Fortunate Friendships.
Posted: Fri Jul 29, 2016 11:03 am
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.
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.
