About
“Our creator is evidenced by our creativity.”
Bad Attitude Blades is the online studio of bladesmith Andrew John. It is also intended as an online resource for makers and collectors of handmade and hand forged knives, swords, other edged tools, and other expressions of creativity.
Andrew John (about)
Andrew John leads a fairly reclusive life in the foot hills of Kentucky. There, he participates in the daily operation of a small family homestead and refines his knife making skills. His life was not always as it is now. Prior to July of 2006, Andrew John led a very diverse and active life. That July, Andrew John was involved in a life changing event which left him with a permanent brain injury. The same event destroyed his successful 13 year old retail business. Other business endeavors, including his blacksmithing sideline, were nearly destroyed by prejudices against challenges brought on by the traumatic brain injury.
Since the injury, Andrew John has faced many challenges. He counts the hardest of these challenges to be learning social interaction. He feels that when a person recognizes his speech and memory deficiencies, they immediately mistake those deficiencies for a lack of intelligence. As a compensatory skill for sensory overload and other challenges, he rarely leaves the calm of his family homestead.
Formal Training
Thus far, with respect to handmade knives, Andrew John is entirely self-taught. He remembers that when he approached the subject of obtaining training from a well-known knife maker, that man’s wife warned Andrew that: “Knives are sharp”. Realizing his speech patterns had again led someone to believe he was kin to Rainman, Andrew John discontinued the conversation promptly.
Professional Affiliations
Andrew John aspires to participate in the Knife Maker’s Guild and the American Bladesmith Society (ABS). However, health and financial concerns have not made either of these aspirations possible at this time.
2012 and Soul Surfer
Shortly before December 31, 2011, Andrew John watched a movie based on the life and times of Bethany Hamilton who, at the age of 13, lost her left arm to a shark while surfing. Within the year, the young lady not only returned to competitive surfing but had completed an autobiographical book about the experience and struggles that followed.
On January 1st, 2012 Andrew’s wife told him she thought 2012 was going to be a very good year.
On January 5th, 2012 Andrew returned to neurological rehabilitation after financial challenges and frustrations had kept him from rehabilitation efforts for more than two years. His neurologist asked Andrew what he wanted to do with his life. Without hesitation, he answered: ‘I want to make knives’.
Bad Attitude Blades
Bad Attitude Blades, the knife making business Andrew hopes to one day formalize, is Andrew’s come back. Not to the world of handmade knives, but to the world of independence via handmade knifes. It is the path that Andrew hopes to take out of the nightmare of disability.
This website hopes to chronicle that effort as Soul Surfer chronicled the return of 13 year old Bethany Hamilton. We believe this web site will become a valuable tool for those who want to learn the art of knife making because it will document Andrew’s efforts; the successes and the mistakes.
Availability – June 2012
Our plan is to document Andrew John’s creations on this web site and first offer them for sale on June 2nd, 2012 as part of the opening day festivities of the Kentucky Highlander Renaissance Festival in Eminence Kentucky.
If Andrew’s health, finances, and skill permit; we hope for him to join the Knife Maker’s Guild and make his creations available a second time at the Guild’s show in Louisville, Kentucky September 13-16, 2012 as part of the Guild’s probationary membership requirements.
After that show, we plan to make remaining knives available online and then repeat these efforts each year, selling his creations in annual groupings such that we can document his improvements as a knife maker with each year’s efforts.
The Plan – Prototype, Logo, and Signature
With each year’s efforts, the plan is to offer three categories of blades: prototype, logo and signature.
Prototypes – Prototype blades will be documented but not numbered or marked. The documentation will clearly state who made the prototypes, when they were made, and if they led to the offering of a logo series. Although at present, Andrew John is the only participating bladesmith in this project, key members of Andrew’s current and former life have been invited to participate in this project. Prototypes might be collaborative pieces.
Logo series – Logo blades will be produced in very limited quantities. Each will be documented, bear the company logo and be numbered in order of creation. Example: 1 of 12. As with prototypes, the creation of logo series items may be a collaborative effort.
Signature Series – Signature series blades are each one of a time creations. They will be marked with the maker’s name or initials and bear the year in which they were made and order in which they were created.
2012 – 1 Will be the first knife to ever bare the name Andre John.
2012 – 2 Will be the second knife to ever bare the name Andrew John.
2012 – 3 Will be the third knife to ever bare the name Andrew John.
Although we do not expect an overwhelming demand for the knives of a new maker, we will offer these items for sale on a first come first served basis. Plans may change, so if you would like to receive an invitation to these events once plans have finalized, please consider joining this site and providing a valid mailing address.
A resource for makers and collectors of handmade knives.