ABOUT MEBRITISH AND PROUD OF IT!
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HOME BEAVER & SHADOW DL1 BUSHCRAFTER WS DARTMOOR KNIFE OPINELS AND FIRESTEEL ALLROUNDER MISCELLANEOUS KNIVES ARTICLES SERVICES & PRICING KNIFE HANDLE MATERIALS
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ARCHIVE PHOTOS OF VARIOUS KNIVES I MADE TO DATE
LARGE KNIVES SMALL KNIVES BUSHCRAFT KNIVES KNIFE SETS
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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.
All dressed up on a formal game shoot.
My favourite Bike of all time - the Goldwing.
2011 Gala Trophy
Fishing on Loch Etive September 2011
The joys of Caravanning in North Wales |
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 not French, but Maltese. The nickname 'Frenchy' is merely a corruption of my Maltese surname, which my army pals decided to tag me with.
I live in the Blyth Valley area of beautiful Northumberland in the North East of England. This knife making hobby of mine is quite a contrast to my working background, which was mainly Army with 18 years service, followed by over 20 years in the Transport industry. interspersed with a few temporary odd jobs and a couple of forays in private enterprises.
My interest in knives goes way back to my early mischievous childhood days. I lost track of how many knives I've bought since, owning one knife was just never enough. Nowadays my collection is made up of some very nice vintage, as well as modern knives. I keep promising myself not to acquire any more and I've indeed really cut back, but there are times when I find it next to impossible to resist the temptation of acquiring a really nice and/or unusual knife! As you can ascertain from this site, my interest in knives has gone considerably further than merely collecting a few knives.
I never planned to be making knives, it just happened. There I was, going along quite happily with my life when, in late 2004 I fell ill. Then in July 2005 I lost my very best friend Dave Lisle to Cancer. In November that same year I was due to go to Oz and my step son had asked me to buy him a hunting cum bush knife. I searched and offered him several choices, but none appealed to him, so I said I'll have a go at making him a set. I sourced some blades and made him a set and I also made a set for myself. Both sets went down very well with everyone who saw and handled them. On my return from Oz my health took a further turn for the worst, but thanks to a timely intervention and advice from an ex-army pal of mine I got to seek and started to receive proper specialist medical help that is now part and parcel of my life.
Medical treatment and therapy can only go so far, but eventually realised that by how much I could improve my day to day quality of life is down to me. This very same website and all the knives you see on here are the direct result of my attempt to help myself back on the road to recovery in the hope that life will be good again eventually and perhaps go on further to better things. I needed something to motivate me and focus on, something I could do from home, as at that time I didn't care much for meeting people or being out and about. Fortunately for me, having accidently discovered that making knives was very enjoyable and absorbing, making knives might just prove to be a blessing of a hobby for my well being. From the outset, not only did I derive lots of personal fulfilment and satisfaction, but it really did turn out to be a godsend of an opportunity at many personal levels, especially so in terms of therapeutic benefits, which have been considerable.
I have no pretensions of being a highly skilled genius or an exceptionally gifted craftsman; I only ever considered myself as a hobbyist first and foremost. 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 goals 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 more meaningful and enduring lessons, which of course comes at a cost in wasted time, effort and money! Albeit a bit late in life, I now got 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. Well, I cannot disagree with that, but then, 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, haven't lost any whole fingers so far. Still, as careful as I try to be, with the odd lapse of concentration 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. With limited finances I've got to consider costs as the knife making materials that I use 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 I 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 initially as things seem to balance out. However, more and more fellow enthusiasts liked my knives and the demand grew steadily. This suited me fine for a while as I got to spend more time making knives, which as a consequence, benefiting me therapeutically. Moreover, it allowed me the luxury of being 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. What I was determined never to get away from though, was the fact that I was a hobbyist first and foremost as deadlines and anything verging on the commercial affected me adversely and stressed me out!
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. My main concern is and always will be that the quality of my work meets or surpasses the end user's expectations.
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, limiting deadlines and commitments that would otherwise lead to self imposed stressful situations. 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..." This matters a lot to me.
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!"
As I update this page in the the Spring of 2011, I cannot be but very grateful to have made so much progress with my life over the last few years. While knife making remains my main hobby, I've since taken up other hobbies, like Bowls and Archery and also getting tentatively back into fishing, shooting and even motorcycling. I've even managed to travel to some wonderful places in the UK and abroad. All in all I cannot be but very satisfied for the good quality of life that I now enjoy and for the opportunity to share with you my hobby and 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.
"Be yourself, follow your heart, do your own thing and be good to yourself. Nobody but you is responsible for your own happiness. No matter your circumstances, don't compare your life to others as you really have no idea what their journey through life has been all about."
Paul (aka Frenchy)
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Jan makes about 20 knives a year, but what he makes are absolute gems. When I asked him why he does it, he said, "The winters are very long here..."
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 for other quality work. I had the privilege
of 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 over
the years. 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.