The Artistry of Ralph P. Bone

This presents the artistry of Ralph Parsons Bone, Master Engraver and custom gun and knife maker, in conjunction with the knife-making artistry of Enedino De Leon and several custom gun makers, with whom Bone chose to collaborate his artistry.

The Artistry of Ralph P Bone displays the quality and progression of Bone's multifaceted artistry. The book provides details of Bone's life, commencing with his venturing into knife-making, as a kid, and to highlighting his multiple careers. Bone was best known as a custom knife maker, for the first one half of his life, and, later, as a custom gun maker and highly innovative master engraver, which latter profession he pursued until his death.

In Section 1, the reader is familiarized with the standard and non-standard knife models, designed and produced by Bone, throughout his career. Specific information is provided to enable the reader to readily identify and to determine the approximate production time line of any Ralph Bone knife. Included are illustrations of all Standard Production knives of the company, along with non-standard production and a few Special Order, prototype, experimental and one-of-a-kind knives produced.

Section 1, also, introduces Enedino De Leon, who Bone acclaimed as his favorite knife maker. De Leon commenced his knife making career, as a young man, under Bone's tutorship, and became very famous and perpetuated Bone's knife making legacy for fifty years, until De Leon's own death. Also included in Section 1 is the writer's estimate of the total knife production volume of, both, Bone and Enedino De Leon, at the Ralph Bone Knife Company and throughout their lives.

In Section 2, The Gunmaking and Engraving Artistry of Ralph Parsons Bone, delves into Ralph Bone's career as a highly accomplished custom gun maker and Master Firearms Engraver. First was to display the development of Bone's talent as an artist and an entirely self-taught Master Engraver which, commenced when he was a teenager.

The writer chose to present examples of Bone's gun making and engravings in date order of his performance, noting the progressive development of his talent, and his unique engraving innovations, which gained him special attention from the industry and c) the infinite attention to detail, with which he executed his work. Also presented are illustrations of Bone's engravings, in conjunction with the talent of a few highly talented custom gun makers with whom he chose to work.

With the permission of Master Engraver Ron Smith, included are excerpts from Smith's first book "Drawing & Understanding Scroll Designs (for Artists, Engravers and Collectors)". Specific examples of Ralph Bone's engravings are presented to highlight Smith's instructions. The purpose, in doing so, was to seize the opportunity to orient the most casual reader to the basic characteristics of fine engraving and to point out specific attributes of Ralph Bone's engraving talent.

Also in Section 2 are examples of Ralph Bone's Celtic engravings, which captivated a substantial amount of his engraving attention and ingenuity, during the last twenty years of his life. The writer points out that Celtic engraving is not, generally, pursued by most American engravers. Accordingly, along with presenting Bone's engravings, a bit of Celtic history and concepts of Celtic art are included to entice observers' attention and to encourage appreciation of Bone's innovations and creativity at Celtic artistry and engraving.

America has produced some of the finest Master Engravers that the world has known. Ralph P Bone, certainly, was among them. "The Artistry of Ralph P Bone" seeks, specifically, to acquaint and to entertain the reader with the man's remarkable multiple talents at knife making, custom gun making and engraving.