Hello and welcome, my name is William Courtney. My love of knives started years ago with the first knife I ever owned, an old Cub Scout knock-off. It wasn't much of a knife but I loved it and it started the fascination I have with man's oldest tool. I made a few knives in shop class in high school, but I wouldn't really call them knives as I had next to no knowledge of heat-treating or edge geometry or even what a good knife was capable of at that time. At that time there was not a whole lot of "how-to's" out there and I knew of no knife makers living near me. After high school I left for a four-year enlistment with the US Marines and knives fell to the way side, but were never far from my thoughts. I keep looking at any cutlery magazine I could find and studied every knife that I could and read and learned as much as I could.

When my enlistment was up I moved back to southern Mississippi and began trying to make knives. I say trying because it was still mostly trial and error and I made a rather large pile of junk blades before I finally made one that I thought was acceptable. I look back now to a few of those blades and remember how far I've come in such a short time, and how much further I have to go. I don't believe I will ever master the art of knife making as the more you learn and the better you get the more critical of your own work you become and as a great knife maker once said, "you become obsessed with that last scratch" What was acceptable a year or two ago is not today, and I hope that today's knife will not be acceptable a year or two from now.

I think the biggest influence on me has been Ed Fowler, and Wayne Goddard. Through their books and knives and methods I have begun to appreciate the basics of the knife. I say begun because there is so much to learn and such a simple tool is so extraordinarily complex that I believe no one person can fully understand the limits of what a knife is and where it can go. Just a few short years ago man's understanding of steel was basically two parts wrong and one part right. Imagine in a few more years where we'll be and what we'll know. Also I'd like to thank Bruce Evans, he has given me many ideas and instruction along with teaching me to forge weld. Without those three smiths and countless others willing to teach I would not be where I'm at today. Thank you Gentlemen.

I forge most of my blades with the occasional stock removal stainless thrown in for good measure. I like to try different styles and mix and match those styles to come up with a truly functional work of art. I won't sacrifice function for appearance though, that's my number one rule. My primary steel at this time is bearing quality 52100 that I get from Rex Walther where it is forged from 5 1/2" to 6" virgin round bar to a 1" square bar that I can handle. This is the cleanest steel I've ever worked with I get better performance out of it than any other steel I've ever tested and I've not managed to find the limits yet. There are steels out there that will out perform 52100 on one or two points, but I've never found one that combines toughness, strength, cutting ability, and ease of re-sharpening. As an added plus my blades receive an acid etch to reveal the grain structure and heat-treat and show a faint "damask" similar to woods or damascus and add to the beauty. I also forge my own damascus and while I have not yet gotten into advanced patterns I do like to play around with different combinations and different metals. My favorite at the moment is "frontier style" which is basically everything including the kitchen sink, I've forged blades with wrenches and ball bearings, case hardened roller bearings, pieces of files and saw blades and everything in between. The reason it is called frontier damascus, a term Bruce Evans coined, is because up until the last few decades good steel was hard to come by and local black smith shops would weld up any left over pieces of steel to make one large enough for whatever they were building, though they didn't work it to get a pattern. The pattern is never the same twice and can be really beautiful and unique.

I would also like to add that I test each and everyone of my knives for edge holding and toughness be for it leaves my shop and that if anyone ever has a problem with one of my knives I want to know about it. I test a sample every so often to destruction to let me know where I'm at and to keep quality up. I firmly believe that a knife is made to cut and if it won't do that and do it well all the engraving and gold and jewels in the world won't make it a knife. Also please remember that a knife is made to cut and if care is not taken you can easily cut yourself so please be careful my knives and tomahawks are delivered sharp.

Thank you for dropping by,

Will