Terry Guinn, Knife Maker

Terry Guinn Knives are works of art. Terry Guinn, the son of Jerry and Joyce Guinn, was born and raised in Palo Pinto County. He admired his father's work as a machinist (think modern day blacksmith) so much that he wanted to work with metal, as well. In 1982 when Terry was looking for a hobby, he watched his father make a knife from an old file and decided that he wanted to learn that craft. He visited a few knife makers' shops and found magazine articles and catalogues, and although he had never trained under a knife maker, he thought he could be one himself.

Terry is a part time knife maker. There are some knife makers who do it for a living. He doesn't want to do that because he thinks it would take some of the enjoyment out of it. He enjoys the creativity of knife making and the challenge of figuring out the best way to do a certain operation. He does not specialize in any certain type of knife, but most of the knives he makes are "hunting knives".

Terry only made three or four knives a year until he made one for a coworker in 1991. That was his first sale. After moving to Seymour, Texas, in 1992, he created a knife making shop and started selling to local hunters. With the money from the sale of his knives, Terry would buy more equipment and supplies.

Terry enjoys the creativity and satisfaction that comes from turning raw materials into beautiful and useful tools. He crafts each knife individually, from the forming and heat treatment of the blade to the final sheath making.

Terry has built automatics, lock backs, slip joints, liner locks, bowies, daggers, camp knives, kitchen knives, gut hooks, and tactical and leather round knives. Since he is a part time knife maker, he has more freedom to experiment with designs and methods of knife making.

Although Terry doesn't attend a lot of knife shows, for the last 18 months he has been making Butterfly knives. There aren't a lot of custom makers doing this type of knife, and Terry's knives currently have a waiting period of about six months.

Terry graduated from Mineral Wells High School in 1978. The last two years in high school he was in the I.C.T. program and only went to school half a day. He and his wife, Shelly, have lived in Seymour for the past eleven years. They moved there when Terry was transferred by Ensearch Processing Company, now Cantera Resources.

Terry and Shelly have two children, Curtis 21 who is married to Shawna and lives in Abilene, and Armenda, 18, who just graduated from Seymour High School.

Anyone interested in more information about Terry Guinn Knives can go online to http://www.fortunecity.com/business/lombard/226/index.htm , or email Terry at Terryguinn7@cs.com .