Sam the knife maker

Glenn

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I was fortunate enough to study a knife made by the vary famous knife maker Sam Alfano. How many of you forum members have ever seen Sam's knife work?
What a treat!:tiphat:
 

Sam

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Hah! Famous knifemaker...I don't think so! I made a few engraved miniatures years go. That's about it :)
 

Sam

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Modest? If I was a decent knifemaker I'd spread it all over town! At one point I considered getting serious about it but when I thought of the dust and mess associated with grinding blades i talked myself out of it. :)
 
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DUST!! You got that right. I run a dust factory and have the knives as a by product :)


Any pictures of these fine implements of edged artification??
 

Glenn

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Bailey,
Shouldn't we be able to sell this expensive dust from knife grinding to powder metal producers?
 

Peter E

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Glenn - that is NOT nice to make such a post without PICTURES:just kidding:

Knowing Sam....the knives are exceptionally nice.
 

Sam

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Photos of some of the miniatures I made have been on my website for a few years :)
 

vilts

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Sam, are you happy with your 'engraving only' choice. I'm absolutely sure you would've made an excellent knifemaker.

When I spoke with Joy Kious at the '09 Blade, he gave me this exact suggestion - 'switch to engraving only'. Because of all the dust and unhealthy stuff that's in knife making. Engraving is much cleaner job :)

But then again, even more cleaner option is to sit in the office...
 

Peter E

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Photos of some of the miniatures I made have been on my website for a few years :)

Those are exquisite as I expected they WOULD be Sam. You can't tell size from the pictures and the engraving is awesome.

What are the handles and guards made from?
 

monk

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i used to do a bit of engraving for ron wilson in weirton, w. va. i watched him now and then make knives. almost like workin in a coal mine at times when he would shape his blades.
 

Sam

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Those are exquisite as I expected they WOULD be Sam. You can't tell size from the pictures and the engraving is awesome.

What are the handles and guards made from?

Thanks Peter. The blued ones are made from mild steel. I gold plated the parts made from brass. I switched to stainless steel for the blades. Overall length is around 5" or so.

Vilts: I've never been satisfied with 'engraving only'! I at least want to try a little of everything that interests me. :)
 

Peter E

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I had aspirations to make knives at one point in time, but realized it was not practical due to limitations for setting up a suitable shop.

My engraving studio is set up in a small room in my living space.

It would be great to have a shop capable of working effectively with metal. Just the tinkering that I do in the basement generates LOTS of dust. I can imagine how much is created grinding blades all the time!

A lot of people don't like miniatures, but I think they are COOL. I have a couple that I picked up at flea markets. The larger one has a "Thornton" tang stamp that I think is from the 1950's - 60's and the pearl handled one is a "Landers, Frary, Clark from late 1800's to early 1900's. I put the stag scales and brass guard on the larger one(4") and made the guard from a pearl button on the smaller one(3+").

 
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Sam

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Very nice, Peter. Miniatures are very cool and I've always been intrigued by them.

My limited knifemaking didn't generate any dust because the blades were hand filed and not ground. It's definitely the hard way to do it! I did use a small lathe and mill for the handles. That generated a small amount of tolerable chips, but not dust :)
 

Peter E

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There are a couple of exceptional miniature collections in David Darom's book "The Great Collections".

For anyone not familiar with them, they are absolutely beautiful books. Mr. Darom is an incredible photographer. His next book will be coming out this year and he will be at Blade selling and signing them.

One of the best miniature makers EVER was Yvon Vachon who passed away at a young age some years back.
 

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wish i had a foto of the 2 i made. since this forum is for engraving and not comedy, it's best i don't have the fotos !
 

Roger Keagle

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Guess if you have to choose, engraver would be a better choice for most...dust in my shop is overwhelming !

Minitures are fun though....hummmm, been a while since I have done one...(Make note to your lazy self to get off your perch...)
 
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