J O E K E E S L A R
Almo, Kentucky
After a stint in the United State Marine Corps, Joe completed his B.S. and M.S. degrees in Industrial Arts Education with majors in wood and metal and began a twenty-three year teaching career at Murray High School.
Joe's love of crafts began at a very young age. He tooled leather as a teenager, made his first knife in 1962 and built his first Dixie Gun Works kit long rifle in 1964. Active in black powder buckskinning he built Pennsylvania flintlock rifles, pistols, fowling pieces and accessories. In the mid seventies Joe first met Bill Moran who was exhibiting his early Damascus steel knives at the Second ABANA Conference at Lumkin, Georgia. He returned home to make his first Damascus knife the next week. Through the American Bladesmith Society he saw demonstrations by Bill Moran, Don Hastings and Bill Bagwell, and heard his first B.R. Hughes presentation on James Bowie and the Bowie knife. He immediately joined the ABS due to its focus on education, and promptly switched from rifle-making to knife making. Joe received his Journeyman Bladesmith rating in 1987 and Master Smith in 1989. He has been a frequent instructor at the William F. Moran School of Bladesmithing was Chairman of the ABS from June 2003 through June 2007.
Joe demonstrated how to make quality knives from files and he shared his knowledge of finishing a blade into a showpiece knife.
KNIVES FROM FILES
