Engraved Dagger

Black, Earl

Warenski, Julie

My career in custom knifemaking began in 1986 when I met Buster Warenski who taught me the art of engraving. I was taking an engraving class, which he taught, and later that year we were married. Within one year I was engraving every knife we made and also engraved for many other knifemakers and customers all over the world. Over the years I worked in many areas of knifemaking helping with knife designs and also making many parts of our knives, as well as doing all the embellishment on them. We had a great marriage and awesome relationship until he was so unexpectedly taken away forever. He used to joke that he was going to teach me how to grind the blades so he could just retire, but I quickly let him know that there was no way this was going to happen. I often wish now that he had taught me his techniques to grind the knife blades. After Buster’s passing, I had a strong desire to make knives and continue to make the great art knives that I had worked on and had a unique partnership with for the past 20 years. A past student of Buster’s, Curt Erickson, had offered to help teach me to grind the way Buster had taught him. He was the only person Buster had really tutored in knifemaking and I graciously accepted his offer. After working with Curt and with his help I won the Buster Warenski award for the best Art Knife at the New York knife show in February 2006. We were married in 2006, and now work together in a new and exciting partnership in knifemaking. There will be many fabulous knives in our future together as we are dedicated to making some of the best art knives possible.