As I may have mentioned here before my father has a knack for making all the right connections. Sometimes he finds them, sometimes they find him. This would be an example of the later. My parents live in a smaller neighborhood with just a single street allowing access into and out of the area. Their house is conveniently located at the T that comes into the area, if you keep driving straight, you end up in their drive way. This allows my retired father, who spends a great deal of his time puttering around in his garage/shop, to play the neighborhood male version of Gladys Kravitz. No one gets in or out of that neighborhood without him knowing about it.
One day while doing his normal work (puttering), a man he didn't know from the neighborhood came up and asked him if he wanted some scrap wood. They struck up a conversation and my Dad learned Bob, lived just a short ways from him and made knives in his own workshop, out of his home. My Dad later visited Bob's workshop and found an amazing array of knives. All hand made, with wood handles made of various woods, in different, patterns sizes and styles. He offered to make a knife for my Dad, and not being the type to turn down anything free, my Dad gladly accepted, he also said he would make another knife for someone else in the family if Dad wanted him to.... I am the recipient of that knife!
Pictured here with an additional knife he also made for me, it is a big, beautiful, 10 inch Chefs knife with a handle made of several different exotic woods. The blade is razor sharp, made from High Carbon Stainless Steel. The blades are hardened and tempered. Once an edge is ground into them they keep it! Let me tell you.. this knife is sharp, but a sharp knife is a safe knife! You use less pressure when you cut, giving you more control. With a dull knife you'll use an unnecessary amount of pressure to compensate for the lack of sharpness of the blade, this results in a lack of control and a greater likelihood you'll injure yourself!
The boning or filet knife he made me has the most beautiful wood inlays! Bob says he uses exotic woods from all around the world, ebony from Africa, tigerwood, Bolivian rosewood, jatoba, redheart and yellowheart from South America, and many, many, more. The blade has a gorgeous curve to it and would work well for both fish or meat. All of the knives are acid etched using a medieval formula of fuming acids. He has etched my name on one side of each knife blade and a beautiful swirling pattern on the other. This is a very old fashioned way of etching, which he describes as dangerous, messy and altogether fun! He says he doesn't know of anyone else acid etching knives this way, these days most companies use laser etching. Bob has been a hobbyist knife maker for over 35 years.
I don't think I could begin to list the array of knife styles Bob makes here, but he makes all types, not just the culinary type I have pictured here. My Husband is getting a Bowie knife from him shortly, and I won't be using that in the kitchen! If you are interested in one of these Artisan made, functional works of art you can contact Bob Absaroka at
krbents1@frontier.com
