I always admired the look of Winkler knives. After owning a couple, I quickly found that Daniel and Karen both stand behind their work and believe in their work 100%. Never had any real problem with a knife, but a ridge on a handle collar that I wanted smoothed out or a pin rubbing my hand or whatever, bottom line is that they want the customer to be happy. Daniel's knives are also all about performance and he goes to great lengths to build a comfortable, well designed knife with the best metallurgy possible. He puts his knives "out there" in cutting competitions in order to test and refine his work. Right now, I'm at Lake Tahoe with my favorite Winkler hiking knife, letting blisters heal after a hot and busy 3 days in the mountains and will head back out to Desolation next week for a much more leisurely 4 days of light hiking and camping. This particular knife is the oak handled primitive belt knife pictured on his site. The convex edge cuts and holds up better than anything I've ever owned. All I bring with me anymore to maintain it on the trail is a piece of 1500 grit paper and it stays razor sharp. Winkler knives are what custom knives should be and are proudly made with aesthetics, performance and the customer in mind. As all customs should be, but most are not. In my opinion and for my purposes of collecting and using, there are no better fixed blades to be found.
Pete
