Bronco
Moderator
- Joined
- Feb 25, 2000
- Messages
- 7,606
I recently sent an e-mail to Jake Evans in response to a thread he had started regarding customizing production knives. I saw this as a good opportunity to run an idea I'd had by one of our outstanding custom artisans.
In essence my thought was that there might be a good market out there for someone capable of crafting aftermarket drop-in Sebenza blades, built to exacting tolerances, and fashioned out of some of the more cutting edge steels now available such as CPM-440V, 3V and 10V (please, no disrespect intended to BG-42 fans). As simple as it is to disassemble (and reassemble) a Sebenza, these could, in theory, be marketed and sold as true aftermarket accessories. I think it would be great to be able to carry around a Sebbie with a hollow ground clip point blade made out of CPM-10V one week, and then turn around and re-outfit the same knife with a tanto blade in 3V the next.
Whether this idea has any merit or not is beside the point and truly not the purpose of this post. To make a long story short, Mr. Evans graciously responded to my e-mail in short order and explained that his interests and expertise lie in other areas of the knifemaking art. He also expressed some reservations concerning how such a project would be received by our community if undertaken by anyone other than Chris Reeve.
This struck a chord with me because I too had developed a strong suspicion in my short time in these forums, that such an idea might not be viewed favorably by the forumites at large. Its probably the main reason I opted to e-mail Jake rather than post directly to his thread.
But the more I thought about it, the more I became convinced that this might be a topic worthy of discussion. Am I being unecessarily sensitive to a potential problem that doesn't exist, or would it be considered disrespectful if a maker were to produce a blade for another maker's knife. I don't know if this analogy equates to comparing apples and oranges, but Bar-Sto, Wilson and others make some super replacement barrels for the custom .45s I own and this sort of aftermarket upgrade business is totally accepted within the gun community.
I guess the optimal solution would be if Chris Reeve himself could offer these replacement blades, but as we all know he's already as busy as a one armed wall paper hanger, and can barely keep pace with the orders on hand. So, inasmuch as its unlikely Chris would be able to offer this product, does that mean another maker would be considered unethical or a bad guy if he were to pick up the slack (assuming the demand for such an item even exists). Any insight on this subject from the members of this forum more experienced than I (which is basically everybody) would be most appreciated.
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Semper Fi
In essence my thought was that there might be a good market out there for someone capable of crafting aftermarket drop-in Sebenza blades, built to exacting tolerances, and fashioned out of some of the more cutting edge steels now available such as CPM-440V, 3V and 10V (please, no disrespect intended to BG-42 fans). As simple as it is to disassemble (and reassemble) a Sebenza, these could, in theory, be marketed and sold as true aftermarket accessories. I think it would be great to be able to carry around a Sebbie with a hollow ground clip point blade made out of CPM-10V one week, and then turn around and re-outfit the same knife with a tanto blade in 3V the next.
Whether this idea has any merit or not is beside the point and truly not the purpose of this post. To make a long story short, Mr. Evans graciously responded to my e-mail in short order and explained that his interests and expertise lie in other areas of the knifemaking art. He also expressed some reservations concerning how such a project would be received by our community if undertaken by anyone other than Chris Reeve.
This struck a chord with me because I too had developed a strong suspicion in my short time in these forums, that such an idea might not be viewed favorably by the forumites at large. Its probably the main reason I opted to e-mail Jake rather than post directly to his thread.
But the more I thought about it, the more I became convinced that this might be a topic worthy of discussion. Am I being unecessarily sensitive to a potential problem that doesn't exist, or would it be considered disrespectful if a maker were to produce a blade for another maker's knife. I don't know if this analogy equates to comparing apples and oranges, but Bar-Sto, Wilson and others make some super replacement barrels for the custom .45s I own and this sort of aftermarket upgrade business is totally accepted within the gun community.
I guess the optimal solution would be if Chris Reeve himself could offer these replacement blades, but as we all know he's already as busy as a one armed wall paper hanger, and can barely keep pace with the orders on hand. So, inasmuch as its unlikely Chris would be able to offer this product, does that mean another maker would be considered unethical or a bad guy if he were to pick up the slack (assuming the demand for such an item even exists). Any insight on this subject from the members of this forum more experienced than I (which is basically everybody) would be most appreciated.
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Semper Fi
