really nice photo... charlie

Bill, did you know Bill Moran when he worked for American Optical in Frederick, Maryland in the early 70s? I used to fly into that plant from the main operation in Southbridge, Mass. Met Bill many times, but, sadly, never ordered a knife. Saw a lot of his early work and it was fabulous.

Destry - I picked up some Penley matches yesterday at a discount grocery store. They are better than the greenlight Diamonds, but won't light using a thumbnail like the old Blue Tips. My Dad called the Blue Tips "barnburners", saying he'd heard that rats gnawing the matches could ignite them.

My brother and I would make match guns out of a couple of clothes pins when we were kids. Nothing like a flaming match firing out out of our match guns to keep us busy for hours. I am guessing the new matches would not light when fired now. Anyone else remember building these? I also remember some of the old guys pulling out a sack of Bull Durham rolling out a smoke and then striking a wooden match on the back leg of their jeans.

Yes Phil, I remember all of that, guess we are showing our age. :shock:

Bill Zachow, I had no idea that Bill Moran worked anywhere except at his forge. The old shop is now a museum, preserved as it was when Bill worked there. Yes, I knew Mr. Moran in the early seventies, brought him Damascus barrels to study when he was contemplating forging Damascus blades. Although known as the "Father of Damascus" in the knife collecting world, I don't believe he had forged a Damascus blade at the time I showed him an assortment of Damascus shotgun barrels in 1974. I could be wrong about that, however.

Or your front teeth or your thumbnail.

How bout balloons tied to the fender stays of our bikes so they would sound like a Harley or a playing card clothes pinned to the stay for the same effect.

Yup, showing our age...

The Damascus, or should I say composite, barrels that I brought to Bill Moran for him to examine were a Parker GHE 16 with very fine pattern Damascus, a 12 gauge E Grade Lefever with quite large pattern Damascus, and a PH 12 gauge Parker with normal Twist Steel pattern. I thought this was a good variety for him to start his project. At the time I was discussing the Damascus project with him, he was proud of the belt buckle hideout knife he was building for "the government". I would love to have one of those belt buckle knives today. I'm sure it has been imitated by many makers.