List of traditional knife makers

[dasmi]

I'm looking for more traditional knife makers to give my hard earned dollars to
So far the brands I'm familiar with are:

Case
Great Eastern
Canal Street
Queen
Kissing Crane
Buck
Boker

Anyone have more to add? Custom makers too.

 

[Obsessed with Edges]

A few more, to keep in mind:

Eye Brand/Carl Schlieper
A.G. Russell
Hen & Rooster
Schrade/Old Timer (especially the older U.S.A. versions)
Henckels (the older, German-made ones, at least; not familiar with newer 'imported' quality)

 

[cnas122]

Here is a post by our fair moderator Gus from several years ago. I think it's a pretty good list of traditional custom makers (and shows Gus' preference in knives I'm putting last names in [brackets] where they weren't originally included

09-15-2005, 06:24 PM
I own a few multiblades or slipjoints. (actually may a little more than a few).

I would do the following (the order is not in any hierarchy)

Order one from Tony [Bose]. (My last one took 5 years.)

Order one from Eugene [Shadley] (My last one took about 2 years.)

Order one from Ryuichi [Kawamura] (You should get it within a year.)

Order one from Bill [Ruple] (I am not sure how long it will take, but I have 2 knifes of his that easily compare to anyone's.)

Order one from Joel [Chamblin]. (about a year maybe less.) Joel is very creative. He was the first maker I know that figured out how to put a true "capped bolster" on a doctor's knife.

Order one from Richard [Rogers] (Even though I have 6 or 7 of his knives I am not sure how long the wait will be).

Order one from Terry Davis.

Do a little reasearh on Jack Davenport and order one from him.

Order one from C. Gray. Taylor.

Order one from Ron Newton.

Order one from Bailey Bradshaw.

Order one from Reese Bose.

Order one from Dan Burke.

Order one from Barry Davis.

Repeat multiple times.

I really like Ohta's work and plan to order from him or try to get one at Blade next year, but those guys along with a few others (Osborne, Kios, Overeynder, Embretsen) are at the top of the the heap in quality, fit, finish and action. These are very tough knives to make right and believe it or not some of those makers work are at the highest demand of any (except maybe Ken, Don, Kit and Walter) in Custom knives.