PIt4life
09-06-2006, 01:54 PM
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<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 border=0><TBODY><TR vAlign=top><TD width=350>This is a long one, very sorry. It might not be anything you want to read. But for all the heated people today, here is some history on what made this line. Maybe once you're done reading, you will have relaxed from the boredom! LOL. No offense to anyone by this post either, just some info and answers to some rumors. Before RE was really a line, there was a concept. There was also a lot of learning...
Some people have asked me how Razors Edge was formed. I guess there are a lot of misconceptions and rumors floating around. For those who have no interest, excuse this post. For those that may think this post pertains to them, it doesn't. Just history and the way it is. If you take offense, then you must be spreading lies!
How was Razors Edge started?
Razors Edge was started in MD and DC long before there was ever a Knuckles. My friend Carlos Barksdale and I started it with game dogs. We researched everything we could find. We read every book publicized at that time. Subscribed to many dog magazines like the ADBA Gazette, even some underground ones. We called damn near every breeder that we could find and questioned them, LOL. If it said Pit, we were on it. We all had already owned some unpapered BYB Pits. We even had our own Pit club and went hiking and other things back in the woods. Eventually we got enough money to get some real papered, good bloodline, game dogs. We purchased some of the best around at the time. Even paid 3500 way back then for a Grandson of the great Plumbers Alligator, mainly Mayfield lines. We were very heavy into the game lines. I had dogs from Hemphill/Wilder blood. These were big game dogs.
Later on I hooked up with George Williams in DC and we purchased a dog we named Diablo, from Wildside Kennels. Diablo's dad was a bigger catch dog, Hollinsworth Bull. His mom was a game girl named Wildside's Ms. Leaky. This was the turnaround time when Razors Edge started adding more size. The first every registered ADBA Razors Edge breeding was from my Mayfield boy Zeus to a Mayfield girl named Jinx. Jinx was actually given to a friend back then named Curt Plater, now CLP Kennels. He owned the first ever Razors Edge dog. We would lose contact after this for many years before hooking up again. I had another pure Colby male named Dante that was placed in DC with my man Dave Conrad. Dante went on and shook up DC, but that was the old days, LOL. They banned Pits in PG County and I was forced to move. Eventually, through my job in the Pet Store industry, I landed a manager's job at a Pet Store in VA. Virginia was the spot for pet lovers! I managed a Pet Store, worked as a professional dog trainer, and still bred bigger ADBA game dogs. Basically, I bred my own now. I also put fliers in the Washington Post explaining what the breed was and what Razors Edge was. I had to move to VA. I hooked up with Jeannie Howe who became a co-owner of Razors Edge. I met a guy named Ron Smith who came aboard and took it to another level. I saw this blue dog named Steel Town Blue Monday! I was hooked! Ron already knew every UKC and AKC breeder under the sun. He had been researching on his own for years, so this man had all the pictures, info, etc. He had fliers and pictures from every AKC and UKC breeder from coast to coast. He literally had pictures of almost all the dogs in all these pedigrees. That man really is the Pit Guru.
We first contacted Cock 'n' Bull Kennels, the ones that produced Monday. They turned us on to people in Cali with that blood. Candace Eggart was one. Candy sent us pictures of what she had and what she had going on. Just to give you a time frame, she sold a dog years later to Tony Moore named Showtime! Showtime went on to be one of the foundation bitches in the Greyline! So this was years before Greyline was even around.
We went to every breeder on the East Coast, up north to Bobby Morehouse, Beth Jones, my man Lee Fitzgerald, Flying A's, Minot's Ledge, etc. We actually purchased a blue brindle female named Sadey from Minot's Ledge. This litter had an extraordinary pedigree. The top half were mainly Flying A's dogs like Oreo and Reo Speedwagon, dogs I had seen and liked. You could see in the extended pedigree how these dogs stemmed from Ruffian Dogs. Then you could see how it went back even further, from the AKC Ruffian dog to the UKC Colby dogs. This top half of the pedigree actually showed how Pits eventually were registered as Staffs! I thought that was cool to see on paper and in a dog I owned. Then the bottom half of the pedigree went right back to Stratton Dogs, dogs like Going Light Barney, dogs I grew up reading about! Thanks to Richard Stratton, LOL! Then behind them were the same Colby dogs I saw on the top of the pedigree. So I had this dog that showed the history of the Am. Staff and the directions the Colby line went in the UKC. We also purchased a male named Razors Edge Blue Maxx. His top half was a dog named StoryTime's Upon this Rock AKA Peter Peter, a dog bred by Beth Jones. He was a big ass dog, but kinda ugly. They bred him to Wassuc's Farm Maggie May. I really liked this compact girl. We researched her lines and found she was Ryan. When we got to see the Ryan dogs, we were surprised to see they were game dogs. They were AKC registered Staffs, but they still bred for game dogs! This was something I had never seen. I'm sure that's why the AKC people didn't like that line, LOL. However, I loved it! Bully, game, blue, staffs! Now that's what I am talking about! LOL. Maxx was our boy from this blood. Now Razors Edge was big ADBA game dogs, one UKC Blue Brindle girl and a big hot Blue Fawn AKC boy.
In VA, there was Sharon Stone of Cloverhill, who had the biggest Staffs I had ever seen! Her old stuff was huge! Too tall for what I was looking for, but huge! They changed years later and went more showy. Paco was, in my opinion, actually a throwback of her older days. Ginny York, Pam Perdue, Gigi, The Garretts, etc. We visited them all. Even went down to Florida and checked out Marsha Woods. Met KC Courtier of Watchdog Kennels. Eventually, we went up to MD and met Kimmar Kennels. As soon as I stepped on the ranch, I knew I had found the build I was looking for! The Razors Edge package was almost complete. We also had been advertising in the Washington Post for many years. Some young Kats from DC used to come down and hang out and bring their dogs. Edwin Salinas and Joey Nevils were two of them. These guys had been buying dogs from Kimmar and mixing their own stuff in them too. Kimmar used to have an ad in the Post under the Pit Bull ads. It said Petey pups. They didn't want their dogs to be labeled as Pits, but they advertised directly under Pits? Hmmmmmm? Not as Staff? Anyway, local kats knew the deal and picked up a lot of her dogs. Joey, Edwin, Joey's pop and their boys had a bunch of these dogs. Even some old friends of mine, Jerry and Gerrold, had yards with these dogs. We all also had game stuff in the mix. I tapped into a lot of their dogs as well.
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<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0 border=0><TBODY><TR vAlign=top><TD width=350>This is a long one, very sorry. It might not be anything you want to read. But for all the heated people today, here is some history on what made this line. Maybe once you're done reading, you will have relaxed from the boredom! LOL. No offense to anyone by this post either, just some info and answers to some rumors. Before RE was really a line, there was a concept. There was also a lot of learning...
Some people have asked me how Razors Edge was formed. I guess there are a lot of misconceptions and rumors floating around. For those who have no interest, excuse this post. For those that may think this post pertains to them, it doesn't. Just history and the way it is. If you take offense, then you must be spreading lies!
How was Razors Edge started?
Razors Edge was started in MD and DC long before there was ever a Knuckles. My friend Carlos Barksdale and I started it with game dogs. We researched everything we could find. We read every book publicized at that time. Subscribed to many dog magazines like the ADBA Gazette, even some underground ones. We called damn near every breeder that we could find and questioned them, LOL. If it said Pit, we were on it. We all had already owned some unpapered BYB Pits. We even had our own Pit club and went hiking and other things back in the woods. Eventually we got enough money to get some real papered, good bloodline, game dogs. We purchased some of the best around at the time. Even paid 3500 way back then for a Grandson of the great Plumbers Alligator, mainly Mayfield lines. We were very heavy into the game lines. I had dogs from Hemphill/Wilder blood. These were big game dogs.
Later on I hooked up with George Williams in DC and we purchased a dog we named Diablo, from Wildside Kennels. Diablo's dad was a bigger catch dog, Hollinsworth Bull. His mom was a game girl named Wildside's Ms. Leaky. This was the turnaround time when Razors Edge started adding more size. The first every registered ADBA Razors Edge breeding was from my Mayfield boy Zeus to a Mayfield girl named Jinx. Jinx was actually given to a friend back then named Curt Plater, now CLP Kennels. He owned the first ever Razors Edge dog. We would lose contact after this for many years before hooking up again. I had another pure Colby male named Dante that was placed in DC with my man Dave Conrad. Dante went on and shook up DC, but that was the old days, LOL. They banned Pits in PG County and I was forced to move. Eventually, through my job in the Pet Store industry, I landed a manager's job at a Pet Store in VA. Virginia was the spot for pet lovers! I managed a Pet Store, worked as a professional dog trainer, and still bred bigger ADBA game dogs. Basically, I bred my own now. I also put fliers in the Washington Post explaining what the breed was and what Razors Edge was. I had to move to VA. I hooked up with Jeannie Howe who became a co-owner of Razors Edge. I met a guy named Ron Smith who came aboard and took it to another level. I saw this blue dog named Steel Town Blue Monday! I was hooked! Ron already knew every UKC and AKC breeder under the sun. He had been researching on his own for years, so this man had all the pictures, info, etc. He had fliers and pictures from every AKC and UKC breeder from coast to coast. He literally had pictures of almost all the dogs in all these pedigrees. That man really is the Pit Guru.
We first contacted Cock 'n' Bull Kennels, the ones that produced Monday. They turned us on to people in Cali with that blood. Candace Eggart was one. Candy sent us pictures of what she had and what she had going on. Just to give you a time frame, she sold a dog years later to Tony Moore named Showtime! Showtime went on to be one of the foundation bitches in the Greyline! So this was years before Greyline was even around.
We went to every breeder on the East Coast, up north to Bobby Morehouse, Beth Jones, my man Lee Fitzgerald, Flying A's, Minot's Ledge, etc. We actually purchased a blue brindle female named Sadey from Minot's Ledge. This litter had an extraordinary pedigree. The top half were mainly Flying A's dogs like Oreo and Reo Speedwagon, dogs I had seen and liked. You could see in the extended pedigree how these dogs stemmed from Ruffian Dogs. Then you could see how it went back even further, from the AKC Ruffian dog to the UKC Colby dogs. This top half of the pedigree actually showed how Pits eventually were registered as Staffs! I thought that was cool to see on paper and in a dog I owned. Then the bottom half of the pedigree went right back to Stratton Dogs, dogs like Going Light Barney, dogs I grew up reading about! Thanks to Richard Stratton, LOL! Then behind them were the same Colby dogs I saw on the top of the pedigree. So I had this dog that showed the history of the Am. Staff and the directions the Colby line went in the UKC. We also purchased a male named Razors Edge Blue Maxx. His top half was a dog named StoryTime's Upon this Rock AKA Peter Peter, a dog bred by Beth Jones. He was a big ass dog, but kinda ugly. They bred him to Wassuc's Farm Maggie May. I really liked this compact girl. We researched her lines and found she was Ryan. When we got to see the Ryan dogs, we were surprised to see they were game dogs. They were AKC registered Staffs, but they still bred for game dogs! This was something I had never seen. I'm sure that's why the AKC people didn't like that line, LOL. However, I loved it! Bully, game, blue, staffs! Now that's what I am talking about! LOL. Maxx was our boy from this blood. Now Razors Edge was big ADBA game dogs, one UKC Blue Brindle girl and a big hot Blue Fawn AKC boy.
In VA, there was Sharon Stone of Cloverhill, who had the biggest Staffs I had ever seen! Her old stuff was huge! Too tall for what I was looking for, but huge! They changed years later and went more showy. Paco was, in my opinion, actually a throwback of her older days. Ginny York, Pam Perdue, Gigi, The Garretts, etc. We visited them all. Even went down to Florida and checked out Marsha Woods. Met KC Courtier of Watchdog Kennels. Eventually, we went up to MD and met Kimmar Kennels. As soon as I stepped on the ranch, I knew I had found the build I was looking for! The Razors Edge package was almost complete. We also had been advertising in the Washington Post for many years. Some young Kats from DC used to come down and hang out and bring their dogs. Edwin Salinas and Joey Nevils were two of them. These guys had been buying dogs from Kimmar and mixing their own stuff in them too. Kimmar used to have an ad in the Post under the Pit Bull ads. It said Petey pups. They didn't want their dogs to be labeled as Pits, but they advertised directly under Pits? Hmmmmmm? Not as Staff? Anyway, local kats knew the deal and picked up a lot of her dogs. Joey, Edwin, Joey's pop and their boys had a bunch of these dogs. Even some old friends of mine, Jerry and Gerrold, had yards with these dogs. We all also had game stuff in the mix. I tapped into a lot of their dogs as well.
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