Trip to the 2009 A.G. Russell Knife Show - 07/25/2009

Woke up pretty early today and got ready to go back to the show. This was just a good opportunity to stroll around and take the last few details in. There's really not a whole lot more to say, so I'll just post some more pics.






This was one of my favorite photos, me and Bob Dozier.



After I finished up at the show, I decided to get myself some good food. I had been eating pretty healthy while out of town... not always an easy thing to do. So I asked around and was told there was a good BBQ place in town. Famous Dave's, I later found out, is a chain restaurant. But it was still good.




Later, in the afternoon, I decided to take a drive. I had heard that there was a neat route through the mountains southeast of where I had been hanging out. The route is informally called "the pig trail." It runs north/south through the Ozark National Forest from Brashears to Ozark. It was a really pretty drive. The road curves up into the mountains and back down again. I saw lots of folks on motorcycle through here. It wound up being a little over a 4 hour excursion from Springdale and back again.

Trip to the 2009 A.G. Russell Knife Show - 07/24/2009

Today was the first day of the show in Rogers. That's about a 10 mile drive from where I was staying. Not too bad, but I think it would have made more sense to have stayed in Rogers since I went back there 3 or 4 times. Dozier knives was kind enough to send me a free VIP pass in the mail before I left home, which allowed me to get in 2 hours prior to the general public, and for free to boot. I got there a little early and was waiting near the entrance when folks were allowed in. A.G Russell himself came to the door, smiled, waved us in and said "Welcome everyone!" Here's where I really wish I had had my good camera, but I did get some photos along the way. Well, of course the first thing I did was head over to Bob D's tables. I looked for a good while and finally picked out a nice little knife to take home. It's model is called a Dozier Personal and it has a neat little 2.5 inch blade and this one has jigged bone handles.




Here's A.G. Russell talking to an exhibitor.


This is Ray Kirk (on the left)out of Oklahoma. I spoke with him for quite a while and eventually bought one of his knives. I took several photos of his line up as well.





I thought his knives were really neat looking. There were a lot at the show that were highly polished, beautiful knives. Some call those kinds "Safe Queens" because you'd buy them just to collect and look at, never really use. Ray's knives were beautiful to my eye because they were rugged, functional knives that could be used if you cared to. I'll probably baby mine for a while. You can read more about Ray here:

http://www.rakerknives.com/

I looked around for quite awhile and then met a really nice older fellow named Gary Brashears and his son who have been making knives for a long time. Again, their products were very utilitarian, yet attractive. To me, the three I picked up had some of the nicest wood handles I saw all weekend. One thing about these guys is... they offer a very open-ended guarantee in writing that basically says if you ever need anything...its covered. You need your sheath resewn? Send it to them. Want it resharpened? Send it to them. Handles broken? Send it in. They really want you to be able to pass these knives down from father to son to grandson. Here's some pics...

Mr. Brashears himself.




This one is the one I bought my dad. Burled maple handles. The darker areas towards the spine of the knife are little hammer marks that were left in the metal after it had been worked. My pictures don't do justice, but in person, they give the knife a really nice visual effect.


Here's a more complete lineup of some that were on his table.

Trip to the 2009 A.G. Russell Knife Show - 07/23/2009 part 2

I got into Springdale around 1:45 and made it to Bob Dozier's shop a little after 2. I pretty much went right to the shop without any trouble finding it. When I pulled up, I wasn't sure I was at the right place though. There wasn't really any signs out front that I could see.


Well, I walked in the door and there was a group of about 10 people crowded into a little room off to the side of the main shop area where Bob makes his sheaths. Bob was there telling them about something or another. I waited until it sounded like there was an opportunity to introduce myself, and then I did. Bob said he was just about to go out and show the others something else for a bit, but to just look around and he'd be back. So, Bob and the others left. Thus, I found myself alone in the Dozier shop for over 30 minutes. Here I was surrounded by machinery, some of which I could guess at the function, others I could not. Also, there were thousands of dollars worth of knives in various stages of production just lying there for me to eye.




Without a doubt, I was amazed at the amount of machinery these folks have to produce their knives. In talking to Bob and some of the other folks around there, I found out that there is hardly a piece of machinery that either hasn't been built from scratch or modified in some way to Bob's liking. At least one oven where Bob heat treats his steel was made from the ground up by him. He has constructed his own variation of the grinders so many knife makers use.


In this next photo, there's probably close to $8000 worth of Bob's folding knives in nearly complete assembly. I guess Bob trusted me to just wander alone through his shop. Either that or he was completely sure that he could gut me in the blink of an eye if he caught me trying anything shady.

Bob's step-son, Daniel Crotts, a noted knife maker himself ended up giving me a one-on-one tour of the place. I learned a lot about their process and saw another area where Bob makes most of his folding knives. One interesting tool in that shop was a unique drill press that has multiple stations on one press. They have rebuilt these (there were 3) and they function flawlessly despite their age. It's amazing to think that before our day of computerized machining tools, tools like this were built to save time. What a marvel of engineering and machining. One little nudge backwards on the arm, and it would set itself to the next station and be completley indexed and ready to go. Here's a pic of that drill press...

Daniel's tour was a wonderful part of my experience and one I am very grateful for. He even took the time to answer some questions I had about their sharpening process, pulling out a stone and giving me a demo. After we were done, we found the others in the business office of Dozier Knives, sitting around just shooting the bull... mostly knife bull of course. I listened in for close to 45 minutes and then excused myself, thanking everyone as I left. It was time to get checked in to my hotel which was a Fairfield Inn there in Springdale. The knife show would start the next day and it was time to get some rest.

Trip to the 2009 A.G. Russell Knife Show - 07/23/2009 part 1

Today I got up, had a little breakfast, and hopped on the treadmill for a little exercise.


After that, I cleaned up and headed out to walk around downtown Tulsa. It was still early, and a cool front had actually come through in the night. At 6am the temp was 59 degrees. Even though I didn't spend much more than an hour walking around, it was a nice place to see. Probably the most striking sight downtown there was the Bok Center which is their coliseum for special events.

After a good walk downtown, it was time to head on to Arkansas. I still had plenty of time to spare so I kept my eyes out for anything I thought might be interesting along the way. And, sure enough, right there very close to the border, I saw a sign for an Oklahoma State Park: Natural Falls Park. I turned in, paid my $3, and got to see a real treat.


This was a small park, very clean and neat with some campsites and trails to walk. The falls area was very relaxing to view. There was an overlook which is where I took the picture from above the falls. And then you can walk down to the bottom and sit in an observation area which is seen in the other photo. The falls were pretty small in comparison to some others I've seen in the past. I'd say maybe about 40 feet in height and not a great volume of water. Still, the size did not detract from the serenity. I'm thankful there are still places to enjoy away from the city and noise. There were only a handful of other folks around at the time, so it felt like I had the place all to myself.

I spent maybe about an hour in the park and from there took off to Springdale and Bob Dozier's shop tour. I will relate the tour and my first face to face meeting with Bob in the next section.

Trip to the 2009 A.G. Russell Knife Show - 07/22/2009

I left work around 2pm and went home for a little bit. Visited with the family for a while and gathered some of the last few things I would need for the trip to Rogers Arkansas. It was around 3:30pm when I left home.

I had recently become interested in amateur radio and had passed the first two exams to receive my General class license. So, I was looking forward to maybe talking to few folks as I drove along. Plans carry no certainty though and although I tried daily to make contacts on the radio, I never once had anyone reply to me throughout my trip.

But the main focus of the trip wasn't ham radio, but respite and the knives. So, as I left Frisco and headed up 75 towards Tulsa. I enjoyed the scenery and the quiet. The weather was fair and the temperature once up into Oklahoma was nice enough to cut the A/C off and ride with the window down. My plan was to head up into Oklahoma and instead of taking the most direct route into Arkansas, go on up into Tulsa for one night there and then across the state line the next day.

I stopped in Atoka, Ok for a little leg stretch and a bite to eat. Afterwards, it was on up the Indian Nation Turnpike and into Tulsa. I stayed at a Holiday Inn Express near downtown Tulsa that night. The next day would be the Dozier shop tour from 1-5pm and I planned to get up and see a little bit of Tulsa since it was only about 2+ hours to Springdale where Dozier's shop is, about 10 miles south of Rogers.


Traveling up 75 in Oklahoma




My room at the Holiday Inn Express

One thing to note: I forgot my good digital camera. I really didn't want to buy a camera on this trip, I wanted to buy some knives!! So, the photos for all my posts concerning this trip were either from my phone or a throw-away film camera. Sorry for the lack of quality.

Trip to the 2009 A.G. Russell Knife Show - Some History

I decided to take a long weekend this year and go to the A.G. Russell Knife show in Rogers, Arkansas. It was held July 24th -26th. One of my main purposes for wanting to go up there was to participate in a tour of the Dozier shop.

A little history here... how I came to know about Bob Dozier and his knives goes like this.... I used to shoot in a little local handgun club that met over in McKinney. Well, in the course of those events, I noticed that a couple of guys had an interesting looking knife on their belts. To me, the most noticable feature at that time was that these knives were worn in a belt scabbard, not vertically hanging down off of the belt, but horizontally along the line of the belt.

Well, in asking about the knives, I found that these guys were really excited to pull them out and explain that these were the most functional hunting knives they had ever owned. There really wasn't anything too striking about the way the knives looked to me at the time. As a matter of fact, they sort of looked well-used. The beauty, they explained, was when you did use these knives. Both of these guys were hunters and they said that these "Doziers" would hold an edge like no other knife they had ever had. One man said he had gone through two seasons of hunting and dressing elk without sharpening the very knife he was showing me. And, it still felt very sharp to me. Anyway, suffice it to say, that sparked my interest in Dozier knives and I quickly found my way to his website to learn more.

It wasn't too long before I ordered my first two Doziers (this was about 4 years ago.) I ordered an Arkansas Toothpick for myself and a General Camp and Hunting for my dad. When I ordered them, I found out it takes about a year to get the order filled. That was a long wait, but well worth it. I just never really wanted to use that first knife on a daily basis, so it's still in pristine condition. But, my dad has used his often and loves it. Since then, I have purchased another that I do use daily and it is a fabulous tool. This one was a Buffalo River Hunter with green linen micarta handles. I also bought the same knife for a good friend of mine except this one had Cocobolo handles.

Here's a pic of my Buffalo River Hunter




And here's one of my Arkansas Toothpick with my Walther P99





Some links:

http://www.dozierknives.com/

http://www.agrussell.com/

http://blog.knifeevent.com/