“A KNIFE IS AN EXTENSION OF YOUR EXPERIENCE. AND I’VE HAD MORE EXPERIENCES THAN MOST PEOPLE.”
—BOB LOVELESS
A week after BLADE Magazine Cutlery Hall-Of-Fame® member Bob Loveless died at age 81 on Sept. 2, 2010, Los Angeles Times reporter Valerie J. Nelson wrote a lengthy story on the man who sold his first knife to the Abercrombie & Fitch sporting outfitter for $14 more than 55 years earlier.
Nelson wrote that Loveless “made some of the world’s most coveted sporting cutlery by refining knife design to high art.” These succinct words convey a glimpse of the influence this giant in the cutlery industry wielded during his lifetime. In this 50th anniversary year for BLADE®, his legacy stands tall among those who have dedicated their lives in building the knife industry to what it is today.
Truth is, there’s scarcely an aspect, nook or cranny of the knife business that Robert Waldorf Loveless did not touch during his lifetime. He was forthright, sometimes gruff and always prone to speak his mind. During an interview for BLADE, he once asked this writer what the tapping noise was that he heard in the
