ABOUT MEBRITISH AND PROUD OF IT!
"What good does it do a man to gain the riches of this world at the cost of losing his soul in the process..."
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Bushcraft type Knives - (Current models): DL1 - RWL 34 & 52100 Bearing steel Talisman - 52100 Bearing steel RWL 34 steel RWL 34 steel
- Commissioning a Custom hand made Knife - Ordering Details and Price Lists.
- making folk happy.
Happy creating
Out in the bush in Oz.
Fishing in Kyama in Oz
Pigeon shooting near the Cheviots.
Wondering how I could miss so many Clays!
Fly Fishing with something for the pot.
Four Bowls Champion three years on the trot.
A Shovelnose in Oz.
Gentleman like on a formal game shoot.
Something to help blow the cobwebs away.
Back to my favourite Bike - the GL1100 Goldwing Interstate.
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Welcome and thank you for taking the time to look through my Website.
Hi, I'm Paul, but also known as 'Frenchy' by my ex-army pals. Having said that, I'm definitely not French! I was born in Malta and and the nickname Frenchy is merely a corruption of my Maltese surname as is often the case in the Army.
I live in the North East of England in beautiful Northumberland, a few miles north of Newcastle-Upon-Tyne. My working background is mainly Army with 18 years service, followed by over 20 years in the Transport industry, from bus and truck driver through to senior transport management positions. Along the way I also had a few temporary jobs and a couple of forays in private enterprises.
My interest in knives goes back to my early mischievous childhood. I was crazy about cars, knives, weaponry and fishing. When I was a bit too young, every knife I acquired was promptly confiscated by my parents if discovered. I lost track of how many knives I've bought since, but my current collection contains some very nice vintage, as well as modern knives. I keep promising myself not to buy any more, but I find it so hard to resist a nice and/or unusual knife! As you can see from this site, things have gone a bit further than just collecting knives.
I never planned to be making knives, but in 2004 I fell ill and worse still, in July 2005 I lost my very best friend Dave Lisle. Medical treatment helped to stabilise my condition, but I came to realise that in order to recover sufficiently to be able to lead as normal a life, I needed to start helping myself. I needed something to motivate me and focus on that I could do from home as at that time I didn't care much for meeting people or being out and about. First thing I did was to teach myself how to build a website, although at the time I really didn't have a use for one. By coincidence, a few weeks before I was to travel out to Oz, my stepson asked me if I could find him a decent hefty knife for his goat and pig hunting trips out in Oz. While looking around and not finding anything that caught my eye, I got the idea of having a go and make a couple of knives myself. I sourced the blades and the odds and ends from here, there and everywhere and made up two nice sets, which were very much admired by my stepson and his pals. A friend of his asked me to make him a couple and the rest is history. So there you have it, that's how my knife making hobby started.
Fortunately for me, I discovered that making knives and sticks was proving to be a blessing of a hobby for my well being. Not only did I derive lots of personal fulfilment and satisfaction, but it really was a godsend in terms of therapeutic benefits, which have been considerable as I am well distracted and very much at peace with the world when I'm working away at knife or stick making at a pace to suit me.
I have no pretensions of being a highly skilled genius or an exceptionally gifted craftsman. I've always been resourceful and able to fix things, even if they didn't need fixing! What has always stood me in good stead is that I don't spend too much time wondering whether I can do something or not; I tend to look at the greater picture and worry about the details as I go along. It's only by doing that I get to know whether I can achieve my goal or not and I usually get to where I want to as I'm not very good at giving up. Being self taught with regard to building this Website and making knives, I made many mistakes or simply went about things the wrong way. Ideally I would have liked to learn from the experience of others, but I didn't have it in me to bother anybody and ask questions. In any event, learning from one's own mistakes makes for a more meaningful and enduring lesson, which of course comes at a cost in wasted time, effort and money! Albeit a bit late in life, I now get a chance to exercise the latent creativity within me and enjoy the ongoing varied hands-on learning by progression and discovering new and exciting things in the process. I suppose some would say that I'm just a novice at this knife making game with so few years hands on experience. Maybe, but as far as I'm concerned, it's not how long you've been doing something that counts, but what you do in that time that matters the most.
I got better as the years passed, both in regard to my health and the quality of my work. I still have my bad days, but doesn't everybody?! I get days when I don't feel like messing about making knives, so I don't. There are other times when I find it hard to put away the tools and lock up for the day. I get a very nice feeling at the end of a productive day when everything goes well. Occasionally I have the odd accident, nothing too serious, mostly minor cuts and grazes, with just two nasty ones that needed a couple of weeks to heal. Still, as careful as I try to be, there's always some risk of getting cut when working with very sharp objects.
There are only so many knives and sticks I can make and keep for myself. I don't just keep the 'Number 1' blade of each new batch of blades for myself I assure you; I also make use of other non own design blades and splash out occasionally on a knife or two I take a fancy to. Having retired early and with a fixed income, I've got to consider the cost of the knife making materials that I use - which aren't exactly cheap. My original plan was to make a few knives and sticks and move on to something else as my health got better. Things didn't quite work out that way though as this new hobby became a bit of an obsession for a while. Nowadays of course, I'm far more relaxed about what and when I allocate the time to make knives as I've several other interests that enjoy. Basically, when I started out, anything I made I kept as part of my collection for an indefinite period and when I needed to finance new projects I turned over my collection at irregular intervals. This worked well enough as financially things seem to balance out. However, circumstances soon changed as more and more fellow enthusiasts liked my knives and the demand grew steadily. This suited me fine as I got to spend more time making knives and as a consequence not only benefit therapeutically, but I'm now able to pursue my interest at a higher quality level and able to experiment more with designs and materials than if I were to fund everything out of my own limited financial resources.
I don't have a fancy workshop with all the latest hi-tech tools. Those who have seen my 'set up' find it hard to believe that I can function at all from my couple of little sheds with barely somewhere to stand never mind sit! Still, it's my little domain where I make good use of the little space I have and the few tools I managed to put together. I manage well enough though and with a bit of ingenuity, elbow grease, infinite patience and practical common sense I keep myself well busy. While perfection is open to personal interpretation, I set myself high standards and would have no qualms about re-working and even dumping anything that I'm not happy with. I build every single knife as if I were building it for myself to keep and use long term. If it's not good enough for me, then it it's no good for anybody else. It seems that my way of doing things is appreciated by some as can be seen from the Test Review on British Blades and my Feedback page. Feedback and Tests aside, I've been told often enough that my knives are on par or even better than some of the well known knife makers. This sort of thing makes me feel good and helps to restore some of my confidence and self esteem. Of course, in reality, where hand made unique items are concerned it's next to impossible to compare like for like and anyway, people's preferences vary considerably. Being a collector I admire the work of many custom and commercial knife makers as that gives me pleasure in itself. Having said that, I don't concern myself with what other knife makers do or not do beyond the clever designs, beauty and functionality of their end products. I'm a hobbyist first and foremost, but it pleases me that the quality of my work is as good or better than some professionals.
For me, doing my own thing suits my temperament and circumstances best. What matters to me is that I continue to enjoy what I do and do so at my pace and within my limited resources rather than having to be subject to external work and monetary pressures and commitments. I care very much about making sure that when someone gets a knife off me they like it and enjoy the experience of owning a rather special unique piece of kit. I always aim to meet or exceed expectations and if I succeed at that, then I'm well chuffed! Another aspect I strive for is for anyone who deals with me to feel that I've done right by them and can happily say that "Paul is a good guy, he really cares..."
Next to making my stuff, the opportunity of sharing them with like-minded fellow enthusiasts who appreciate such handiwork, gives me a lot of pleasure and satisfaction. I get a heck of a buzz and find the experience highly fulfilling when someone who sees or gets a knife off me says "Wow - I love it!"
I'm very grateful to the Almighty to be able to pursue this uplifting hobby of mine and for all my blessings and the opportunity to share with you the content of this website, which I hope you find as pleasurable an experience as I have intended it to be. I wish you health and contentment in abundance...
As can be seen from the photos I do have other interests apart from knife making.
I've always been interested in outdoor pursuits and of late, I would rather be out and about than be cooped up in the house.
My two main pursuits at present are fishing and shooting. I used to do Coarse, Fly and sea fishing, but now I stick to Fly and Sea fishing as it's more convenient and I get to eat what I catch. The Shooting I do is mainly vermin control, with Pigeon shooting a particular favourite of mine. I get to go on the odd Game shoot, but oddly enough I still prefer a day's Pigeon shooting. I'm a BASC member and sort of play at the Wildfowling game, which I suppose makes me a good Wildfowl conservationist as I've yet to shoot any type of Wildfowl! Maybe if and when I get myself a nice dog I might be a bit more adventurous and get to spend even more hours in the freezing cold and up to my neck in mud hoping to one day get me that fat Goose!
My main hobby remains that of making knives, although nowhere at the same intensity or volume. I have made a conscious decision to spend less time working away at making knives because I now want to be out and about more. My knife making hobby will always be a bit special to me as it has been a major contributory factor in improving my health and ultimately enhancing the quality of my life. My needs have changed and although I'm bound to indulge myself from time to time, there's a whole world beyond knife making that I wish to explore .
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Jan is also a good Fisherman, living as he does, just a few hundred meters from a very good Salmon river. If I do manage another trip, I'll try to time it to coincide with the main Salmon run and hopefully get a chance to bag a few nice fresh run fish.
Sweden is fantastically beautiful place, with very nice friendly people. Jan, thank you for your hospitality...
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DEDICATION
I dedicate this website in memory of my best friend Dave (Geordie) Lisle, with whom I shared so much and had planned to share much more, were it not for his early and sudden demise on 15th July 2005, at the age of 54. A true and steadfast very best friend of all time like Davey only comes along once in a lifetime... |
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This is me with Jan Engberg on my visit to
Sweden in July 2010. At this point Jan had just got back from
the Ludvika show where he won a 3rd Prize with one of his creations
as well as several Diplomas. I had the privilege spending a
very nice time with Jan where I managed to see his fantastic range of
knives for which he had been awarded many prizes and Diplomas. I also
had a chance to see his (very tidy) workshop facilities and discussed
just about every aspect of how he goes about his work. His
style of knives are of the Scandinavian stick tang types, which
allows him to make some exceptional creations. Jan makes about
20 knives a year, but what he makes are absolute gems.