Remember that these are MY views and I won´t mention any makers/producers names that I believe are good or bad at the stuff I mention in this post.
Liquid Metal, I´ve read some threads here and there which imply that the main positive thing about this is if you got a factory and want to produce 1000´s of knives fast it might be THE steel to use. Only because it would be faster to make OK blades (with molds). A pain (=not worth the effort) to grind according to some makers.
S30V was mentioned earlier. I haven´t used it but people swears by it. A bit tricky to grind according to some custom makers but worth the effort.
Stellite hasn´t been spoken about so much. I´ve noticed that some custom makers use it but it seems like the S30V rules that part of the steel market. I don´t know why, maybe bad marketing or perhaps it´s even harder to grind than S30V?
Talonite hasn´t been discussed very much this last year. Can´t remember why. I believe the consensus on the forum was: "Great kitchen knife steel".
It is harder than ever to separate custom, mid-tech and production knives. Some makers don´t want to tell how they make their knives and some producers try to put a higher price on new knife models even if they aren´t worth it. Sad.
Purveyors are becoming more and more accepted as resellers of knives directly from custom makers. Maybe we should call some custom makers "makers of hand made knives according to their own specifications" and in some instances for "CAD and CNC programmers". IMO custom made is made on free-hand and according to a specific customers specifications.
I´m sorry if I sound a bit cynical but after e-mailing with some makers and getting the response to look for their goods on different purveyors sites I do get a bit mad about where the industry is going. I will never buy a custom knife from a purveyor because some maker decided that it´s much easier to have someone else taking care of his/her customers. It´s like selling your invoices for a price that is 10-30 per cent lower. To me it feels like the maker doesn´t give a $hit about me, the guy that loves his/her work. In the end it means that the maker is making "hand made knives according to their own specifications" because he/she saves time when less contact with customers is needed. This can only be done if you have a certain "repertoire" of models you make as opposed to make a knife to a customers specifications.
I do like purveyors of fine knives but not when they are reselling goods directly from a custom maker and the custom maker doesn´t want to open his/her books because of that.
Gerber´s "tactical division" is up and running. Different opinions on their offerings. Check out Mad Dog (at tactical forums) and do a search over here for opinions. I´m happy that Fiskars finally decided to DO something with Gerber.
Then there are some things that are as usual:
-Periodical Sebenza praising and bashing.
-The discussion of "the hole" or "the thumbstud" as best opening device.
-Questions like: "How do I get my knife sharp again?" and "Which is the best blade steel?" and my favourite (it is!) "What´s your EDC". I even took a new EDC picture today because of one of the EDC threads I recently read.
I´m sure that I´ve missed some important stuff but you can´t remember everything.
/Colinz
