Most of Dave's life he has been intrigued by knives and especially custom knives. Dave has always dream of making custom Turquoise handled knives, and now he makes custom Turquoise handled knives regularly as well as other stunning knives. Following a summary of his story.

Dave & his wife Mary Beth have lived and worked in Colorado for 45 years along with their 3 sons. Both are retired now, he having worked for Lockheed Martin as an engineer in the Analytical Mechanics/Structual Dynamics section for over 30 years, and she as a nurse.

Interest in knives of all kinds has been a hobby of his for almost 20 years now, having started with the purchase of many factory knives for his display case and personal use, then gradually expanding to include custom or modified knives. It was during his first purchases of special handled knives, with various exotic woods and stones, that he began to think that it was possible for him to reproduce these types of knives himself. Having always been a "learn by doing" person, he purchased some simple equipment, did a lot of reading, and then plunged into modifying knives for himself and for others as gifts. His efforts at first were just simple handle inlays of mixed wood and reconstructed stone/pearl/opal since these were fairly easy to cut and finish with simple tools. After this became routine he decided to branch out and try real materials even though the "recon" materials and real wood looked and worked well. Pearl shells and softer rocks were next tried with good success, but it became obvious better equipment was needed, since the effort to process these harder materials was almost too much for his limited equipment. Even then, precious gems were added to many of his knives as an additional feature which required learning stone setting skills.