Overview
This knife by Farid Mehr was made from remaining blade blanks from Joe Cordova's shop provided to Farid by his wife Kay Cordova. It features a bead blasted double edged blade with fullers, .255" blade stock and 1.615" blade depth, full integral construction. The handle has recesses cut in the tang with natural G-10 inlays, extended tang with lanyard hole. New from maker! #1 of 7. The fuller on this one was ground by Joe Cordova before he passed away.
Note from the maker:
My dear lifelong friend and knife maker Joe Cordova passed away in 2022.
I knew Joe and his wife Kay since I was 19. Joe and I stayed close friends over the years, I remember I called him the first time at the age of 19 and complemented his ‘GLADIATOR’ knife, we had a very long conversation about the knife when he told me the design came to him in a dream he had.
I feel privileged that I own the last 3 special ‘Gladiator’ daggers Joe made for me and delivered in 2022. All 3 are 3/8” integral CPM-154. When the package arrived I was told by Kay that there was a present in there for me, I didn’t know what it was until I opened the package, Joe had included a ‘Gladiator’ blank in there for me to grind and finish off. He was an extraordinary knife maker, gifted, truly talented, a true gentleman and a lifelong friend of mine.
After some time when I was talking to Kay I offered to finish off any Gladiator blades for her and do a collaboration project so after a few days she emailed me and told me there was a few Gladiator blanks Joe had in the shop, so this collaboration started, Kay sent them to me and now I have allocated the time to finish them and turn them in to complete knives.
If you like to see the building process feel free to follow me on my Instagram if you like. There are different blade lengths, one of the two large Gladiators will go to Joe’s grandson, the smallest version is already spoken for and the rest are available at Arizona Custom Knives. Part of the proceedings went to Kay Cordova.