Fortunate Friendships.

[Schradenut]

During my relatively short time that i have been collection Schrade knives, plus a few others brands, i have been fortunate to have met some magnificent, genuine people. My conclusion is that knife collectors are amongst some of the most decent people you would ever want to meet.

Quite early in my collecting days’ i brought a most beautiful knife, that had been "touched" by Mr Williams, who had been a customiser for Imperial Schrade and Associated Companies, for some 24 years. That knife was a 144uh that had been beautifully filed, ever so finely, and a set of Sambar Stag covers adorned it, dyed in his famous 'red'. Over the years my collection of Herman's knives grew enormously, until i am where i am today, with a most substantial collection of Herman Williams knives.

Just over a year ago i met a fellow collector from Spokane, who offered to package and transport all my purchased knives to Australia for me. We have built up a very strong friendship over that year, and we Skype on a regular basis. Doug Webber is him name, another regular contributor to AAPK.
Being a solid Schrade collector, it didn't take Doug long to experience the fine work performed by Mr Williams, and combined we have amassed almost 150 knives touched by the great man

Doug and i got to talking one day and he suggested that we get Herman to customise three knives to cement our friendship. It was in agreement, and Herman got to work on the knives. The knives were LB7's, which were all beautifully files, with Sambar Stag cover, dyed in Herman's famous 'red' colour.
To add something extra special he engraved the inside of the liners with "Customised by Herman Williams", in script. Each knife has a special tang stamp on the pile side tang. It represents each of our initials and our year of birth.

When they were all completed Herman's wife took a photo of him holding all three. He kept his and sent the other two to Doug in Spokane, who in turn took a photo of the two knives. He in turn sent the remaining knife to me in Australia, where i took the remaining photo.

Doug being a whiz with photo editing stitched all the pics together, and the fruits of his labour can be seen below.
Doug and i consider ourselves extremely fortunate to have had the pleasure to know this gentleman extremely well, and we cherish his friendship enormously.
Tony.

[jerryd6818]

Cool story Tony and beautiful knives. What a great idea and fantastically executed.

[TripleF]

WOW, absolutely AMAZING! Very, very fortunate!

[Colonel26]

Beautiful knives and a great story!

[peanut740]

That`s great!

[Chase]

All I can say is "PHENOMINAL"

Outstanding Story, Fantastic Knives and a Great Friendship. You all should be extremely proud to belong to a very Elite Group!

I too have met some Great folks, both in person and over the internet and telephone. These are friendships that I cherish and will always keep close... and then there are others that I have acquainted myself with that are also important to me. All of our interest in Knkives brings us all closer together ..... I have shipped knives and memorabilia to multiple people, without being asked and without compensation just because I value their friendship.

A great story and an even greater event to cement your relationship! Congrats to you all!

Tom

[tongueriver]

I always enjoy your posts, Tony and Doug, but this is the best one yet! Thanks for everything! I too have been blessed by the touch of the master; he was kind enough to send me a photo of himself in his shop holding a knife which he customized for me. It is special, along with the knives. Looking forward to more from you guys, and of course I always welcome pms and emails.

[glennbad]

This is great on many levels. Thanks for sharing the background and the knives with us.