All About Pocket Knives

My dad, Jay Bigler, a hobbyist knifemaker, spent many years making fixed-blade knives before he began making pocket knives. I thought I would post pictures of those here for folks to see, starting with some old photos that I have found and scanned. These were made after he began making the pocket knives. The photo actually was of five knives, two of which were pocket knives. (Those are posted under "Jay Bigler: His pocket knives".)

Solid looking skinners M.J.! Very nice!

Sometimes Dad made sheaths for his knives; sometimes he didn't.

This knife was a donation to the National Hunting and Fishing Days celebration held at John A. Logan College. The event was once the largest celebration of that in the nation. I think this knife was made in 1997.

A very early "BIGLER" knife... a donation to Ducks Unlimited in 1995...

Dad was an avid duck hunter in his teens and early twenties.

Two early "BIGLER" knives... The top one might be a donation. However, the more I look at it the more I think that it is a person's name. Hard to read it, though.

Thank you for posting. I'm sure enjoying them.

doglegg wrote: ↑Mon Aug 15, 2022 7:42 pm Thank you for posting. I'm sure enjoying them.

You are very welcome and i'm glad that you are enjoying the pictures!

More of Dad's earliest knives... on some you can see the "BIGLER" engraved on them. He was most creative with the knives in all the different types and styles in those early days as he learned his craft.

Another donation... this one was for an annual meeting of Field Trial Clubs of Illinois. Dad didn't keep up duck hunting. In his twenties, he started hunting quail. I think a lot of that was fueled by his love of English Setters and Pointers. FTCI used the knives that Dad gave them for a bucket raffle. Often there were "big guns" in the field-trial world at these meetings. The knives didn't always stay in the hands of the winners. A couple of winners told me that they were approached by the the national officials with offers to buy the knife. They might have been won by Illinoisans, but the knives ended up in Texas.

Another grouping of fixed-blades, with detail on one of them. Dad sometimes made these decorative pins for some of his early knives. I really like the look of them. Eventually, though, he used a simple pins on the knives.

Dad made several fixed-blade miniature knives. This is the smallest one he ever made. A few years ago, I pulled a cabinet out from a wall to clean behind it and discovered the piece of brass this was cut from. It also had a lot of "doodles" engraved on it. I'll be keeping the mini-knives, but this one and the piece of brass I gave to one of my dad's great-nephews. He is in early grade school and collects all sorts of things like stamps and rocks. And, of course, he has a pocket knife of his Uncle Jay's.

Another old photo...

My dad had some wonderful caregivers after his stroke. One of his physical therapists asked Dad if she could buy one of his knives as a gift for her husband. Dad would hear nothing of selling it to her. He gave her the knife that she had picked out.

I wish that Dad had identified the materials he used on all of his knives, but he didn't. This old photo that I found is a rare exception. Dad wrote a description of them on the back.

Many interesting patterns and materials. Your dad was highly creative.

Quick Steel wrote: ↑Wed Aug 24, 2022 1:02 pm Many interesting patterns and materials. Your dad was highly creative.

Thank you!

Another "old" photo. I don't see that either knife has been signed; however, these are definitely Dad's work and likely early works. The edge on the blade on each one is very much like his earliest knives.

Another one using antler...

This knife was a gift Dad made for a lifelong friend of his. The date on the nameplate is 2004.

Those are all beautiful fixxies M.J. Your Dad had some mad skills!

Madmarco wrote: ↑Tue Aug 30, 2022 11:14 pm Those are all beautiful fixxies M.J. Your Dad had some mad skills!

Thank you!

A friend of my dad's used to do catering for August Busch III. He commissioned Dad to make a knife for Busch as a thank-you gift. Dad actually made a couple of knives for Dave to choose from. This is the one that he chose. This picture shows the Damascus better, although the engraved "Jay Bigler" and a date are not discernible in the photo. Busch's name is also engraved on the knife. Personally, I like the other knife better, but I think that the deciding factor was the Damascus, which could have been Meier steel.

Another knife using antler and Damascus...

As I am looking at the first photo I have posted here, I realize that the top knife is the same knife I posted a few days ago.

The middle knife, if I recall correctly, was a gift that was included in a "thank you" package that was given to a keynote speaker at a Hunting and Fishing Days Celebration dinner which was held in the mid-1990s at John A. Logan College. I wish I could remember the gentleman's name. I do remember that he was a country/western singer who liked to hunt and fish.

The nut-and-bolt knife was found a few years ago along with 21 others. They were in a box with a bunch of other stuff, and almost all the knives in that box had been marred in some way like something had spilled and splattered on them. The bolt knife, which did not have a signature, has just recently been sold, even with needing a little TLC. The "hatchet" has remained in the family. I thought I'd include the pix I took of those knives shortly after I discovered them. Almost all were fixed blades with one folding knife among them.