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Frank Edwards’ Fancy Folders
By Del Corsi
I know a few machinists who make knives, and without exception their work is out of the stratosphere, both in terms of quality and design. It makes sense when you think about it, their minds were trained to work with, and think in relation to tight tolerances. No gaps and working in thousands of an inch are key to top-level knifemaking, especially when making folding knives.
I had seen Frank Edwards’ knives and work regularly on Instagram, so it was no surprise to learn that the Edwards knifemaking resume included welding, fabricating, and working as a machinist. While telling me this, he added, “My whole adult life.” When he first fabricated a KMG clone (belt grinder) and purchased some abrasive belts to make a knife he thought, “This won’t be hard – but it was, I became busy with two jobs.”
The two jobs he talked about were basically both full-time. He mentioned struggling with the knifemaking somewhat, mostly due to trying the self-taught method. That quickly changed though, as he eagerly explained; “Being from Nampa, Idaho, I was looking in other states thinking Idaho wouldn’t have what I was looking for. But I found [ABS Master Smiths] Bill Burke and Rick Dunkerley living only 50 minutes from my house!” He began taking knifemaking classes right away. I asked what he thought of taking classes from these two iconic makers. “Over the top, a very good experience. On the fifth day I had a working folder.” His classmate Mark became a good friend, after the instruction was over one day he came to Frank and said that Bill and Rick had singled him out to stay and talk after class.
Frank was surprised to say the least, but said you could see in their faces that they wanted to help him. During the talk Rick keyed in on sole authorship, which really stuck with this maker, certainly to the extent that it is a key part of Frank’s focus and has really influenced his whole knifemaking career. Much more about that later.
My first question when interviewing every knifemaker is always asking how, or what, led to an interest in knifemaking, and second is always: what was the very first knife they made? I finally realized this must go back to reading that first knifemaking book by Bob Loveless, How To Make Knives by Barney and Loveless. I fondly remember Bob Loveless detailing the reason he began making his own knives and I make it a point to ask that question of every knifemaker. Frank’s answer really touched my heart!
Frank started making knives in 2019, and credits his son Gauge for his initial interest in knifemaking, “My son Gauge had a big interest in knives, this is what got it all started. I bought him all kinds of knives, but they were all crappy things that always broke or bent. I thought I could make something better.” This is when Edwards built the KMG clone and ordered those abrasive belts. That first knife was a fixed blade fighter, 440C was the steel of choice, a piece leftover from a fabrication job Frank was doing.
Edwards felt that the knife was, “Pretty terrible,” and mentioned being a better fabricator than knifemaker, but he realized that, “Hey, we all start somewhere – and that’s where I started.” I asked for a picture if he still had the knife, personally I think his knife [pictured here] was a really good first attempt, but at the same time not many makers mention being satisfied with that initial blade. This is always great news for knife lovers because that first knife quickly becomes another and another!
Meeting Bill Burke and Rick Dunkerley quickly showed Frank a very high bar that would challenge all his former expertise and training, however his keen sense of observation and above average analytical skills helped him progress very quickly. I mentioned that he tried the self-taught method before taking classes, this was essentially watching YouTube and reading BladeForums. His work got better, but didn’t progress fast enough for his liking; the classes were the answer and he was ecstatic that there was a damascus and folding knife class only 50 minutes from his house. With his mechanical background he leaned toward takedown methods, while these classes weren’t takedown bowie knives which he wanted, they were another mechanical type so Frank was thrilled and signed up.
Edwards explained some about the classes, “I was definitely Fan Girling pretty bad the first two days, and only said a handful of words to anybody in the class. I just listened and did my work as instructed. The first three days the class all had a bar of damascus, mine was a bar of twist damascus. On the fourth morning we started making a folder, I was excited! Drilling holes and tapping things with 1-72 taps was so much fun for me. On the fifth day we had a working folder. I was really, really excited and knew this is where my heart lies in this world. the huge bonus is that I got to impress the heck out of my son making folders!”
As I previously mentioned, a fellow classmate from that knifemaking course named Mark has become a great friend of Frank’s. I will let Edwards retell this part, “My classmate Mark, who is now a very good friend, but unknown to me then, said ‘you need to stay and talk to these guys after class. They are super impressed that you built one folder already and were mostly done with another one too, without asking any questions.’ So, I stayed and hung out with two Mastersmiths and remain friends with them both to this day.”
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