Thank you very much, Doug!

I bought 4 or 5 knives from Rick and he was always a pleasure to deal with. When I bought my Bowles Special from him, it came without a thong hole which I had ordered. He insisted that I send it back to him so that he could get it right. He didn’t for one second try to convince me to like it as it was.

I once talked to Rick on the phone for 6 hours. We talked about everything from the evolution of his dealer special to Striper fishing out on Chesapeake Bay. We talked about his family of which he was indeed very proud of. We talked about his art which turned out to be extremely interesting.

As a non artistically person, I was curious about how he learned how to do the spectacular scrimshaw of which he is so famous. In a very humble manner, he explained that it was truly a “gift” from God, and that was it. He also talked about how in each scrim, there was something “hidden”, and sometimes more than one thing. He told me that in a couple of his scrims, there were things, that to his knowledge, nobody had ever discovered.

I severely regret that I didn’t talk to him more often. He knew so much about things that I did not. I always spent many days afterward reflecting on the conversation. He was truly a gift for me to get to know and I will cherish our talks forever.

Coach