England, Virgil

I began making knives in 1970. I arrived in Anchorage, Alaska in June of that year and made my first four knives as Christmas gifts for family. By 1975 I had joined the Knifmaker's Guild and was producing a large number of field knives. In 1975 I also did my first "Fantasy" piece. It has paved the way for my next forty years of work. From the beginning my focus has been on the replicating of methods used by traditional armorers in the making of my own designs. This has led to a body of work that many regard as "artifacts" that reflect the ancient techniques that have gone into making them. For me it has been a matter of many years of research to come up with a way for one person to produce the variety of work a classical armory was called upon to produce. Everything from jewelry boxes to nuts and bolts were produced there, along with all of the things that went into the arming of the citizenry.