Are Shirogorov knives mid-techs?

Not really. Not everyone is in agreement as to what a "mid-tech" is. The best answer is to ask the maker how the parts of the knife and the knife are made and assembled. Then judge for yourself.
 
I spoke with them at the Blade Show. They have 3 levels of knives. Mid-techs, Custom Divisions, and Full Customs. Mid-techs has not marks, Custom Division has marks, and Full customs signs Sergey.
 
What defines Mid-Tech? :confused:

If a CNC mill is involved in making the actual knife blade or handle, I would say that it's Mid-Tech. (Pivots, fasteners are ok).
 
The big question is, does one of the Shirogorov brothers touch the knife. If they don't then it's a production in my mind.
 
So Scurvy, when Terzuola had production knives made to his specifications and design, but inspected by him, to you that's a "custom"? It wasn't a custom to Bob.

Labels are made to deceive, ask how the knife is made if labels such as custom, production, bench made, hand made, mid-tech are important to you.
 
brownshoe said:
So Scurvy, when Terzuola had production knives made to his specifications and design, but inspected by him, to you that's a "custom"? It wasn't a custom to Bob.

Labels are made to deceive, ask how the knife is made if labels such as custom, production, bench made, hand made, mid-tech are important to you.
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I agree with you 100%. Ask about how the knife is made and make your own decision.

When I said touch I meant actually touched and completed an operation on the knife, at a bare minimum.

Jon Graham's 'midtechs' are production knives built by a 3rd party and he sharpens them.

Dpx likes to pretend their knives are mid techs. People here still like to call crk, strider and hinderer knives midtechs. The term has been so diluted that its basically meaningless.

I would think that the basic Shirogorovs are probably made in a similar fashion to the Olamic knives but who knows.

That being said, I don't know how you could have interpreted my comment to mean a production knife based on the design of a maker and inspected by the maker is a custom...
 
brownshoe said:
Not really. Not everyone is in agreement as to what a "mid-tech" is. The best answer is to ask the maker how the parts of the knife and the knife are made and assembled. Then judge for yourself.
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This.

For example . . .

flatgrinder said:
What defines Mid-Tech? :confused:

If a CNC mill is involved in making the actual knife blade or handle, I would say that it's Mid-Tech. (Pivots, fasteners are ok).
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I cannot agree with this. Why single out a CNC machine over a hundred other tools out there that makers use?

Scurvy092 said:
The big question is, does one of the Shirogorov brothers touch the knife. If they don't then it's a production in my mind.
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Can't agree with this, either. Something tells me that there might be a couple of Loveless knives out there that Bob Loveless never touched. If Jim Merritt made them, does that make them "mid-techs?"

I think brownshoe pretty much nailed it, making a label like "mid-tech" not all that useful. JMO.
 
What does custom mean? Did you buy the knife from the maker after specifying steel/thickness, handle material, dimensions, grinds? Then it's not a custom.
 
For me it should be as follows:

Custom: One maker that grinds the blade and makes the handle. Cutting can be done manually or using machines. Only one person is the maker here ... one person does everything.
Mid-Tech: Maker grinds the blade. The rest made by others (in-house or outsourced) by hand or automated. More than one person involved but grind is done by the offical maker of the knife.
Production: No one knifemaker. Plenty automation involved.

For me the grind is key. I want the maker to grind a blade to be considered custom or mid-tech.

Just my view on this matter.
 
Charlie Mike said:
What does custom mean? Did you buy the knife from the maker after specifying steel/thickness, handle material, dimensions, grinds? Then it's not a custom.
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agreed here, I've never liked the way the word custom is commonly used here in knife discussions... just my opinion.
I think it too loosely used, perhaps benchmade is more accurate....
 
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