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/