Steven Tedford, Custom Knifemaker:

A couple years ago I bought two custom knives from a fairly new Canadian knifemaker. Steven Tedford was just getting his business, Fireborne Swords, established when I saw one of his Bowies on Ebay. No sooner had I won the bid on that knife than I found another of Steven’s knives up for bid. I liked the looks of that knife even better. I ended up owning both of them. The Bowie was a nice knife. The other knife, that he called the Willow Leaf Fighter, resembles a small kukri. It is more graceful than many kukri and It quickly became a permanent part of my collection. In fact, once our second book is finished, you will find both of these knives and the new ones illustrated in it.
The real reason for writing this blog is that recently Steven sent out an emailing with photos of three new knives he had for sale. They instantly caught my attention! I emailed him and he made me a generous offer if I bought them as a set. I thought about it for a day or two and decided to buy them. Based on the photos I was confident they would be of equal quality to the previous knives.

When they arrived I tore into the package and discovered that I was wrong about the quality. These knives were visibly superior in fit and finish to his earlier knives. The first thing I noted was his signature on the blades. It is prominent and in a very artistic script. In fact that was only the first indication of his new level of artistry. Steven’s past knives had nice lines, these have perfect lines! The design elements of blade curvature and handle shape, the ratio of blade length to width, and handle to blade all seemed to flow effortlessly, creating an integrated piece of art. Having built many custom rifles I know that the difference between nice lines and perfect lines was not guaranteed by just putting in a few man hours. It is a long hard road of trial and error. This sort of artistry demands many late nights with cups of coffee and pencil in hand. It often results in nothing more than wads of sketches tossed into a wastebasket or littering the floor. Despite all the hard work, if you do not have that spark of artist in you, you may never create knives like this.
So now I have a conundrum, a real dilemma. I told my wife that I bought these knives to sell. Now that I’ve seen and held them I’m not sure that I will be able to do that. You see a collector is just another type of merchant, one who can’t or won’t sell anything. He’s also a man who spends a lot of time in the doghouse. Do you have a knife you would like built? Check out Steven’s website and contact him with your ideas. Talk to him, send him a sketch. Go ahead, I’ve got some room left in the dog house. We’ll compare knives, drink whisky, and stay up late barking at the moon. Check his work out at: http://www.tedfordknivesandswords.com/