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About The Hawgman

Mike Franklin "Hawgman "
Born on April 1, 1947 in Maysville, Ky. Spent most of my childhood playing some kind of "ball game", working at a drive in movie, hunting and shooting, and making stuff, my own bows and arrows, airplanes, spears, parachutes, and "play" knives. Liked music a lot and was taken under the wings of a music teacher in elementary school. Practiced voice every day. Decided to be music teacher. Graduated from Mason Co. High School in 1965 with honors. Received a full music scholarship to Morehead State Univ. Played rock & roll and worked as a plumber summers and weekends. Graduated MSU with honors in 1969 and started teaching vocal music at Amelia H. S. near Cincinnati. Made my first knife that year!
Taught for four years at Amelia, making knives along the way. I had a $29.00 K Mart grinder, a hand drill, and a lot of hand tools. Actually sold some knives to relatives and friends. Took up bow hunting very seriously. Used my own knives a lot. Early knives had whitetail antler handles, big guards, but caps, etc. Saw my first Gun Digest Book of Knives! It was the first time I came to realize that there were other people out there making knives. Called Jimmy Lile and talked a lot. We became friends. I sent some knives to him to critique, and he invited me to come to the
Knifemakers Guild show in Kansas City. I took about a dozen knives, mostly small muzzleloading knives and one large Bowie with a 14" blade. All of them sold! This was in 1973. I took a job in Columbus, Ind. that year. That was my last year teaching. I moved back to my home town of Aberdeen, Ohio. And started making knives full time. Starved a lot that year. Put my first ad in the Blade Mag.. It was a drop point hunter for $50.00. Things got better (they had only one way to go). They age of the drop point was drawing to a close. Folders were what was happening. I didn't make folders, so things were not so good. I dropped out of the Guild, but kept on making knives full time. Times were hard, though. I got married, and my two children, Jarrod and Caitlin were born. It was in this time period that I didn't advertise and didn't go to may shows. A lot of people thought I had died! I almost did, with a heart attack in 1987, then a divorce.
Eventually I started making folders. First I made regular lockbacks, then one called a "swivellock", which worked like a Barry Wood, then liner locks, and then I came up with my own mechanism called the "double action", because it locked open and closed. Over the years I met and became friends with
A.G. Russell . A.G. had faith in me and featured my knives in his catalogs many times. We did a lot of business together. He was constantly riding me to get back into the Guild, Marsha joined him in song(we got married in 1990) I could take the pressure no longer and reapplied in 1990 and became voting member (again) in 1992.

The HAWG! Thing.

All through the years there had been requests from friends and customers for me to make a knife that they could afford. One that would be easy to sharpen, and that would take some serious use and come back for more. I had talked many times with Dwight and Tom Fulton of Ripley, Ohio. They run a hardware store where I do a lot of gun business. So over the years a concept began to take shape. Then in 94, my friend Frank Fulton and I were going on a hog hunt in Texas. We were taking Marsha's Explorer pulling a trailer loaded with two 4x4 ATV's and assorted guns, cameras and other stuff. At the very beginning, Frank said he wasn't feeling good, and that he must have pulled a muscle in his chest loading his bike. Right away we had problems tracking the trailer. We had to stop many times and add weight to the tongue to try and stop the shakes. Frank was getting worse, and I tried to get him to turn back. He wouldn't do it.

 

When we arrived in Texas Frank was really bad, and was swallowing handfuls of Motrin for the pain. I went out and found a pig, and shot it & we headed back with me at the wheel. He just got worse. Almost to Little Rock, he could take the pain no more and I stopped at a little station and had the attendant call 911. Luckily, a hospital was just 5 min. away. At the hospital, they could not find the problem, and recommended that he be taken to Little Rock to a better facility. We decided that I would have to take the vehicle and all our stuff on home. I called wives and headed for Ohio. Along the way I had many hours to think about everything. Eventually, I started thinking about a new line of knives. They would be stoutly built, blasted, with tough handles (black linen micarta), easy to sharpen, have Kydex sheaths and have low price tags. I knew this line would be separate from my Franklin Custom Knives stuff, so a new logo and name was due. Mile after mile, hour after hour, I thought about it. Eventually, I started thinking about hogs & the busted hunt, etc. Then it hit me. How about Hog Knives? I could use a stylized hog head for the logo. Hogs are big, mean, ugly, and tough. That's it, but let's change Hog to HAWG!
After arriving home and telling my family about all the things that had happened on the trip, I told them about my idea. Their reaction was a big yawn. By the way, Frank had a blood clot in his lung and had damaged his kidneys with the Motrin. He was in Little 'Rock for a week. He's O.K. now, mean as ever. I sat down and designed nine sheath knives and one folder. I decided on 1095 for the steel—it's cheap, holds up well, and is easy to sharpen. I had some ideas on the logo, which Marsha took to one of her high school students who was a great artist. He did the rest. The HAWG! Logo was born. I also added "Knives With An Attitude" as a slogan. I made up the knives, took photos, and we made up a little flyer. Marsha and I took a Blade magazine and got the address for every knife dealer we could find, and sent them all a flyer. The response was unbelievable! The phone started ringing off the hook.
After a few months our dealers wanted to order more folders, so I added different blade designs to my one folder design. Eventually I started to add tactical folders and business took off again. Really quick we saw the demise of the sheath knives. The only ones in our line now are neck knives. One evening I started seeing a knife design in my head, and sat down and drew up the Millenium folder, (now the 2000). It had what I came to call a drop tanto blade. I made up a prototype, photographed it and placed it in an ad in Blade Magazine. Boom again! The rest they say, is history. Then came the Evolution, the Nemesis. More recently, the Atack series. HAWG! Knives had developed into the most "distinctive" line of tactical folders offered today, say our dealers and customers. It's easy to recognize the radical blade with 3 or four separate grinds, the HAWG! Ripper chain saw serration, carbon fiber scales, and way out colors on the anodized titanium liners and bolsters. Now HAWG! Knives can be seen and ordered on the Net!
Thank the Lord for my friends who stood by me when things were not so good, for two great children, one great stepson (mostly responsible for this web site), and for Marsha, who is the one really responsible for any success I have in my life.
Mike Franklin – "
Hawgman "