Custom Knifemakers Who Carry Cheap knives?

anthony cheeseboro

anthony cheeseboro

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Aug 8, 1999
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I just checked out the latest issue of Blade. It has an article about the favorite knives of customknife makers. I was struck by how many of these guys carry inexpensive knives. That's not to say that they don't own high end knives, but they don't really use them that much. I noted, for instance, that Jerry Fisk stated that one of his camp knives is too valuable to actually use, so he uses a Camillus that he designed. I understand that he can make a ton selling his bowies and camp knives, but I would feel better if he actually used one that he made himself. Of all the makers, I guess Joe Pardue came off the closest to a regular knifenut.:D His EDC is an old Schrade stockman, but he also carries a P.J. Tomes folder and a Frank Centofante (he's got great taste in knives!)

I guess my point is that I feel less guilty about not buying or using customs if the guys who make them are often unwilling to use them when they could pretty easily crank out another.:rolleyes:
 
makes me wonder about the quality and ergos of their knives. if someone carries the knife they make everyday, not only does it show confidence in their workmanship (i understand some are made of valuable material and am willing to make exceptions) but it gives them a great familiarity with the limitations of the design and how to improve it. IMO if a maker wont carry his own knife, why should I?
 
Anthony,
Another way to look at it is that the maker has tested his knives, knows they are good, but wants to feed his family and put clothes on their backs:)

FWIW, I always carry one of mine, usually in the testing mode.
 
Kit, I fully understand that you guys are in business and not collectors or enthusiasts, but I think that a maker should be willing to use his or her own knives. The knife does not have to be a super extravagant model, but to me the best endorsement is to see a maker using his own knife. Kit, I'm glad you carry your own knives, they are some great designs and make wonderful users, like you didn't know that already.:D
 
I make one for myself on a regular basis, but when someone offers me a pile of $100s for it, I always take the money!! :)
 
the worst person to perform quality control is the individual that manufactured the product.

Someone else should check performance, fit, ability to hold edge, etc. You also get another perspective using your competitors product. There are many reasons not to use your own products; honest feedback, people will abuse your product to the breaking point and you wont, etc. I see that as smart business sense. See what else is out there and compare it to what your doing.
 
Originally posted by anthony cheeseboro
I guess Joe Pardue came off the closest to a regular knifenut... he also carries a P.J. Tomes folder (he's got great taste in knives!)
Click to expand...

The knife that Joe is carrying is the folder that PJ won "Most Innovative Folder" at Blade 2001. I have that same knife on order from PJ in stag. ;)

I was at my first knife show in NYC 1998 and I bought a Spyderco/ Michael Walker lt/wt. When I went by Michael Walker's table I got the chance to ask him what did he carry? He went into his pocket and came out with a Boker "Skywalker". I had to ask him, "How come?" He just said, "Because it was free." :D
 
Toolmaker,
That don't sound like me at all. I love carrying, testing, and breaking my knives:) The ones that survive are in some happy customer's pockets, the ones that didn't are in the dead elephant drawer in my shop.
 
A friend of mine who also makes knives say's he can't keep one of his knives for himself, people always beg him to sell the ones he carrys, so he inevitably winds up with out a knife, but when he carries a Buck 110, or a Kershaw Chive he always has a knife with him cause no one tries to buy it from him.:)

BTW just got the same issue in the mail, AC haven't had the chance to read it yet.:)
 
just got the new blade issue today but didn't read it yet. I understand that a knifemaker is in the business of "selling" knives but I still feel that they should carry one of their own, or if they fancy a design from another maker they should either purchase it or better yet ask for permission to make a similar one for their own usuage. I know that a lot of times the makers would rather sell the knife then keep it for themself but I think that they should still be able to find time to make a knife for themself to you, maybe an unfinished beater if they are really short on time.
 
I think it is very interesting to know what the makers carry and use. But really I could care less. I want the knives I want, and it don't matter if the maker carries it or not. I would also think it may be a little hard for some makers to carry every style knife they make anyways. I'll let the maker make it and I'll do the useing. :)
 
I always keep a few for me to carry.If I didn't have to eat, I would keep almost all of them, so I'm happy with snatching a few for me.Dave:)
 
I give knives away all the time. I carry my own, and have 3 or 4 that I intend to keep forever, but when the time comes to go to work I always end up with a benchmade pinnacle my parents gave me a few years back. Its too good a knife to not use for one thing, and I always hesitate to put a knife I made through all its paces (I do test some of them, those I keep) because I don't want it all beat up/scratched up if I decide to give it away. There have actually been times when a friend asked to see a knife I made and when they started to hand it back I said keep it.
I think it works the same way for the guys that are doing it as a business. They can just make another, so it really doesn't make sense to not sell every time they get the chance. So with that, comes the fact that you are very hesitant to really use the ones you make. You don't want to sell a beat up knife, and you don't want to miss a sale.
 
I wonder if perhaps the thinking of the knifemakers who carry others' designs is based on the same emotions we non-knifemakers feel.

A knifemaker surely knows his own design, and unless his heart is 100% in the business end of things and 0% in the design/art/use end of things, he probably has at least cut something with his own design, if not carried it daily for a while, before releasing it to the public. What I mean is, I imagine that only a guy who is strictly making knives for profit and not because he loves knives would fail to try his knife out in EDC. At the very least, he has probably held it in his hand to feel its heft.

But it is understandable to me that even a quality custom knifemaker would get a thrill out of having, holding and using the quality art of another maker. Even he would probably get a charge out of getting an unfamiliar piece in a priority mail container in his mailbox! Come on, we ALL know that exhilaration.

So I don't think that failure of a knifemaker to use only his own designs as an EDC knife is indicative of a de facto lack of confidence or fondness for his own knives. Sometimes people just wanna mix it up. We all rotate our EDCs every so often, right? Can't a knifemaker recognize excellence in someone *else's* design, and wish to carry that? What if a maker specializes in fixed blades and really likes a good quality folder, so he picks up something made by someone else? Should that fixed-blade specialist have to make his *own* folder design just to carry a folder? If a folder-maker sees another folder-maker's folder and likes it, should he be forbidden to buy and carry that knife because *he* didn't think of that design first? Would Michael Walker be indicating lack of faith in his liner-lock design if he were found to carry the odd lockback?? I don't think so much should be read-into the issue.

---Jeffrey
 
Looking back at my original post, I said that Joe Pardue reminded me the most of an average knifenut because he mentioned a couple of nice folders made by other makers that he carries. BTW, I noticed that both of those customs, by Tomes and Centofante, are conventional lockback two handers, not the one hand gents pieces that Pardue primarily makes.

I guess what bothers me is the idea that a maker would consider one of his or her knives too valuable to use unless that knife is an art/gents piece. Once again,I understand that a maker wants to sell his or her knives, not hold them and admire them. Still, I like the idea that a maker would own and use knives of his own.
 
Don't get me wrong -- I agree that nothing speaks more loudly of a knifemaker's belief in his own design and manufacture than carrying his own products daily. It's just that I think it does not bespeak a *lack* of confidence if he does *not* carry his own. There are many reasons why he might not -- as we've already discussed.

---Jeffrey

BTW, Mr. Kit Carson, I appreciate the compliment. :)
 
Geesh, now I can never carry one of those fun microtech autos around anymore without feeling guilty, and worrying about my mind and knives being psychoanalyzed as to whether I am confident in my manhood, or my knives are worthy?
 
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