A year ago in the September 2007 issue of Guns magazine, I read Mike Cumpston's article on a new-ish knife maker from NY state. Matt Lesniewski works in 1095 carbon steel and uses great natural scale materials to accent the traditional blade shapes he puts up. Nothing strange or exotic looking, just really cool interpretations of 18th and 19th Century classics. Oh, and Mike's article mentioned that they were pretty cheap for the custom works of art that they are, and that they were pretty sought-after by those in the know.
Well, I jumped on line right away and just had a ball looking at Matt's site, ML Knives. Great website: great photos and more great photos and all kinds of great info. Problem was, almost every knife on the two pages of knives Matt had up for sale was already sold! So, I drooled over the gallery of his past work, bookmarked the site, and forgot about it.
When I ran across the bookmark again a month or so later, I was distressed to see that there was the same situation: two pages of knives for sale, but they were all already sold!
Drat. And they were different knives than they had been the month before, too! I'd snoozed and "losed"! :'(
Okay, I got a little more serious about checking Matt's site. I'd see knives for sale from time to time, but none that were of the style that I was after (I like a small knife - a fixed blade that I can carry in my front pocket and use for just anything) - those were always already sold when I saw them.
After a year of this, I got to where I checked ML Knives every couple of days.
(See? I can learn! 
) And, early this week, I saw one that grabbed me - a cool little cross between a skinner and a patch knife, with a neat deep belly and elk stag scales over its full tang. I looked at it all morning, and then bought it!
Matt's a great guy, by the way, and great to do business with. He sent me emails confirming my order, letting me know that he'd run my card for payment, that he'd set up the order for shipment first thing the next day, and that he'd shipped it. This sort of customer service really makes a guy feel good about a purchase.
Anyhow, it just came! I sent Matt an email to let him know it had arrived (after all his emails to me, it was the least that I could do), and ran inside to post a pic for you gents.
Where are you going to find a custom knife like this for under $130? Around here, if I were to buy something similar from a knifemaker, it would run $250 or more.
I'm rushing to get things done right now, but I wanted to get this pic up, and to put up a link to Matt's site. I'm very happy with this little cutie!
http://www.mlknives.com/
Well, I jumped on line right away and just had a ball looking at Matt's site, ML Knives. Great website: great photos and more great photos and all kinds of great info. Problem was, almost every knife on the two pages of knives Matt had up for sale was already sold! So, I drooled over the gallery of his past work, bookmarked the site, and forgot about it.
When I ran across the bookmark again a month or so later, I was distressed to see that there was the same situation: two pages of knives for sale, but they were all already sold!
Drat. And they were different knives than they had been the month before, too! I'd snoozed and "losed"! :'(Okay, I got a little more serious about checking Matt's site. I'd see knives for sale from time to time, but none that were of the style that I was after (I like a small knife - a fixed blade that I can carry in my front pocket and use for just anything) - those were always already sold when I saw them.
After a year of this, I got to where I checked ML Knives every couple of days.
(See? I can learn! ) And, early this week, I saw one that grabbed me - a cool little cross between a skinner and a patch knife, with a neat deep belly and elk stag scales over its full tang. I looked at it all morning, and then bought it! Matt's a great guy, by the way, and great to do business with. He sent me emails confirming my order, letting me know that he'd run my card for payment, that he'd set up the order for shipment first thing the next day, and that he'd shipped it. This sort of customer service really makes a guy feel good about a purchase.
Anyhow, it just came! I sent Matt an email to let him know it had arrived (after all his emails to me, it was the least that I could do), and ran inside to post a pic for you gents.
Where are you going to find a custom knife like this for under $130? Around here, if I were to buy something similar from a knifemaker, it would run $250 or more.
I'm rushing to get things done right now, but I wanted to get this pic up, and to put up a link to Matt's site. I'm very happy with this little cutie!
http://www.mlknives.com/
