Hand made "user" knives. Guide?

[marksmancentral]

Hello everyone, new to this particular forum but have been browsing for quite some time now. Let me start by thanking you for such quality content you fine folks have here. You never fail to keep me in a state of awe with the pictures and knowledge you exibit. My concern is as follows:

I am a blade lover just like the rest of you. And I have been on a mission to aquire a few high quality knives and hopefully replace the usual run of the mill "production grade" items that currently fill my small collection. In short, Im looking for what you guys seem to have. I want blades that are first and foremost practical. That is to say, I have no use for safe queens. However, I want knives that are beautiful as well. Not fancy. Just beautiful. I love steel that has a "grain" or texture to it. I love furnature that is simple and ergonomic but not plain. By now you see my trouble?

I find sites like this and it is full of pages upon pages of eyecandy but there never seems to be any way to decipher the content into usable information. In particular I find that many of the blades that everyone raves about often vary so widely in price that its hard for one such as myself to make a decision to buy.

Is there any way that you guys could break this down into categories of some kind to help me find the right maker? Perhaps you could say $250 and under, 2-5, 5-7, 7+? Or maybe it would be easier to just list a few makers who are producing high quality users at say $500 and under.

Knives are like wine. It is a large task to make sense of the variety without buying hundreds of bottles and hours of frustration. I understand that most of the master smith out there are making blades that fill all those price ranges but there must be a way to give a general idea of what to look for.

Pat

 

[Bob W]

Welcome to Bladeforums.

I'd suggest browsing the forum area titled "For Sale By Maker," in addition to this section. Check out The Gallery area too. I think you'll find there are many makers selling custom- or hand-made knives with attractive but simple designs, and well under your $250 and $500 price ranges. Look for a maker that, even if they haven't made something exactly like what you have in mind, that seems to have the same taste and sensibilities, and who works in your preferred materials.

Does any of that make sense?

 

[eisman]

There's a lot of good knives available in the $250 range. I kind of depends on what you want. One of my favorite users is this WC Davis. it's been all over with me, even Alaska a few years back:

I ordered up this slimmer version from Tim Hartman and gave it to a cousin last year for Christmas. It's been out on the trap line ever since.

I took this Bailey with me last timw I went overseas. It's a heck of a knife for the money.

You can find a lot out there, you just have to know what you want. I've got a lot of more expensive knives, but these are custom, fairly inexpensive, attractive, and work. In an era when we have whole chat rooms dedicated to kids with $500 pocket knives that they are never going to use other than to flip around while watching tv until they cut themselves, these knives will perform the woodsman tasks they were designed to.

 

[Huntsman Knife Co. LLC.]

Check the Fixed blades for sale area in the exchange. Some really fantastic knives can be had for a couple hundred $. Check out Big Chris Customs and also Jim Rosa. They both do amazing work with high end steels for cheap. Ive had multiple blades from both and couldn't be happier.

 

[marksmancentral]

Oh I know exactly what I want 4ish in fixed blade, forged steel damasc or otherwise long as it has a pattern (tighter the better), slight curve with a slight drop point, burl or curly wood handle (prefer dark), and metal fastenings (not just wood riveted to blade. dont care what metal is used). That is for the first blade on my list. Oh, and I really prefer flat ground secondary edges. Good points guys. This exchange, are these folks open to orders or do you just kinda have to wait for something to hit that matches?

 

[JParanee]

Right now there are a lot of great makers giving a lot of bang for the buck

just keep your eye on the makers for sale forum and keep learning

There are some tremendous deals out there

In just the last few months I have expierenced fantastic value from David Sharp ( stock removal Loveless style ) Claudio Cas ( fantastic forged stuff) and Jason Knight MS did a fantastic utility knife in the Jurassic Bird & Trout in leather for two hundred bucks that might be the deal of the year

Keep reading and be in the right time at the right place. There are a lot of great makers and deals out there . Good luck

Knight

Sharp

CAS

 

[Kevin Jones]

Welcome to Blade Forums.
I suggest as a start get copies of the Knives Annuals and thumb through them finding knives and makers that appeal to you.
Look the makers up in the back of the same books and it usually gives you their contact information, a little about them and a brief description of the type knives they make and their price range. You can find copies very reasonably priced on Amazon.

Knifemakers for the most part are very approachable and don't mine taking phone calls from interested knife enthusiasts.
If you get a chance to attend a major knife show, by all means do it. An eager knife enthusiast can learn more from a few days at Blade Show than they could pick up in months otherwise.