RIP Mr. Lum
My good friend of 20 years, Mr. Bob Lum, the custom knife maker from Eugene, Or., passed away on 12/4/07 around Noon. This came after a rather brief battle with lung cancer. Brief, because the cancer was only discovered this past April. I hope in creating this Blog, to be able to pay tribute to him as a man, and most importantly, as an artist of the highest caliber. In the world of custom knife making, Bob is considered by many to be at the top of the game. He has made many contributions to the knife making world. He is best known for the introduction of the Japanese tanto style knife into the US market in the late 1970's. While many would argue that the tanto isn't new, and confused the situation by mistakenly claiming he invented the tanto, the truth of the matter is very simple; Bob Americanized the tanto . The leap in design was to create a tanto style knife using modern, non-traditional Japanese, knife making methods; blade shaped by stock removal, not forged; using pre-fo...