PAT DAVIS
KNIFE MAKER 

Across the Fence 



By Arvord Abernethy 

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We often hear of friction between labor and management, but there is one business in the county that never has any conflict. It is Pat Davis hunting knife business, as Pat is both labor and management. Pat lives with his mother, Mrs. Hazel Moseley, some nine miles south of town just off 281. They have been here about nine months. 

Pat grew up around Coleman, but, during a drought several years back, the family moved to South Dakota where Pat graduated from high school. After high school and a short stretch in college, he became interested in surveying. He followed this for 12 years. It took him through much of the northwestern states and on into Alaska. 

For the past few years he has served as a park guide for those mule trains that take people from the rim to the bottom of the Grand Canyon. He said that it was really a thrill to see people in rafts ride the rapids of the Colorado River at the bottom of the canyon. 

Pat has always had a fancy for knives and began making them years ago. Hazel showed me a bread knife made from a very fine toothed hack saw blade that he made several years ago. She said that it would cut right through hot bread. 

During his years as surveyor and park guide, Pat always carried one of his homemade knives. People took an interest in the knives, liked the looks and quality of them, so , began placing orders for them. He now has a well equipped shop with all the tools for making knives. 

When I first heard that he used hack saw and other saw blades, I couldn’t figure out how a strong knife blade could be made from a saw blade. When I saw the blades he was using, I could understand. These are not like any hack saw we use around here. Each blade is about two feet long, two inches wide and an eight of an inch thick. They are used in railroad shops for sawing rails in two, and in other shops for heavy work. These are made in Sweden of the very finest steel and of hardest quality. 

This steel will polish to mirror brightness, but it takes hours of grounding to sharpen the blades. Pat showed me how he drills the holes for the handles. The steel is too hard to use a high speed electric drill on as it would get the steel too hot and ru7in the temper. He has a special drill that fits in his hand-powered drill. After the correct pressure is put on the bit, he turns the drill 20 times, then tightens the pressure a very small amount and goes through the 20 times routine again and again until the hole is drilled. This often takes six hours of time. The correct beveling and sharpening of the blade is another long process. 

Pat uses different kinds of wood for the handles. Properly aged and cured mesquite roots make nice handles. The piece of wood in the picture is a mesquite root. Walnut also makes excellent and beautiful handles. Pat got some 75 year old boisd’arc (boardark) post from Wiley Potts over at Lometa that are well seasoned and make excellent handles. Catclaw is another local wood that he uses. Iron wood that comes from India is a fine wood to use. The small knife in the center of the picture has a deer horn handle. 

A doctor in Austria sent him two horns from a Gemse (a member of the antelope family) to use as handles for some ornamental knives. The horns are black and have a sharp curve on the ends. 

I learned something new about knives; he can make them for right handed or left handed people. When a person places an order, he finds out if they are right or left handed and makes the knives to fit their hands. You can take a knife he makes in your hands and definitely tell the difference in the feel. The correct handle gives you a firmer grip. 

The two knives in the center of the picture leaning against the mesquite root are finished and ready to mail to the buyers. These knives sold for $150 each. The round black object in the picture is a dinosaur gizzard stone that can be used in sharpening knives. Pat has a special steel rod covered with diamond dust that he uses to put the final razor sharp edge on the knives. 

Shared by Roy Ables

ACROSS THE FENCE