How to Make the Price Guard
In 2017 I received a commission for a piece in the style of Michael Price, a mid-19th -century knifemaker whose knives are stamped “M. Price San Francisco.” The customer sent me an image of the knife I should use as my template: a spear-point bowie with elk antler scales and Price’s iconic “peanut”- shaped handle. However, the customer also asked me to add some filework and make it my own. This was not intended to be a replica of the historic piece.
The Price knife whose shape I was to imitate was symmetrical and quite simple, but I found myself a bit baffl ed by the guard, struggling to answer the question, “How did he attach it?” From the single-side-view photograph I had, several explanations would have been possible: It might have been a frame handle, or the guard might have
