About Me
Davy Moore, A KnifeMaker with the "BUG"
Hello, I'm Davy Moore I'm a knifemaker and I live and work in Quin, Co. Clare on the West Coast of Ireland. I got my first look at a forge when I was 12 years old, I was allowed to have a go and the first thing I tried to make was a knife. I didn't know about steel compositions back then and my first and very humble attempt at forging a knife out of Mild Steel with a knotty pine and insulating tape handle wasn't quite the success I had imagined. But it looked good to me ... I was excited, I was proud and most of all I had the "BUG". Ask any maker why he makes knives and he will tell you "It's the BUG!!" The knifemaking bug is a lifetime bug it gets in your blood and it stays there.
I made several other attempts at knife making during my teens with pretty varied rates of success. In my mid Twenty's I moved from Ireland, with my wife Helen to Littlerock, Arkansas, in the US and what I discovered there was amazing to me. I was not alone, not the only knife crazy person in the world. In fact there were hundreds even thousands of us. Some of us were Knife makers. Some were Knife Collectors. There were Blade Smiths and Builders. There were Engravers, Scrimshanders and Leather Workers. There were Cowboys and Scandinavians. There were Orientals and Eastern Europeans and everyone had the "BUG". You could even go to a Knife Show where you could meet others with the bug every other weekend. I realized that I was part of something, a fellowship, somewhere I really fit in and I loved it. From that point on I decided that I was going to build knives. I read books & magazine articles, I watched videos, I hammered, filed, sanded till my arms ached and slowly but surely I began to get it right.
After a while I had built up quite a stock of knives and then one day a friend at work asked me if he could buy one from me. I was amazed someone would want to buy one of my knives. So amazed in fact that I gave it to him for free. I think part of me didn't believe that the workmanship was up to scratch and I didn't feel right about asking for money for it. But then about a week later he came back to me and asked if I would build 2 more just like it for his buddies at deer camp. My first commission and it was for two knives. Wow all of a sudden i was a knifemaker .. for real!!.
I made several more like this for friends and family through the years. I started concentrating on Fit and Finish and Presentation. After a while I realized that I could easily stand over the quality of my work and could even guarantee it. I moved back from the US to Ireland in the year 2000 and didn't make a knife for quite a while. It has never been easy to source good quality knifemaking materials in Ireland and with this lack of resources I lost the inspiration and the BUG. But things have sure moved along since I was a kid and nowadays with the advantage of the internet the world has gotten smaller and materials are more readily available.
I am now back building knives regularly. I can source blades and steel, fixtures and fittings, handle material and leather, anything I want really, with just a few clicks of a mouse. I have discovered some fabulous places on the internet such as The British Blades Website and Knives.com where I can interact with other like minded knifemakers from all around the world. Some of the makers on these sites are so experienced and talented that they serve as a source of inspiraton to all aspiring knifemakers. I don't know where this road will lead me. I would love to be able to someday make knives fulltime, but for now enjoing a hobby that pays for itself, is a very nice way to spend away long evenings and weekends indeed.
I have the "BUG" back again and it feels great.