If you’ve read many of my articles, you know that I love knives and test a ton of them every year.
Earlier this year, I was conducting some seminars at the Safari Club International Convention in Las Vegas. In-between seminars, I visited as many exhibitor booths I had time for. There are guides from all over the world set up there, as well as many of the top-end gun and knife makers.
On Saturday afternoon, right before the show closed, I met Rob and Richard Charleston at their Damascus USA booth. What drew me in was that they had on display some of their fine Damascus steel knives. Wow, they were beautiful. Rob and his sons Richard and Joshua own Damascus USA, and their products can be found at www.damascususa.com.
I was going to just stop for a second and look at a knife or two, but I ended up staying for a good while. One thing led to another and I was soon lined out to test one of their knives.
It turns out that they have won numerous awards and accolades with their knives, way too many to list. Look at their website to see the list. They claim to make the best quality Damascus knives in the country. In looking at and handling their knives, it’s hard to argue.
Not only do they make great knives, but I would have to say they are almost a work of art. Some people have it, some don’t. I have no artistic ability at all. Zero. I can’t sing, I can’t draw. Heck, according to Katy, I can’t even pick out a shirt that matches my pants. My company made us wear slacks to work at one time.
One morning I was headed to work and Katy asked, “Where are you going?” I replied, “To work.” She said, “That’s a cool cap, Tom. That’s a cool shirt. That’s a cool pair of pants, but not one of them go together!”
As we were having our discussion, my 6-year-old daughter walked by. To prove that I was a fashion star, I snidely said “Kolby, these clothes match fine, don’t they?” She looks me up and down and turns up her nose and said, “No way, daddy.” Maybe I do have issues.
I got home that night and Katy had my clothes laid out on the bed. She showed me how some shirts had an A on the inside of the collar, some had a B and some had an AB. She informed me that A shirts could go with A pants. Then she said, “Here’s where it gets tricky. An A Shirt can go with either A pants or AB pants.”
I say all of this to point out that certain people have artistic abilities that many of us don’t have and that is the talent that helps them excel in their field of study. So with that said, I’d have to say that the Charlestons are artists who make knives.
While on the topic of a beautiful knife, why carry a cheap ugly one? Unless you lose it, you’re going to be stuck carrying the piece of junk knife for years to come. Why not carry a cool one? Sitting around the campfire in elk camp, sometime in the course of the week everyone ends up comparing knives, don’t they? Even if you’re a dork and don’t kill a thing, you’ll be elevated to a certain status of cool if you’re carrying a sweet knife.
I understand using a cheap-o knife for cutting stings on hay bales and opening cardboard boxes, but why carry a cheap knife for your hunting hobby? As I get older, I like to have a few finer things and a good knife is one of them.
Tom Claycomb lives in Idaho and has outdoors columns in newspapers in Alaska, Idaho, Utah, Nevada, Colorado and Louisiana. He also writes for various outdoors magazines and teaches outdoors seminars at stores like Cabela’s, Sportsman’s Warehouse and Bass Pro Shop.
