The typical customer in here, you can't really put your finger on it. I've had
two of our customers that used the knives to cut
the umbilical cord of their children when they were born
and so I always hope they have lots of children.
My name is Virgil Campbell, and I am a knifemaker here at mile
20 on the Seward Highway.
You know, I don't know if
this shop could exist anywhere else. My father, when he
bought this place, you know, I thought he was out of his mind. You know, we were out here in
the middle of nowhere. But he saw location, location, location.
We get a real
cross section of the traveling public through here.
We've got friends we've got to know from West Virginia for a while through this shop.
We've got some folks from Hawaii we've gotten to know really well.
The Secretary of the Navy, the Chief Steward from Air France
The guys from Aerosmith. Steven Tyler and Joe Perry.
A wide variety, so like I said it's like traveling without leaving home.
Dawn and I have been here working together every day seven days a week
and everybody thought we'd kill each other, but it's worked very well.
And it's a good match, good team.
Well I said now look, how many people do you know live and work around each
other twenty-four hours a day.
I found out what doesn't work, I know what does now, so that's what we do.
A young guy came in with a titanium rod in his leg that they were going to
take out, and so I forged that out into a blade
and for the handle of that we took a piece of
Mammoth leg bone, and I routed out a spot
in the side of the handle, and I put the screw that held the
titanium rod in his leg, and I put clear epoxy
over that. So you could see the screw in the handle
and then the blade was made from the titanium rod.
Learning to make knives, it's just a lot of
I don't know, trial and error I guess.
Typical materials blade wise, it's recycled materials.
Spring stock and chainsaw guidebar. So i'll burn
out a blank, of no particular shape
and then after I forge that
then it's just whatever, you know, rings my bell
at the time.
My father made a lot of
knives here. Before he got a power hammer.
and you start looking like popeye after a while
and then after the blade is ground out, then I'll just look
through the box and pick up handles until I find one that I like
you know, fossilized bones, mammoth ivory
mammoth bones, you know walrus usuk
you know, you name it and I've got it
as far as a handle goes
and if I put it together I just hope that somebody else likes it enough to buy it
and you know, I don't think a guy ever quits learning
if you do, you're done.
You know Alaska, it just kind of grows on you
IRBI knives I guess is just a good fit in Alaska. I'd Rather Be Independent
and that's what it is here
and when you heat that blade up
and you stamp your name in it, you've immortalized yourself a little
bit, because that's going to be there long after I'm gone. And maybe someday in a hundred years
somebody will look at it and say, I wonder who this guy was, you know!