Custom knife idea--looking for input

[falar]

First, I've never commissioned a custom knife before. The rough idea seems easy enough to form, but ironing out the small details, not so much.

I'm thinking of a medium-large knife, maybe just an inch or two longer than my Fehrman Cold Fury. I like the american tanto shape, zero edges, and chisel grinds.

My first thought was pretty simple---straight American Tanto, sabre grind with the flats 1/3 to 1/2 the blade height and a zero edge with a flat grind from the flats. Maybe a true "chisel" grind instead with the left side being fully flat and the right side being like I just described......could get a more acute zero edge that way. In one of the books I read about Japanese swords in the section about Shobu Zukuri, Shinogi Zukuri, Hira Zukuri and all the various blade shapes I saw some blade diagrams of really early swords (centuries before the Katana or its predecessor, the tachi, presumably with a Chinese/Korean influence) with profiles like this and I've been interested ever since.

Steel, handle material, shape, all of those things I feel like I'm at a loss for. I do want it to be full tang with slabs (like Busse or Fehrman) or a wrap. Don't know if I would want to be thicker and shorter, or taller and thinner, or maybe even tall and thick.

When getting a knife made is it best to be very specific or just get a general idea and enjoy what the knifemaker comes up with on his own?

Never done this before.

Thanks

 

[black mamba]

I would look at finding a maker with similar thoughts to your own, and look at some of their knives. Generally a maker does their best work in a style they both like and are familiar with.

 

[J. Doyle]

Find a maker that suits your tastes and discuss some general parameters and guidelines. Then it's best to let them do their work. More often than not, if you start to micro-manage all the small details, both the collector and maker will come away with a bit of a sour taste in their mouth.

 

[Lorien]

the above posts are solid advice

 

[S.Alexander]

Try Charlie Mike on the forums. It seems your styles would go well together.

 

[falar]

Turns out a custom maker here is making nearly the exact knife I was envisioning---in both ways I was considering (chisel and double ground). Guess I'll just keep monitoring Phillip Patton's FS threads until I see "the one".