C. Kelly Customs (partial Gallery of my work)

[C.Kelly Custom Knives]

Here's some of the knives I've made over the past 5 years or so.. All are completely hand made by me. I heat treat, cryo and temper them myself as well. I'll explain more about my process, and my focus on bringing together the best properties of steel composition, heat treat, geometry and ergonomics for a given application in future posts.

First, I'm just going to start posting knives I've made starting with oldest first..

This is roughly the tenth knife I ever made, but it was the first one I ever made with a curved bolster junction in the handle. After this one, I made a bunch of handles in the manner.
This is one is 52100 and it was one of my first attempts at a small hiking companion knife.

CPM 20CV hunter/fighter. One for a friend and one for my uncle.

 

[C.Kelly Custom Knives]

My friend Lance commissioned me to make him a large filet of his own design. I don't make knives for people who want me to make their design, Lance is the one exception. He gave me free-reign to do whatever I wanted with the handle so since he's a big-shot kayak fishing guy I decided to try to emulate an ocean wave between the bolster and the handle body.
The knife is CMP20CV.

 

[C.Kelly Custom Knives]

During this time (late 2017) I had received an early sample of what Uddeholm was calling Vanax Superclean. They said it would hold an edge like Elmax and be as corrosion proof as LC200N / Z-Finit. I thought they were giving me a bunch of hype and laughed at what they were saying. After the samples arrived and I spent time discussing it with a project engineer at Uddeholm I started to see this might be for real. Sure enough, after working out a great heat treat recipe and protocol we found that the new Vanax really was what they said it was going to be. It quickly became one of my favorite steels and I began working to perfect the heat treat protocol. Now I've been working with it for almost 5 years and it's still one of my favorite steels.

This is the first set of Vanax blades I made for testing. These were Lance Clinton designed large filet knives that he also tested in Costa Rica.

At the same time I was making V4E camp knives to test how far I could thin the edge while still being able to "abuse" the knife.

And also making some bushcraft style knives for friends. This one is CPM20CV

 

[C.Kelly Custom Knives]

Shorty after that I developed a new small hiking companion knife that I call the Tolokot. It's a 3 finger sized handle and it's made to be light weight and compact while still sturdy enough to be used hard.

This one is Vanax

This one is also Vanax

This one is CPM154

This one is CPM154

This one is CPM Cruwear

This one is Nitro-V

This one is Vanax with G-carta surrounded in G10 with copper corbys.

 

[C.Kelly Custom Knives]

After the Tolokot I received requests for a similar knife with a blade 3" or less, but with a full sized handle. Something that could be used as a fixed EDC as well. That knife I call the Ojisa.

This one is Vanax

This one is also Vanax

Then, I wanted an Ojisa that wasn't constrained by the city 3" blade carry laws. I just wanted it to be a tool custom fit to my hand like a custom made glove. I wanted it to be more of a hunter / utility knife to be used in the wilderness. So, this one I call the Ojisa XL and I made only one of them so far. I made this one thinking I was going to keep it and use it myself this Summer, but a very nice customer requested it and I decided to let it go live a good country life in Montana .

This one is Vanax.

I made it with a matching Tolokot.

 

[C.Kelly Custom Knives]

Here's an M390 Hunter / fighter I made with M390, paper micarta and buffalo horn.

and one of my first leather sheaths... ohhh that's hard to look at.

 

[C.Kelly Custom Knives]

My focus and my perspective from which I come to knives is through my love of outdoor adventures. Ever since I was a little kid I've loved playing in the wilderness. As a kid, the woods was the only place where I was allowed to carry my own knife. That association has stuck with me ever since. Today I rope my friends and family into helping me test knives in the wilderness because that's where it feels authentic to me .

Whenever I return from a backpacking trip I come back with new ideas about what I want a certain knife to be able to do better and that inspiration drives me until the next adventure.

 

[C.Kelly Custom Knives]

I've been fortunate to have been involved in some pretty cool projects so far and as a result the designer of this Waterway (Lance Clinton) asked me to make him his own custom version in Vanax with a CF handle and some added jimping.

 

[C.Kelly Custom Knives]

I like to study the history of knives and while I was looking into early American knives I came across an English Trade knife design that may have been referred to by some as a scalper at some point in time. The design interested me and I decided to make one just because I wanted it.

This one is 52100

 

[C.Kelly Custom Knives]

I wanted to get outside of my comfort zone and build a knife with some construction techniques that I had not done yet. So, this one was a bunch of firsts for me and I struggled with it for a while.
This one is Z-Wear with Titanium guard, copper/G10/stabilized maple burl accents, stag antler body, Titanium pommel.

 

[C.Kelly Custom Knives]

For years now I've wanted a knife with a mammoth tooth handle. I have had a set of mammoth tooth scales for about 2 years but was waiting until I was building knife "worthy" of the material. After studying Bob Loveless construction methods and building some knives in his style as a matter of practice, I decided to build myself a Bob Loveless inspired knife that is very similar to a Loveless Straight Hunter #2 with it's large ricasso.

This one is Z-Wear with pinned and notched brass guard, tuxedo (b/w/b) G10 liners, tapered tang, brass corbys, brass lanyard tube, mammoth tooth body.

I'll add more tomorrow.

 

[ferider]

Hi Chad,

these are beautiful ! Sheaths are not bad either. I love the Gent's Bowie in Z-Wear, you sure you don't want to make another one ?

BTW, still proud owner of a poison green Maxamet Mule, if you remember

Roland.

 

[C.Kelly Custom Knives]

double post

 

[C.Kelly Custom Knives]

Hi Chad,

these are beautiful ! Sheaths are not bad either. I love the Gent's Bowie in Z-Wear, you sure you don't want to make another one ?

BTW, still proud owner of a poison green Maxamet Mule, if you remember

Roland.

Hey Roland! I didn't recognize you . Of course I remember you. I hope you're doing well.

The Maxamet Mule is still one of the best they've ever offered isn't it?

Thank you for the kind words. It's hard to say exactly when I might make another Gent's Bowie but I will admit I am looking forward to doing more of that style. There's so many possible variations within that design concept that I can do a bunch more of those and still be able to add new elements into each one. I just have to allow time for development in other areas as well

Best regards,
Chad

 

[winstonsmith44]

Fantastic work, some of these are masterpieces. Bravo !

 

[C.Kelly Custom Knives]

Fantastic work, some of these are masterpieces. Bravo !

Thank you very much! That's very kind of you to say.

 

[C.Kelly Custom Knives]

I had not had any experience with making kitchen knives and so I decided to make one for myself. This was partly to force myself the think through some of the details relevant to kitchen knives that I don't usually have to consider and also because it would be nice to use something other than outdoor adventure knife prototypes in my kitchen once in a while .

This one is AEB-L, has a pinned copper bolster, and uses a copper mesh infused G-carta handle material. It's also my best "fruit ninja" knife . My wife hates it when I make a mess slicing oranges in mid air in the kitchen...but it's soo fun!

 

[C.Kelly Custom Knives]

Last year I developed another small hiking companion knife. This one is meant to be compact and convenient while as versatile as possible. It's a great little EDC that is just as easy to use for eating lunch as it is for cleaning a fish, cutting rope or opening boxes. I call this model the Coop.

 

[winstonsmith44]

Wow ! Amazing work again ! I Love the Handles.

 

[C.Kelly Custom Knives]

Wow ! Amazing work again ! I Love the Handles.

Thank you very much! I appreciate your kind comments.

I get quite a few compliments on the look of my handles. and I definitely appreciate it. But each time that happens I feel a little compelled to point out that the look of my handles is always secondary to performance and durability as I work out my designs.
Every knife I make begins with a foundation of steel composition, heat treat, and geometry in order to bring out the optimal performance characteristics for the intended use of the design. Once that's done, I like to make them look nice. I think if you're going to pay the price for a custom knife, it's important that it looks as good as it performs. These expensive tools are also toys in a way . Also, I think if you have 2 knives that perform equally you might prefer the one that is more visually appealing, and therefor use it more often. The one that gets used or carried the most gets the most memories and sentimental value attached to it. That's my goal anyway...I hope to create heirlooms one day that will be worthy of passing on to future generations and that will carry with them memories of fishing trips with Grandpa, or camp-outs with Mom and Dad, or cooking with Grandma..or whatever. I always encourage people who buy my knives not to make them safe queens just because they're pretty. The materials and construction methods are designed to be used hard and look good while they do it, and hopefully return home full of memories of good times.