Various Small Knives: Mel seemed to really enjoy making small utility knives. The top knife is a neck knife with what looks to be California buckeye burl scales, the second a skeletal Wharncliffe that was a custom order, and the third a Small Clip Point Skinner with desert ironwood scales. All blades are D-2, of course! The Skeletal Wharncliffe was custom ordered by Jerry Oksman, a Bladeforums member who met Mel through TKCL (The Knife Collector's List). The list members were doing a knife to make available and Mel submitted the Persian Fighter design, which was made in a revised art version by Darrel Ralph, too. After seeing that Persian Fighter, Jerry was impressed, so he contacted Mel to make a knife with the Persian Fighter handle shape, but a Wharncliffe blade! As you can see, the results are a very interesting hybrid! Jerry said the sheath pictured on the left is the one for that particular knife and the snap is right in the curve of the handle so, upside-down, the knife can never fall out inadvertently. Jerry remembers mel in his own words:
"A really nice guy and a great one to shoot the shit with. Definitely missed by all who knew him. I only wish I hadn't deleted all the e-mails we had together. We used to do a little "curse exchange" and we were always trying to out "pun" each other. Of course I deleted cause I thought there would be more conversations. How little did I know."
Thanks, Jerry, for sharing your stories with us and for giving the history behind that interesting knife.
Trailing Point Skinners: these two skinners feature the same whitetail crown horn as before, with desert ironwood bolsters and D-2 blades.
Big Skinner: this knife has a 4.25" D-2 blade and what looks to be desert ironwood scales.
Stubby Skinner: this skinner features a 3.75" D-2 blade with incredible stabilized Australian lacewood scales and kingwood bolsters. Mel was the only maker I know of who could use such simple methods to create beauty.
Unfinished: This knife was part of the auction for Mel's family. It is an unfinished Clip Point and also shown is the swinger style sheath for it.
Big Fighter: An unusual departure for Madpoet, this knife has a large 8" ATS-34 blade. The false edge is sharpened, and the wood scales appear to be cocobolo.
Persian Fighter: this unusual fighter has a 4" D-2 blade and what appear to be desret ironwood scales.
Drop Point: this knife has a 3.75" blade of D-2 with what appear to be desert ironwood scales.
Drop Point: This drop point knife has a 4" D-2 blade and nice granadillo wood scales.
Walnut Wharncliffe: this knife has a small 3.5" D-2 blade and rich walnut handle scales.
