Custom made knives

ClickBoom said:
Would you consider a run of just 10 of the same model built by the same person a Custom ? I have a knife that is, and do kinda question it myself sometimes, is it a real Custom, I believe I have the only lefty out of the bunch ~ Just looking for input myself šŸ¤˜
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Custom anything has always implied made to order not using any specific design that is intended for producing more than one piece. If a maker is producing 10 or 10000 knives, its production. GEC makes production knives in this manner, and sometimes they make only one or two of a certain model with specific handle slabs or blade configurations. They are not custom knives, just limited production.
Now, thanks to the likes of Ebay, custom is a buzzword used to hype junk.....
 
knarfeng said:
I take "custom" to be
made in a shop by a maker. He can outsource the heat treat, but he needs to do the machining or forging fabrication steps.
Customized Production knives are not "custom knives".
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I agree Frank.

I spoke with Matt (cmftw) about this a few times. I came up with a design and chose every aspect of it from steel to handle material and Matt made it for me. That is a true custom. It isn't a model that a maker produces repeatedly for everyone, it isn't an off the shelf design with customizations.

Hand made doesn't necessarily mean custom to me. A custom isn't swapping hardware for a new color you like on a knife that you didn't design.


Lots of misusing of the word custom happens.
 
Here's a link to an excellent WIP of a custom Bowie made by Kyle Royer for a BF member, back when he was an active member here. The first page shows preliminary sketches and then the entire process unfolds culminating in the completed knife on page 5. Most of the pictures still work. To me this exemplifies a custom knife.

 
For me , "custom" implies a meaningful level of personal involvement between customer and maker , in the design and build process .

https://www.bladeforums.com/forums/david-mary-custom.951/

If you spend some time looking over the above forum , you'll get an idea of what I mean .

David Mary David Mary is , IMO, a true custom designer and maker . Highly recommended ! :cool: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

Great to work with . Reasonable priced , unbelievably . Honest and reliable .
 
DocJD said:
For me , "custom" implies a meaningful level of personal involvement between customer and maker , in the design and build process .

https://www.bladeforums.com/forums/david-mary-custom.951/

If you spend some time looking over the above forum , you'll get an idea of what I mean .

David Mary David Mary is , IMO, a true custom designer and maker . Highly recommended ! :cool: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

Great to work with . Reasonable priced , unbelievably . Honest and reliable .
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Agreed, I have one of his blades, and it is excellent, though it wasn't commissioned by me. I will need to have him make something to my spec eventually.
 
In my never to be humble opinion, it's custom if it was customized, i.e. made to a specific individuals specs.

Notably I can own a custom knife that was made for someone else. It was customized for them not for me but its still custom. For example if I ever get my hands on that Warenski King Tut dagger it's obviously a custom piece though not made for me.

The implication is that it's also a one off. It was made for an individual.

What a custom is not:

If it's one of X it's a production piece. Even small production runs are still production runs.

It doesn't have to be sole authorship. Are we really going to say that something that again say Warenski made that was scrimshawed by his wife isn't custom?

HOW it's made is also irrelevant. If someone makes an individual piece via CNC mill to a specific customer's specs it's still a custom piece. If someone else pounds out 10 identical whatsits on an anvil they are still production pieces.

My thoughts, ymmv.
 
DocJD DocJD , norcalAF norcalAF , thank you for the kind endorsement. But it's really a spectrum of degrees. I have had people buy things I posted on the exchange that were entirely custom to me, and I have had people come to me with a design already drawn up and they knew exactly what type of finishing options they wanted, so that they ended up with something entirely custom to them. And there is a ton of room in between as well. So while I have no problem saying I make custom knives, please don't ask me to start calculating the percentage of custom to you vs. custom to me or my brain will implode.šŸ™ƒ
 
Ok now that I have read everyone's take on it, it makes a lot more sense now. It's a question that I've been wondering about for a few years. Thanks to all that chimed in and cleared it up for me. I'm still going to stick with my midtechs for the most part but may add a nice custom here and there as the wallet will allow. But you guys all rock and this is why I love this community and forums so much! Hope y'all have a great week!
 
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