Custom, Mid Tech, or Production?

I agree, before deciding on who falls into what category we need a clear defenition of what each category is.

I think that the whole Mid-Tech thing has been covered well enough already. So what about production and custom?

I guess production is easy enough to define. Simply put you could say that the majority of the work on the knives is done by machine, in some sort of automated process. Then the rough parts are sent down an assembly line type of system, and each step is done by a different person or machine as it progresses. There is no one sole person responsible for the design, manufacture, and assembly of each knife.

Custom can be a bit stickier I guess. Is a knife to be considered custom if it is one of a standard model made by the maker? Is it custom if he uses any type of CNC machining on it? Would it need to be truly just a maker and buyer talking over time, coming up with some ideas and then a final knife? Maybe the biggest part is that a custom knife must be pretty much designed, and made all by one person, or maybe a shop helper too. I think the biggest part of a custom is that a human is doing each step, and checking quality along the way. Also CNC machining doesn't necessarily disqualify a knife, but it shouldn't be used for much. Unlike a previous poster I don't realy think that a custom must be a one of knife. If a maker has some standard models but he makes them all by hand they are still custom made knives.
 
Production is pretty much just that. Now you can break that down into sub groups like small shop, benchmade and the like but that can get a little silly and time consuming.

As to custom. First is the nomanclature. In the custom world, custom has come to equal handmade. They are used the same. While this is not really true by definition and application, the industry (myself included) is guilty of it as a whole.

A custom knife does not really mean handmade and handmade does not mean custom. If you take a Buck 110 and have a little filework put on the spine it is now a custom, however it is by no means a handmade. On the flip side you can have a fully handmade knife that the maker smelts his own steel and mills his own screws but if it is a stock pattern bought off a table at a show, then it is handmade but not custom.

The vast number of handmade knifemakers are going to be part time one man small shop makers. Maybe 1 out of every 100 are full time. If you take out those that make a full time living out if (not counting those that retired from other jobs and are drawing pensions) then the number drops to about 1 in 1000. So who you are dealing with mostly are going to be guys that are not mass production pros. These are guys who may turn out 30-50 knives per year. The only things they normally farm out are things like heat treating, material production (steel, damascus, titanium composites ect) and hardware (pivots, screws ect).

Then you have the "big boys". The true full time makers. These are the guys turning out 100-500 knives per year. They are the ones more likely to have their own CNC gear. They are more likely to use waterjet cutting and other services. They are more likely to have a Mid-Tech model or two.

What does all this mean to the question at hand? I don't really know. I do know that I am not going to get involved in the debate of "at what point does X become Y becomes Z". It is a nasty debate that has been going on for years and one that I prefer to stay out of. I will leave it to the guys in the Guild who have more time on thier hands.

To me, all that matters is that the maker is up front and honest about whatever methods he/she decides to use to make his/her product.
 
Personally , I just look at fit , finish , design , quality and materials . The rest is a bit like an OTF auto or your Girlfriend , Neat , expensive , and you'll never really understand how they operate .
 
One thing I will say from first hand experience is that it is probably not wise to get into a discussion about what is or isn't a custom or a mid-tech knife. It ruffles a few feathers and some people get really angry about the whole debate. Below is a link to a thread I started in the Custom Knife Forum about mid-tech knives. Things got so heated that the thread was eventually locked.

http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=304796&highlight=mid-tech
 
As long as the knifemaker makes the knife himself I don't care what machines he uses. What's the difference anyway, he's running the machine.
 
Keith Montgomery said:
One thing I will say from first hand experience is that it is probably not wise to get into a discussion about what is or isn't a custom or a mid-tech knife. It ruffles a few feathers and some people get really angry about the whole debate. Below is a link to a thread I started in the Custom Knife Forum about mid-tech knives. Things got so heated that the thread was eventually locked.

http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=304796&highlight=mid-tech
Click to expand...


That's why I started this in the general knife discussion and not the custom forum, I was looking for the opinions of the collectors and buyers than the makers, although all opinions are welcome.
 
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