It?s not often that I break out of the hunter / fighter / bowie paradigm, but this is one occasion where I?m glad I did. The story of this first knife starts on E-Bay where I came across a fairly hazy photograph of a Bradshaw dagger and decided I had to have it. When the knife arrived and the haze lifted it was clear that the white mammoth ivory scales had shrunk quite a bit. Bummer. But these things will happen. I contacted Bailey and discussed the re-handling options and settled on pearl because it because we felt it suited this type of knife and because it is very stable. Bailey quoted me a very modest price and a very quick turnaround for the repair and off went the knife to Texas.
When it returned (in the end result, Bailey fixed it faster than the courier could deliver it ? more on that later) I was in for a pleasant surprise. Not only did Bailey install a beautiful pair of A-grade pearl scales, but he a) refinished the guard to remove a few light scratches that I knew were there but didn?t mention; b) hand-rubbed a new fine-grit satin finish onto the blade because he thought it needed it (I hadn?t thought so, but I sure noticed that the blade looked a whole lot better than I remembered); c) re-tuned the silver scabbard for a tighter, more secure fit and d) packaged the knife in a padded, zippered case! Going the extra mile doesn?t begin to describe what Bailey did for me on this knife.
Now for the knife itself: 6? blade of hand-forged 1084 with fuller, 10 ?? overall length, 416 stainless steel hilt:
Try as I might I couldn?t capture the colour in the pearl. Trust me, it?s there:
A very elegant and tremendously well-executed overall package, if I do say so myself.
Shortly after sending off the dagger I attended the Arkansas Custom Knife show in Little Rock where I met Bailey and his utterly charming wife Courtenay. There were more than a few knives at their table that I would have loved to have taken home, but this little clip-point boot / utility knife really caught my eye. It sports a 3 ?? blade of 1084 with a 416 ss guard, ivory scales and comes with a leather sheath:
Bailey puts as nice a finish on a blade as I have seen, and every aspect of this knife is so pristine that it?s hard to imagine putting it to use, even though the overall design makes for a great fixed-blade every day carry. My good buddy Danbo snapped up the stag version of this knife (he?s got a good eye for a great blade and a quick trigger when it comes to nice stag).
I had asked Bailey to hang onto the knife and ship it out with the re-handled dagger when it was completed. I also asked him to send them by a certain courier that won?t be seeing any more of my business. I won?t bore you with the details of the shipment nightmare that ensued ? suffice to say that it was a spectacular combination of incompetence and indifference on the part of the courier. I have to say a special thanks to Courtenay who went above and beyond the reasonably expected to try to help sort out a mess that was not of their making. Her efforts were deeply appreciated. Dealing with genuinely good people like the Bradshaws adds a tremendous dimension to the ownership of a fine blade.
Cheers,
Roger
PS ? I took the pics and Murray White re-sized them and adjusted them as I work through some software problems.