Folder makers who focus on ultra high cutting performance

brancron

brancron

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Recently I have got excited by the idea of "ultra high" performance folders, where the maker pays much more attention than most to blade/edge geometry and heat treat. I am making this post to ask for recommendations in this regard, whether they're custom makers or production companies.

To give an idea of what I have in mind (and what I'm seeking more of), I'm thinking of guys like Alex Steingraber of Steingraber Performance Knives (SPK), or Kasé Knives Switzerland. Shawn Houston of Triple B Handmade would be another example but for the fact that he only makes fixed blades (at least currently).

When it comes to production knives, I may have run the gamut on those, at least as far as production knives that are available to purchase in the US. But if you can think of any slightly more obscure companies that may not be common knowledge an which fit the bill, I'd love to hear about them!
 
Define what you mean by "ultra high cutting performance". Are you slicing apples or hardwood? And are you slicing those apples and hardwood all day long, or just once or twice? Big difference, as performance is a combination of edge geometry, toughness and edge retention.

Any quality knife (which should have decent heat treatment by default) can be reprofiled to whatever edge geometry suits your requirement of whatever "ultra high cutting performance" means to you.
 
brancron said:
Recently I have got excited by the idea of "ultra high" performance folders, where the maker pays much more attention than most to blade/edge geometry and heat treat. I am making this post to ask for recommendations in this regard, whether they're custom makers or production companies.

To give an idea of what I have in mind (and what I'm seeking more of), I'm thinking of guys like Alex Steingraber of Steingraber Performance Knives (SPK), or Kasé Knives Switzerland. Shawn Houston of Triple B Handmade would be another example but for the fact that he only makes fixed blades (at least currently).

When it comes to production knives, I may have run the gamut on those, at least as far as production knives that are available to purchase in the US. But if you can think of any slightly more obscure companies that may not be common knowledge an which fit the bill, I'd love to hear about them!
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Honestly, you mentioned the first two that came to mind: Alex and Roman. Transparent Knives does reblades and is very much of the philosophy you describe. Josh at REK does reblades and folders.

There is always Spyderco, which I really view as the gold standard here. You will not find a better performance knife for the price (specifically thinking of Seki K390 knives).

I know Mitchell Clark runs higher than typical hardness M390 with cryo, although I would not say his "focus" is performance. Strider, for all their problems, seems to know how to heat treat a knife (or have a good source). The 20CV Strider I had was the best I have had on my stones, but I sold it for other reasons. OZ Machine and CRK have stepped up their HT for magnacut. Hogue has too. Protech is working with Larrin on their HT.

I am sure there are others. Looking forward to following the thread.
 
Curtiss knives cut pretty well from the shop. I’ve had the chance to own / use about 6 or 7 Dave’s F3 models in CTS-XHP, they are definitely better than the majority of similar knives I’ve tried / owned.
 
SCTorrero said:
Honestly, you mentioned the first two that came to mind: Alex and Roman. Transparent Knives does reblades and is very much of the philosophy you describe. Josh at REK does reblades and folders.

There is always Spyderco, which I really view as the gold standard here. You will not find a better performance knife for the price (specifically thinking of Seki K390 knives).

I know Mitchell Clark runs higher than typical hardness M390 with cryo, although I would not say his "focus" is performance. Strider, for all their problems, seems to know how to heat treat a knife (or have a good source). The 20CV Strider I had was the best I have had on my stones, but I sold it for other reasons. OZ Machine and CRK have stepped up their HT for magnacut. Hogue has too. Protech is working with Larrin on their HT.

I am sure there are others. Looking forward to following the thread.
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Transparent Knives and Josh of REK both do great work. I imagine they'll both likely transition to making their own folders (I know Josh has done some already) and look forward to trying to nab one someday.

I've salivated over a few Mitchell Clark Gunstocks here and there but never took a very close look. You've definitely got me interested now; I'll keep an eye out. Thanks for all the recommendations!
 
Ron Sabbagh said:
Bob Dozier’s D2 folders are hair poppin’ sharp.

Agree with Spyderco K390 for production
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I cannot disagree with that! Here's my customer Dozier folder along with a paper-thin Anza (the blade stock is nearly as thin as an opinel), followed by a K390 Endura reground by Deep Cuts Cutlery:

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LOL, you guys are answering him without even knowing what his definition of "ultra high performance cutting" even means to him.

A scalpel is pretty high performance if you are cutting soft media or shaving arm hair a few times. A scalpel is not very high performance if you are cutting linoleum or carpet all day long. Get what I'm saying?

The intended application defines what should be recommended as "high performance".

Usage parameters would give us a better idea of what to recommend. Then we can get into steel type, edge profile, toughness, edge retention, etc.
 
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shane45-1911 said:
LOL, you guys are answering him without even knowing what his parameters for "ultra high performance cutting" even means to him.

A scalpel is pretty high performance if you are cutting soft media a few times. A scalpel is not very high performance if you are cutting linoleum or carpet all day. Get what I'm saying?

The intended application defines what should be recommended as "high performance".
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I guess I should have clarified that I meant for "general cutting" purposes. I know that's not much of a clarification but it's the best I can do.

But just to take one example, an SPK Lamia in CPM Cruwear with an optimized heat treat, with high hardness and high toughness, with a very thinly ground edge at a low edge angle, is going to out-perform the vast majority of knives at the majority of cutting tasks. Maybe there are certain special cases where you'd want something different, but in most cases thin, hard and tough is going to win the day. So for that reason I didn't feel the need to specify the use cases. And we're talking about folders specifically, so there's not as much variation (at least in my mind) in types of use as you'd get with fixed blades.
 
brancron said:
I guess I should have clarified that I meant for "general cutting" purposes. I know that's not much of a clarification but it's the best I can do.

But just to take one example, an SPK Lamia in CPM Cruwear with an optimized heat treat, with high hardness and high toughness, with a very thinly ground edge at a low edge angle, is going to out-perform the vast majority of knives at the majority of cutting tasks. Maybe there are certain special cases where you'd want something different, but in most cases thin, hard and tough is going to win the day. So for that reason I didn't feel the need to specify the use cases. And we're talking about folders specifically, so there's not as much variation (at least in my mind) in types of use as you'd get with fixed blades.
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OK, so you want slicer recommendations, to paraphrase?
 
A knife with a VERY THINLY GROUND EDGE AT A LOW ANGLE (think razor blades) doesn't seem like a good cutting knife for long term work in my opinion.

 
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brancron said:
Recently I have got excited by the idea of "ultra high" performance folders, where the maker pays much more attention than most to blade/edge geometry and heat treat. I am making this post to ask for recommendations in this regard, whether they're custom makers or production companies.

To give an idea of what I have in mind (and what I'm seeking more of), I'm thinking of guys like Alex Steingraber of Steingraber Performance Knives (SPK), or Kasé Knives Switzerland. Shawn Houston of Triple B Handmade would be another example but for the fact that he only makes fixed blades (at least currently).

When it comes to production knives, I may have run the gamut on those, at least as far as production knives that are available to purchase in the US. But if you can think of any slightly more obscure companies that may not be common knowledge an which fit the bill, I'd love to hear about them!
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Wait for the new 15V Manix sprint run that Shawn devloped the heat treat protocol on?

And then send it to him to put a laser tune up on it.
 
shane45-1911 said:
LOL, you guys are answering him without even knowing what his parameters for "ultra high performance cutting" even means to him.

A scalpel is pretty high performance if you are cutting soft media or shaving arm hair a few times. A scalpel is not very high performance if you are cutting linoleum or carpet all day long. Get what I'm saying?

The intended application defines what should be recommended as "high performance".

Usage parameters would give us a better idea of what to recommend. Then we can get into steel type, edge profile, toughness, edge retention, etc.
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I interpreted the question as referring to a design ethos. In other words, which knife makers prioritize performance (for whatever purpose) over other factors (price, aesthetics, etc.). The question was further limited to folders (otherwise I would have mentioned Kyle with DCC and Carothers). Edit to add: I think if you asked the question: "which folder producers care most about heat treat?" you may get similar answers.

I agree, however, that your point is a good one, particularly if we were pointing OP to a particular knife.
 
brancron said:
Not to be cavalier, but I must ask (in the context of folders): as opposed to what? I certainly ain't doing any chopping with folders!
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You'd be surprised what some people do with their folders. ;)

And at the risk of sounding like a broken record, you need to define what you plan to cut. Popping an errant thread on your clothing is far different than stripping off wire insulation all day (for example).

Do you want a knife that is razor-sharp for one-time, low abrasion (thread-cutting) use - or do you want a knife that stays relatively sharp all day after a bit more "hard use", at the expense of not being able to slice tomatoes transparently thin after you've used it once or twice?

Everything is a compromise - which is why I am trying to get some specifics from you.
 
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brancron said:
Transparent Knives and Josh of REK both do great work. I imagine they'll both likely transition to making their own folders (I know Josh has done some already) and look forward to trying to nab one someday.

I've salivated over a few Mitchell Clark Gunstocks here and there but never took a very close look. You've definitely got me interested now; I'll keep an eye out. Thanks for all the recommendations!
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Keep an eye out for Josh/REK to release some midtech versions of some of his awesome custom front flipper designs. He has mentioned plans to do that.
 
shane45-1911 said:
You'd be surprised what some people do with their folders. ;)

And at the risk of sounding like a broken record, you need to define what you plan to cut. Popping an errant thread on your clothing is far different than stripping off wire insulation all day (for example).

Do you want a knife that is razor-sharp for one-time, low abrasion use - or do you want a knife that stays relatively sharp all day, at the expense of not being able to slice onions transparently thin after you've used it once or twice?

Everything is a compromise - which is why I am trying to get some specifics from you.
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I appreciate it, and you're right to a certain extent. I suppose S SCTorrero said it best when he took my question as referring to a "design ethos" in general rather than a task-specific question. There is clearly something which distinguishes makers like Phil Wilson, Triple B, Deep Cuts Cutlery, Alex Steingraber, Kasé Knives, et al. from most other makers. Perhaps it's hard to define exactly, but someone would have to know very little about knives to not see the difference. It is that difference which I'm looking for more of.
 
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