Editor’s Note: Longtime KNIFE Magazine Staff Correspondent Stephen Garger passed away this week (5/16/2021). We have decided to share this, his final cover article from our November 2020 issue in his honor. Thank you for your years of contributions. Requiescat in Pace sir.
Charles Turnage Materials Entrepreneur
By Stephen Garger
Mammoth tooth ivory was a topic among my first knife articles, and one of the experts consulted was Charles Turnage. As was my habit with assigned article sources (largely contacted via phone), I sought Charles out at the Blade Show to meet and thank him. We ended up in one of those conversations you truly enjoy yet have no chance of remembering any content because the majority of time is spent laughing and cracking wise. At the next table scrimshander Sandy Brady (scrimshaw-by-sandra-brady.com), who would do yeoman’s work against the inane ivory laws, jokingly admonished us for “having all together too much fun” and we settled down. A bit.
Recently a friend mentioned he met an interesting guy at a knife show and asked if I happened to know a Charles Turnage. That long ago Blade Show encounter came to mind, one thing led to another, and I contacted Charles on a hunch his story would be compelling. I wasn’t disappointed!
This article first appeared in the November 2020 issue of KNIFE Magazine. Premium Online Members can read the whole thing by clicking the blue box below.