Are Carothers knives production or custom made?

The knives are made in batches and include a lot of machining to achieve sufficient consistency that sheaths for example are generally interchangeable within a specific model.
There is still a lot of hands-on work on each piece and chances are good that Nathan will have personally cleaned up the bevels or done the final sharpening on the one you receive.
 
Depends on how you define custom. I'd call them what used to be "bench made". Pattern is by the maker made in his shop for what he wants to see in a knife. They're made in decent batches and probably finished off by hand where necessary. To me "custom" is still, made for the needs of buyer to the buyer's specs.

If you want to know alot of details or specifics you can always contact their shop.
 
Nathan's response back in Oct 2018 (in ANAQ Thread) when he kinda definitely wrist slapped me for ignorantly mentioning "midtech". I don't think this has changed since:

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ETA: IMO, CPK's semi custom knives (specially from the preorders) are darn better and far more superior than a whole lotta other "custom" knives, even if that custom knife has cost its buyer quite a bit more than a semi-custom CPK. If you are lucky to get Nathan to do a fully customized knife for you, you are one lucky MoFo with both copious charm and the abundance of resources; I self failed this criterion.
 
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Thanks guys. I wasn't sure, I just picked up a Dek1 and so far so good.

I'm new to Carothers and couldn't figure it out as they are in the "Hosted Knife makers" section of the forum and someone like Busse is in the "Manufactures" section. I'm not sure of the production process of either but naively would of said they are similar.

I didn't want to use the M words so semi custom works. Not that any of it really matters but interesting.
 
You'll have to recite and internalize the CPK Creed over and over until it is ingrained:


"This is my Carothers. There are many like it, but this one is mine.

My Carothers is my best friend. It is my life. I must master it as I must master my life.

Without me, my Carothers is useless. Without my Carothers, I am useless..."


You're welcome. :cool:

(And I don't even have my two CPK knives yet. Imagine how useless I feel. ☺️ )
 
These terms "custom" "production" "hand made" "mid tech" are not well defined so rather than try to define what we are by some fuzzy definition I prefer to look at the connotations of the meanings and see where we fit. I don't like the term "Mid tech" for us because it is usually applied to a low volume custom maker who does a production run by outsourcing the components of a knife and putting them together. It implies faster cheaper with less attention to detail. They're usually waterjet and the scales are usually something basic like slab with round over and the F&F usually isn't great. That's not us.

When you figure that I have the steel made and rolled to my specs and our heat treat is very not-off-the-shelf and we're making everything in house, I'd argue that we have more direct control over every aspect of our work than most low volume "custom" makers and the attributes of a "custom knife" such as attention to detail and pursuit of excellence apply to our work.

Production implies high volumes and a streamlined product and process optimized for that high volume rather than a focus on excellence.

I would define us as semi custom or high end low volume production. We're certainly a production shop (we were a machine shop before we got big into knives) so we should probably be over in the manufacturer's sub but I started out small and my forum fit best here at first though it should probably be moved over at this point. *shrug*
 
Nathan the Machinist Nathan the Machinist

I agree with you that the lines are blurred and in the end the proof is in the pudding.

I had a close relationship with the late, great custom knife maker Harold "Kit" Carson. He made my first custom folder for me back when and I spent many hours with him on the phone and manning his table to assist him at Blade Shows for a few years.

As good a maker and innovator as he was, and justly proud of his work, he often would say that even the best custom makers rarely offered a "better" made knife than the Chris Reeve "Sebenza"...but that they could offer more choice in terms of steel, scales, and various other options and details.

He was also as self effacing about others copying his work...admitting that everyone stood on the shoulders of those who came before...and that nothing was new under the sun.

Through men like Kit, I learned what really mattered in the knife world, and what didn't...what not to put too much into...and what to value greatly.

I think the loyalty of your customer base speaks volumes...regardless of the term used to describe the process.

Just sharing a "random" thought on the matter.
 
If I were making an archive of knifemakers I would catalog CPK as an American semi-custom small batch manufacturer with the subject descriptors CNC production, North Carolina, early 21st Century, Peters Heat Treat, Delta 3V, and Bladeforum.
 
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