Wanted: Skilled Knife Maker to show me the ropes

[Andrew Lockhart]

I am a 28 year old that has been into knives for many years now. I first got into knives when I was young and bought my first Kabar from Vietnam at an auction for $7.50. This began my obsession. I then got into metal work later in life as I currently work at a sign shop building custom signs out of Aluminum mainly for Denny's, Krispy Kreme, Cinnabon etc. I have a friend at work that is a real metal worker and owns a forge and anvil and has a bit of a shop set up for custom metal work.

I am looking for someone who is a skilled knife maker to take me under their wing and show me how to make a knife from start to finish. I would like to see several shops and talk to several people to try to get as much information and tips as possible so I can duplicate and evolve those methods into my own. I am mainly into fixed blade knives but anyone who is close to me that is a knife maker would be fine. I am a researcher and I have been into survival for the last 2 years. I have been learning all I can about different aspects of survival and some tactical applications as well.

I feel I am OCD enough and have a great eye and feel for this kind of work. I have worked on cars for years and also been working in various shops either in woodworking or carpentry or in the sign shop. To this day I have not yet built a knife. I wanted to first visit some shops and see how you guys do it and meld them into my own way of knife making. I am a researcher at heart so when I get into something I dive so far in I soak every bit of information up about the topic. I hope that some of you can work with me and find the time to show me your techniques. I am really excited about starting but i want to produce something quality so learning from professionals seems like the best way to go about it. Please e-mail, call or text me and we can figure out some time to get together.

I live in High Point, NC but I don't mind driving a couple hours to find a good knife maker to help guide me through this venture. If you are willing to do this please contact me. Thanks guys for reading and I hope you will consider taking me on as a protege. I would like to start right away and I will be signing up for the knifemaking classes when they come around in the fall. But until then I need someone to help guide me in the right direction. I have access to a number of good tools and have all the hand tools I believe are necessary for making a knife. I just want some guidance first. Thanks guys I hope we can become fast friends.

Email: Sky240det(at)gmail(dot)com
Cell: 336-858-8067

~Andrew Lockhart