My father, Robert Knight, circa 1958. He was 19 years old, serving in the United States Navy aboard the Seventh Fleet flagship U.S.S. Northampton.
Thinking of all members of the United States armed forces on this Veterans Day. Thank you for your service.
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It was three weeks ago today that Dad passed away. I’m still in a great state of grief, more than that even, about it. There’s a real shock that comes with seeing someone so close to you suddenly leaving you like that. But I still believe that there was something of God’s hand in how things played out. If the circumstances had been slightly different in any of a thousand different ways, my family would not have had those sixteen days to be with him. In the end, if God had to take him after so long a bountiful, fulfilling and loving life, it came about in what I can only call the best of all possible outcomes.
That said, I still grieve. There is no small measure of confusion about certain matters. And I would be remiss if I did not mention that there have been a number of ...
On the night after Dad’s passing, Anita (my sister), my aunt and uncle and I went through a ton of old photographs to use in the video that the funeral home would put together for the tribute that would play during visitation on the following night. Wilkerson Funeral did a very solid job in doing so and I wanted to share it on my blog.
I don’t know how else to put it, but there are some things that happened at Dad’s funeral that despite the occasion were an amazing delight. And I truly believe that Dad would have had no small measure of pride if he could somehow know that this celebration of his life brought so many wonderful people together to celebrate not only his own life, but also of the most precious things in all our lives.
During the service I spoke a few words about Dad and since the other ministers were sharing stories from his life, I did likewise and related some tales of how forgiving and relenting – even if he didn’t understand what the heck I was doing – of the many stunts that I pulled during the life that we shared. One of them was during the filming of Forcery: my first (and Lord willing still ...
Yesterday was supposed to have be one of the saddest days of my entire
life. Yet here I am after Dad’s funeral and I cannot help but
feel like the most blessed, most overwhelmed with joy, most hopeful
man in the world.
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| Mom and Dad’s grave site, the morning after Dad’s funeral |
This entire time, I believe Dad would have felt
honored by every aspect of it. Anita and I had Dad dressed in his
denim bib overalls, with a red plaid flannel workshirt beneath and in
his right hand, just as it was often poised in life, his smoking pipe.
He had often told Anita that if she had him wearing a tie he would come
back to haunt her, LOL. Last night during the visitation we had a table
set up displaying some of the many knives that he hand-made over the
years. That was my aunt’s idea, ...
The thought this morning was that I would post Dad’s obituary on my blog after it had been published on the Wilkerson Funeral Home website. But the staff at Wilkerson has rendered such an astounding service during this time of our need… well, that and the page they did for Dad is so spot-on perfect (and totally in keeping with his character)… that their tribute to Dad sincerely and earnestly does merit a visit to its link.
There will be a video slideshow uploaded later. Anita and I spent most of yesterday evening and some of this morning combing through hundreds of photos of Dad, finding a select few to represent his very varied and wonderful life. There were some that I hadn’t even seen before, including a couple of he and I when I was only one year old. Anyway, the video slideshow will be up soon. ...
Damascus steel blade for a commission job. And yes, Dad even made the sheath…
Lord willing, I’ll wind up even half as good as Dad is at this craft 🙂...
Here are some photos that I took in Dad’s knife shop from this past weekend.
This first one is of a roller bearing welded to a piece of rebar, heating up in Dad’s propane-powered forge. At around 2000 degrees Fahrenheit, you can understand why I dubbed this the “Marshmallow from Hell”…
Another shot of the forge. Dad is on the left and Eric Smith is on the right…
The next couple of pics are of a wood splitter that Dad built years ago, which was later converted into a machine used to press and bend the red-hot steel. It’s particularly useful when working with Damascus (multi-layered) steel…
In this photo Dad is using a pneumatic-powered hammer (which he also designed and constructed) to “draw out” the steel into the more general shape of a blade…
Eric Smith holds the “finished” blade blank, after it had cooled-off enough to touch. In ...
Dad asked me to take photos of a number of knives that he’s made in his shop recently, for an upcoming publication. I thought it would be neat to post some of them here also.
Two of the Damascus steel blades that he’s finished. Dad learned the art of forging Damascus from Bill Moran, the man who more than thirty years ago re-discovered the centuries-old secret of making layered steel. Dad’s Moran-inspired technique usually means that there are around three hundred layers of steel in an individual blade, all folded and hammered into each other. He also made the leather sheaths…
Bowie knife that was made special-order for a customer (whose name is engraved on the blade, which I have blurred-out of the photo)…
Probably his favorite kind to make: the entire knife is crafted from a single railroad spike. Also pictured is a knife forged from a horseshoe…
The ...
This Saturday, April 12th 2008, Midway United Methodist Church on US 158 a few miles west of Reidsville, North Carolina will be having its “Old Timer Festival”, showing off a bunch of traditional crafts, vintage vehicles and farm equipment, stuff like that.
My father Robert Knight will be there too. He’s been busy the past several months in his knife shop making several new blades for this event and he’ll be set up at a table. Here’s some of his handiwork that will be on display and for sale…
In addition to a number of Damascus (multi-layered steel) knives, Dad also has some horseshoe-made knives and several of what might be his specialty: railroad-spike knives!
By the way, the fancier knives that you see in the top photo each come with a custom-made leather sheathe.
I’ll be at the festival too, shooting some video of the event. Y’all come see ...