- Joined
- Feb 19, 2013
- Messages
- 2,051
Hi All, I am an old fart that has recently (past 1.5 years) gotten into knives in a pretty big way. I have carried a knife my entire life, and learned to freehand sharpen at a young age which I worked on diligently in the early 80s to perfect to the point where I could get reasonable sharp edges that would make my arm hairless. From then until recently, I always carried either a slipjoint pocket folder or a small lockback for general cutting tasks. I have not hunted since about 1988 (got out of school, real job), as my wife essentially told me that as long as we can afford to purchase our meat from the store, that hunting was out. So my hunting knives have been stored in a drawer since then.
Fast forward to 2011. I started to get back into knives. The primary reason is that where I work, concealed carry of a firearm is not allowed. So I began my addiction by purchasing rather tactical folders that increasingly got larger, in the highly unlikely event I needed one for defensive purposes. I then went to some high end folders looking for the most capable ones in case I find myself in an oh crap moment. The knife that you will be using in a survival situation is the one that you have on you at the time you get into that situation, right? I work in an office, and business casual is the uniform of the day for most days. A couple of times a month I have to get more formal and wear a suite, but that is besides the point. I came to realize that even a small sized fixed blade knife with between a 3-4" blade is much more capable (due to strength) than any folder at any price. So I now own more than 45 blades both folding and fixed. All but one is made in the U.S. I recently started getting small FB EDC options from Bark River to include the Essential EDC, North Star EDC, Huntsman, Gunny, a couple from TOPS (Little Bro, etc.) in search of adequate EDC and pocket sheath options to replace my folders. I have become infected with this knife addition virus (KAV) in a rather large way. I heard an estimate that in the U.S. the annual knife market is about $5.8 billion. Now I understand why. Up until now I have purchased predominantly production knives. The exception is that I have purchased four kitchen knives from Carter Cutler and one neck knife. But when I line up all of the knifes that I own, especially the small EDC FB knives, it would have been far more cost effective to find a maker or makers to make me what I wanted (assuming that I knew what I wanted).
Now for the purpose of my post. I am seeking guidance on best practices to deploy when choosing a maker of knives. My grandfather was a finish carpenter, my father was a finish carpenter and I really do have a deep appreciation for hand craftsmanship. I also like modern technology and materials when they are utilized to enhance form and function, but at heart I am a bit of a traditionalist (same thing as old fart). Any guidance that you folks could provide me with as I embark on my journey into hand made and custom knives will be greatly appreciated. Any recommendations as to how to approach it are greatly appreciated. I have been looking at the Makers for Sale area, but I just do not know how to approach this. If there are prior threads where this has been asked and answered to death, then by all means let me know, and Mods feel free to remove this.
Fast forward to 2011. I started to get back into knives. The primary reason is that where I work, concealed carry of a firearm is not allowed. So I began my addiction by purchasing rather tactical folders that increasingly got larger, in the highly unlikely event I needed one for defensive purposes. I then went to some high end folders looking for the most capable ones in case I find myself in an oh crap moment. The knife that you will be using in a survival situation is the one that you have on you at the time you get into that situation, right? I work in an office, and business casual is the uniform of the day for most days. A couple of times a month I have to get more formal and wear a suite, but that is besides the point. I came to realize that even a small sized fixed blade knife with between a 3-4" blade is much more capable (due to strength) than any folder at any price. So I now own more than 45 blades both folding and fixed. All but one is made in the U.S. I recently started getting small FB EDC options from Bark River to include the Essential EDC, North Star EDC, Huntsman, Gunny, a couple from TOPS (Little Bro, etc.) in search of adequate EDC and pocket sheath options to replace my folders. I have become infected with this knife addition virus (KAV) in a rather large way. I heard an estimate that in the U.S. the annual knife market is about $5.8 billion. Now I understand why. Up until now I have purchased predominantly production knives. The exception is that I have purchased four kitchen knives from Carter Cutler and one neck knife. But when I line up all of the knifes that I own, especially the small EDC FB knives, it would have been far more cost effective to find a maker or makers to make me what I wanted (assuming that I knew what I wanted).
Now for the purpose of my post. I am seeking guidance on best practices to deploy when choosing a maker of knives. My grandfather was a finish carpenter, my father was a finish carpenter and I really do have a deep appreciation for hand craftsmanship. I also like modern technology and materials when they are utilized to enhance form and function, but at heart I am a bit of a traditionalist (same thing as old fart). Any guidance that you folks could provide me with as I embark on my journey into hand made and custom knives will be greatly appreciated. Any recommendations as to how to approach it are greatly appreciated. I have been looking at the Makers for Sale area, but I just do not know how to approach this. If there are prior threads where this has been asked and answered to death, then by all means let me know, and Mods feel free to remove this.
