When BLADE Magazine Cutlery Hall-Of-Fame® member Dan Dennehy joined the Navy in 1940, there was no U.S. custom knife industry. A handful were making non-production knives in America—Hoyt Buck, John Nelson Cooper, John Ek, Harry Morseth, David Z. Murphy, Frank Richtig, Hall-Of-Famers Bo Randall, Rudy Ruana and William Scagel, and a few others—but that was about it. Unbeknownst to Dan, he was about to join their august company.
In 1941 he he found ideal for making knife handles. The next year, with World War II raging and while stationed in central Florida, he thumbed a ride to Randall’s knife shop in Orlando. When Bo learned Dan had thumbed to get there, he dropped everything he was doing, took him out to his shop, made a knife for him and charged him $8.50 ($158 in today’s money) for it. Dan carried the knife for the rest of the war and his life was changed forever.
