

"To me, there are three things we all should do every day. We should do this every day of our lives. Number one is laugh. You should laugh every day. Number two is think. You should spend some time in thought. Number three is, you should have your emotions moved to tears, could be happiness or joy. But think about it. If you laugh, you think, and you cry, that's a full day. That's a heck of a day. You do that seven days a week, you're going to have something special...I just got one last thing, I urge all of you, all of you, to enjoy your life, the precious moments you have. To spend each day with some laughter and some thought, to get you're emotions going. To be enthusiastic every day and as Ralph Waldo Emerson said, "Nothing great could be accomplished without enthusiasm," to keep your dreams alive in spite of problems whatever you have. The ability to be able to work hard for your dreams to come true, to become a reality... "Don't give up, don't ever give up." That's what I'm going to try to do every minute that I have left... I got one last thing and I said it before, and I want to say it again. Cancer can take away all my physical abilities. It cannot touch my mind, it cannot touch my heart and it cannot touch my soul. And those three things are going to carry on forever."

God Bless you Mr. Calo
 
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