All About Pocket Knives

Just got my new knife from Mike Hoover, aka Redrummd (must be a fan of Steven King). I would bet that all of the people on this forum have a higher standard of craftsmanship than the rest of the world where our hobbies are concerned. I wonderred if Mikes knives were as impressive as the pictures so I now have one in hand and would like to say; the level of workmanship is fantastic. The fit of the dino bone scales is as close to perfect as possible, better that I could have imagined. I now have a new standard for my work. The price is very reasonable considering the workmanship and I will save up my pennies til I have enough to buy another, ASAP.
Kudos Mike and thx

Mike Penn

Beautiful knife, and the craftmanship looks awesome!!!!
Leo

I have one of Mike's creations too. I have to second what Mike Penn says, the quality of Mike Hoovers work in stone is fantastic. I have a Case trapper in Dino bone he did and it is one of the stars of my entire collection. I would love to have more of his knives. You won't find much better craftmanship/art anywhere.

How about some closeups? Also, the engraving looks great-----Super Knife.

Mike I agree; not many people around; that do this type of work; that I could find. I stumbled across Mike; and he did a 1970's Kabar trapper for me; that I am mighty proud of. He does some beautiful work; hope to get a few more also.

Luckypaul777

Closeups, if you left click on the photo the engraving practically fills the screen but will gladly put more pics on here, hell I'm proud of it!!!
How about a montage of all 4 bolsters???
This engraving is BOLD!!!

Please excuse the quality of my pics but here are some of the engraving.

Wow!
Beautiful!

Looks great!!! The engraving works well with the dino bone cell structure. It looks like a western style engraving - it enhances the dino bone quite well!

All I can say is WOW... Thank you very much for the kind words concerning my art in stone. I am still improving and I strive for true perfection in my works. The stone does not always cooperate though...

I just spent most of the day rebuilding one of my top end grinders (Diamond Pacific Genie) as I think it is very important to maintain and use the very best equipment to get the best possible results. In fact the new motor cost just shy of $500.00 and was why I actually sold two of the engraved knives from my personal collection!

From what I have seen of your work looks like you do well making the stone cooperate!! Beautiful knife and craftmanship truely knife art at its best. Maybe one day I'll have one
Leo

I have a number of Mike's knives and all of the above remarks are true. I've just about stopped buying other knives expect for frames to be rehandled by Mike. I've attached pictures of a siberian mammoth tooth and a rubies in zoisite he did for me

If any of you go to bid on any knife I list on Ebay feel free to write and ask for a completely honest assessment. Some of the Ebay ones are very close to perfect and a few sell for less than I have in them. I try to keep some listed as that is how many find me and I think it is a good thing to put some up that are affordable to nearly anyone who has an interest in what I do.....

They are usually on lower cost knives and done with stone left over from a top end custom knife.

Hey MIke; Could you be interested in a tutorial showing the various steps needed to get the stone ready for a knife? A lot of us have shared our craft by making a tutorial. I looked up the machine you mentioned and it looks like a lot of experience would be needed to use it.Thx in advance
MIke Penn

Mike,

Sure I can do that but it will take a month or two and it would be fairly large. Does this site have a "sticky" location to keep a "tutorial". It would be a very large file with probably a couple of dozen pictures........

lvaughn - You should see my reject and broken stone "pile"!

Redrummd wrote:Mike,

Sure I can do that but it will take a month or two and it would be fairly large. Does this site have a "sticky" location to keep a "tutorial". It would be a very large file with probably a couple of dozen pictures........

lvaughn - You should see my reject and broken stone "pile"!

We can do a sticky.

You should have seen my scrap blade pile - it went to recycle a few months ago.

We have a whole forum for Knife Related Tutorials here in the Knife Creation, Modification, And Restoration Forums. That is where we put all the tutorials on knife making.

Dale

Mike,
I would love to see you post a thread showing how you do what you do, step by step. I think it would be very interesting and would also heighten even more my (and other's) appreciation for the skill you bring to your work. I'd like to see every step of the process, from the rough stone and unmodified production knife to the finished product.
Phil

If I die tomorrow I will be buried with a smile on my face just thinking about that tutorial.
I thought of other ways to say this but this is the only one that had a chance of passing any sort of decency standard..LOL
Mike Penn

Okay, I am into the tutorial and about a third through it and it is 15 pages with the photos..... I have written to Bryan to find out how I can post it as it will be more like a short novel it seems.....

I am aiming to finish it by Christmas.

With that much work we should make it a sticky so it does not get lost. I have the equipment but very little knowledge in this area. I know I would use it as a resource!

Thanks Mike!

Just got off the phone with my funeral home and told them if anything happens to me to NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES remove the smile off my face. LOL
mike

I finished the tutorial very late last night or very early this morning....

It is VERY detailed with about 50 photo's and it is over 50 pages in the WORD document. So, I have burned a CD and I am mailing it to Bryan tomorrow. He wil post the short novel for everyone to use here at AAPK.

I used a Case XX with Leopard Skin Scales for must of the photo's and it is Redrummd #300. I may send it out for engraving and later decide what the heck to do with it.

I will wait and see how much interest the tutorial generates first.....