Great Knife Makers for the Early West, Book review by Mike Nesbitt, January/February 2012 MUZZLELOADER

For the Bookshelf

Great Knife Makers for the Early West

By James D. Gordon

285 pages, hardcover: $85.00

Reviewed by Mike Nesbitt

You might recall my review of the Great Gunmakers for the Early West by James Gordon in the November/December 2009 issue. This new book of Gordon's is in a very big way a follow-up of this earlier work. In this volume the knives are featured in bold and gorgeous photos showing the knives very clearly, and many of those knives are the ones we might have only heard about before.

Now we can see that Gordon's book set about the great gunmakers was only the beginning. This new book about the knifemakers is divided into three major sections: first he talks about the types of knives (such as butchers and scalpers); then the knifemakers from England are covered; and following that is the section on the knifemakers of America. Each section is filled with photographs of original knives, many of them in very good condition. Some supplemental artwork featured among these pages is by Ron Kil, former MUZZLELOADER columnist. We can say that Gordon's Great Knife Makers for the Early West is certainly equal to his gun books.

One area in the book where I have dwelled the most is in the section about Green River knives, all 110 pages of them. Some will say that the Green River knives were too late for the mountain man era, but I disagree. As Gordon points out, in 1843 the inventory of David Adams' Outfit on the Upper Platte included 200 J. Russell five-inch butchers, 250 J. Russell six-inch butchers, and 300 J. Russell seven-inch butchers. Orders like that would not have been placed for an unknown product, so the Russell Green River knives were already well known in the West.

But don't let me spill all of the beans about this new book. It is truly something to be both studied and enjoyed. Like the set of gunmakers books, this knife book is limited edition of only 1,000 copies. Great Knife Makers for the Early West is available from the author: James Gordon, 808 Paseo de la Cuma, Santa Fe, NM 87501. The phone number there is 505-982-9667. Personal check are fine (no credit cards), and the postpaid price for this books is $85.00. Again, if you'd like to have your book personally autographed, just ask.

With this mention of Great Gunmakers for the Early West, you might be interested to know that Gordon still has some of these three-volume sets available. If you missed getting a set before, you still have a chance. The postpaid price for orders in the U.S. is $295.00, which might seem a bit high but let me tell you that three-volume set weights 16 pounds! That set shows a collection of guns that you won't be able to get through in an evening. Most of the 1,000 limited-edition set are gone but some remain, so orders can still be placed for this fantastic photo history of the original guns that roamed the West.

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