True artistic creativity sometimes comes from making something out of an unusual material.
A letter opener made from a turkey leg would probably qualify, and one Texas County man’s work displays that brand of creativity: Houston resident John Hubbard.
A second-generation knife maker who began coming up with his own creations in 1973, Hubbard got into knife making by following in his father’s footsteps during his high school years in Bowling Green. He is now an accomplished knife artisan who takes serious pride in his work and has shown examples of it at several prestigious shows.
“My dad taught me the basics,” Hubbard said. “At first I was doing for myself –– if you wanted a deer antler on the handle of a knife, you couldn’t buy it at a store. Then I wanted to do what dad did and as time went on, my work got better.
“Then people would see it and say, ‘Make me one.’”
Hubbard’s father was a stickler for how his knife blades were finished, a trait that was passed on to his son. In turn, Hubbard won’t settle for anything short of a mirror finish, just like his paternal mentor.
“When I was making knives, I thought I would have it pretty good,” Hubbard said. “He would say things like, ‘Aw, you’ve got scratches here and your fitting isn’t right.’ I’d get mad at him, but it paid off later on.
“He turned me into a perfectionist –– you’re never satisfied. I could probably do a little less finish work and make more money selling more knives for less money, but that’s just not me.”
Years ago, Hubbard lived in Texas County while working at the Lee garment factory in Seymour. His dad was for years a chief sewing machine technician for Lee.
As his website states, Hubbard is “an avid sportsman, and uses many different natural elements in his designs.” Each knife he makes is distinctively unique, with “clean personalized touches” and handles made of antler or exotic wood.
But his signature creation is the turkey leg handle letter opener. Hubbard, who calls his business Hubbard Custom Knives, makes the handles firm enough for every-day use by finishing them with resin, one kind on the interior and another on the exterior.
“I came up with the idea a long time ago,” he said. “The first time I killed a turkey, it had a good spur on it, and I knew it wouldn’t be strong enough for a knife handle but I thought it would make a nice handle for a letter opener. It took me a while to perfect the technique and figure out what would look good, but I eventually did.
“There are some tricks to working with it and getting the finish looking real nice. But those are trade secrets.”
Hubbard said he’s seen other turkey leg products that he feels don’t measure up.
“There have been guys who have tried to copy it, but they just stick a turkey leg on a knife or something and don’t finish it out,” he said. “If you’re going to make something, you might as well use the best stuff you got and do the best job you can, but I think it’s just guys trying to make a quick buck.
“You couldn’t get away with that in my house. Not with my dad around –– he’d make you do it over.”
Claiming “it’s nice to change things up now and then to keep from getting bored,” Hubbard has also designed specialty jewelry and decorative art using spurs, feathers, toes, claws, and other natural materials. He also makes fishing rods with deer-antler handlesubbard Hubba, and is a long-time turkey call maker, creating unique square-shaped, two-piece calls out of slate, antler, and wood.
As any good turkey call maker would attest, a quality slate call requires a well-matched striker (the part that’s scraped across the slate, thus creating the sound).
“I work with a striker until it’s tuned just right for a particular call,” Hubbard said. “It can take a lot of time, but it’s necessary to end up with a call that sounds like it should.”
Hubbard also enjoys trout fishing, and has been known to catch a few with his own rods and custom-designed trout bait.
“When I get done making a rod, I have to field-test it,” he said. “Living close to Montauk (State Park) is a plus.”
Purposefully keeping his product base to a manageable number of items, Hubbard views each piece he produces as a unique entity.
“A lot of what I make is one-of-a-kind,” he said. “I like to do stuff other people aren’t doing, and coming up with my own ideas. The best part about it when somebody sees one of your items for the first time and you see their face and it shows that ‘wow’ factor.
“The payoff isn’t so much the money, it’s seeing peoples’ faces when they look at something they’ve never seen before and go ‘wow.’ Then you know you’ve done a good job, and that’s worth more than money.”
To begin a project, Hubbard typically starts with bar stock steel, large pieces of deer antler, and blocks of various kinds of wood. He then goes to work in his trailer-turned-workshop with his band saw, drill press, belt sanders, grinders, custom-made buffing system (with several gauges of grits), and other power and hand-held tools. As some of the walls and shelves in his home depict, Hubbard also produces free-hand drawings with outdoor themes, and has even fashioned intricate morel mushrooms out of deer antler.
His wife, Donna, is sometimes astounded at what he makes –– basically from scratch.
“I don’t know where he comes up with some of his ideas,” she said. “But when he gets an idea, he just works on it till he gets it perfected and everyone’s just amazed.”
“My dad said I was pretty close to a genius,” Hubbard said. “About two feet away from one.”
Years ago when Hubbard was just starting out in the realm of knife-making, he would use all kinds of available material to make knives.
“We’d use whatever we could find,” he said, “like lawn mower blades, circle saw blades and files. Files make pretty good knives, but they’re awful brittle and they’ll snap on you if you get them in a bind.”
While some customers prefer to have him make knives or other articles using items they’ve harvested themselves, Hubbard in most cases provides his own materials, gathering antlers and wood from friends and acquaintances (sometimes on a trade-out basis), and obtaining the right grade of steel and other metal from various sources. He’s been making items in a commercial capacity for about 20 years, mostly selling things through word of mouth.
“And it’s really been mostly return business,” Hubbard said. “I always did well around Christmas, because people who knew what I could do wanted to give things to people they knew.”
As his prowess continues to gain notoriety, Hubbard’s work has this year become available for purchase online (at www.wildturkeylegs.com) and two area retail locations: Howell County Outpost Outfitters in West Plains and Happy Pappy’s at Montauk.
Hubbard, who is a former Missouri junior state champion trap shooter, said he hopes to eventually see his work offered in more stores, but knows the limitations of his one-man operation.
“It’s just me,” he said, “and I don’t want to get too big to where I have to work night and day to keep up.
“But I’ll probably do this till I die. It gets into your blood.”
The payoff isn’t so much the money, it’s seeing peoples’ faces when they look at something they’ve never seen before and go ‘wow.’ Then you know you’ve done a good job, and that’s worth more than money.”
To view a slide show of John Hubbard’s creations, log onto the Hubbard Custom Knives website at www.wildturkeylegs.com. Hubbard can also be reached by calling 417-962-9992.