Google definition of a custom knife:
"custom knife
web definitions
A knife made to a customer's specifications."
Not like Google is the final word on anything, but that seems to be the general consensus of the definition.
Come on kid, you're more astute than that. Your Loveless knife was likely made to the maker's specifications, but it's considered a custom. Do you know why?
The industry isn't regulated, but the people that decide what is and what isn't a custom knife is the person that makes it, and the people that sell them. Sometimes a maker gets called out or public opinion plays a role in that, but for the most part the industry is cleanly divided into different levels of manufacturer sizes. Search custom knives, and you will see what I mean.
Make 3 lists - make one for production knives, one for custom knives, and one for mid tier (not mid tech. Not every company embraces that term. Instead, there is a space where a company has grown past the point that they refer to their knives as customs, but they aren't to the manufacturing capacity where they've become production, or through a combination of quality, manufacturing processes, reputation or through control of their product cycles and availability, they are able to retain a fuzzy definition about what their product actually is). You don't have to question it - if the maker says that their knives are custom knives, go with it. If they say they're mid-techs, go with it. Then, look at the similarities. You're going to see that the only knives considered production knives are made by production companies. All others will either be customs or mid-tier. Even on Ebay you either list them as Factory Manufactured (made by a large factory) or custom (any knife not made by a large factory). This has been a consensus among the knife industry for a long time now. Only recently has anyone not understood the classifications or questioned it - when a maker moves into the production definition, it has always been in their interest to label their products as so, and I've never heard of them cheating the system. Knives that Emerson makes with his own hands in smaller batches are still considered customs - knives that he puts out in large runs are production. Busse has a custom shop, and not every piece that comes out of the custom shop is made to customer specifications - it's just a different class of their products that are above their production class.
Just think of makers like CRK - they're most definitely production knives by your definition, but until a couple years ago people routinely referred to those as custom knives. Some people like to call them mid-techs now, and there's a lot of reasons why consumers haven't just moved them over to the "production" pile. Fiddleback is producing a couple dozen knives every week - they're using several processes that are also used in modern industry (segregating work, working in batches), they have specific models, and they do not take custom orders - they don't like to refer to their knives as customs either because it implies to some that they will take custom orders, but if you buy one do you put it in the drawer with your production knives, or in the drawer with your custom knives??
The major difference isn't a Google definition, or how many are made, or even how they are made - it's the tier of pricing that the maker can attach their brand. A custom knife, eve when using basic materials, is always going to be a higher priced knife. A mid tech will be slightly cheaper because more employees usually means more efficiency, and more technology usually means quicker production. A full production knife is always going to be the cheapest because a corporation plans product development and production from start to finish, they enjoy the benefits of building large factories and having a large workforce, and using an assembly line. Pretty much, to be considered a production knife it needs to be manufactured by a production company. Spyderco, KAI, Case, Ka-Bar, etc. The knives made by small companies are never going to be labeled production knives, and those companies wouldn't be able to compete if they were forced to adopt that tier of pricing.
If you still don't understand or believe, go to one of the custom knife dealers that deals solely in custom knives. You will see all kinds of knives, made by all kinds of people in all kinds of methods.
Still, Reate needs to give more information before anyone can say what tier his knives definitively fit in. How many employees? What do his facilities look like? What are the manufacturing methods? How much time in each piece? And finally, what are his production quantities and margins. The problem is, with an American maker you would just take it for granted that if they said they were producing at a custom tier, that that was the case. Since this is a Chinese maker, he's being subjected to 10x more scrutiny.
This has been one guy showing off a single knife design that nobody knows where to get anywhere else or hasn't even heard of other than here. What production company operates like that?? It's crystal clear that this is a small operation, and he'd be grouped in with the other small time makers putting out Ti folders that usually sell for 400$-900$. It doesn't even look like he's making these on the scale of Hinderer. It's awful that people are putting up post after post trying to knock the value of the knife without knowing anything for sure, and trying several different angles to knock the knife when the first one doesn't fly. M390 is much more desirable than S35VN in this market, and this knife is 100$ cheaper than the Sebenza. If he doesn't have 30+ employees, he's closer to deserving the 'custom' label than CRK. All of this would be taken at face value if this was an American company, and no one would question it if the knife was $600, or even $800.
