Don Fogg is one of my favorite bladesmiths. His work exudes a distinctive sytle that is both creative and solidly functional. No one makes a better pure blade than Don. His mastery of heat treating, particularly in regards to differential hardening is amazing. You're not likely to mistake Don's work for anyone elses, or any other smiths work for Don's.

Examples of his work are on his site - www.dfoggknives.com

This is a 9" textured carbon steel spear-point blade with an overall length of 15", wenge wood handle, brass spacers and blued steel fittings.

Don made a series of bowies in this style, each unique, during what he calls his 'texture phase'. He thinks this is one of the last of this series, due to the visible temperline that he was beginning to experiment with at the end of his texture phase

Fogg New American Bowie

From Don's description: "This is a modern Bowie blade. Hand forged from 1095 high carbon steel and selectively hardened, it has been polished to show the hamon or crystal transformation revealing the heat treatment. The blade length is 8.5" and features a long swedge. The fittings are fire blued iron and the handle is carved ebony. The spacer between the ferrule and the handle is made from an alloy of gold and copper called Shakudo. It patinas to a purple color and I gold plated it then polished off the rim and colored it purple. It is subtle, but gives it a just the right transition. The overall length of the piece is just over 14". The fluting and shape of the handle make it very comfortable in the hand."

Fogg Hunter

Another excellent example of Fogg craftsmanship. This is relatively simple hunting knife, with a great shaped blade that will see use as my regular carry hunting knife (when I finally have a chance to go hunting again). The strong eastern influence present in so many of Don's blades also shows up here, in what is normally a very western style knife.

This is a 5.5" 1095 carbon steel blade with an excellent hamon. It has a Laotian Flamewood handle, wrapped with lacquered cord, and a carved nickle silver guard. Don's trademark 24k gold cherry blossom logo is set into the blade.

Fogg Shiv

Don's shiv series is his focus on making pure blades. The handles on these blades are always very simple, usually just cord wraps, or ocassionally cord wraps over wood. The focus is always on the simple, clean lines and amazing temperlines. Their simplicity belies their perfection in form and function. If I could have a whole collection of these I would.

It's hard to classify Don's work as either eastern or western, as they usually blur the line, coming from a western smith, but with notable eastern influence. This shiv is out of 1080 carbon steel, with a black lackquered cord, over brown paracord.

Fogg Leaf Blade Boot Shank

I got lucky and snagged this one on the secondary market when a big Fogg collector decided to pare down his collection a bit. An amazing piece of work.

Don Hanson III - S-Guard Bowie

Here's a piece that I'm really excited about (not that I'm ever *not* excited about a new knife :). Most of my collection tends towards more eastern influenced pieces, but I've really been enjoying Don Hanson's recent work. The quality in his knives is obvious, and he always seems to have some of the best ivory for handles. I wanted to see what he'd come up with if I turned him loose on something a little less conservative than he usually does on the bowie side of things.

Don was a real pleasure to work with - sending me some different drawings, and coming up with a design that I really love. One of the coolest things he did was to send pics of the blade itself overlayed by the handle drawing so I could see how a particular blade would look with the handle.

Anyway - here's what Don says about the knife:
"The guard and spacers are wrought iron with three copper spacers. The blade is 580 layers of W2, 15N20 and 1080 with a whole lot of shimmer when moved in the light, I did capture a little of it in the photos."
It's a 9 1/2" blade, 15" overall, fossil walrus handle w/copper pin.

I really love how the shape of the blade works with the radical s-guard. And the textured copper spacer is a great accent. It's always a great feeling when the knife you ordered is your favorite knife from that maker, and that's the case here.

David Broadwell - D-Guard Bowie

Here's a beautifully carved d-guard bowie that is impressive both in size & elegance. Both the blade and the richly colored fossil ivory handle are carved to produce a very elegant and organic effect. This one I picked up in the secondary market, at a real bargain basement sort of price. Broadwell has done at least one other piece in this style (but longer, more of a boarding cutlass), but I haven't seen anything available that is close to this impressive from him.

John Davis Bowie

This is one I'd been looking at for a long time. A huge, impressive presentation bowie. At 20" overall it's the size of a small sword. Great looking blade, with a nice forward curve that compliments the D-Guard very nicely. The fossil walrus ivory handle looks amazing, with the great filework surrounding the fittings. Can't wait to see this one in person.

Dealer Comments:

Weight: 18oz
Blade Length: 15"
Total Length: 20"

Blade Thickness: 0.22"
Blade Width: 1.22"
Blade: Large, highly detailed Damascus blade forged to shape from 1084 and 15N20 carbon steels Bolster: Damascus D- guard and pommel
Handle: Fossil walrus ivory with Turkish walnut

This exceptional large Bowie is nearly to the proportions of a sword, measuring in at a blade length of 15" and 20" overall. The Damascus pattern is extremely detailed, with bold patterns of light and dark that are made up by many smaller layers. It is no surprise that John has become known as one of the preeminent Damascus makers in the world. Detailed Damascus fittings surround the fossil walrus handle. A rear spacer is formed from Turkish walnut and is fit with perfect precision. Fileworked Damascus spacers surround the handle. Exceptional fit and finish throughout on one of the most impressive Bowies that I have held to date.

Jimmy Chin - Clamshell Takedown Bowie

This was one of the 5 knives that Jimmy was going to submit for his JS test in 2006. Unfortunately due to visa issues Jimmy couldn't make the Blade Show for judging and was unable to get his stamp. That in no way speaks to the quality of his knives though, which judging from this example is amazing. This is a beautifully done piece with an ironwood handle & clamshell style s-guard.

Bill Buxton - Oosic Fighter

Bill makes some great knives and some great steel. I've been very impressed by his mosaic, and the design on his EDC & hunting knives. His larger fighters & bowies are just now starting to come into their own in terms of style & flow. I think he'll be turning out some really great knives in the next few years. This fighter is one that really grabbed, both for the great mosaic steel and the excellent oosic handle.

Richard van Dijk - Stag Handled Seax

I picked this piece up at the Munich knife show in November, 2005. I'd admired Richard's work for a while on the web and was happy to have the chance to meet him and see his work in person. He had so many nice pieces for sale that it was really hard to chose. Eventually the size and heft of this piece, along with the very cool integral guard won me over. The stag handle is goregous and the damascus is very detailed and vivid.

Ed Caffrey Diamond Range Bowie

I'd seen this bowie in the sold section of a dealer website and was really taken by the blade. Sadly being in the sold section there wasn't much I could do. I'd considered seeing about comissioning something similar, but hadn't gotten to it when the piece itself showed up on ebay of all places and I managed to strike a deal with the seller. I Ed is doing much better handles & guards these days than is shown on this blade, but it's still a nicely carved piece of ivory.

This is a monster of a blade, over 13" long, in a very unique damascus pattern. It has a great s-curve guard, with texturing along the edges and a fantastic carved ivory handle. A show piece indeed, it compliments the other large ivory handled bowie in my collection, the John Davis piece pictured below.

Dealer Comments:

Weight: 14.4oz
Blade Length: 13.82"
Total Length: 18"
Blade Thickness: 0.22"
Blade Width: 1.23"

Blade: Mosaic Damascus forged from 52100, 1084, 15N20 and 1018 carbon steels
Bolster: Blued mild steel "S" guard
Handle: Carved mammoth ivory
Sheath: 10 - 12 oz. Oak tanned leather sheath by maker

J. Neilson - Ivory Handled Ring Guard Bowie

I saw a very unique ring guard bowie J had previously done, and knew that I had to get one ordered for myself. I wanted to go a bit upscale on mine though, decking it out with a nice walrus ivory handle and a damascus blade. J came up with this amazing rendition which really surpased my expectations. Walrus ivory handle with buckeye burl spacer, wrought iron ring guard (recovered from an old wagon wheel) and a long cable damascus blade with a really deep clip to show off the pattern. A contrast line running through the blade gives it almost a faux-hamon look.

Fred Ott - Integral Single-Edged Dagger

This beautiful little single-edged dagger I picked up from a dealer at a show in Napa valley. It's forged from L6 and has an integral bolster. The great spanish notch really makes this piece, and it has some nice filework along the spine that compliments that exquisite carving of the amazing ebony handle.

Blade length: 6.62 in. Total length: 12.25 in. Blade width: 1.00 in. Blade thickness: 0.20 in. Weight: 5.76 oz. Shipment weight: 7.44 oz. Blade: Hand forged L6 carbon steel with a hand rubbed satin finish Bolster: Integral L6 ferrule Handle: Fluted ebony with a nickel silver pommel

Greg Covington - Damascus & Ebony Bowie/Fighter

This is a knife I watched take shape over several weeks, as Greg posted pictures and updates of his progress in forging it. It's got a great looking damascus blade, with an aggressive profile and a superbly shaped ebony handle. It's 5160/L6 Damascus at 114 layers, the blade is 8.5" long and 5/16" at the spine. The guard and ferrule are of the same Damascus and the handle is nicely figured Gaboon Ebony. The handle/blade junction has an ever so slight cant for right handed carry, in the Bagwell style. Greg says, 'The sharpened clip is deadly (cut me thrice in the making) and the 5/16" spine can really cleave.'

Not the sort of knife I'd normally buy, but this one is the whole package. Not just a sum of parts, this knife flows nicely and should be one heck of a tough blade. This, along with my Fogg hunter will be my hunting & backpacking blades.

John Gonzalez Karambit

John is a knifemaker out of Prescott, Arizona. He's a hell of a nice guy, and someone whose work I wasn't familiar with until I happened across this gem of a blade. The karambit is a design that originated centuries ago in Indonesia for work in the field. It's gained recent popularity in martial arts circles as a self defense weapon. This blade (and a lot of John's work to my mind) bears a strong middle-eastern influence in it, that gives a unique feel to his work.

This karambit is made out of 5160 steel, with an antique finish, it has a 6.5" blade (long for a karambit), and is 11" overall. It has beautiful ironwood scales, and one of the most amazing tooled leather sheaths I've seen in a long while.

Jim Siska - Ivory Scalpel

This great little piece is wonderfully unique & very nicely done. A replica of a doctor's scalpel done up with nice creamy ivory scales.

John White Bowie

A relatively new smith with only a few years of experience under his belt. Already making a name for himself with his very clean, well fitting work. Very nicely executed, but not something I'd normally have picked up, but at the great price I got it at, couldn't resist. Not the best pictures, hopefully I'll get this one out for pics soon.

Seller Comments

Full-dress exhibition grade bowie from one of the ABS’s most impressive bladesmiths.

Forged 1084 blade is 9” long, OAL 14”. Highly polished giraffe-bone scales, nice leather sheath by maker.

Extensive rope filework throughout, including the intricate pommel assembly, ferrule/spacers, clamshell hilt, top of spine--even the casing on the tang is delicately fileworked. Spanish notch and long swedge-ground clip (unsharpened).

The rope filework is blued for additional contrast with the german silver furniture. Filework not blued include the blade spine and the tang encasement.

In pic #2 of the handle you can see some of the sculpting John did on the giraffe bone. Swells subtley back from the guard to a nice, smooth man-size mid-point, and then tapers back beautifully toward the pommel. Handle is broader on top, with the underside a little slimmer for a great feel in hand. The high polish really brings out the colors in the bone, too.