I was born in Colchester, Essex (England) on the 5th of July 1979 and spent the first 18 years of my life living in the seaside town of Clacton-on-Sea. I was given my first knife by my parents around the same time that I started primary school and have never looked back.
I made my first knives from mild steel when I was 15 or 16 years old, just to see if I could, they weren't pretty and they didn't hold an edge but they looked and fealt like the real thing. At the same time I found another distraction from my schooling- archery. For those who have not done much archery, a knife comes in very handy if like me you are prone to sticking arrows in trees!
In 1997 I moved to Somerset to read an HND in Pratical Archaeology and a BSc in Archaeology from Bournemouth University. After 3 years of drinking and shooting, I entered the 'real world'.
In 2000 I became exactly what I had trained so hard to be -an archaeologist! No whips just trowels, no Nazis and their gold just developers and mud. The work was hard and the conditions poor but I enjoyed myself. By 2000 I was making knives that I could use in complete confidence. In 2001 I took a couple of knives to my archery club to show a fellow collector. A few weeks after this I made the Callow Bowie for an archery friend, this was my first knife that was out there being used by somebody other that myself or my immediate family.
Not content as a highly trained shovel monkey, I felt that I needed a new challenge in life, so in 2002 I applied for a Masters degree in Experimental Archaeology at the university of Exeter. Rather than learning about the archaeological remains, this course would teach me about how the relics were made and used, helping me to better interpret and understand the world in which our forebares lived. Also it gave me the chance to learn new skills such as flint knapping, basketry and pottery. About 2 months before the course was due to start I took part in the World and European Field Archery Champs (WEFAC 2002) in Scotland and after giving in to the badgering of a group of friends, the Panther Pose, I took a few knives to sell. I couldn't believe it, people liked my knives and a few archery dealers wanted more! Just my luck, with only 2 months left before my return to academia I find that other people like what I do! So after speaking to Mike Harrison at the British Knife Collectors' Guild (BKCG) I made 10 'Archers' in honour of those who bought my first knives.
A year passed and I learned many new and exciting skills along with meeting some wonderful people. Throughout the year I was asked to make knives for BKCG and others, but with no workshop I could do very little.
I specialised in pre-industrial ferrous metallurgy and ironworking, with a particuler interest in the production and use of steel by the blacksmith. This has proved very useful in the real world as well as the academic.
Through the MA I met two ladies who have enabled me to persue knifemaking as a career. The first is my girlfriend Charlotte, who through a kind of brainwashing now also loves her knives. The second is Linda Lemieux, who taught me to weave rush baskets as part of the MA. Linda and her partner Pete Montanez have taken me in to their world on Dartmoor and helped me on the road to being a fulltime toolmaker.
So now I live within the bounds of Dartmoor National Park, in one of the most beautiful parts of the world making tools for the local craftspeople and the knives that I have always wanted to make. When time allows I even get out to shoot my bow and arrow, though not nearly so often as I would like, but then I can't have everything.
For a long time I had wanted a logo that was simple enough to stamp, carve or otherwise mark my work with. Something that was not lettering as I am trying to make more archaeologically correct pieces for collectors and museums. Something that could be easily associated with me.
I tried various pictures based around my work, but they would always be too obvious and not unique to me: anvils and knives feature heavily in a number of bladesmiths’ marks. I tried plays on my name, with a flower bud being part of it, a stylised symbol using my initials. I also tried making up runes revolving around my name or initials. Everything I tried was too common, impractical, complicated or just plain naff!
Then I realised that my dog, Saxen, was more recognisable than me! I would go to a show and people would come to my stall and before looking at my stuff would ask where the dog was! So I thought about designing a logo involving him. Since he is a hound, his shape is quite unique and elegant. His appearance and type of breeding are also about as close as you will get to an actual dog from the Iron Age in this country. So I tried various profiles and head shots of him, but nothing was quite right. Then I was presented with a drawing of the Uffington White Horse in Wiltshire. So I crossed the white horse with my faithful hound and got the image you see above!
He was born on he 20th of April 2006, to Pinga (daughter of Teapot!). I met Saxen at a show in the July, where he was in a crate with his brethren at the stall of a timber framer (Dan Franklin). Saxen (originally named Flower!) was a gangly blond pup with big floppy paws, I fell in love! When I picked him up, Dan and I struck a bargain. The puppies were priced at £130, but being craftsmen we had better ways of doing things. Dan wanted a good strong knife, so I made him a knife in exchange for the dog. Dan felt that the dog wasn’t worth as much, so he gave me a large log of seasoned yew!
Two years later and he is a handsome young dog, who is fast becoming the best dog that I could imagine having around me. He is a lurcher, from a long line of lurchers in my neck of the woods. He has a number of breeds in his lineage, including: deerhound, greyhound, bedlington terrier, saluki and collie. He measures almost 30” to the shoulder and still has those floppy great paws! He will happily sit by my table at shows and lap up as much attention as people want to give him. He is child proof and loves it when small children stroke him, though he does kiss with tongues!
