California Knifemakers Association

al Knives was formed on 21 Nov 1981 when a group of California knifemakers gathered at Visalia to create a association to try to improve California knifemaking. The driving force behind the formation was Bob Loveless who used his personal recognition to get the effort started.

The agreed to goals set forth in the first meeting were:

• To promote California knives and their makers
• To help California knifemakers improve their work
• And to put on a great knife show at least once each year

These goals have continued through the years with many makers providing their hard learned knowledge, sharing information gathered from all sources and problem solving to other makers at shop visits, telephone calls and providing input to the newsletters. This sharing allows a new maker to increase their knowledge very rapidly and gives the new maker access to knowledge which older knifemakers spent many years learning by trial and error and error and more errors. The ability of each of us to add to the common knowledge and to share it with others by letting them know how you solved a problem is one of the key benefits of club membership. The solution described may not be the way you end up going, but at least you have the benefit of knowing how someone else saw the problem and that it is a common problem.

Membership in Cal Knives cost $30 per year and requires that you pledge four hours of service to club activities per year if needed, excluding meeting attendance. Your club officers will endeavor to furnish you with a monthly newsletter and monthly teaching meetings at various locations and members’ shops (December is excluded). All rules and regulations are subject to change with the approval of the board of directors and/or both the membership. In return for your fees and support the club offers the newsletter, teaching meetings and the sharing of knowledge with its members

The club welcomes anyone who is interested in knives and wants to learn either to make them or to be a better collector. Thank you again for your interest in our club.