Company name or your name?

Brian Ayres said:
I want my knives to be works of art. Functional, but art... Like most artists, I will sign my art.

I might consider a brand name if I was producing midtech/production knives, but even then I would still most likely choose to put my name on anything I was responsible for designing....
Click to expand...

When I studied Biology in University I was often very annoyed with how often it seemed that the scientist was more important than the discovery. I despised that, and vowed to try and make any discovery I was part of more important than I am, as if the discovery is important it will long outlive me, as I am unimportant and care that knowledge was progressed. I am a hobbiest, and will most likely remain so for a long while, and while I try to make attractive user quality knives, I doubt my knives will hold much collector value in the future. I want the knives to be held under their own merit, few opinions based on the name within. I've seen makers decline in quality, I've seen companies change their quality focus for the worse. I've seen good knives shunned because of the maker turning into a "less than honest individual". I hope that the knives I make, as a very small volume maker, can avoid some of this.

I do use two stamps after my first knife, which was engraved after heat treat. The first is the knifemaking name- Black Tyr Knives, and the second is my personal chop that I have used since I was around 8, surrounded by a tear. The symbol carries all 4 initials in my name, as it is a tradition in my family to assign themselves a sign based on their initials (my dads was shaped similar to a shield). My first foray's into weapons making as a young teenager each had an eye somewhere in the piece, to which I added a black tear to. I liked the black tear ideal for weapons so when my focus was drawn to knives I just added the knives to what I called my admittedly crude neandertalithic makings. Conversing with my wife's cousin in my early 20's he noted that I should change the tear to Tyr because of them being homonyms and to tip my hat toward my Nordic heritage. As a lover of Norse mythology I smacked my forehead in disbelief of this oversight and the name has stuck.

I also put the name of my knives in my sig so there would be some record of the knives if anybody down the road searches for them (doubtful), and plan on making a simple website to keep records tying my personal name to that of my knives.

Here are the stamps I've chosen:
IMG_7134.jpg

IMG_7135.jpg


And here are the first 2 items that started the name.
69c0d9f3.jpg

b71234c8.jpg


Besides, there are way too many Kris Jacobsen's out there.
 
I really hate my name. Seriously; Brian Pedersen is about as common as it gets and it does´nt even yield good initials. BP is more commonly associated with oil than knifemaking and yet, I´ve been marking my blades BP for some time. However I just googled "Brian Pedersen Knives" and the first result popping up,(I dont have a website) was a presentation thread here on BF, so maybe I should be using my name after all as it seems there are not many other makers (if any) with my name after all.
There is another option however. I could ask my girlfriend to marry me and take her last name Svärd. This would be quite apropriate I think since that is the swedish word for sword:rolleyes:
I dont think I´m gonna use that as an argument in the proposal though:D

Brian
 
My last name is Broomhead and my friends have always called me by that or by just Broom. When I sign my artwork, actual art not knives, I use a quick, crude 3-lined broom icon I came up with, along with "Broom" above the "broom handle"and the year below it. When it comes time to start marking my knives for selling, I plan on using the whole icon, with "Broom", minus the year, as my maker's mark. That's a long way off though.

On second thought, I may just use "Broomhead". I'm still undecided.
 
Robert Dark said:
I want my grand-kids to someday see a knife with "R.Dark" on it. I think it would mean more to them than seeing a blade with some crazy design that nobody remembers when you are gone. They may, or may not be proud to say that their grandfather made that knife once-upon-a-time.

Not a lot of people named "Dark" in the U.S. (at least comparing the name to Jones or Smith). It shouldn't be hard to figure out who, many years ago, totally messed up a perfectly good piece of steel.

Robert
Click to expand...

"Dark blades" would be pretty cool though
 
NVHammerHead said:
I use my chop mark cause it's a lot easier than putting Chrisoulasadides on anything....
Click to expand...

Now that's funny right there Doc... ;)
... you just need bigger ricassos.

As for me; I hear that there are some other Burkes out there making knives :p, so I feel that it's beneficial included my first and middle initials... you know... to avoid confusion. :D
E.F.Burke
 
I've been struggling with this too. I doubt I will ever sell many knives at all, but there are A LOT of Brian Evans' in the world. A lot. Might as well be John Smith.

I've been thinking B. Evans or B.M. Evans on my folders and fixed blades and B. Evans over Benham St USA for my razors, as a nod to the old English razor makers.
 
medicevans said:
I've been struggling with this too. I doubt I will ever sell many knives at all, but there are A LOT of Brian Evans' in the world. A lot. Might as well be John Smith.

I've been thinking B. Evans or B.M. Evans on my folders and fixed blades and B. Evans over Benham St USA for my razors, as a nod to the old English razor makers.
Click to expand...

BM ?

You know what that stands for right ? :)

Brian M. Evans makes sense to me.
 
medicevans said:
I've been thinking B. Evans or B.M. Evans on my folders and fixed blades and B. Evans over Benham St USA for my razors, as a nod to the old English razor makers.
Click to expand...

I'd probably avoid B. Evans... makes me think of Bruce Evans. :) He used to hang out here on the forums quite a bit... but doesn't look like he's posted here since early 2011.
Erin
 
Last edited:
Hey Erin, where'd ya get the shades at! :) Looks a lot like mine!

IMG_20120417_153227.jpg

roflmao

As for the name, I went with Grizzly Knives. I picked up the nickname "bear" several years ago and it evolved into "grizzly"...if you seen me in person, you'd understand why lol, I favor a big ol' lazy bear. So, when I decided to get started I put the name out there to friends and family, and they liked it...so it stuck.
 
FTW has always been important to me. It represents the refusal to accept this world as it was handed down to you. My last name is Freeman and Tactical Weapons came naturally. That became FTWCM.
 
Use your real name . if it is a common name use another name to make yours easy to find, but use both together.
i have known many knife guys with the same last name so i had to figure out how to make it easy to tell if it was me .
 
GrizzlyBear said:
Hey Erin, where'd ya get the shades at! :) Looks a lot like mine!
Click to expand...
Now that's funny right there. I'm not sure where mine came from originally. I stole them from my kids' toybox. All scratched up -- and fairly cheaply constructed -- but they're so dang stylish. :D
Erin
 
Stencils aren't that expensive. I'm sure you could have a couple made up with the next few years on them; as I recall Ernie Grospitch will do one-off stencils for personalizing (like say, John Doe, USMC Retired) pretty cheap, so I bet he would work with you on getting a couple with years.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top