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.
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