Boisean works to make the world's best knives, and he's succeeding.
Chris Reeve hates the thought of American manufacturing jobs being outsourced to other countries.
But unlike most of us, he's doing something about it.
"We're a great manufacturing country, and we need to keep it that way," he said. "We need to produce quality. That's why I'm constantly chipping away at innovations to stay ahead of the competition and be the best in the world."
A factory filled with busy workers and humming machines emphasized his point. It replaced a smaller plant in August, and an expansion is planned already.
The comment about being the best in the world isn't an empty boast. Chris Reeve Knives truly are some of the world's best. They're the only knives ever to have won Blade Magazine's manufacturing quality award five of six years. A limited edition of Reeve knives won its investor/collector knife of the year in 2005, and another model was the 2008 knife of the year.
The U.S. military holds Reeve's knives in enough esteem that a special model is presented to graduating Special Forces soldiers.
That in turn has a special meaning for the man who started it all. A native of South Africa, Reeve got into the knife business after a knife the South African army issued him broke.
"They gave me one with a wooden handle that cracked," he said. "I was trained as a tool and dye maker, so I decided to make a knife from a solid piece of steel with a hollow handle to hold survival gear."
His father thought he was making a mistake.
"He didn't think people would pay what I'd have to ask. I told him that if they were the best, people would buy them."
His timing was perfect.
"Our knife was sufficiently different with the hollow handle that it became a fashion statement," he said. "And the fact that it looked a lot like the knife Rambo used in the movies didn't hurt."
Soon his knives were selling in markets from Hong Kong to Europe. But South Africa's political strife and skyrocketing production costs made it difficult to run an export business there.
In 1989, Reeve and his wife, Anne, emigrated to Boise. They chose it because it was large enough to supply what their business needed and small enough to be a good place to raise a family. From a small shop behind a complex of gasoline storage tanks, they've moved to ever larger plants with greater output. Their 18-person work force currently manufactures 8,000 knives a year.
Reeve makes fixed-blade knives and folding-blade knives. Prices range from less than $200 to $2,000, depending on the model and options. Customers can choose computer-generated graphics, gems, exotic wood or ivory inlays and more.
Why spend that much when a cheaper knife will do the job?
"When you open our folding knives, they feel like a bank vault," Reeve said. "They're for those who want the best. It's like the difference between a Porsche and a Dodge Neon. You pay more, but you get a lot more, and it won't lose its value. Some of our knives have quadrupled in value."
Boisean Wayne Larsen has owned a Reeve knife for almost 20 years.
"Chris doesn't settle for anything second-rate," he said. "I've owned lots of knives, and his are better quality and hold an edge longer. And if it gets dull, he sharpens it for free."
Reeve is the first to admit he's obsessed with quality. He makes tolerances smaller than they have to be. He worked with a supplier to make a better type of steel and a software company to develop a new grinding technique.
"I'm a competitive s.o.b.," he said. "I'm always pushing for better things."
With that in mind, he's working on a departure from the company's usual fare. If it takes off the way he thinks it will, the company is likely to expand again.
Move over, Wolfgang Puck. It's a line of culinary knives.
Tim Woodward: 377-6409
Its really great to see the pride Chris Reeve knives has with the product they make! We hear a lot of talk from different manufacturers all the time about their quality, but when you get a CRK, you can see, feel and experience the pride and quality that is CRK:thumbup: Great article! thanks for sharing.
