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I was born in Yonkers, N.Y. and grew up in Levittown, N.Y. After majoring in percussion at Manhattan School of Music, I had a 35-year career as a professional musician.
I referred to myself as a journeyman musician because I was involved during those years in just about every type of music. I played drums in the pit orchestras of Broadway shows including “Promises, Promises”, "Irene", “Grease” and “A Chorus Line” and a number of off-Broadway productions. I was on the road with the Glen Miller Band, The First Moog Quartet (Moog was the inventor of the synthesizer) and numerous rock and roll acts such as Lou Christy, Paul and Paula and Johnny Cymbal. One of the bands I played with, The Insect Trust, was named one of the best rock bands of 1970 by Rolling Stone Magazine. The Insect Trust had its roots in Hoboken, N.J. where we regularly rehearsed and where the Atlantic Records album, “Hoboken Saturday Night” was recorded. I spent many years playing behind such nightclub acts as Connie Francis, Kenny Rogers and Dusty Springfield in some of New York City’s finest hotels. I worked with dance companies, in television, in a few movies and in many commercials. I was the musical producer/director/contractor for, and also played drums in, films produced for the United States Information Agency.
For most of those years, I lived in Manhattan and later, Brooklyn with my wife, Toni and two sons, Keith and Chris. During my years in the city, I was a semi-professional photographer in my spare hours. In Brooklyn, on nights when I wasn’t working musically, after the kids went to bed and the dishes were washed and put away, I would set up a darkroom in the kitchen and work into the wee hours printing my photographs. I managed this (with some inconvenience) within the confines of a small city apartment. When we moved to the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania in 1978, for the first time in my married life, I lived in a house with a basement, which provided enough room for a workshop. I had always wanted to “tinker” but never had the space.
Shortly before we left Brooklyn, I was introduced to the world of handmade knives when a close friend of mine showed me his collection of early Loveless and Henry knives. I was totally bowled over by the look and feel of those custom, handcrafted pieces. Months later, I requested the Loveless-Barney book “How to Make Knives” as a Christmas gift from my parents. That was the beginning.
In 1979, after reading every book available on the subject of handmade knives, I bought rudimentary equipment at various flea markets, enlisted friends to teach me machine shop basics and made my first knife. In the beginning, I didn’t know one end of a drill press from the other. My sum total of “tools” had been a hammer, screwdriver, pliers and wrench with a few baby food jars full of nails and screws. Over the years, I have studied pattern-welded steel making with Daryl Meier & Rob Hudson, mokumé gane with Albert Anderson at Penn State and specific knifemaking techniques with various established knifemakers.
The early hobby phase of my knifemaking occupied about 20 percent of my time; my musical career occupied the other 80 percent. Gradually, it became a 50-50 deal and eventually, I turned down music jobs, focusing solely on knifemaking. I finally “retired” as a career musician and became a full-time knifemaker, in 1986-1987. At this point, the only time I play the drums is when somebody twists my arm.
Early in my knifemaking career, I made hunting/fishing knives, kitchenware and collector’s pieces. But since inventing the MCS System and obtaining my patent, my principal focus has been designing and producing tactical/self-defense knives.
I am a member of the American Knifemakers’ Guild, the American Knife and Tool Institute, the Northeast Cutlery Collector’s Association, the American Bladesmith Society, the German Deutsche Messermacher Guilde and the Corporazione Italiana Cotellinai.
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