Yvsa- anyone know him or can help?

I echo the welcome to Yvsa's Grandson. Since this forum is archived and searchable, the history or background of certain knives can potentially be found by looking at old posts. For example...

... I also have his Cherokee Rose Bowie...

Yvsa spent months on designing the Cherokee Rose and creating a wooden model of it that was sent to Nepal in 2002 for the kamis to duplicate.




"...there were a few of us really wanting a nice Scagel Style Bowie so I undertook the task of making the model. I got into a whole helluva lot more than I intended as to make the model so pieces like the guard wouldn't break off I had to make the model just as the knife would be made.
First the blade then the guard and finally the handle. I actually started on the blade in April of 2,001 and health and other issues kept me from finishing it until January of 2,002.
If I had of made the guard integeral with the white pine blade the grain would've allowed the guard to break off with hardly any pressure at all.
I was actually worried that it might break off as I was cutting it out.
I wound up making the guard from a piece of Sycamore that's not only very strong, but has a multidirection grain not easily broken in two.

Then the handle. I studied on that handle for about 3 months and its final design took several weeks!!!!!!!
There's more to a good knife design than what a lot of people normally wouldn't think about.

First of all the handle Absolutely Had to be long enough to help balance the 13" blade!!!!
Then the handle had to be designed so that it would fit almost everyones hands well, not an easy task in itself. It also had to be designed so that there's actually two gripping areas on it.
The 1st grip of course up next to the guard made so that it wouldn't dig into ones hand on a hard stab and then made so it would be comfortable held all the way at the back and made so it wouldn't easily slip forward if you were chopping.
The top rear is nicely rounded on its top to facilitate a chopping motion rotateing quite nicely in ones hand.
I made it just on a little bit larger scale than what's totally comfortable to me but the handle can always be made smaller by the owner if need be.
Making it larger could be done by tapeing it I suppose, but I hate tape on knife handles.
Hopefully its design will accommadate the larger folk among us."


Yvsa quotes come from this thread:
http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php/190777-Yvsa-s-Cherokee-Rose-!!!!!!!



Did Yvsa ever tell you the story of Juan and the coconuts?

When I was but a wee lad and before I started school I wanted to learn to read more than anything else in the whole wide world. Consequently I was one of the best readers in the whole 2nd grade!:thumbup: ;) This was when we lived at Bozeman Hot Springs, Montana...
While we were living there an encyclopedia salesman conned his way into showing them to my folks... Along with the encyclopedias there was a set of story books, about 12 IIRC, that started out with really easy stories and progressed over the years to more difficult ones. I devoured the easy stories and went on to the harder ones spelling out the words I didn't know to mom who would tell me how to say it and what it meant.

One story I read I have never forgotten and likely never will, or at least I hope not, it goes like this.....

On one beautiful day in Peru a man from near or on the coast was taking a load of coconuts he had piled high in baskets on both sides of his burro to the market at the town high on the side of the mountain.
He had already walked a good distance so he stopped at the well in the town square of the small village at the bottom of the mountain to refresh himself. While he was getting a drink of the sweet cool well water after seeing to his burro a young boy named Juan came to the well to fill his grandmother's water jugs.
Thinking that Juan may know about how long it would take him to get to the city high on the mountain he asked, "Young man, about how long will it take me to get my burro and her load of coconuts to the city above?"
After seeing how carelessly the man had packed the baskets on his burro Juan told the man, "Senor if you walk slowly you can make it in a little less than two hours and will arrive fresh and in good spirits, but if you hurry it will take until well in the afternoon and you will arrive hot, tired, and frustrated."
Well this angered the man and he thought, "The young boy is mocking me and must think that I am loco or something! Go slowly and I'll get there faster or go fast and it'll take me the better part of the day, what nonsense! I'll show him!!!"
So the man started out going as fast as he could get his burro to move and had to stop frequently to pickup coconuts that had fallen out of his basket's. But no matter how often he had to stop he'd just get that much more frustrated and angry thinking, "I'm still going to show that young boy!" Therefore it took him well into the afternoon to get there and he was hot, tired, and frustrated when he arrived.
After resting a short while and getting refreshed he quickly sold everyone of his coconuts and made a good profit, much better than what he would have made at his own village's square.
On the way back down he took his time and was soon back at the well where he had asked Juan how long it would take him to get to the city high on the mountain and it had taken him a little less than two hours to get back!
After giving his burro fresh water and drinking his own fill of the sweet cool water the man begin reflecting on all of this and suddenly he realized what Juan had meant! Had he of gone slowly he wouldn't have had to stop so often to pick up his fallen coconuts and so he would've gotten there much sooner as well as refreshed as he had when he returned.

The teaching of this story can be applied to many aspects of life, even shaving. :p ;) :D :thumbup:

`

from this thread:
http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php/748189-Shaving-Redeux?p=8372045#post8372045
 
.... I also have his Cherokee Rose Bowie along with the below knife. Any idea about it?

EC62DD34-B834-4E7B-A896-CF15015CAA2F.jpg
[/URL][/IMG]

The handle appears to be antler. The blade looks like a Kumar Karda, and the maker is Kumar kami. It was likely made before Uncle Bill passed, since it doesn't have the "U.B." on the blade, and the kami mark is on the right side. More recent blades have the kami mark on the left side and almost always have "U.B." on the right side.

There have been a few knives posted by Yangdu within the past year or two that look something like this one, but a bit curvier. The recent model is called a Fish Knife, and they are made by Yuvraj kami:

FishKnife11in-Yuvraj5oz-antler-01.jpg FishKnife11in-Yuvraj5oz-horn-01.jpg FishKnife11in-Yuvraj5oz-satisal-01.jpg
 
Warmest welcome to you. Your Grandfather is regarded in the highest here and im glad to meet you. I had the pleasure to speak with him through the forum and he was always a great help. I remember the Cherokee Rose he was working out the small details and could not wait to get my hands on one. Cant wait to see more of your photos.
 
Last edited:
It's starting to look like I'm going to have to roll some change (and collect cans..and work on the street corner...) and pick up a Cherokee Rose!
 
It's starting to look like I'm going to have to roll some change (and collect cans..and work on the street corner...) and pick up a Cherokee Rose!

It's with it, they're a beauty to behold. I got mine from a fellow member here, sans the inlays, a beauty none the less.
 
I echo the welcome to Yvsa's Grandson. Since this forum is archived and searchable, the history or background of certain knives can potentially be found by looking at old posts. For example...



Yvsa spent months on designing the Cherokee Rose and creating a wooden model of it that was sent to Nepal in 2002 for the kamis to duplicate.




"...there were a few of us really wanting a nice Scagel Style Bowie so I undertook the task of making the model. I got into a whole helluva lot more than I intended as to make the model so pieces like the guard wouldn't break off I had to make the model just as the knife would be made.
First the blade then the guard and finally the handle. I actually started on the blade in April of 2,001 and health and other issues kept me from finishing it until January of 2,002.
If I had of made the guard integeral with the white pine blade the grain would've allowed the guard to break off with hardly any pressure at all.
I was actually worried that it might break off as I was cutting it out.
I wound up making the guard from a piece of Sycamore that's not only very strong, but has a multidirection grain not easily broken in two.

Then the handle. I studied on that handle for about 3 months and its final design took several weeks!!!!!!!
There's more to a good knife design than what a lot of people normally wouldn't think about.

First of all the handle Absolutely Had to be long enough to help balance the 13" blade!!!!
Then the handle had to be designed so that it would fit almost everyones hands well, not an easy task in itself. It also had to be designed so that there's actually two gripping areas on it.
The 1st grip of course up next to the guard made so that it wouldn't dig into ones hand on a hard stab and then made so it would be comfortable held all the way at the back and made so it wouldn't easily slip forward if you were chopping.
The top rear is nicely rounded on its top to facilitate a chopping motion rotateing quite nicely in ones hand.
I made it just on a little bit larger scale than what's totally comfortable to me but the handle can always be made smaller by the owner if need be.
Making it larger could be done by tapeing it I suppose, but I hate tape on knife handles.
Hopefully its design will accommadate the larger folk among us."


Yvsa quotes come from this thread:
http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php/190777-Yvsa-s-Cherokee-Rose-!!!!!!!



Did Yvsa ever tell you the story of Juan and the coconuts?



from this thread:
http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php/748189-Shaving-Redeux?p=8372045#post8372045

That's great! I hear his voice in every word. Thank you for the memory.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
The handle appears to be antler. The blade looks like a Kumar Karda, and the maker is Kumar kami. It was likely made before Uncle Bill passed, since it doesn't have the "U.B." on the blade, and the kami mark is on the right side. More recent blades have the kami mark on the left side and almost always have "U.B." on the right side.

There have been a few knives posted by Yangdu within the past year or two that look something like this one, but a bit curvier. The recent model is called a Fish Knife, and they are made by Yuvraj kami:

View attachment 657508 View attachment 657509 View attachment 657510

Wow! This must be the older model. [emoji1360]


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
for Yvsa

as the sun climbs
the sun also falls
it rolls down in the west
that great blazing ball
and it's gone

the darkness surrounds us without a sound
all that once dazzled now under the ground

but the sun also rises as we will some day
in the fields of the lord where together we'll play

Thank you! I shared this with my dad (Yvsa's son)! He loved it.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Of course there was also what happened when the Kami decided to "improve" on Yvsa's design for the Cherokee Rose. Uncle Bill rightly judged that it was not what Yvsa wanted, but posted it on the forum as a joke. It was... not to Yvsa's liking. I think in retrospect everyone involved was able to look back on it and laugh.
 
I'm going to have to look for that thread, Scara!
What a treasure for you, Mr. Grandson - I wish I had 15,000 posts of my grandpa archived online to read! Enjoy!
This thread is fabulous, magical even...it really shows what a special place this little corner of the internet is.
 
So here's the thread. It came at a time when Yvsa was really going through a very bad time, and after having spent a long time perfecting his design he was not happy that one of the Kami would disregard his design. I wasn't around when this happened, but Yvsa explained what had been happening, and it got people praying for him because of everything going on.

http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/s...Sher-version-of-the-Cherokee-Rose-Where-s-Bro
 
This was the practical joke picture that Uncle Bill posted in that thread, claiming that it was a redesign by Sher kami.

cherokee rose joke pix.jpg

I doubt that Sher had anything to do with that picture, which was subtitled (by UB) "cherokee rose joke pix."

Based on Yvsa's response to the picture, I can't tell if he was in a really bad mood or he got the joke and was playing along. Some of the other people on the thread realized right away that it was a joke, and some seem to have taken it seriously at first.
 
Last edited:
This was the practical joke picture that Uncle Bill posted in that thread, claiming that it was a redesign by Sher kami.

View attachment 657562

I doubt that Sher had anything to do with that picture, which was subtitled (by UB) "cherokee rose joke pix."

Based on Yvsa's response to the picture, I can't tell if he was in a really bad mood or he got the joke and was playing along. Some of the other people on the thread realized right away that it was a joke, and some seem to have taken it seriously at first.

Too funny!
 
yvsa took it all in his usual calm but assertive style. (NOT)
:D he was rather proud of the design :).
 
me posting more about him is trying to gild a lily.
 
Last edited:
That means if I order one it will be true to his design! perfect.

I think I have only seen one Cherokee Rose that differed notably from Yvsa's original design. It had a Manjushree handle instead of the Cherokee Rose handle. Personally I think it would be interesting to see the Rose with a handle like Thamar's typical handle, but it's unlikely to happen. In some ways it's surprising that one was even made with the Manjushree handle.
 
Very warm welcome to you sir! I didnt know Yvsa but i feel like I did from his experience here. Look forward to sharing stories and history here with you. Dont be a stranger here. we will talk your ears off if you let us:D
Yvsa did some very fine work and left us with some ingenious designs for sure. This is my YCS and It was definitely well thought out. When he sent his wooden model to the Kamis to make the tip of the awl had broken off so the Kamis made the first ones with the tip broken off just like the model. Later they figured it out and made them sharp again. Great stories here. This is one of those with the "broken" tiped awl. Definitely one of my favorites. Guess i could get a pic of it;)

7dc5c49b0f2c1b657fd57db8d5ee6492


On the left is a Kumar Karda similar but from a different type of antler. I like the turned down handle but I like yours too:thumbup:

df999126b83c100f489e86a04be1271d


Keep posting them pics! Id love to see more of your collection. That Dui Chirra with all the tools is so khul! and a Bura!
 
Grandson, it was my honor to gather some Sourwood at his request for a pipe he wanted to make. It grows up into the very southern edge of Ohio and is far more common in the Carolinas.

I sent it, and he told me it arrived. Do you know if he ever made the pipe? It seemed to be important to him.

We miss him.
 
Back
Top