Alex Paul
Although Foy Cochran’s hand made knives, with their brilliant stainless steel blades and elk bone handles, are pretty enough to sit on a mantle as works of art, their maker insists they are first and foremost tools of the trade for hunters and anglers.
Their blades shiny like a mirror and sharp as a razor, are designed to be “palmed” by a hunter dressing his kill. They are made to protect one’s hand from sharp bones and to reduce the amount of energy needed to get the job done quickly and efficiently.
Beauty and practicality combined into one tool.
“Our whole family is made up of hunters and fishermen,” the angular Cochran said, turning off the switch to one of several home made grinders and polishers in his small shop behind the family home on North River Drive. “When I first started making knives, I wanted to create something that would hold an edge and be useful.”
Today, some 28 years later, Cochran’s name is synonymous throughout the Willamette Valley with quality.
“When I was a kid, I built three or four knives in my dad’s shop…but they really weren’t very pretty,” Cochran said with a laugh.
Retired 11 years after a 33 year career at Foster Plywood, Cochran spends the fall and winter months planning, cutting, grinding and polishing dozens of knives, building up an inventory of about 25 knives in several sizes and shapes for the coming year.
“Because I’m retired, I like to spend the summer fishing,” Cochran said of his wet weather work schedule. Over the years Cochran has also built boats, including several for Clear Lake.
Cochran’s creations can range in price from $140 to $300 for his basic line of knives, or up to $700 for a custom order.
But, he says, unless a person has another income, or tackled the knife making full-time in earnest, it would be hard to make much of a living on its own.
Cochran’s son Mike was an impetus for his father’s knife building on a major scale.
“After I had built my first one, Mike just stared at it for about a half hour and then he said, ‘Dad, you could build them and sell them.’ So, I built 8 or 10 and soon other guys wanted them. I gave some away and sold a few. I think I sold some for about $5 each.”
Cochran threw himself into the craft, studying qualities of steel because he knew a key factor was he wanted knives that would hold an edge.
“I began with D2 steel and would spend time at the kitchen table at night drawing designs,” Cochran said. “I thought that in three years, I would be knowledgeable enough to build exactly the type of knives I wanted. In that time, I found how little I really knew.”
Cochran and his wife Martha attend the annual Eugene knife show each April and it was there that he met Paul Boss from California.
“He is trained in heat and cryogenic treating steel,” Cochran said. “I shipped some of my knives to him and he’s the only heat treater I use. He has perfected his trade. I’ve tried others, but it didn’t work.”
Five years into his project, Cochran said he was closing in on process and developed a three-phase goal:
A Foy Cochran knife should:
– Hold an edge
– Be used for a lifetime.
– Be useful to pass down to further generations.
Cochran has only a few caveats to those traits.
The knife should not be used to hack through bone.
It should not be hammed into rocks while cutting.
It should not be used as a hammer.
“Basically, my lifetime warranty is valid as long as the knife has been used for the purpose intended,” Cochran said. “So far, I’ve only had to replace three knives. My customers are sacred. I have second and third generation families who buy my knives and I appreciate that.”
Cochran will also sharpen every knife he has made for life at no cost to the owner.
Over the years, Cochran has shifted his choice of steel to 440 stainless.
“It holds the edge and won’t rust,” Cochran said. “Rust will destroy a good knife and it doesn’t take long to set in. Once the pitting starts, it will defect a knife rapidly. Stainless won’t do that.”
To avoid rust, Cochran says outdoors men should remove their knives from leather sheaths, wipe them down with a dry cloth and apply a light oil to the metal surface.
“Leather seems to have an acid in it that will pit a knife in a coupe days,” Cochran said. “I store my hunting knives outside the sheath in a dry place, like your sock drawer.”
Cochran has made folding knives over the years, but is now focusing on fixed blade knives only.
“I enjoy making them the most,” he says.
Cochran has what he calls his “standard lineup” of knives, all focusing around a specific need for hunting of fishing.
The most popular is fairly small, about the length of one’s open hand.
“I’d say about 90-95 percent of knives I sell are my design,” Cochran said. “About 5-10 percent are custom made. On a custom made knife, the trick is getting the design from the customer’s mind into my mind.”
Using American made steel blanks, Cochran has templates of his basic knife line and cuts the steel, often using a drill press to notch his way around the design.
Customers can choose from two thickness of steel, 5/32nds or 1/2 inch.
“The quality is the same, the difference is that it takes me twice as long to work the thick steel,” Cochran said.
A variety of grinders, each with a specific purpose, shapes the steel and a milling machine cuts out inlets for the elk shine bone handles that will complete the tool.
“Even after I use the milling machine, I hand file the handle area,” Cochran said.
In all, an average knife will take about 20 hours of Cochran’s time and expertise.
A drawer is filled with elk shin bone slices, which he places in a jar of dye, to produce a unique handle polished to a brilliant sheen.
The bone is attached to the steel with two pins and two extra holes which allow a special epoxy glue to form a solid bond.
“I looked several years for material that would work the best and found that elk shin bone doesn’t shrink or warp,” Cochran said. “Between my family and my friends, I have a good supply of bone. I let it dry for a year”
Although most of his creations are owned and carried by Willamette Valley outdoors men, Foy Cochran knives are found nationwide.
“I kind of like to keep my work close to home,” Cochran said of his Willamette Valley customers.