SPEAKER_00 0:21

Thanks again for listening to the Goodlead Plates podcast. I am your host, Ariel here, and I'm joined by Bobby House. Bobby is a slip joint maker out of South Texas. He's a part of the slip joint cartel. He's been uh collecting for near on 35 years now of various knives. And uh, you know, I wanted to have him on the show and talk knives and get to know a little bit more about them. So uh Bobby, it's a real pleasure to have you.

SPEAKER_02 0:46

Thanks, Aaron. It's a pleasure being here.

SPEAKER_00 0:48

Yeah. Um so talk to me a little bit about you outside of knives, career, family, things like that. I want to kind of give everybody a little picture about where who you are and where you came from.

SPEAKER_02 1:00

Well, I uh I was raised on a large ranch in South Texas, right north of Tilden, Texas. And um my father was a rancher, and subsequently that's what I did because that's what I knew. And uh, you know, we farmed 600 acres and at one time up to 18,000 acres with 700, 800 head of cattle. So that was very time consuming, I guess you'd say, and and I didn't know anything but hard work. And uh, you know, uh I lost my dad in '99, and I held that together, I guess, the ranching for another seven, eight years till 2006, 7, somewhere right in there, and then moved to uh moved to uh Pleasanton, where, you know, right down the street from Bill Rupal, actually. And uh, you know, in in the meanwhile, and then the hard times, I also got into electrical contracting business. I have a niche market for uh the oil fill. I keep pumping units and salt water disposals and irrigation wells. I'm a three-phase specialist, 480 volt three-phase specialist, and you know, started started uh collecting knives probably 30 years ago, 35 years ago. I've been friends with Bill Ruppel for that long. He knew me way before I knew him. And uh and Pat West, T Cho West, uh Jerry Collette, Kendall Short, just just people knife makers around there from just around the Charlotte uh Pleasanton area. And uh that's kind of how I got into uh to the knife collecting and then subsequently into the knife making it's through Bill Ruppel.

SPEAKER_00 2:30

So when when you were collecting knives, uh did you primarily connect uh collect uh uh pocket knives, or were you fixed plates too, or kind of what does your uh collecting experience look like?

SPEAKER_02 2:42

I uh I I pretty much uh focused on uh fix I mean pocket knives and slip joints because you know, growing up as a kid, I I kind of remember my grandfather carrying a barlow. And uh I never I don't know where his knives went. Uh I lost him in the early 70s. And so I always had a uh I always had a pocket knife because it was a tool on the ranch. I mean you had to cut either bell strings or I mean you always had to cut something on the ranch, you know, and and uh and I kind of gravitated towards single blades. There used to be a I brand, and it's like a serpentine trapper. It was a long, skinny, kind of long, skinny blade, single blade, and I bet I've wore out ten of those just because oh, cleaning deer and animal and hogs, you know, gut and things, and it was kind of a thin, kind of a real thin knife, and uh, you know, and I just abused them, and and that's kind of where I got my start. And I don't know, sometime maybe in the I don't know, 80s I or whenever Bill started, I had a two-blade trapper from him, which I used and lost while using it in cutting uh strings off hay, and then I always had one of his knives, and then I don't know later. I uh I of course I know Pat Teacher West all of my life as well, and you know, I I was fortunate enough to he gave me a knife and and I uh traded for a knife, and then I I actually had him commission to make a knife for my father-in-law, which was a real little unique little knife, you know. And so I've I've always, you know, that's that's kind of you know, my I've always had to have a knife for for work and um and pretty much had a slip joint. And I have a few fixed blades, I have a couple of hunting knives, but uh, you know, that wasn't very practical for me. But uh but I do have some hunting knives and have some nice ones too, you know.

SPEAKER_00 4:33

Yeah. Um when when you said that you were ranching and everything like that, pri like primarily what kind of uh cattle rancher were you doing for uh for meat or uh for breeding or kind of what was it?

SPEAKER_02 4:46

Yeah, my father uh he he got on this ranch in 58, I think, and then I was born and raised there. And it was uh it was a commercial cattle ranch. Uh it's if you know anything about South Texas, it's it's it can be beautiful, but mostly it's it's hot and dry and harsh. You know, our winters we mean if we have five or six days of w uh uh freezing weather, you know, that's a lot. And uh every once in a while we had snow. We've had snow, I think, three or four times in my lifetime, you know, uh there at the ranch or in South Texas. And uh, you know, we we uh we had commercial cattle, just just crossbred cattle. And um, like I say, at one time we probably ranched 17, right at 18,000 acres between three or four places. And he was the rancher, and I I liked the farming, like we said, we we dry lined farmed about 600 acres. And uh my dad was the rancher and cattleman, and I was I was more farming and uh I was I was decent at at at running cattle, you know, and then I had a brother that he was he was a good horseman and I was ferret horseman and rodeoed a little bit after high school. My dad didn't let us rodeo in high school, and after high school I rodeoed some, got got pretty good at it, and but you know, had to go back ultimately I always had to go back to ranch and worked there. And uh, like I said, I lost him in '99 after a six-year illness, uh broke hip, undetected stroke, uh diabetes, amputations, loss of eyesight, just uh just a miserable death, and and uh and I held it together for my for my mother for I don't know, I guess another seven, eight years, something like that, and then uh ultimately it just got too tough and we got away from the got away from the kettle business.

SPEAKER_00 6:30

Yeah. So during um during that time, did you do a lot of hunting and fishing? I know that uh I've seen uh some pictures online of some big old bucks and stuff like that that you've uh caught.

SPEAKER_02 6:42

So Yeah, yeah. I was very, very fortunate. The ranch I was raised on is about 10,000 acres and white-tailed deer, turkey, quail, dove, everything, coons when I was 10, 11 years old. I we had a mile and a half river on it and uh with the hackberry bottom, and I killed I don't know how many coons and skinned them. That was my money, you know. So, and I've killed, you know, 170, 80 inch deer off that ranch. Uh now I like to uh hogs. We had hogs that were just hogs were infested. And actually in 1881, we built uh we built fence around about a thousand acres of our farmland, tried to keep the deer and hogs out of them. But well we kept the deer out successfully, but the hogs just they're they're nuisance. They never could keep them in, and they were it was always a fight. So yeah, I've hunted I've hunted all my life. And now in the last probably 15 years, well, uh since I got off the ranch, I just kind of got away from whitetail hunting, and I I really, really, really enjoy uh mule deer hunting, which is hunting in the western states. And my my dad was uh very oh that was his passion. Yeah, we hunted there too, but at the ranch, but we his passion was to go out west and kill mule deer, and and he did it about every two or three years, and here it is years later, and that's that's about what I get to do. About every three years I get to go hunting, or two years, you know, I get to go hunting. I've been to Colorado, I've been to Utah, New Mexico, Canada. Uh I don't know. Just you know, try to go out west, you know, because I enjoy it. Big country, you know, I love the country.

SPEAKER_00 8:20

Yeah, one of my favorite hunts was going up to Wyoming and going uh pronghorn hunting.

SPEAKER_02 8:26

Yes. I never done pronghorn, but I uh that's that's a bucket list item, and since I've been wanting to do it, it's the price has gone up five hundred dollars every year. I better get, you know, I need to get it get it done before it prices me completely out. And that's another thing. You know, we were we were raised pretty meager. Uh, you know, my dad did it every two or three years, and I'd take care of the ranch and and uh while he went, you know, hunting either West Texas or or Colorado or something, and he killed a super large buck old probably in the mid-90s or no, early in that, late, late eighties in the eighties, and uh he didn't bring the horns back, he just brought the meat back. You know, he said, Oh, the rancher wanted the horns. I was like, Pop, what what were you thinking? I do have a picture of it, it was just a big old monster deer. He said, Ah, the rancher wanted the horns. He said, I just wanted the meat and the experience. And so I kind of catch myself, you know, every every couple of years I, you know, I get the opportunity, and now it's now it's all about money. Back then it was he could go pretty reasonably, you know, but uh he'd be gone in one uh about 84 or something. I uh I got drawn right on, he had 56,000 acres leased in West Texas, and he always invited me, but I always took care of things while he was gone. You know, just that's what we did. And I got drawn at a state land um across the fence from it, from where he hunted, and that was probably in '84, I think, November 84 or something like that. So I got went out there and experienced with some friends of mine, and uh after that, you know, every chance I got, you know, I went. Uh unfortunately I didn't ever get to go hunting with him, but uh but I carry on his legacy.

SPEAKER_00 10:04

Yeah, I think uh it's interesting that the the mentality back in the day is uh you know, I want the meat for sustenance, uh you can keep the the trophies or whatever. Uh now it's now it's like people are shooting deer just for the horny.

SPEAKER_02 10:18

You know, and I'm kind of guilty of that, but that's my vacation. You know, I've killed uh I've killed a couple of really large deer. I killed a southeastern Colorado in the plains, I killed a 217 Booning Crockett monster uh uh mule deer, and then I think in 2015 I killed a 30-inch one uh, you know, a trophy deer up in Canada, you know, and then you know, but I that's what I went for. You know, I mean I I got plenty steak and you know I don't have any place for when we lived on the ranch we had about a 12 by 14 walk-in cooler. Well you go in there, I don't care if it was summer, winter, or whatever, there's there's there was half a beef hanging in there, there's deer, there was hog meat, you know, there's always something hanging there. Well, now that I'm in town, I don't have that luxury of you know having that, you know, so that kind of hinders a little bit. Now when I want a steak, I go to go to to the meat market and I can buy good ribeye and I have you know I have uh a steak, you know, and get deer meat from friends that you know I get some backstrap or something. But uh so for me now it's it's it is that trophy hunting where for him it was just it was meat and and of course the the hunting. I mean he had good friends that he went with, the camaraderie. That's that's what uh I really enjoy too.

SPEAKER_00 11:41

Yeah, I mean I um I think that a lot of people don't realize the uh the cost involved with hunting or being uh on the go all the time for hunting.

SPEAKER_02 11:52

It's it's ridiculous. You know, here here it is, it's June right now, and like I say, we're we're at kind of the start of where I live in Pleasanton, 30 miles south San Antonio. From here south, it's lots and lots and lots of hunting. And I noticed it Friday when I I'd been down toward Tilden and I come in for the weekend, there you pass I don't know how many vehicles that are double cab pickups, pulling gooseneck or trailers with four-wheelers and they're going to their hunting lease, you know. And uh it's just so much money involved now. And you know, I was fortunate, I was raised on a big ranch. I didn't didn't really have to pay for hunting, I just did it, you know, and and uh shot every day, shot coyotes, you know. We you know, did varmints, you know, for the while, you know, for our cattle. I always had a gun in my, you know, my right beside me and I've you know, and I'd I'd kill coyotes, bobcats. Bobcats not so much, but uh coyotes they were they were, you know, nuisance because they'd catch calves and stuff like that. And you know, I'd kill white-tailed bucks every year, probably more than I probably should have. You know the the the tag limit didn't really mean much to us whenever you live on that big of a ranch, you know. And we we also we also uh were very cons conscientious on on uh on uh uh the quality too. I killed a lot of inferior deer, you know, we tried to raise big deer and we didn't have high fence or anything like they have now. And and uh, you know, back in the 70s and eighties, whenever it was kind of big deer just kind of catching on. Well, we had we had you know trophy bucks, you know, and but we just hunted it ourselves and you know we took care of it, and we we may kill one good deer a year off that, and you know, now they want to kill 25, you know, but it's you know, back then we just enjoyed it. We used to feed uh about a nine-mile circle with corn and corn and maize, and we take off from the house at daylight and we'd make about an eight or nine mile circle, and I knew about where every deer was gonna be, every big deer, all the quail, the turkey, they just come the road and and we did that every morning from about the first frost of the year, you know, which are like uh first November, and we did it all the way till it turned spring. So, you know, I I got to see a lot, a lot, a lot of animals, you know, and a lot of people don't didn't get to see that, and I did.

SPEAKER_00 14:13

Yeah, I think it's uh probably important to uh uh take a pause for uh listeners and explain kind of how um game management and stuff like that works in Texas. So um, you know, back in the 70s, 80s, even into the early 90s, uh bag limits and things uh changed and were in flux a lot because the common culture um of hunting wasn't really around conservation, but more specifically around uh just getting what you can, right? And uh and and you know, like on big properties and whatnot, like now you have uh uh MLD tags, so I mean they'll just do browsing studies and everything and tell you how many approximately you can shoot on your property for management purposes, and you just clear out whatever.

SPEAKER_02 14:58

Right. Yeah, there it's come a long way. Back whenever I was a kid, 10, 12 years old, we used to have uh they got eradicated, it's called screw worms, and it was a fly that would like uh lay an egg on like a fresh kid on its navel, their eyes, uh deer whenever they'd then when they were born, you know, their navel, their eyes, and it lay a lay a larga, and it was actually, for better words, it was just actually flesh eating, and uh it's called screw worms. And uh I remember in the 70s airplanes used to fly over drop in these uh boxes, and what they were, they were sterile flo screw worm flies, and that's how they eradicated them. But whenever we were talking about the hunting, we uh we just in 74 we leased a property from Gray's Peeler and right before he went to the rest home, and it was like 6,000 acres, and there was very, very few deer because it was just survival of the fittest. I mean, if you saw five or six deer a day, you saw a lot, and it was because of the screw worms, and it was just uh survival of the fittest. The biggest, healthiest deer survived, and uh whenever they got eradicated, I I want to say, and I'm just guessing, but around 676, somewhere right in there, the the that that uh program pretty much eradicated screw worms, and uh uh you know, and then all of a sudden, you know, the wildlife, the deer, everything flourished, and it it changed, it changed the whole, I don't know, the whole aspect of of deer. And then from there, then they're flourished because they had some common predators, but but at one time, you know, the these screw worms was was devastating on herds, you know, and then from there it's just exploded till to where it is today. I mean there's there's deer everywhere now. Right here now, I live in town, and um, you know, I have twenty-five deer in my front yard or backyard at any, you know, overnight. They can we can't hardly keep shrubs, and you know, it's just right here in town, so you can't really kill them, shoot them here, but they're just flourishing.

SPEAKER_00 17:08

Yeah. Well, it's it, you know, it's it's interesting with uh Texas ecosystems, and that's um, you know, I I grew up in Pennsylvania, and when I moved down here, one of the things that really interested me was the ecology of things, like the different uh uh microclimates that Texas has. And um I spent some time out in East Texas hunting a lot and everything. And uh, you know, there's there's so many different microclimates, so many different animals that that live here and in one area, like like deer in East Texas, you say you see them different places, but they have uh horn restrictions. So it's like a 13-inch spread and you can only shoot one per count and all that stuff. And and the cultivation of of deer uh through game management is a really important thing there. Whereas like uh, you know, you go further south or further west and you have you know mule deers and the uh uh you know in in Wyoming that was one of the things that they talked about is if we would have had um if we would have had mule deer tags um instead of just doing draw for for uh antelope, uh they would have preferred us to shoot those because there's um there there's inbreeding that goes on with uh regular whitetails and mule deers and creates these hybrid uh hybrid uh deer.

SPEAKER_02 18:21

Yeah, they they they do, and and it's and it's not a desirable trait either. And uh it's funny, like down here and below San Antonio to the valley to uh west toward Uvalde and Del Rio, you know, there's just so just about I would say 85% of the ranches, and I'd say almost probably 90% or more of the large ranches, they're they're all deer-proof fence. So they can propagate them, they can, you know, they can manage, like you said, the MLD, you know. I mean, there's so many different tools now uh at one time, you know, and well, still today, like in our area, uh a lot of ranchers, uh, if they didn't have hunting and charge people to hunt, they well, they wouldn't have made it, you know, and it was it's it was a big commodity, you know, charging for hunting and you know, come hunt on the property. And if you had bigger deer, you could charge more. Well, now in the last 11 years, I guess, we had a we had the Eagleford uh oil uh uh boom come through from Lareda, oh, all the way to North Houston to like Hallettesville College Station. It's like it's like 200 miles long and maybe about 65 miles wide, and that just changed everything because now if you had royalty uh royalties on your land, even if you had two or three hundred acres, where you're all of a sudden you're sometimes you're a millionaire on just a couple hundred acres. And if you know, I have a good friend of mine, he has over 70,000 acres of of royalties. And uh, you know, back whenever didn't have the oil, well, you know, he was just getting by. He had I don't know how many hunters on his property and cattle and they had make money any way they can, and now you know he's he's super flush, you know, and hunting's he still has hunters on his property, but it's not he doesn't have to have them on his property anymore, you know. And that that has changed in the last 10 years, you know. But now it's all about high fences, game management, high quality deer, you know, you can you can come down here and out of some place, you can come down here and kill a 240-50-inch brooding crock at you know, big deer, you know, and they're just well they're raised, you know. They're not they're not some of them are native, but you know, most of them are propagated, you know, and and I I don't care for that, but you know, hey, whatever, whatever someone likes, you know, that's that's fine with me too. But, you know, when I was raised on the ranch, you know, it was 10,000 acres, low fence. We did have we did have a thousand acres of farmland, you know, high fence, keep deer out, but you know, it was just, you know, if I knew where Buck lived, I went and hunted that specific buck, and whether I got him or not, you know, I had to go to him, and you know, it wasn't like you know, he could he could travel and he could move, you know, and it was it's fun times. I I was very fortunate, grew up in a real good era.

SPEAKER_00 21:04

Yeah. Have you ever been out in the South Texas area, um, have you ever hunted Nel Guy at all?

SPEAKER_02 21:10

No, I haven't. And that's that's another one's bucket list, and that's further south. That starts about Kingsville, Havenville, all the way into the valley, and there's huge ranch, like of course the the King Ranch, uh, Uterra, Jones Ranch. There's some huge, huge ranches down there. And you know, they're uh they're a species that was introduced from India, and they're very prolific. Uh, they're actually an antelope, and uh the meat is fabulous. It's it's uh low no cholesterol, very little fat on it, and just like red meat, kind of like beef, but it's just fabulous meat. But I haven't had that opportunity. I just like to though. But that's that's probably a hundred hundred and forty, fifty miles south of me, you know, where it starts. But uh they said it's a very, very fun, challenging hunt. Because they're wild. They see you and they just run. They call them uh in in Spanish they call them a deviled horse, you know, because they they they they look they have little short horns and they're kind of like a horse, but they I don't know, they're just they're kept they're an odd animal. But I you know, that's when I go down there and work on those some of those ran big ranches, you know, I I see them a lot. They're they're very prolific. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 22:22

Well that's uh I I got so Laguna at Escosa um down there, uh the natural wildlife preserve, they have uh a native ocelot like uh population, but they're one of the one of the few places that actually uh try to have habitat and maintain it for ocelots to breed. And um every year uh they have draw hunts for bow and rifle where you can go in and it's unlimited nil guy. And uh sometimes if you do a uh bow or rifle hunt for Whitetail, um they'll include uh nilguy as an unlimited, so you'll have like a tag for a buck, and you can go down there and hunt as many nilguys you can find. Um and I got drawn one year and we went down and a buddy shot a uh decent sized blue and I shot a cow, and it was everything I could do to get that thing skinned up, and that's actually what got me in denial.

SPEAKER_02 23:15

Oh no, they're huge. They're huge, they're they're a huge animal. Like you kill a uh a bull, you know, or or or blue bull, you know, but you know, they may not have a nine or ten inch, I think nine inch plus or is a trophy horns, but it may it may weigh nine hundred pounds, you know. They're they're huge animal or even bigger. They're they're more like they're not built like an elk, but they're more of that size. They're huge. Like a horse in a way. You know.

SPEAKER_00 23:43

Yeah, and uh well the thing is is what I found about the meat though I really liked, and it's actually I I prefer a no guy over beef, uh, because something about the meat profile and I guess how they graze and everything, it takes flavor so much better. So like if you uh if you uh dress it out and you get some roasts and stuff, you throw that in the slow cooker and everything, the same as you would beef. And it just takes that flavor so much better than than a beef roast does.

SPEAKER_02 24:11

It it's awesome. I mean, anytime you take that back strap and it's like five inches big around, oh my gosh, it is I mean, deer backstrap is my favorite, and you know, pork is very good. Wild see, we we we used to eat this ton of uh wild hogs because they ate our Milo, they ate our corn, and 90 90%, you know, they're pretty fat, you know, and they they do real well. They're very prolific. They have three and a half liters a year, so they just they just keep, I mean, I don't care what if you shoot them. Now, now there's a big deal. It's kind of expensive, do, but they get a uh you get a helicopter and you shoot them at a helicopter to try to eradicate them. But you cannot you can't stay ahead of them. You know, they're up in Oklahoma now, they're in New Mexico, uh, they're everywhere, they're prolific, you know. But we used to eat a lot of uh hog meat. You there's nothing better than killing about a hundred and twenty-pound hog, you know, and and either do my mother used to call them the little gold medallions, the little backstraps, you know, and the deer backstrap, and that's where that that uh Neil guy, it's just phenomenal meat.

SPEAKER_00 25:15

Yeah, uh I think the bet the best hog that I ever had was uh I uh I work in IT, so I was in this uh corporate environment, and they decided that we wanted uh take everybody for a team building exercise to this place. It's an archery place up here called Cinnamon Creek Ranch. And um they they went out that day and killed a uh small like suckling hog or you know, a little bit bigger than that, and uh and slow uh slow smoked it. Oh, but what they did is they they they cleaned it out and they put jambalaya inside of it and then wrapped it in, yeah, they wrapped it in tinfall and then uh smoked it and everything. By the time we got to it after this like archery um stuff that we were doing, uh it was like phenomenal. It was like the best, the best hog that I've ever had prepared. Um and the jambalaya was phenomenal because it was basically soaked in in bacon grease of all things. That's right.

SPEAKER_02 26:10

Yeah, that that you just can't hardly you just can't hardly mess it up if it's the right cut of meat. Now, if it was a stinking bore or or you know, something not per not taken care of, you know, and processing, well, that's everything. You know, that that didn't that didn't cook well, but boy, if you take care of it and it's got a little fat on it, there's nothing better than hog ribs. I mean, oh my gosh, that's um now you're getting me hungry. I was like, how can I get this done, you know?

SPEAKER_00 26:39

Uh yeah, well, you're gonna have to pull some of your ranch connections to see if you can do some no-guy hunting, and then just buy a big freezer and just throw it in a no-guy.

SPEAKER_02 26:47

Yeah, you know, I uh you know, because I I ranched all my life and you know, uh of course we entertained, we invited people, and and I've got, oh, I've got a half a you know, I've got a bunch of people that own ranches, but I kind of I don't know if it's just because of who I am or what, but I kind of don't if I get invited to go hunting, I'll go, you know, but if I I don't invite myself, you know, and I have people that have tens of thousands of acres, and I just don't do that. If they say, hey, let's go dove hunting, or hey, let's go quail hunt, or or you want to come shoot a deer, yeah, I'll be all over that. But as far as me just saying, hey, I want to go do it, you know, uh I I I tend not to do that, just out of respect, I guess. That's just me. Yeah, you know, because whenever you go on someone else's property, I mean, they got they're liable for you. And I mean, there there's some there's some ramifications come with, you know, you go and visiting on other people. And that and that's another industry, you know, a lot of these people now that they become um uh pretty well off because of of the royalties and the oil, you know, they they don't they don't want anyone on their property for you know for legalities, you know, or liabilities, you know, and I I get it. You know, suddenly they're worth millions of dollars, and you know, you have someone come in and get hurt or get shot or or get crippled on their property. Well, you know what happens, they they wanna they wanna you know they wanna sue, you know, and that's unfortunate. And that's one of the things that's changed the compli you know, changed hunting too. You know, I mean it's it's all about money now, you know, and it's it's kind of sad in a way. But it is what it is. You know, there's more people in the world, and and you know, it's it's uh it's it's a sport that few can done get done, you know, do anymore. A a friend of mine, he uh he's a petroleum engineer and he lives up in San Antonio, and he was fortunate enough to raise and go hunting, and he has three boys. I think they're about the oldest one's about eight, and you know, he's got on a lease west of Tilden at Follerton, and oh, it's probably about eight thousand acres, I guess. And you know, he has he has to pay full price, and he has bring he can bring his kids and he wants us subjected to it, but you know, he's spending eight to ten thousand just so they can have a place to, you know, where they can go fish, hunt, see quails, see animals, you know, and it's just a luxury that very few can afford anymore. Sad.

SPEAKER_00 29:07

Yeah, yeah. Well, I mean, you know, the when I was uh I I had a lease down in Pollock by um by Wells and Nacados area. And you know that the uh all those the East Texas deer, you know, like you you know you you can get whatever the tag limit is, so one thirteen inch and I think two dough during um uh two-doh and a like a spike, right? And I think that the lease alone was a thousand dollars. And every time I had to drive down there it was four hours one way. And so, you know, and you have to go several times clear your shooting lanes, put up your whatever blind stuff. You know, by the time that I everything was said and done, um, I could have four or five thousand dollars in a season because the only thing that you could really do is hunt hog to clear them to try to chase them away from the the feeders and whatnot. Right and and and whatever deer. And I'd have people come up like, you know, they find out that you have a hunting lease and then they're they're your best friends and um and and want to invite themselves along. And you know, and I told them like you know, kindly, no, unless you're wanting to uh you know pay for a portion of come down and do some work, and then they think that you're in this like good old boys club because uh you know you're you're hunting and they're not. I'm like, no, it's really not, it's just about the economics of it. Uh you know, I'd be more than because you couldn't share your tags either. Like if somebody came down on the lease, um, then they'd have to hunt off your tags. So unless they wanted to just do hog, yeah, um, that was it.

SPEAKER_02 30:35

It's it's changed. You know, it's the whole industry's changed. Uh I have two friends that they they they make they make uh extremely good money and business by selling hunting blinds and and feeders. I mean, they are just I mean it's they sell all the United States now, you know, and it's it's just a big I mean they probably that one friend of mine she probably does about eight million a year gross, you know. It's just a huge, you know, they manufacture it all and they sell them here locally, sell them in state, out of state, all the way to Florida, you know. It's just a huge industry now. Where 25 years ago it wasn't, but it is now. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 31:16

So you also uh you also fish too, right?

SPEAKER_02 31:19

Yeah, yeah. I I've I've I was raised, you know, fishing, like say uh there on that ranch I was raised on, we had a mile and a half. It was just they call it everyone called it the creek, but when I was young, it in the summertime it run oh ankle deep with a lot of holes, clear water, and in the wintertime it run about knee deep. And uh I caught 40-pound catfish in there. I've caught bass, crappie, uh, you know, everything in the world in there. And now it's what it's very sad now. Of course, I've been off the ranch for a long time, but uh it's dry. It's it's the I don't know if the tributaries, the irrigation above it, it's all it's it's dry. There's no more water. I mean, you know, yeah, when it rains, it'll run. But you know, I was fortunate enough when I was when I was a kid, I think run 24 or 7, you know, for years and years and years. And I I I got to fish a lot there, and then I was we had some property on the it was kind of unique uh Choke Canyon Reservoir down in Three Rivers, and between Tilde and Three Rivers is 27,000 acres when it's full, and we lost some property to it. My family lost a little bit of property to it. We're the last ranch to get kind of had some land taken away from by the state, and uh so I lived on the actually on the lake, and you know, and they didn't close the gates, so I just used it like it's my own and be on the river and catfish and bass fish, crappie fish, and and then I've been away. I moved off that in probably mid-90s, and the lake's still there, it's it's about 30, I think it's like 35% full. But it's still a beautiful lake. Got a real good bass fishing and crappie fishing and catfishing clear, you know, fairly clear. And then, but I I like I like to go to the coast, bay fishing, uh, redfish and trout. That's kind of my if I if I could go tomorrow, you know, that's what I'd that's what I'd go do is go to the coast. I'm about a probably about 95 miles from the coast, you know, Corpus Christi area, Rockport.

unknown 33:10

You know.

SPEAKER_02 33:11

So I I I really enjoy the the fishing, but you know, like I say, the older I get, the less time I have. So I do it two, three times a year and enjoy it. You know, and back to the grind.

SPEAKER_00 33:22

Yeah. Well, I think um I think it's important uh to always take that time to do things that you love. Um I honestly what what got me uh slowed down on hunting and fishing is that uh my my daughter is a heart transplant recipient. She had one when she was three. And um uh one thing that we found out is that all forms of of deer like so deer, elk, moose, uh uh everything like that, all carry this parasite. And it it sits in like little cysts inside of its meat and everything. And when you eat it, uh the norm like the average person that has a decent immune system, the most that they'll get is uh uh is the cyst that uh will just stay in their body dormant forever forever because your body fights it off. But in uh in immunocompromised people, um the cyst actually can grow into brain lesions. Oh gosh, yeah, and 95% of the population of all deer have the same thing in it. So they're like, well, uh instantaneously as soon as she uh became immunocompromised uh with her suppression and everything, uh she couldn't eat any game meat. And so I'm like, you know, like I used to really feel that hunting um and fishing was a way of me being able to supplement uh for my family. And even though it was kind of costly at times, there was lots of times where I mean it was very economical for me to go out and hunt on public land and whatnot.

SPEAKER_02 34:53

Oh, yeah. I mean, like when we lived at the ranch, I mean, that's what we lived on. We lived in the wintertime, we lived on deer meat and hog meat, and sometimes hog meat, and then we butchered our own cattle, you know, and I mean that's we that's that was our protein, you know. We we didn't buy any beef from from town, you know. No, but you know, if we I caught fish, you know, we fish, but we didn't we didn't buy any like meat protein from town, so it's that's that's that's wild what what's going on with her.

SPEAKER_00 35:22

Yeah. Well then yeah, and at that at that point it was kind of like uh you know, if if she can't eat it and it can't be part of this like family thing, like we always have to keep her separate from that, then I just don't really want to have it around too much. Um because I used to I used to uh I used to uh take all my own uh game and everything, and then I would process it all. So I was making summer sausage and breakfast sausage and cutting everything, everything up. So I mean Yeah, yeah, everything, everything from soup to nuts, that's what I was processing it all down and making various things. So um it just got to a point where I was like, um uh I don't my heart wasn't in it because you know my heart is my child. Um and so we've kind of worked around that. Um but uh the the early uh knife exposure that I had was in all these failing knives because you know I was hunting and fishing all the time and just like I I can't tell you how many sets of knives and things I'd go through uh just buying cheaper stuff when I probably should have bought like a real high quality one, but I just didn't have you know four or five, six hundred dollars to spend at the time. And then I was like, meh, I can make it. So I started making them and uh and you know it turned into what this thing is today, which I probably should have just you know stuck with buying a a nicer, nicer knife.

SPEAKER_02 36:37

It's an obsession, isn't it?

SPEAKER_00 36:40

Yeah. I well and I think that that's that's probably the thing that I really enjoy about it is there there's always something to learn and the culture around knives and knife collecting is just right up my alley. You know, like I I think that um the more people I talk to about knives and what got them into it, the more I realize that there's a common thread. And it really starts with where you grew up, um, the old timers, like your grandfather grandparents and great grandparents are using them as like as tools and then imparting that same kind of nostalgia down to their kids. And um uh you know, um I'm reminded, so you you'd been collecting knives for a long time, you knew Bill Ruple and everything, but what uh what actually uh caused you to go into making knives? Because you've you've been making knives for five or so years now, right?

SPEAKER_02 37:28

Well, you know, I'm trying I'm not trying to get sentimental, but it it's pretty near and dear to my heart. Uh Bill had been trying to get me to build knives for years. I'm talking about for 15 years or so. I go by a shop when he's in Charlotte, and I just stop in there. I lived another 25 miles away, and I just stop in there and visit him, and you know, whether I had had something I could buy from him or or something, you know, and and uh he actually, when I wrote a Harley, he made me some forward controls, he mailed out some forward controls for us. So we're just always good friends, you know, as well as as Pat West, you know, and and uh, you know, I just started, I always carried a knife, and you know, picked up some from him, like, you know, and and from and and Pat West taught Bill. Pat was the he was taught himself probably 42 years ago or something like that. He just bought knives, tore them apart, had no square wheel Wilton that was one speed wide open, and he made this phenomenal, uh, I've got three of them, phenomenal, super, super thin dovetail bolsters, nickel silver usually. Uh he did file work down the spine of the of the knife and the and the blade, and they were just exquisite knives. You know, of course, he got better and better and better, you know, and he used to sell those things just to make a living because he's a poor rancher, you know, and just trying to get his kids fed, and you know, they I think he had about four four or five thousand acres, you know, and just not enough really to to make a living, but so he started making them, and of course, you see one of them, you just go like, wow, look at that, you know. And and of course, you know him, and you know, I acquired two or three of those, and then he taught Bill Ruppel how to make knives. So I started acquiring them from Bill. He taught Jerry Collette. Uh Jerry was living there in Charlotte. Jerry makes a great knife. He didn't he didn't he makes a great knife and he does file work, but he never did the show world like Bill. Bill just started taking off and going to shows, and he'd go home and and and Pat would say, Well, what'd you learn? You know, what'd you see? What's out there, you know, and and Pat never did do the show world, and nor did Jerry. And so Pat would I mean Bill become the information piece to to Pat, you know, what's going on, and you know, and and uh and Pat just got better and better at his works, and and uh like I said, I was fortunate enough to I think I have three of his knives, and I don't know, I probably have six or eight of or maybe more of Bill's and Jerry's. I got three or four of his. And then Pat also taught a young man named Kendall Shorsh. Um Kendall's about 44 now. He taught him, just like he taught Bill, and and Kendall is a phenomenal maker. He he does just exquisite file work. He he liked to be a jeweler, is what he liked to be, but he's he's a great knife maker. But he hadn't made knives in about three years. He's got you know, he's got kids in high school, one going off college. I saw him today, you know, and and um, you know, and so I just started picking up knives. And of course, once you have a custom knife, you don't, you know, you know, you don't return back to the other ones. But I I do have I have some Great Eastern cutteries, I have some case. Uh here recently I've gotten these, uh I don't have any cataractus, but I've got uh oh um Camille's and and uh I I follow Joe uh Joe Culpepper, he has auctions on Mondays and Tuesdays, and uh you know I I buy some knives off there, but uh so I just got to start, you know, I just was collecting forever. And then uh then Bill uh he hounded on me, and then whenever I moved down the street, probably I've been here 12 years. He was down the street, he lives, we live on Bryan Drive in Pleasant, Texas, and uh, you know, I'd stop by there two or three times a week, see what he's working on. He said, When you gonna start? When you gonna start? I said, uh Bill, one of these days, you know, and you know it takes time and money, and seemed like my time is limited. And uh in uh I guess in six years ago, um, after we moved off the ranch ten years, uh, I moved my mother, bought her a real nice, beautiful little house in in Jerdenton, and she got she got f uh gardener of the year when she was eighty-four, and then and she had a light stroke and uh right after that and uh kind of lost her eyesight. So we moved her into like a uh assistant living, I guess you'd call it. Not nursing home, but assisted living. And she lived another five years, and uh when I lost her, which was six years ago, I lost her and and I'm the baby of the family.

SPEAKER_01 42:02

I was taking care of her and I got in real bad depression and uh Bill Bill saw that Bill Bill saw that and uh he he uh reached out to me and uh kind of got me I guess mentally back where I need to be.

SPEAKER_02 42:32

And uh I went with him to Blade, I think that was in 19. We went to Blade and uh he just invited me to stay with me, and I went to Blade, and and of course when I went to Blade, it just opened my eyes to the actual knife world, you know. I've just been a collector down here, but when you go to Blade and there's a thousand tables, and you know, I didn't even see Bill much. I just wandered around and you know, I met people like that year, I didn't even know him. I met Tim Robertson, I met uh uh Evan Nicolitus and gosh, Tony Bowes, and you know, I met a bunch of people on my own, you know, not introduced to them. I just you know said I love your knives and stuff. And so the I guess after that I kind of thought about making knives, and and uh the next year uh Toby Hill uh got me to make a knife, and and we because I was they had they called a knife makers meeting over here at Bill's, you know, with every four or five people. There's about nine of us, I guess, here in Pleasanton that make knives. And uh we'd have meetings and you know, we'd visit and stuff, and I was just collecting, and you know, then I started got it on my mind, and then Toby I made a knife at Toby's shop, and uh it was one of the 13 that we presented to uh Bill Ruppel at at Blade. And uh from there, I after I built the first knife, uh you know, everyone said, Well, come on to my shop and build one. So I said, No, it took me about a year and a month, I think, year and a month to put All my shop together and all my materials and my grinders, and I bought a Northridge grinder from George uh DeLore or and I just put everything together and they they kidding me, they called me half-price Bob because I'm not a man of means. I just I found the best equipment I could for the money I could afford. And uh so I put a shop together and I made my second knife in my shop and uh I have that knife in my in my uh uh my uh on my vault and uh the first knife Bill Ruppel has, and then from there I just took off and I've been very, very fortunate to have the eye and I guess I guess the talent to do it.

SPEAKER_00 44:41

Yeah, that's uh that's really cool. I um I I have to say, like the I I I can't say that I've ever met kinder, more gentle, understanding people than the knife world. And I've you know, I've I've lived in a lot of different groups of people and things in in my lifetime so far. And um, you know, it seems like in uh a lot of the troubles that um my family has had and everything, you know, losing a son, a stepson uh to a motorcycle accident and see having her heart transplant and uh everything like that, that um uh uh it seems like all that has kind of happened around knives and everybody is just so uh warm and willing uh to help. We lost a a granddaughter uh last year, uh she was pre m uh born premature. Uh-huh. And uh uh you know, everybody encircled us and and helped us out and everything. And uh I think that I'm incredibly loyal um to uh people like that because I don't I don't think that I really necessarily came from a a great upbringing, uh family feuds and things like that. Um so the tribe is basically who you choose, not necessarily who you're born into.

SPEAKER_02 45:58

I think you're right, you know, and and like say Bill Bill knew I was in a bad way, and uh he really, really helped me out by getting me into knife making. And you know, he always said, Well, you're gonna be a great knife maker one of these days. And I was like, Well, Bill, I you know, I gotta make one before I can do that. And and he encouraged me for probably 15 years or longer, you know, and it it finally it finally all come together and and I made a conscious decision to do it, and it's been it's been uh it's probably been one of the better decisions of my life, you know, because it's something I can do. Yeah, there's a little bit of financial uh gain from it. Uh, you know, everyone thinks, oh gosh, you're selling thousand-dollar knives, you're you're just killing. Well, they don't see that 12 hours I spend in there, you know, working on it and the material I buy and the thousands of dollars of handle materials I have, and uh, you know, the stag, the the uh uh mammoth that I have, and the Makarta, you know, they don't see that. They just think that I just hand out a knife, you know, and I I want this money for them, you know, there's a lot more to it, you know, and and that's where I was really, really very fortunate. And and Bill says it's because I handled his knives, different knives, I knew what I liked, and uh I I was very, very fortunate just to accelerate, and also because who I'm around. I mean, right here in Pleasanton, Bill's 10 houses down from me, Toby Hill's a mile, about a mile from me, Bubba Crouch is about five miles from me, Kendall Shorts is four or five miles from me. Tanner Couch is on South End Macmullen, he's 40 miles away from me, and Tanner and I are real, real good close friends, and Jeff uh Hawkins is over in Somerset, which is 20 miles away. Uh, another boy named Ron West, which is Teacho's nephew. Uh, he's he's been making knives, and and uh he's in Charlotte, and oh, there's there's still there four other of us, you know. Trey Genzel's here, and uh, you know, when we started the Slim Joint Cartel, you know, it's just a bunch of friends, you know, and we kind of we kind of started that. That was kind of Bub and Bubba Crouch and Bill Rupple's kind of brainchild, Mars Marshall Bubba, and and I think there's 16 of us in it, and Ricky Pinya's a hundred miles away, uh, and Ricky's part of it. Uh now Tim Robertson is, uh Tom Ploppert, Luke Swenson. Luke at one time, he was I always used to see this little Toyota pickup set Bill's, and I'd stop in there, and this redheaded guy was in there, and he didn't say a whole lot and got to know him a little bit. He was uh he was a fireman from San Antonio. Well, he spent a lot of time at Bill's making, learning how to make knives, and you know, and that's probably Bill's number one protege, you know, because hell he's he's one uh he's one best lip joint in I think three, four of the last five Blade shows, you know, and just phenomenal. Well, he moved to Idaho. And uh Burke Flanagan's up in uh Whitehurst or somewhere up there north of Fort Worth, and uh Tyler Turner, he's in Hopkins, Missouri. He's he's a member. He's he's phenomenal. That kid is he's he's he's above us on building, but he likes kind of art deco kind of knives. He he's phenomenal, you know. So when we all come together and Rusty Preston was one, and now uh Phil Jacobs is kind of replaced Rusty, Rusty quit uh making knives here about a year ago, just just kind of kind of gave up on it and uh you know it's sad, but he he had his time. I think Rusty's in his high 70s now. But um, you know, and we just formed this cartel and and we lean on each other, we rib each other, and we give each other a lot of hell, and but we also complimented each other and bring the best out in each other as well, you know, and that's that's where I think I think I you know I'm exposed to five or six makers right here, and each one has a little different abilities, I guess you'd say, you know, as well as I. So whenever you combine five or six, seven nine makers within a few miles of you, there's really you don't really have a problem. You know, you can get your problem fixed, you know. If you have questions, you know, someone's gonna tell you in a constructive way.

SPEAKER_00 50:11

So yeah, and I I think that's uh part of the picture that I'm trying to paint is uh to understand uh the the next thing that we're gonna get into, which is a slip joint cartel. But basically, um suffice it to say that the slip joint cartel is a group of family. It it really is really what it comes down to. It really is.

SPEAKER_02 50:32

Like like uh Enrique Pina, I think uh Enrique and Bill met at Johnny Stout's up in New Bronze Wolves 20 years ago or whatever. And then Ricky was a I think he worked for Holt, he was a diesel mechanic, and then he came to Bill's, and I and you know, maybe I shouldn't be telling a story, but uh, you know, this is this is story. I mean, and and Ricky came to Bill's shop right here and right here down the street from me and uh took a like a one-day or maybe a two-day lesson, and then two weeks later he came back and Bill said, Oh my gosh, he he built a better knife than I did, you know. And Ricky just has that talent, you know. He has then, you know, I mean, he started making grinders, uh, he made some horizontal grinders. He m I think Bill still uses one of his uh uh uh vertical grinders uh today. And he got to making grinders, and then you know, we all know where Enrique went. Well, and Ricky calls Bill his dad, you know, love you dad, you know, and all that because and I think Ricky was I mean, Enrique was in kind of a bad place in life too, whenever uh, you know, whenever Bill taught him, and you know, Enrique is a phenon, you know. I mean, he's taken it to a level above and beyond, you know, because with the commercial stuff and what he's making now, you know, but we're all family. I mean, I can call Enrique right now and he's gonna answer the phone. We can talk over business or or hardships or whatever, and and we can do that with all of our cartel members, you know, and and one of the things that Bill has instilled in us, you know, he I really I I'm a student of Bill's, but I I don't I don't know. Uh I don't just I don't I never take went down there and just took a class. You know, I'll go down there and I'll watch him do something and he'll say, look what I'm doing now, or something like that. But as far as me just going in there for eight hours, I've never done that. And I never have done it in any other shop either. I just pick up bits and pieces and you know, and just know how it started and trial and error. And but you know, if I get in a jam, I can go down to Bill's or I can go to Bubba's or I can go to Toby's, and uh, and you know, it's just it's so so convenient, and like say, it's it's like a big family. And uh, like one of the things that Bill and and oh, I guess he just wanted to be known that you know, we'll help anyone. You know, if you if you or someone else, and there's a kid in North Carolina I've been talking to a lot, uh, you know, he's he stopped me at Blade and stopped me and Tanner and said, Hey, I want you you mind looking at some of my knives. I said, sure, you know, and he said, Don't don't hold back, you know, tell me what's wrong with him. And he showed us about three or four knives, it's uh and uh just uh just a fine kid, Grayson. I I can't think of his last name. Uh he's on Facebook. Uh oh, I just it left me. But anyway, so we mauled him over and you know, we told him what was right, we told him what was wrong, we complimented him, we told him not to do this, and that's kind of one of the things that Bill has has taught us, you know. He said, Your knowledge is free. You know, if someone wants to learn, you know, show them, you know, or and and and I think every one of us is is is doing that, you know. Oh, if it if we have a red, you know, folder class, you know, you pay to come and take my time. Well that's something different. But if you want to call and just say, Hey, I got this problem, you know, we're we're gonna try to help you out. We want you to be the best maker you can be. And that's what uh kind of cartel is, you know, we we're full of knowledge and we share a lot of knowledge and you know, we're just very fortunate.

SPEAKER_00 54:11

Yeah, so um do you remember like uh when when the beginning of the cartel actually was um from a date perspective?

SPEAKER_02 54:19

You know, I don't have that picture in front of me, but we we pretty much formed it uh a couple of months right before we give the bill that presentation. And I you know, I want to say that was in that was in 19. It might have been 18, but I I don't I don't have that picture in front of me, and time eludes me. I don't I I can't remember yesterday, but we uh there's 13 of us. We all built a one knife in uh single blade trapper in the way Bill kind of taught us. And uh, like I said, I built my knife in Toby's shop, and I'd and and I'd been with Bill the year before, and I'd bought some stag. Uh I was in the process of putting my shop together, and I bought I had a bunch of stag and different handle materials that I'd bought in the year before, and I built this, you know, with under Toby's watchful eye, and I did all the grinds, and you know, he showed me how to fit it all up. And that was my very first knife, and uh there was 13 of us, and that's whenever it the cartel was born. Was and like I said, it's kind of a brainchild of Bubba uh Crouch. You know, we we we presented Bill with those 13 knives and plaque and appreciation, and uh, you know, heck he got he has them in his his living room. It's uh got a shadow box with 13 knives in it and a plaque of our appreciation, you know, and and that's right before that's when we all put it together, and that's when we formed a you know a cartel per se. And and like I said, it's just friends. That that it they wanted to make it slip joint, South Texas slip joint cartel, and we just call it uh slip joint cartel now, you know, because we do have Tom Ploverts in Alabama, uh Tim Robertson is in in Oklahoma, Tyler Turler's in the uh Hopkins, Nebraska, Missouri, excuse me, and like say uh uh Luke Swenson moved to Idaho, um Burt's in North Texas, and then the rest of us, and Ricky's in Loreta, so the rest of us are here pretty local. So I think there's 16 of us now. And uh, like I say, Rusty Preston, he he he's just he just kind of quit baking knives. He's part of the group, but he just quit making knives due to his age and his health, you know, and that's that's how I kind of was born, you know, and and it's all off because of uh Bill Ruple, really. Because he's the one that taught us, he's the one that, you know, mentored us uh in life, as well as, you know, for me, he he he you know, I I'm forever indebted to him. And like I say, his his son lived at the ranch, oh, I don't know, 20 years ago or so, and you know, so I've known him all my life, you know, and of course with the Teacho Pat West connection, you know, I've known that guy. And two years ago, that's that's a kind of a different story, but two years ago, right before Blade, and I don't know if you want to talk about it now, but uh T Cho contacted me. His son has three of my knives, and son, they're working cattle and cutting kills, castrating kills. And he got the look and he asked asked his son, Sam, said Sam, what knife is that? And so that's a Bobby House knife. And he said, Let me see that thing. And he looked at it, and well, subsequently he called me, and and of course we have each other's number, and he called and said, Hey Bobby, how you doing? He went, you know, we did play pleasantries. He said, I want to order a knife from me. I was like, Oh my gosh, this is the godfather of slip joints, taught himself, makes you know, he's asking me to build a knife, and I'm just like, oh no. And he said, Well, well, come out to the house. I said, What do you want? He said, Well, you made that that that uh semi-trapper kind of blunt nose. Yeah, I said, I like making that knife. Come out to the house one day and and we'll talk about it. So I a few days went by and it's right before Blade two years ago. And um, I said, Well, I'm busy at Blade. I said, I'll I'll just have to you know get on it when I get it. Oh, yeah, that's fine. So I went out to his house, and he has a a little better shop than what he did have, and he was in a walker, he had has throat cancer, and that's two years ago, and he wasn't in real good health. And um we sat down there and we talked probably two hours, you know, just just catching up and you know, just over everything knives and what what have you. And he got out a big proto toolbox, probably 16-18 inches long, opened it up, and it's full of material. Right there on the very top, there's a piece of USAC. I said, Is that what I think it is? Yeah, I've had that for 15 years or 20 years. And I said, Well, that's kind of hard to come by. You know, we just talking and he said, Well, and then he drug out some Micarta, and it was uh, he said, This is barbed wire makarta. He said, I want you to make this knife out of this this handle material. I looked at it and it was it was neat, you know, and it was a three over one weave, and he said, Yeah, we used to get this from Texas knife maker supplies for five dollars a cent back in the day, you know. He talked about 30 years ago, and uh I said, Well, yeah, I'll try to. He said, Well, he said, do your best. So, you know, and he gave me, he said, and take this whole box too, which it had probably, I don't know that that hoosik was probably worth four or five hundred dollars. And it had I don't know how many sets of this, some whole kind of stuff. He told me stag, it had ever a little bit of everything. He said, I'm not gonna build anymore because he quit after he got he uh he was lucky enough to have his property drilled up, you know, for oil, and he got healed up financially, and he just quit building. And uh so I I took it home. Long story short, I went to uh Blade, that was the first knife after Blade, which was would have been this 23, 22, so I've been 21, and I started on this, and lo and behold, everything worked. The handle material worked, the knife worked, I didn't have any problems. I mean, it was just like it was like heaven sent, and I made a just a beautiful knife, um, just a single blade trapper with that big front end, like a semi, semi-trapper. Um we call it a semi-skinner point on it, and that's something that Tanner Couch kind of come up with, and I love it. And uh so I called him and said, Well, I got your knife made, and he said, Well, good. He said, uh, I said, What do you want me to deliver it to you? He said, Oh no, I want to come to your shop. And I was like, Okay. So we made a date like later in the week on a Wednesday or whatever. And so he had his wife come in. He was in a little better shape. He walked, uh, walked into my shop, which is an old pool house. I have a 178 square foot shop that I worked out of. It's like a little pool house shop. Got other things stacked in there, and he came in there and set, and like say, there we go. But another hour and a half, two hours later, you know, I showed him the knife and we visited, and uh, and he looked it over and he got real quiet and he looked at it and he looked at it, and I said, Well, what do you think? He said, I don't think anyone else could have done a good job as you did on it. And oh my gosh, you talk about I don't know, it it just struck me and damn, I went to cry and it was it was uh it was a good day. It was a good day.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:17

Yeah, well, I mean I can I can definitely tell that there is a uh a lot of sentiment and a lot of uh a lot of heart that's put into your knives and your relationships and everything. And it's uh to me, it's not a wonder that in the the shorter period of time that you've been making knives that you've uh excelled so much, uh not only because you have uh a lot of giants that you're uh resting on their shoulders, but just because genuinely uh you're uh an intelligent, heartfelt, um and and tactical or and technical type of guy. Like I mean, all of that to me just makes a lot of sense like uh as to like what we have seen uh in on the periphery about uh Bobby House becoming a household name, if that makes sense.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:01

Well, it it does. And and like I say, I I kind of joke to myself and my friends, I can't, I can barely whistle, uh, I cannot carry a tune. I uh I can't I'm not musically inclined. Bill plays guitar and he's musically inside inclined. I can't do any of that. Uh I can't draw, uh, I can barely speak, you know, and it it it's it's it's God said that I can build a knife, you know, and and uh, you know, like I said, he said it's because I collected for so many years, I know what they're supposed to look like. But the the grinding, I've never done, I never did any machine work in my life. I I've welded, you know, and I've I've fabricated stuff on my life because we had to on the ranch. If something broke, we we we rebuilt it, you know, or we made it, you know, and and uh so it's it's it's been very humbling to me, you know, to have so many people come to me and it's like, oh, your stuff's so so you know, so nice, you know, or so beautiful. I'm just gonna like it it it just flabbergassed me that I can do it, you know. And it's in in a way it's God sent because like say I I was in a I wasn't in a very good time in my life, and you know, come to me and I I excelled and it's something I can do. Uh I'm I'm not a great thinker out of the box, like out well, you know, like I start something, it kind of morphs and I know where it wants to go, but I can't say, okay, I'm gonna build this knife that's gonna look like this, this, and this when I start. You know, I I just kind of take what what it gives me, and and that's that's kind of the saying on stag. You take what stag gives you because I love working with stag. That's my favorite. And every piece is different, it's hard to get a match set on side to side, and you only get what it gives you. And uh you gotta you gotta make you gotta make do with that, you know. And I've been fortunate enough not to throw many handles away. I I don't know if I've thrown any knives away, you know. I've every one I've made, fortunately, has pretty much worked out. Toby Hill has one of my few knives that just the blade laid over and never could get it straight. And it was a super, super, super thin knife, and and uh, you know, and he he treasured it. I I gave it to Toby. He he helped me make my first one, and that was probably one of my 20th or 30th knives, and just it just had a little flaw in it. It just didn't set right. And oh, he carries it every day. So it's very, very humbling, I guess you'd say.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:27

Yeah, and uh, I mean, in addition with uh going to shows and making knives, you also uh uh donate knives for good causes and and auctions to raise money for charitable works and stuff like that, too. That I've seen.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:39

We do we do that. Slip joint, just about every one of us in the cartel does that in different ways. Uh you know, Bill, Bill's always done that, and he he usually gives, and and I'm not trying to speak for him, but he usually gives a kid a knife every year somewhere. And uh, you know, and and like like I I think I did three, two donation knives this past year, and one of them was uh uh I don't know you would call it a donation knife, but it was a commission knife. You know, I told them I'm gonna I'll make it for X amount of dollars, which is about half of what I'd get for it, and then they put it for auction. Well, the last one that I did that for, I think I I don't know, I traded, I traded some tickets to an event, and uh they paid me, like I say, not not what the knife was worth, but the knife brought five thousand dollars, you know. And you just go like, how in the world does this happen? You know, I make a knife and then it it was of course his benefit auction, you know, and and uh Tanner's been guilty of that. He he did one a year ago that was Tiffany Blue and they brought 5300 or 5500. You know, and Bill's knives at use at those events, they bring three thousand, you know. It it's it's amazing. And uh Bill lost his his brother about five. Years ago or six years ago to a heart attack and uh knew that it was kind of happened, and then after that, he was he was big and he was a real estate agent and had had deer and stuff and uh real estate broker. And then Trinity Oaks, his sons try to put on a benefit, and they called it the Joe Rupel Memorial, and it was a dove hunt, and then they had a live auction afterward to raise funds for uh uh Trinity Oaks, and Trinity Oaks takes deer meat, they take uh terminally ill kids, take them hunting on their, you know, whatever kind of hunt they want to go on. And it's it's a great found, it's a great, you know, charity. And uh I was I don't know if I was building knives then, but anyway, I made a divot tool, and I think there's eight of us, eight took knives, and I think I made a real high-end divot tool. Well, before that night was over, we raised a little over $23,000 on those eight items, you know, and that was all donation, and it went to a super good cause. So yeah, we we we do try to help the community and and help help um the needy as, you know, and just you know, that's part of what we do.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:08

Yeah, that's pretty crazy. Um, what did you think of uh last year, Bill, getting into inducted into the Cutlery Hall of Fame?

SPEAKER_02 1:07:15

Oh, it was it was amazing. You know, uh that year that we gave him the the knives, the 13 knives, you know, he got that uh pardon me, the Enzo Enzo Award, which is for for teaching, uh being a um, you know, a a oh I I don't know what it I don't know the exact terminology, but uh was it Aldo Enzo or something like that, uh Dino Enzo or something like that. He got that award five years ago, I guess, and we gave him he it just he just like he just he he just uh he just was amazed by it. And then, you know, there was a little bit of rumors two years ago that, you know, uh or two and a half years ago before Tony uh passed, you know, there's we get we get we hear we have a little bit of inside connection with Blade, some of the people, and and I won't go into that, but uh we kind of know what's happening in the world before a lot of people do it. And uh it it it was and and of course he he knew that he was got in, you know, that he was nominated and he didn't know if he got inducted. And of course we had I don't know, there's probably about 40, all of his family and all of us knife makers, every one of us made it, you know, to the uh the ceremonies that that Saturday morning. And uh it it could it couldn't be a a better fit for Bill because he is last 35 years' lives have been around knives, he made a living doing it, he helps everyone. He he's uh such a great ambassador for the knife making world. And uh, like I say, knowledge is free, you know, he'll help anyone, he he donates. He he he's the uh he's the epitome of a of a of a good I guess knife maker with with everyone with the with the public, you know, and he'll talk to anyone and and of course he he that's that's a cherry on top of a career, you know, and and uh he uh he also said matter of fact, just this past week we were talking about awards. I didn't put anything in in the uh awards this year, Blade, and Luke got I think Luke Luke got best folder uh in the uh in the knife makers guild, uh Tanner made the best hunter. I think um Tim Robertson got best multi-blade or stuff. And they someone asked him, Bill, why don't you put it in? He said, you know, he said, I've won that. And I said, I don't have anything to prove, you know. I don't he's very humble, you know. He said, I let someone else do that, you know. He said, I've I've been there, I've done that, you know, and and I'll help someone get there. So I think it was just you know, it's just a feather in his hat, and he's wearing it very, very proudly.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:52

Yeah. Yeah, I talked to him I talked to him before uh Blade Show Texas about uh at some point in time coming on the show. I'd really like to be able to interview him.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:01

He interviews good too. He you you got to get him on. He he's he's good, you know.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:06

Yeah. Well, it's since you guys are neighbors, you help me with that, so I don't bug him so much. No, I can handle that. Yeah, well, I mean one what the thing that's interesting is from from what I understood about this the slip joint cartel and everything, because you guys have like um um Bard sing saying the story of how the slip joint cartel got started, it was basically that um a group y'all um would come would go over um and have uh meetings and things like that with Bill. And at a point in time, because everybody was asking questions and re-asking questions and things, Bubba got the idea that why don't you guys just start a group chat um like a text message to be able to uh talk to each other about it rather than occupy Bill's time because as he's getting up in age, he has his like uh his his uh knives that he has to get out for orders and other things, and and he also has to be able to make uh a living at that too. So you guys uh you guys started talking and educating each other and sharing different ideas and things, and that just uh formed into this the cartel.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:05

It's uh it's a it's a tough group to be in. Uh some of our conversations, uh you you you can't have thin skin in our in our group text. Because uh everyone brings out everyone sees the bad in what you do, and they they're quick to point it out. But it's all very, very, very good constructed. I mean, no one gets mad and nothing like that. It's it's just like you gotta be thin skinned because whatever you put out there, you know, you know that 12 or 14 or 15 people is gonna read it and they're gonna read what they want into it, and they're gonna, you know, give you back what maybe not necessarily what you want to hear, but it's it's a it's a really fun group. Uh sometimes, you know, sometimes it's it gets kind of daunting because I'll look down and I'll I'll be 30 or 40 texts behind, you know, but I don't have the time in my day job, I don't have the time to just answer it. And you know, you go back through them and see, or if I or if I have a technical question, Bill might answer it. Uh Bubba might answer it, Tim Roberts might answer, or Tom Plot at any one time, you know, or we all we all see it, you know. And someone might ring in and say, Well, you need to do this, or or that looks great, but you need to do this, or or if I have an issue going on, one of the one of the 12 or 14 that's on that text list, you know, uh somebody will know something, help you out. And that's that's really how that deal started, you know, and of course we're all friends too. I mean, you know, we're we're you know, it's it's pretty tight-knit group, I guess you'd say. You know, you just uh you don't you don't put an application in to become one. You know, we're we are who we are and you know we're we're pretty tight-knit.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:45

Yeah. Um so when when it comes to your own making and everything, um, what what's kind of next for you? Is there anything uh specifically in slip joint making or knife making in general that you're like that is the next big thing?

SPEAKER_02 1:13:00

Well, you know, it's funny you asked that. Uh in as a whole, as an industry whole in the last five years I've been, it's just seems like everybody's gotten way better. I mean, even the new kids that they're doing some things that I wished I could do. You know, uh it's slip joint making right now is on the rise. And even like some of these tactical makers, they're realizing it and they're making slip joints. So with that being said, uh, I don't know, at Blade, I bought some equip I bought some newer, better equipment. Uh uh Thursday I bought a new a different surface grinder. Um, you know, so I'm gonna have two surface grinders. Um, I upgraded some equipment. Of course, you gotta buy handle material every time you get to Blade or somewhere, you know, or go by see Charles Turnage as one of our friends, you know. We can I can get mammoth from him anytime, or we have a he'll send a box to us and we go through it, or he'll come to the Bills and put a table out. So, with all that being said, I'm trying to get my best quality equipment I can I can afford. And I'm just gonna try to. I never was a big Damascus guy. Bubba does a lot of Damascus, Bill, other people do a lot of Damascus, but Damascus is so so interesting to me. I'm never gonna make it, but you know, I can buy whatever I want, but it just dresses the knife so much. This this past blade, I made a I made a Damascus River Bill Burke uh River of Fire uh axe handle. And uh, you know, it it it's just it just really I mean it really got me going. I mean I I really enjoyed making it. Of course, it's very unique unique. It's uh Rick Dunkerly and Bill Ruppel's pattern. And uh they they they were look or I was lucky enough that they shared the pattern with me. And uh, you know, it's it's it's a you very unique pattern, and uh a couple people's made you know renditions of it, and uh, but you know, I kind of knocked out of the park on it, and I think I'm gonna try to go. I don't want to I want to I want to make high-end user knives, is what I want to. I don't want to make art knives, which I I made a set of knives that um George uh Levinson had, and he has Windy City, and I think they recently just sold. They were kind of art deco knives, they were fat carbon copper, and they're layered, it was uh carbon fiber, black carbon fiber, layered and and uh copper, and those knives look art deco, and I really enjoyed making those, but it's kind of not who I am. So I'm I'm gonna kind of gravitate more to doing quite a bit more of Damascus. Uh I made a I made a doctor's knife here for blade, and then I just love I love straight lines. I love making Barlows. My Barlow is probably my favorite build, a little doctor's knife, and then of course the trappers, you know, and this axe handle is is is really unique. I'm gonna make a few more of those. Of course, I'm not gonna make 15 of them, you know. I'm just gonna make make as it go. But I I like the I like the uh the Barlows, Doctor knives. I like this I like the smaller knives. And uh that's you know, I think I'm just gonna just try to up my game and just try to keep making every knife a little bit better than the last one. And and uh I'm not a big file work guy down the sp like the back of the spring and and blades like Bubba and Toby does it really good. Tanner Couch is probably the best. Tanner and Kendall Shores are the probably the best file people I know. I mean they can do it in minutes, you know, and it looks like it took them hours. But that's really not you know, that's something artistic that I I can do it, but I think I like more fit and function. I want my knives to be as flawless as possible. And every time I make a knife, I know every one of my little flaws in it, and you hand it to somebody and they don't ever see them, or someone like Bill might see them, you know, but uh, you know, I know they're there and I I want to work on just becoming I'm not a super perfectionist, but I just want to work on trying to make the best knife I can possibly can. The most clean knife, you know. I do a lot of I started to do a lot of uh smooth back knives, and those are the hardest, you know, because you can't you can't hide the flaws, you know. It's gotta be pretty perfection, you know, and that that's where I'm gravitating toward.

SPEAKER_00 1:17:20

Yeah, that makes sense. Um so uh typically to wind down our our uh shows, I ask this of everybody, but you know, given given your uh meteortic rise to uh fit and finish and quality and everything, um, I'd like to ask, do you have any words of advice for new makers, especially get into slip joints? Uh, you know, any any advice that uh you found helpful when you were getting started?

SPEAKER_02 1:17:46

You know, I I've I've taught a few classes now, and I and I'm really new to the business, as you say. I'm probably five years into it, but because of the people I've had around me, uh first off, you know, for everyone out there, get the best quality equipment you can buy. And now it doesn't have to be Burking or you know, it don't have to be high high end, but just buy the best quality equipment you can, and that that's from that's from uh drill presses, you know, grinders. Uh I I have an uh Northern Tool grinder and I have an Outlaw grinder with Matt uh Humphreys and Matt Humphreys in an RDL too. Uh the Paragon Reps there, I have those grinders. Um, you know, I have I have as best quality as I can I can get. I got a couple of now. I got two Chevrolet Chevrolier uh surface grinders and they're real high-end grinders. Once you get your equipment, you know, it's just attention to detail. You you you know, if you have somebody that's a a maker around you uh and they're willing, go go to their shop, don't be in their way, you know. Uh you can look over their shoulder. I learn more out looking over someone's shoulder than I do asking really the question, you know, or them showing me. You see techniques, and you know, every I think every biller has had that person, you know. Uh for me, I have multiples, you know. I I I'm fortunate enough to go to three or four shops just within miles. And uh I think that's key, and and you know, it's it's it's hard to learn on your own. So ask questions, you know. I mean, as a whole, there's a few people that are real tight, you know, tight to lip on what to do. And there's a few techniques that I'm not gonna tell you how to do it. You know, I may indicate how I'm, but you know, it's something that if I if I do it myself, you know, now if it's a worldwide dome, well, I'll I'll I'll tell you exactly how to do it. You know, I mean there are those few techniques that I kind of keep, and and everyone else does as well. But I think as a new maker, you need to surround yourself or self or you know, if you have the opportunity to go to someone's shop or to invite you, lean on someone, and and it it it puts you so much further ahead quickly than if you just try to figure it out on your own.

SPEAKER_00 1:20:07

That makes sense? Yeah, that's really good advice. I mean, I I appreciate that because uh, you know, I I have I uh I'm subject to this too, where I build in isolation where you know I don't really go to people's shops. Like Tim Robertson is the only shop I've really been to to see anybody make knives, and he always blows me away with uh how he thinks about things technically. Um and so we yeah, we become really good friends over that.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:32

You know, and and Tim Tim is a technical guy, he he uses quite a few jigs, and he'll be the first to say, Well, I don't build knives like you guys do. And he has he's been building for probably 30 years as well, and he's kind of self-taught, you know, and he knows what works for him, you know, and uh and and he's the one who got us into using panographs, you know. He's our panograph man, and that's kind of how we our connection to Tim is, and of course he's he's a good machinist, I guess you would say, and I had to learn all that, and hey, it's easy whenever you know someone like that and you pick up the phone and say, Hey, I got this going on, well do this, you know, or try this, you know, and and people like that are invaluable. You know, I mean, you just you know, to and and like saying in a whole in the industry, everyone's pretty much forthright on helping you. You know, there's a few, I'm sure there's a few that they're gonna clam up when you ask them something, but that's on them, you know. Me, I'll tell you anything you want to know, you know. I mean, I'll tell you what I do know. That's all that's all I can tell you is what I know, you know, and and uh I I I think that's a big deal. And like when I started, big help to me, and it's because of Luke Swenson and Chris Crawford. Um Luke has a slip joint uh video that uh that him and Chris Crawford did, and it skips over a lot of little things. Well, you can't take 12 or 14 hours of knife making and put in an hour and a half a uh video, uh, you know, DVD. But that thing is invaluable. I watch it, I still today watch it, you know, once twice, you know, every few months I'll watch it just to watch it. And uh, you know, and then Chris Crawford also got with Bill Ruple on multi-blade. Uh he's done someone else as well. And you know, I don't know what those videos cost you 70 bucks, you know. It's worth it's so, so worth the money, you know, because it's just techniques and they show you and it's visual. I'm a visual guy. You can tell me, and I kind of understand it, but if I see it, you know, then it then I, you know, then I it'll stick to me a little better.

SPEAKER_00 1:22:38

Yeah. Well, Bobby, I really appreciate you uh spending the time talking with us and shooting the hay. Oh man, it's my pleasure. Yeah, absolutely. Well, um, you have a good evening. Um, it was a pleasure talking to you, and uh, we'll talk again soon.

SPEAKER_02 1:22:51

Let's do. Uh, and it was it was my pleasure, and uh anytime you need something, uh don't hesitate.

SPEAKER_00 1:22:57

Yeah, absolutely. Thank you.

SPEAKER_02 1:22:59

Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 1:23:05

Thank you for listening to another episode of the Good Old Blades Podcast. Remember that you are loved.