Living on the edge STORY BY BETSY ILER PHOTOS BY KENNETH BOONE
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hough his works are not displayed at local art shows, Clay County native Charlie Edmondson is an extraordinary artist with a standard of excellence and an international following. Edmondson builds bowie knives in a shop at his Alexander City home. And while others might call it a sideline, building top grade knives is Edmondson’s true life’s work. It’s a work he discovered at age 5, when the men in his family brought him their knives to sharpen. His grandfather used to bring pieces of aluminum home from work, and a young Edmondson fashioned them into swords. “I would sit outside with a hand saw and make swords. Even in high school ag class, I always wanted to make knives,” he said. “I’ve been very lucky and very blessed to meet some mastersmiths around the country and learned from them.” Edmondson joined the U.S. Army at age 16, and after working in water treatment at Hunter Army Airfield in Savannah, Georgia, he landed in Alexander City as a water treatment operator. He’s worked for the City for 14 years, with a five-year break when he worked elsewhere but returned three years ago. Through all those years, he never stopped learning, developing his craft and building his reputation.
16 Lake Martin Living
“It was July 2, 2007, that I decided this was what I wanted to do. I’ll never forget it. I realized I loved doing it, and I wanted to go for it. And that’s what I did,” he said. “I read everything I could find. I practiced. I contacted mastersmiths around the country and asked if I could come sweep the floors for them, cut the grass, pick up hay, anything to get into their shops to watch them work, see how they did certain things. These were hard men. You might
