Here is a knife Rocky recently built for me. It is similar to his brothers 16 bore, with green micarta over orange liners. The steel is AEB-L.The green is lighter than what the photo shows.
I believe it was Dale Howe that told me that he was relating a statement that was attributed to Tony Bose that goes something like this. May not be a word perfect rendition, but should convey the sentiment.
"What knife would you rather own. Something stamped out by a kid chained to a machine in China, or one from someone doing what he enjoys, who crafts each blade individually and with attention to quality and detail"
Years ago there used to be a saying. Support live music, hire live musicians.
I figure I'd much rather someone I know and like have my hard earned dough than someone I don't know or don't like. I have had the pleasure of speaking with all the fellows from whom I've purchased their knives directly.
I tell them the general parameters of what I want, ask for their input, then ask them to use their imagination and go where their fancy leads. I have yet to return a knife.
Perhaps its egocentric of me to think that they might have me in mind when they are crafting my knife, and that maybe, just maybe, I can have a small part in their success. I'd like to think so, cause I sure have them in mind when I'm skinning a critter with one of their creations.
Rocky Menefee's version of his brother Rick's "16 bore". AEB-L and ebony. I call it my "sweet-sixteen"
Rocky is a hell of nice guy, he will bend over backwards to please, i really enjoy talking with him, i have purchased a few knives off him and will post them but my pics do not compare to Geedubya, he makes most pics dull in comparison!, rock on Rocky!! Keep up the good work.
G could have a nice sideline career in product photography.
Dale, with all due respect,
Prolly not!
It's like this. I make jerky, cook, give away game meat, reload for about 60 different chamberings, refinish gunstocks, tinker with rifles, take a few pix. From time to time folk ask me to do something along these lines. They offer to pay. I tell them no. Those things are my "avocation". They can't be bought, only accepted(actually I'm sure I have my price, no one's offered enough yet,LOL). If I were to take pay, then someone would have a claim on my time and efforts.........
Nice pics G! That Snakewood is some cool stuff, that middle one is got a 4 1/8 handle 3.5 blade, after seeing that cool camo on Geedubya's i needed one, i am sure Rocky would build yeah one you wont regret it.
Looks like you eat like a king! I would love to make it down there one day, just might have to loose a few pounds before i come, that tenderloin in bacon is making my mouth water.
Rocky has 3 for me that are either finished or in different stages before completion, one being a large filet with gigged black g-10, one being a large skinner with snakewood, and one other. None of those are pictured here.
Once completed, I believe RJM will be taking a number of those pictured above to a knife show to be held in the near future. Perhaps he will chime in.
Rocky made a little dandy for me and even put my initials in the sheath. This is a great piece of work. And to think that he said these were not a great piece of ironwood.
That's a good lookin' knife. The ironwood burl looks exceptionally good. He did a nice job on the sheath as well. Nice design too. I can see a lot of use for a knife like that. That blade would 'pop' even more with some of those Menefee swedges along the spine.
Rocky is making me a 16 bore. I sent him some baleen that my bud watch4bear gave me, for scales. He's going to surprise me on steel and liners (but I see yellow in the teaser pic). He'll haul it to the show, so it'll be a while before I get to breast a bunch of birds with 'er.....
Talked my brother into helping build a pocket knife. I've been forgetting to post a picture of it so it's been carried and used lately. Overall I believe it turned out real slick.
I can tell you I'm going to need more than one Bud Diesel to not be a complete hysterical sissy bed wetter around rattlers. Man they creep me out. Whenever we go antelope hunting I'm like the kid in the swimming pool after watching Jaws...
Moore ok got hammered again. Damage to some exact same area as 2013. A friend of mine's sister had only been in her rebuilt home a few months. Gone again. i would think property there would get real cheap.
Spent the day with my nephew. He wanted " to catch a diamondback real bad" like most six year olds want to. So with a little luck we found one about his caliber.
All the Menefee's have a standing invitation to "The Swamp". Please factor in the heat & humidity before leaving home though. Those twins are tough as boot leather!
Ya know, one has to watch those Menefee boys. I got a package in the mail the other day from Rocky Menefee. A little while later I get a call from him sayin’ that he had sent me some knives. He sez, “take a look, see if ya’ like any. If so tell me which ones, and send the rest back. Then I’ll let you know what you owe me. So without further ado, here’s what he sent me.
Before I tell ya’ which I’m keeping a short anecdote…………...........
It’s a story about Pablo and Juan.
Seems Pablo and Juan are friends from a certain country down south. A good number of years back they each motivated north to seek their fortune. Each day they go to the intersection of a major traffic artery. Plenty of cars going to and fro, but caught at a long light. This gives Pablo and Juan lot of time to walk by with their sign asking for money.
Well this has gone on for a number of years.
Pablo lives in a fine house. His wife drives a Cadillac Escalade and his kids go to private school.
Juan however is barely making ends meet. His wife has to make her own tortillas from masa and his kids look like rag-a-muffins on their way to catch the bus to school.
Finally one day Juan asks Pablo “how come you do so good and I do so bad. We both panhandle the gringos for dinero.
Pablo sez to Juan, let me see your sign.
Juan does. His sign says……… will work for food, anything will help.
Pablo sez to Juan, no, no, no, you’re doing it all wrong. Here is the sign I use………
I like it a Lot! Nice color, wonder if theres any of that left? for that Other one we were talking about! Dam big Snake too! You can keep them down south!
My 16 bore showed up today. Rocky is a good guy. Sure done a nice job. And had to deal with me and all my whiny requests. He did agree to use some baleen for scales that watch4bear gave me. And it turned out superb......
That's a good lookin' knife Don. I like how he polished up that ricasso, and I like the finish on that blade too. That's a good, practical design that I'm sure you'll get a lot of use out if...especially killin'n as many critters as you do. Reckon it'd work we'll for skinnin' out pronghorn and mule deer heads too. Anyways, can't see that you need to be doin' any of your own grindin' on that one. Sweet blade. Leather or Kydex...?
I recived the 2 Knives posted by Rocky yesterday, they are Very Nice, my 1st Custom fillet Knife, and the little snakewood knife is just Great! Im already thinking about another one from Rocky. Just Like to say Thanks again ! John
I watched the astronauts walk on the moon while at the beach in Galveston Texas in 1969. My whole extended family spends a week in July there each year. I used to fish a lot, but these days, not so much. I got the filet a while back and Rocky sent me a skinner and the the jigged dumplin' last week. I haven't been to my lease lately, and am sufferin' from SDD (Skinning Deficit Disorder). Since I didn't figure on porkers at the beach, I left the Ram's horn skinner at home. I did bring these two.
So when my son caught a some fish, I figured what the hey, not hoglets, but better n' nuthin...........
Its a pleasure to filet with a sharp knife. The dumplin' is shaving sharp, and the filet is no slouch. Like the proverbial "knife through butter". AEB-L and jigged g-10.
I mentioned I don't fish much now, but that was not always the case. When I was a boy and would fish the piers and jetties at Sylvan beach in La Porte, at Rollover Pass in Bolivar, the pleasure pier in Galveston or jetties at Port Isabel. Use dead shrimp, squid or catch piggy-perch and use em' for cut bait.
Around the piers and rock groins there was always a hoard of hard-head catfish, which were bait-stealers and were trash fish that only blacks ate. However gafftops were prize.
Both Gafftops and hard-head catfish wriggle like hell when you grab them to take the hook out. Their pectoral and dorsal fins have a poisonous spines and you had to be careful not to get stuck cause if you did it always got infected. Then you had to go to the doctor and get a tetanus shot.
We always went bare-footed and folks would throw hard-heads down on the pier/jetty or cut their throats so they would die. Had to be careful not to step on one or kick it with your foot.
Like catfish they got a hard head and tough mouth and sometimes its easier just to cut the hook than to try to get a hook out (as in the picture above). I used to be pretty good at sliding the dorsal fin between my big toe and second toe, pressing down and then taking the hook out.
Hadn't thought about that in years. My grand-pa was not a union barber so he closed his shop on Wednesday. He, my grand-ma and I would leave early Tuesday afternoon and make the trip to Galveston, then take the ferry across to Bolivar then head to Rollover Pass, fish all night till about 9 AM the next morning. We'd make the two to three hour drive back to north Houston. I'd crash and he and my grandma would clean the fish. Back in the fifties' the pier at Rollover Pass, for a boy, was the Holy Grail, and fisherman's heaven. Jesse was tight with a buck, but when we went to Rollover Pass, he would spring for live shrimp (something as a boy I never had enough money to buy). We would "free shrimp" with long cane poles. I'd catch the schitt out of "Specs" and sand trout, and now and then even a gafftop. Folks would come up and say to my Grand-pa, "what bait" is that boy usin'. He would look at me and smile, then look back at the person asking the question. "It ain't the bait", he'd say, " that boy just know's how to hold his mouth right" and we'd both giggle to ourselves, cause we both knew that answer frustrated the hell out of folks.
I've been to those places when I lived in Brazoria County. Their most outstanding features (in the Summer) is that they are hotter than $ch!t. Texas City Dike too. 100% humidity and 105 degrees Fahrenheit gives a whole new meaning to 'hot'. No wonder those Karankawa Indians were so damn mean...they were either getting burned up by the heat and humidity, eaten alive by mosquitos, or drenched and blown around by torrential rains and hurricane winds. It had to be a miserable a$$ place back before the advent of air conditioning. It 'is' still a rather good place to go for hunting and fishing. I've killed a lot of doves in the Boliver area and down at Port O'Connor. And shot ducks and geese all over the place down there. Seein' your post above brings back a lot of memories. I'll say this...you 'use' the heck out of the good stuff you have...in this case custom knives. Were I a maker, I would be delighted to see my creations put to such good use as you do with em'.
Just a few weeks away from antelope, then lots of whitetail culling to start testing my 16 bore against perennial favorites from Wilson, Ingram and Krein...
Not only did Rocky knock it out of the park, he knocked it out of the parking lot and across the street and into the river
Outstanding work
Absolute killer Mammoth and Parson's made a spectacular sheath with inlay of rattle snake Rocky caught
Next up is one with coconut scales. Love this one too Orange liners
If you haven't yet, you should give Rocky a try. Super great guy and makes a heck of a knife. Thanks Rocky for taking such good care of me, once again.
Something like that. Rocky does do a bolster if a customer requests one. Said he doesn't have any pictures of his knives with one and wouldn't know where to look to find one.
Just got my little dumplin' from Rocky yesterday. I couldn't be happier with it. The knife turned out great and you couldn't ask for a nicer guy to deal with. Thanks again Rocky