John Weever, knife maker, helps U.S. Special Forces
 

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Larue Barnes: On the edge

John Weever, knife maker, helps U.S. Special Forces

John S. Weever Jr. and his wife, Sue, have had a peaceful environment at their home on the Brazos River since 1998.

But the former Cleburne insurance agent admits he has lived most of his life on the edge of adventure, longing for surges of adrenaline.

His life’s journey took a patriotic turn recently as he has been inspired to handcraft unique military knives and donate them to select U.S. Special Forces soldiers.

A traveling childhood

John S. Weever Jr. was born Sept. 27, 1938, in Dallas to John S. Weever and Barbara Weever. He said he and his mother traveled from one U.S. Army camp to another in his preschool years with his father, a U.S. Army major and company commander.

“Mother and I went to the government developmental projects by Baylor Hospital in Dallas when my dad was sent into the European theater of the war,” he said. “During my childhood I traveled extensively with my grandparents, Dr. George and Irma Weever. They treated me as an adult — allowing me to explore on my own when we traveled.

“In Mexico, I watched artisans melt silver and make their creations in molds on the sidewalk. I watched how candles were made for the Catholic churches there. I had conversations with those who could answer me in their broken English — everything was of interest to me. I wanted to know everything about everything.”

After the war, his father became a pharmaceutical sales representative. He was away from home often because his territory included five states. The family included a younger sister, Mary Jane, by the time they bought a home near Love Field in Dallas. John spent time in his father’s workshop.

“I had my own work table with a vise, grinder, honer, chisels, etc. I recall constructing tiny rockets. That was the beginning of my using my hands, I think.”

“I loved the social aspect of school,” John said. “I went to Hillcrest High School in Dallas, among very affluent and cosmopolitan classmates.”

He had a great time and was excited when he was chosen Best Looking Boy his senior year and was successful in running track. He received a pink convertible for a graduation gift in 1956, with life at its best, he thought.

“But I was in for some changes in my life,” Weever said. “I attended the University of Colorado in Boulder. I had visited the area many times with my grandparents. I chose a pre-med major, like the three generations before me. I pledged Phi Delta fraternity and wound up winning a decathlon through a physical education class and was invited to run track.”



Changing times

Things were going well when his world fell apart. His father died of a heart attack at age 49. John dropped out of school. He dropped other things as well.

“Our family attended church at Lover’s Lane Methodist Church as I was growing up. I moved away from all that.”

He joined the U.S. Army in 1958, being sent to Korea.

“At Fort Chafee, Ark., I was the last of a brown-boot army,” he said. “The guy behind me was issued black boots. All of us before him had the brown ones. I dyed mine to make sure that they were black. When I got my official haircut the barber told me proudly that Elvis Presley had sat in that very same chair.”

He grinned and added, “Our conversation and my haircut were over before I knew what had happened.”

He said he looked for something adventuresome to help him in his despondency.

“I had no previous experience with real weapons. As a child I loved to shoot my BB gun. I concentrated on firing the M-1 rifle accurately and wound up with the camp’s highest score. They rewarded me with an airplane coming for me. I boarded it with the general. It was quick — I saluted him, we went up, we shot the bull, and I got out.”

After his discharge from the Army in 1962, Weever worked for a time at Texas Instruments.

“I was a technician, working with developing Kodak’s materials. It was boring, and I decided I wanted to find a job in the medical field.”

His search for adventure took him a long way from Dallas. With $15 in his pocket, Weever drove his Volkswagen Beetle all the way to Jewish Hospital in St. Louis, Mo.

“I was given a job in the lab there. I wouldn’t get a pay check for two weeks, and my money was almost gone. I was offered an additional job three nights a week at Barnes Hospital, nearby.

“I spent the nights in the blood bank there while I ran the chemistries. I was living mostly on orange juice.

“I had learned to ice skate back in high school and went to Forrest Park there in St. Louis to skate. I met Sue Fairfield one night when I was offered hot chocolate and introduced to her by her roommates. They were all social work graduate students at St. Louis University.”

The couple married a few months later on April 18, 1965.



Back to his roots

While they lived in Illinois, John completed his bachelor’s degree and received his master’s degree in urban and regional planning from Southern Illinois University in 1969.

“I had been a poor student earlier in college, but I excelled in my graduate level courses. That was a secure feeling for me.”

They returned to Texas in 1971. Weever was director of planning for the East Texas Council of Governments in Kilgore for two years. Then he served as assistant director of the Fort Worth Planning Department and created the Office of Human Development.

“But I needed more money for my family. We had all three children by then. I had the opportunity to become a State Farm agent in Cleburne in 1978. It was a ‘from scratch’ agency. I didn’t know a soul in Cleburne. I had zero clients. It was a real challenge, but I built a successful agency.

“I believe that salesmen are born, not made. My real challenge for 25 years was representing my clients’ claims to the insurance company. People don’t always realize how you try very hard to help them in their time of need.”



Risky adventures

Weever’s world widened when he bought his first BMW motorcycle.

“I needed an edge. I needed adventure and excitement. So I began group riding with some friends from high school and their friends.”

His self-confidence was evident when he decided to make an almost 10,000-mile journey although he had never ridden his motorcycle outside of Cleburne.

“We were gone three weeks. It was glorious — seeing Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, Idaho, Montana — all the way to Calgary, Canada, and back. I’ve always felt that life is to be lived.”

But his life was at risk. Soon afterwards he had quadruple bypass heart surgery.

“I was having heart problems when I left on that trip. I just didn’t accept the fact, I think.”

After only seven weeks, however, Weever was back on the road again.

He decided to close his doors at his insurance agency in 2003. He spent seven weeks in four states, enjoying the release from stress.

“In 2004, the sights I saw were indescribable as I rode a motorcycle in the Alps of Austria,” he said. “Then there were 16 days in Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island.”

He smiled and explained, “Up in those mountains, there are no railings. You are literally on the edge.



A new trade

Weever has found creative fulfillment for the past 23 years through knife making.

He began making hand-crafted hunting knives after seeing them displayed at gun shows in the Texas-Oklahoma area in 1985.

“Since I like to work with my hands and have been an avid hunter, I saw an opportunity to develop a hunter’s tool called a Knachet. I donated one in 1987 to the Heritage Ball as an item for their fundraising.

“I know where all of my earliest knives found their homes — some are framed.”

During the past 15 years Weever has fine tuned his craft and now produces hunting knives with blades designed from metals such as Vascoware, Damascus steel and stainless steel. Handles are designed from exotic materials such as fossilized whale disc, fossilized mammoth ivory and ram horn. A custom-made sheath is prepared for each knife from elephant ear — or sometimes crocodile skin — by cutting, molding and sewing to fit.

On July 27, 1999, Weever was inducted into the Knifemakers Guild at its annual meeting.

To be honored with membership, a knife maker must be nominated by active members and serve a three-year probationary period during which he prepares and shows knives he has made at the annual KG show and sale.

“My mentors were the late Martin Pullen from Granbury and Clay Gault from the Austin area,” he said. “The KG meetings are shows held in various cities across the United States. I’ve been to Las Vegas, New Orleans and Orlando in recent years. The guild is made up of 400 members from the United States and several foreign countries.

“Some of the work there is at the artist level — using gold inlays, scrimshaw engraving — selling for $15,000 to $30,000. I’m not in that league. But a guild is an exchange of ideas. I am not a bladesmith, who pounds metal out and spends time making the blade. It comes to me in strips of different crusty thicknesses. I do not forge the steel. I buy it and grind the blade out by hand.”

The knife handles come from horns and antlers — in five-inch by 1.5 inch slabs.

“There have been two phases in my work. In the past I had settled down with a traditional stick knife. Then, I began making pocket knives. I had so many orders for those that I had to stop making them.

“Elephant sheaths have become my trademark. I plan to eventually highlight them at safari shows. I finish one, and it’s gone. I’m holding on to my work for a while.”



Serving in his own way

In March 2007, as Weever watched the news and saw U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, he wanted to help. His idea was to design and make a tactical military knife that could be used in extreme war conditions by members of U.S. Special Forces.

“I wanted to make a knife for the war effort and contribute it to our country — to help our troops better defend themselves. But I didn’t know how to go about it. To be honest, I didn’t know how to design a knife to kill a person — essential for war.”

Then he received a telephone call.

“At a gun show I had sold a knife to a dealer from Odessa, and he sold it to Jeffrey Wemmer from Monahans in January 2007. Wemmer called me later, wanting a left-handed sheath, as well. I learned that he is a military webbing supply expert.”

The two men had much in common. Each is a patriotic adventurer.

“We clicked. He is more verbose than I. I told him I’d like to contribute to the military effort with my knives, but didn’t know how to get them to the front-line troops. He provides an entire catalog of equipment for the forces that they buy personally before they are sent into the field. He told me he’d help me on the design.”

Wemmer made a sketch and mailed it. Many planning discussions took place on the phone. Weever added his own modification and mailed it back. After more discussions on the sketch, he made a prototype and sent it to Wemmer. All together these communications by mail and telephone took more than two months.

But there was a flaw in the knife.

“The handle was too short. Our special forces are big men — with larger hands than mine.”

Weever made changes, and after two more months of discussions and revisions, got approval on a second prototype. He spent the next six months creating 25 of the hand-crafted knives.

“After nine months, Jeffrey and I met for the first time in person at a Dallas Safari Show. We discussed how the knives were to be distributed. Each knife will be boxed with Wemmer’s letter, giving the history of how the knife came about and what we need from the recipient [how the knife performs in the field]. We are asking that this report be made by e-mail or letter back to us.

“Wemmer will fly to Iraq in the next 30 days to hand out 10 or 12 of the knives to mountain troops, Marines and Special Forces. The remainder will be disbursed by his contacts in the military world. All of the originals will be at no cost to the troops.”

Weever remembers the pride he felt when he gave away his first military knife.

“A U.S. Army Special Forces soldier rang my doorbell at my home. The Bronze Star recipient had been sent by a local church friend to me for a knife. I was so proud to give it to him. His name and location must be kept secret.”

Weever makes the knives, but he said others also contribute to the cause.

“Paul Bos of Idaho did the heat treating of the blades; Crucible Steel of Arlington donated the S30V steel; Texas Knife Makers Supply of Houston donated G-10 handle material, and Pop’s Knife Makers Supply from Georgia donated the stainless steel bolts,” he said. “All provided the finest of their supplies to me at no cost since they knew it was going to our troops.”

He understands how each soldier is loved by family.

The Weevers have three children, Lesly Spencer of Aubrey and Todd Weever and Grant Weever of McKinney. They have three grandsons. The Weevers attend Cleburne Bible Church.

Sue Weever said John is glad to be able to do something for his country.

“He has told me several times that he would go, himself, if he could,” she said.

Weever looked down at his gleaming creation and said, “I can make 50 of these in a year if I work very hard at it. It’s the least I can do.”

I thought about John Weever, living his life on the edge of adventure, searching for one thrill after another. How interesting that as he quietly serves his country now with his hands and his heart, he has found the greatest excitement of all.



This story was suggested by Linda Fagan.



Larue Barnes may be reached at laruebarnes@yahoo.com.

Great story and some good Americans. Wish there was a photo of the Knife?

Yeah me too. Its the least they could have done.

Thank you for the Kind words!
 

saw this post in google of my father's life and just wanted to stop in. if any of you guys still want to see or maybe purchase one he still makes them by request only. also here is his site weeverknives.com .

tweever, you need to read the board rules and stickies and introduce yourself in the proper place before posting again.

Appreciate your cooperation.

TR

Attachment 16563 I believe this is the knife in question. I found it on their website weeverknives.com .

Sorry about that just wanted to send you that info.