James grew up on an Ozarks farm where tools like axes and picks were still used in the daily routine and the blades of stockman's pocketknives served their original functions. Receiving his first pocketknife at age four he got it open by himself nearly a year later and spent his formative years wandering the woods with a succession of ever larger knives, a book of matches and a rifle.
A veteran of Vietnam, James also served in Alaska during a stint in the Army, receiving his first intensive culinary training by setting a record for extra KP at Ft. Richardson.
Settling in the Pacific Northwest after his discharge, James crewed on sailing yachts in local races, backpacked hundreds of miles of mountain trails in search of good trout fishing, and occasionally attended college.
His first serious job as a civilian resulted from answering a Seattle Post Intelligencer want ad requesting someone who could lift 120 pounds repeatedly and wasn't afraid of fire. James apprenticed to John Frazier -- the most knowledgeable traditional foundryman in North America at that time -- for the next six years.
Returning to the Ozarks James made his living by growing ginseng on a hand-terraced wooded hillside and selling handmade wood turnery, furniture, sculpture and architectural carvings. James harvested trees from his own land, processing logs into posts and beams and turnery billets with saws, axes, froes and planes. Since many tools he needed were no longer available, James built his own forge from a barbeque grill, a vacuum cleaner and a 55 gallon steel drum, found a chunk of railroad track for his first anvil, and taught himself blacksmithing -- creating his own knives and tools from scrap steel and sweat.
Changing economic pressures eventually forced James back to the restaurant industry in Branson, Missouri, and later to even more success as a maintenance engineer for one of Branson's largest condominium resorts. Finally escaping to Indiana, James now makes his living telling true stories as a freelance writer.
Since the styles are so similar, I’m immediately tempted to compare this to the Buck Folding Hunter series — but when I do, I’m a little bit disappointed in Buck. Every time I compare something American to what should be the same knife from Puma of Solingen, Germany, I find that there is a difference. Somehow, Puma makes the same thing look better.
In the Puma Earl, a folding lockback pocket knife with a closed length of 4 inches, it’s not the company logo etched on the hollow ground 2-3/4-inch 440C stainless steel clip point blade that makes the difference. The natural stag handle slabs pinned with brass are nice, but we’ve all seen that many times. This should look like an ordinary knife, but there’s a graceful sweep to the handle that took some artistic sense and manual skill to produce. With slight differences from knife to knife, you can see the ability of the craftsmen of Solingen even in their version of an ordinary pocket knife.
There are a few things you won’t get with the Puma Earl, like one-handed opening — this is the old style that you open with two hands and a thumbnail. The lockback is simple and solid, but again it’s a two-handed operation to close the knife safely. Carry it either in the bottom of your pocket or in the belt pouch Puma includes, because in these old-style knives you don’t get a pocket clip.
Just got my Buck 110 out for a quick comparison again, and the Puma still looks better. Not big differences, just little ones, but Puma wins.
James grew up on an Ozarks farm where tools like axes and picks were still used in the daily routine and the blades of stockman's pocketknives served their original functions. Receiving his first pocketknife at age four he got it open by himself nearly a year later and spent his formative years wandering the woods with a succession of ever larger knives, a book of matches and a rifle.
A veteran of Vietnam, James also served in Alaska during a stint in the Army, receiving his first intensive culinary training by setting a record for extra KP at Ft. Richardson.
Settling in the Pacific Northwest after his discharge, James crewed on sailing yachts in local races, backpacked hundreds of miles of mountain trails in search of good trout fishing, and occasionally attended college.
His first serious job as a civilian resulted from answering a Seattle Post Intelligencer want ad requesting someone who could lift 120 pounds repeatedly and wasn't afraid of fire. James apprenticed to John Frazier -- the most knowledgeable traditional foundryman in North America at that time -- for the next six years.
Returning to the Ozarks James made his living by growing ginseng on a hand-terraced wooded hillside and selling handmade wood turnery, furniture, sculpture and architectural carvings. James harvested trees from his own land, processing logs into posts and beams and turnery billets with saws, axes, froes and planes. Since many tools he needed were no longer available, James built his own forge from a barbeque grill, a vacuum cleaner and a 55 gallon steel drum, found a chunk of railroad track for his first anvil, and taught himself blacksmithing -- creating his own knives and tools from scrap steel and sweat.
Changing economic pressures eventually forced James back to the restaurant industry in Branson, Missouri, and later to even more success as a maintenance engineer for one of Branson's largest condominium resorts. Finally escaping to Indiana, James now makes his living telling true stories as a freelance writer.
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Since the styles are so similar, I’m immediately tempted to compare this to the Buck Folding Hunter series — but when I do, I’m a little bit disappointed in Buck. Every time I compare something American to what should be the same knife from Puma of Solingen, Germany, I find that there is a difference. Somehow, Puma makes the same thing look better.
