The "One"

Raven started making blades 18 years ago in the fall of 2007, in his backyard with a old BBQ Gril Dryer Hose And a Old Shop Vac. His first Anvil was an old piece of a railroad track that he spent days with his hand grinder, grinding away at the thick heavy railroad track. Working as a Jorneymen welder/fabricator for one of the central valley of California biggest trailer manufacturers. Already having a background in welding and metal fabrication, he understood metallurgy very well. With just his most basic hand tools that he had at home and two 5 gallon buckets full of rasp files he was given from his good friend and fellow co-worker Jason Anderson. Jason dad owned his own hours shoeing company and always had a whole lot of dull old files laying around, so Raven mentioned to Jason that he was going to start making his own knives for hunting, because he was finally fedup with three of the biggest knife manufacturers in the world always having their so called "high end" hunting knives all was brake or not being able to put an edge Raven wanted on his blades. So after coming home from a three week hunting trip from Wyoming and only having what he referres to as his " fleamarket" special. A shinning knife he bought at the fleamarket just days before leaving for his trip.

So one Friday morning in the fall of 2007 Raven invited Jason over and they both started their first attempt of making a knife. Raven Recalls the knife he calls "The One" he had finally finished the entire knife three weeks after he first forged it. 

Raven recalls he and Jason started to forge around 7-8 O'clock thst Friday morning and continued to forge well in the early morning of Saturday. 

"It was sometime Sunday evening that I actually forgeed my first knife , I burned up 99 rasp files in my little BBQ Gril coal forge I made after I got home from work Thursday late afternoon. I remember I so excited that I actually forged out my own knife. Ironically it wasn't a Skining Knife, it was more of a Clip Point Bowie Knife that was something like 14 1/2 inches long. It was ugly, I took one look at what I had made and thought to myself damn this thing ugly, but hey what could I expect it was my very first Knife. I remember going to HarborFreight That following weekend and buying a bench top grinder a 36 inch belt grinder a new hand grinder, and a bunch of other tools, my wife was so not happy when I came home, not at all, I was in huge trouble. I remember sitting on the grinders what seems like for ever. Once I finally got it all profiled out it wasn't till that following weekend that I was able to sit down and finish my Knife. I worked Monday thru Thursday 12 hour shifts and had every Friday, Saturday and Sunday off. I got up early like I always do had breakfast and coffee with my wife and oldest daughter, once they left for school and work i went outside and started to work on my Knife. I had a lot of wood scrapes laying around because I made verious things from wood working. I remember going through something like almost 100 different pieces of wood before I finally found a beautiful piece of White Oak. It was in that moment I told myself yup this will do. By time my wife came home from work I had finally finished my knife"

"18 years later, it is still surreal to me that I went from this ( holding up his very first Knife nicknamed "The One" ) And that old BBQ Gril sitting there in the corner, to 6 Forges Nation Wide, with 275 employees and this company that supplies 185 different type of stores with a combined total of a 1,000 different types of knives every month. That's not counting all the custom orders or the inventory for the 6 sales teams. Then there is what I make for the website and my sales inventory and the custom orders I personally do. Now don't get me wrong I do alot of verious shows around the country all year long so naturally my employees help with inventory. But it's still hard to believe i went from forging this knife and a handful from a BBQ Gril and a home forge to a Renowned Master Bladesmith And Historical Weapons Recreations Mastersmith with 185 pieces in Museums around the world, including The British Museum, The Smithsonian, The Museum Of History in Ireland And Portugal just to name a few. But you know what? Since I retired from the Military And Sheriff's Department I havnt worked at day in my retirement yet".

Raven has made custom knives and blades for some of the riches people in the world and for several really famous people, From Billionaires, Congressmen and Congresswoman to singers and movie stars, he has even made knives for a couple Presidents, Queens Two Kings And Three Princes .

Raven has even been offered over 20 million dollars for "The One" and he respectfully declined the money saying " How can you place a price on something like this, knowing how sentimental this knife is to me? You can't its almost like putting a price tag on my kids , it just can't be done"

From the backyard to a LLC Raven is known around the world for his Museum Quality Blades. And if you ask him, how does he make such extraordinary, lavish blades? He will kindly look at you with a smile on his face and a sparkle in his blue eyes and simply say " I told myself when I first started making blades , that I wasn't just going to make mundane blades I was going to make a blade that was of high quality that it could be put on display around the world in any Museum, it would be something people invested in to pass done through the generations but most of all it was affordable"