When Billy Foster bought his first pocketknife repair manual, he had no idea that knives would be a huge part of his life 15 years later.

After the death of his father, Foster found a cigar box containing a pocketknife with a broken blade and decided to fix it.

“It kind of just snowballed for me after that,” he said. “I eventually got to where I could make them.”

Foster was employed at Vicksburg Chemical Plant when his co-workers began asking him to make hunting knives. Today he has progressed to selling his knives at flea markets and shows across the country.

“The guys told me if I could make a pocket knife, I could make a hunting knife,” said the 71-year-old Foster. “And so I got into it.”

With steel and ivory bought from various companies, Foster makes knives in a shop behind his home on Boy Scout Road. Each knife takes three days to three weeks, depending on the type, he said.

He also makes the sheaths that hold them.

“He doesn’t use a machine,” said Foster’s wife, Peggy. “He does all that stitching by hand, and it is really just amazing how he does it.”

Foster, who said he favors making pocket knives over those for hunting, said his father always carried a pocket knife.

“He had a bunch of junk knives and was always giving them to me,” he said.

After moving as a little boy to Vicksburg from Mechanicsburg in Yazoo County, Foster attended Carr Central High School and graduated in 1957. He has lived in Vicksburg ever since.

He spends most of his time in his shop, filling orders for knives and preparing for upcoming shows and flea markets.

“I’ve been retired for 10 years and this keeps me busy,” said Foster. “I come out just about every day, pretty much all day.”