My Story...

Not that anyone asked, but let me tell you a little bit about myself and this little enterprise I call Bradford Hunt Design...

The first 'knife' I can remember making was probably when I was about 12 years old.  I used a propane torch to heat a big nail until it was red hot and then beat on it with a ball peen hammer and some bodywork 'anvils'.  My dad had a hand cranked grinding wheel mounted to his work bench and I was keen on grinding that nail and making sparks.  It worked so well that I thought I would do my dad a favor and 'sharpen' all of his screwdrivers too. I thought I was doing a pretty good job of it, but I did notice that I was wearing a big groove right down the middle of the grinding stone...which I rationalized to be a good thing for keeping the tools 'on track' as you grind them. My dad vigorously encouraged me not to make any more knives in his workshop so my knifemaking career was on hold until about 2000 when I moved into a house with room for a workshop of my own in the garage.

I've experimented with making all kinds of knives from slip joint folders to forged 1095 hunting knives to letter openers and push daggers.  No two alike. Until recently, I never sold any and mostly gave them away as gifts to family and friends.

Some of the first knives I ever made were from kits and the only way I felt that I could truly make them 'mine' was to focus on 'fit & finish' and also handle treatment, so I was always on the lookout for a nice piece of figured amboyna burl or cocobolo. The problem was, they were getting harder to find and more expensive when I could find them at all.

One of the things I started to notice on older knives was the condition of the handle - split, cracked, missing on one side...all due to the wood changing shape due to humidity and working its way off the knife. I saw this product in one of the big box hardware stores that said it soaked into wood and turned to plastic, so I thought I'd give it a try...I got about .030 depth of penetration before I sanded right through the treated part.  A little more research led me to Cactus Juice, but OMG the price!  I tried to go the cheapo way and bought a quart ($35!!!) of CJ and a manual brake bleeder vacuum pump which I hooked up to a mason jar and thought I was in business.  I only mention this because it doesn't work, so don't bother trying it...you'll be lucky to get more than 1/16" of penetration.

So I broke down and got all the proper equipment to make my own stabilized knife scales and had the great idea to start selling a few to pay for the whole setup.  And one thing led to another and that's where we are.