Many non-knife folks are familiar with the work of Idaho Knife Works, even if they do not know Mike and Debbie Mann. Throughout his 34 year career, Mike Mann made functional knives in period-correct pioneer style, providing knives to several Hollywood productions including Leonardo DiCaprio’s The Revenant.
I was saddened to learn that Mike’s had a series of health struggles of late, and has retired from knifemaking. Debbie shared this on Facebook the other night:
While I have never met Mike personally, I have been of fan of his work since he and Debbie were so kind to me back in my Truth About Knives days. I will have to play around on the Wayback Machine and try to dig up his 5ftG entry. I was just some random blogger and he was a popular maker at the peak of his career. I have never forgotten this.
Turns out that the Manns were profiled by the late Steve Garger in one of the last issues of Knife World before the change to KNIFE Magazine – May 2015.
We have decided to bring it back from the archives and share it with you all here. You can read the flipbook below.
Our prayers go out to the Mike and Debbie. Mend well Sir.