Who is J. Bruce Voyles?

       Bruce Voyles has been collecting knives since the 1970s.  Where he ran a small retail cutlery shop and mail order business in Murphy, North Carolina. An early member of the National Knife Collectors and Dealers Association, he worked in weekly newspapers while working on his first knife book and magazine articles in 1975.  The first edition of the Official Price Guide to Pocketknives by James F. Parker and J. Bruce Voyles was published in 1976. This was the first of 8 price guides and 3 pocket price guides in tandem with Parker.   In 1977 Voyles became founding editor of National Knife Collector Magazine, which started as a bi-monthly and was a monthly by 1981, when he joined Jim Parker in buying Blade Magazine and forming the American Blade Collectors Association. 

       While there he and Parker created and launched The Blade Show and International Cutlery Fair, which is today the largest knife event in the world.

     Voyles became full owner of Blade Magazine and President of the ABCA in 1986, where he also launched "Edges" a magazine for knife collectors, and "Blade Trade" a cutlery industry trade magazine.  He also wrote the "ABCA Price Guide to Antique Knives", "Today's Knifemakers", and "The Joseph Rodgers Exhibition Knife Collection" and various magazine articles, including editing the "Knife" entry to the World Book Encyclopedia, which he continues to update periodically.

     In 1994 Voyles sold Blade Magazine, Edges, Blade Trade, and The Blade Show to Krause publications.  He authored a second edition to the "IBCA Price Guide to Antique Knives" , and a new book, "The IBCA Price Guide to Commemorative Knives".

    He continued buying and selling knives part time since the 1970's, and upon selling the publications he formed "J. Bruce Voyles, Auctioneers" which is the only auction house in the world that specializes in just knives.  He handles both live auctions and regularly published catalog auctions.

     In 1999 he co-authored Knives Digest 1 with Ken Warner.  In 2000 he was named editor of Knives Illustrated, a position he still holds. 

     Since 1999 he has produced the Knives Illustrated Spirit of Steel Knife Show in Dallas Texas.

     During his years in the cutlery business he has been inducted into both the Blade Magazine Cutlery Hall of Fame and the American Bladesmiths Society Cutlery Hall of Fame. He has also received the Don Hastings Award from the ABS and the Nate Posner Award from the Knifemakers Guild (both are the highest awards each organization offers to non-knifemakers).

     His research of knives has included personal visits to Seki City, Japan; Solingen, Germany; and London and Sheffield, England, as well as on site visits to Case, Buck, Gerber, Kershaw, Kabar, Al Mar, Parker-Edwards Cutlery, Benchmade, and even the site of closed factories such as New York Knife, Walden, and Cattaraugus.

      All of this is to assure the auction bidder or consigner that their knives are described and grouped with a background and experience that is unequaled in the knife industry.

Some interior shots of past auctions: