Artisan Statement

My name is Bill “Three Feathers” Bunting. Knife making has been a part of my life and income for the past forty plus years, being a full time maker and artist now for twenty plus. Born, raised and spending my life on the prairie I have developed a love for the wide open spaces and the history of the west. It is only natural that my blades reflect this love and look as if they have stepped out of the pages of history. My choice of blade material consists of saw blades, files, rasp, and spring steel. I gain great satisfaction in taking that which has been discarded and re-creating it, giving it new life. Each blade is  created one at a time with all the operations in the making of of each knife from beginning to the finished product  done by me here at Three Feathers. I have no desire to follow trends or mass produce. Each blade is held by hand through each process creating a truly “hand made knife.” The blades have a hand rubbed finish topped off with an acid etched patina giving them the aged look. Many still retain the scars left by their former lives adding character and uniqueness to each blade. One of my most popular knives is the “Stone Edge” blade. The blades have the look of chipped flint with the durability of steel. The knives are made of the same blade material,  go through the “chipping” process and then are blued with gun bluing. The more they are carried the more they look like stone. Which ever choice you make, each knife is one of a kind, my own historic interpretation of past eras.
   
​   A knife should talk to you. It should stir your memories or your imagination. Maybe you get a whiff of wood smoke or a glimpse of tee-pees along the stream. Or the aroma of wet buckskins and the sound of an elk bugling. If one of my knives feels alive in your hand or causes you to feel alive then I have accomplished my goal. An heirloom to be passed down to the next generation. Part art, part history, part tool. A fully functional piece of art that only gains character through use.

— Bill (Three Feathers) Bunting