Not so custom

G

GB3

Joined
Aug 6, 2013
Messages
3
I. I'm just asking a general question here. Is it me or is the so called custom knife making world no more than a smaller version of production runs. In this I mean a custom knife maker use to be someone of a hand crafting skill. Making things but hand witch took a lot of skill in getting things to fit just right. That was the difference between custom and production. Hand vs machine. No I see a lot of "custom knife makers" just milling 95% of the work and just finishing work on there own. No different than production models do. Now design is custom for the most part I won't argue that but not much else is what a true custom knife maker uses to or should be. Am I the only one that sees a world of guys punching #'s in a cad program like big production makers do and calling themselves custom knife makers?
 
It sounds to me what you are referring to is what is called a mid-tec knife. I would think a good 90% of knife makers are doing it the good ol' way. I can not think of one maker that owns a CNC machine.
 
I see Instagram and YouTube are flooded with guys calling themselves custom knife makers and show nothing but machines touching metal not them. No doubt these are good guys with good designs I just get the feeling custom knife maker is a little different term now a days.
 
Just about, they're milling the blades handles bevels only sanding they do is the rough edges and finish work after HT.
 
All i can tell you is that i have several custom knives from people who did everything by hand from start to finish. I have a few more where the blade was laser cut then all the finishing work was done by hand. I don't seen any difference between those two methods.

I also have a couple that were done almost completely by machines with only the final finishing work done by hand.


There's a wide array of "Custom" makers. Most of them do everything by hand, but a few of the bigger ones are not really custom at all anymore. They churn out 50-100 of the same design at a time and sell them without ever taking a single order direct from a customer for a custom piece
 
Who cares what you call them? Custom, mid-tech, bench-made, hand-made, blah blah...

As long as you get what you expected at a fair price, all is good.
 
The custom makers mostly grind their knives those days. I guess OP refers to forging, where maker spend a lot of time getting there without the benefit of power tools.
You can still find some guys forging their knives, but one of the reasons why most grind out of bar stock is that modern steels are of much better quality and have quite consistent composition. It would be nuts to forge the powder steels and burn out some of the components.
The other reason is that a completely hand made knives would be much more expensive and would take a lot more time to make.
 
Hi GB3 and welcome to the forum.
If you stick around you will find a huge amount of accumulated knowledge about all things sharp. In the meantime why dont you have a look at the knifemaker's subforums? There is a lot of great stuff made by talented people usinf different methods.
 
Shirogorov 95's are sold in this exchange as custom yet they are mid-tech. Shirogorov does make custom knives - a guy on Youtube compared their custom with their production/mid-tech model.
 
This is my thoughts as a machinist, tho I've never made a knife I have made several AR style lowers, the first from an 80% receiver, one from a solid block of HDPE and several others from 0% & 30% lowers.

If someone makes something on a manual mill (without DRO), to me, that's hand made, the machine cuts the material but it can't do it on its own, it can't do a single step o the process on its own, its not a CNC, I would have zero issue receiving a product sold as "hand made" that someone machined on a mill or with any other power tools.

Just my 2¢...
 
IMHO most makers that use full CNC machining are very up front & proud of their accomplishments. Guys like Brian Tighe & John Grimsmo make great unique designs, and are proud of designing not only the knives, but also creating special tools & jigs to produce them. It is still a "custom knife" in this respect, and i doubt they are being billed as "hand made". If it wasnt for guys like this, you wouldnt see other companies making such beautiful production knives. It shows the industry what can be done with the machines they are currently using. I think this is good for the industry at large. Plus these custom makers are not mass producing on a large scale. They still have to hand assemble and embelish, as well as sharpen all their blades. So in many cases you still have the makers hands being the only one on the knives.

Like any product, some companies are going to do things differently than others, it doesnt make them bad, or have any less attention to quality or detail. If you dont like it, dont buy it....
 
I program and run cnc's as well as manual mills for a living and I feel that if something is made on a Bridgeport or a manual lathe, then it is in fact "handmade". Just my .02. Some of the CNC'ed knives being made now are freakin awesome though. There is a machinist that has made some fighters that have been sold on the forum that were completely CNC'ed and they are AMAZING! (Nathanthemachinist I believe)
 
Great posts here already.

Even hand made knives are made with tools. Files, sand paper, drills, grinders. We are lucky to live in an age where our advanced technology can make complex tools to simplify methods. I am not saying that what makers do is easy, but it has to be easier than making a solid knife 200 years ago.
 
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