I found myself thinking about Tim Hancock today while I was re-arranging some of my things and moved the knife he made for me into a new display area.
Tim packed Ashton Page and I into Whiskey Springs in 2013 as Ashton felt certain he knew where the Peralta Maps pointed to. Ashton (not his real name) was a really nice enthusiastic young guy with some serious health problems related to years working with hazardous chemicals. Neither Tim nor I thought there was much to Ashton's ideas, but Tim agreed to pack him in cause he just wanted to get out there and I wanted to tag along if for no other reason than to help Ashton make it out there and see a part of the Superstitions I hadn't been to yet.
We had a great time and I got to know Tim a little bit. He was starting to have issues with Parkinson's Disease and had to take medication along the way to keep from shaking badly. He told us a bunch of good "cowboy" stories about his life and when we got back out to his place in Scottsdale he showed us his knife making workshop. He was truly an artist and a worldwide known knife maker.
In 2016/2017 I asked him if he would be willing to make a knife for me - a smaller style Bowie knife with a damascus blade and ironwood handle. Parkinson's was really starting to affect him sadly and he was beginning the process of passing along some of his tools and equipment to someone he had been mentoring. Despite that, he graciously agreed to make the knife for me and I picked it up in the spring of 2017. Tim's health was deteriorating last I saw him, but his mind and wit were still sharp - he was just physically having a tough time. He was investigating stem cell research to help with his disease and was hoping to try anything to alleviate it. He gave me a "friends" discount on the knife and I wished him the best.
Doing a quick search on the internet just now I discovered that Tim passed away last July (2019). It's always sad when someone passes away young, but in this case especially so because the disease robbed his last couple years of one of his passions. Sad to see another person associated with the Lost Dutchman pass away as the years go by. We lost a real "cowboy character" and an expert artist.
The first photo is of the knife he made for me and the second is of Ashton Page (doing his impression of Walt Gassler in his pith helmet) and Tim sitting behind him explaining something about the area. I'm not certain, but I believe Ashton Page has also passed on due to health issues.
https://everloved.com/life-of/timothy-hancock/obituary/
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