Today I had the great experience of visiting Tom Mayo at his shop in Waialua on the North Shore of Oahu. Right now Tom is a busy guy, with a local gun show coming up this weekend and the Blade Show West coming up the following weekend. I was fortunate that he took some time out of his busy schedule to show me around his shop and talk knives with me for almost two hours.
He showed me a drawer of knives he just finished up. To be honest from the pictures on the web I wasnt that enthused about the TNT. HOWEVER, seeing them in person definitely changed my feelings toward these knives. His standard models are extremely beefy and well designed. The finish on handles shows great attention to detail. The ones I really liked were the medium sized lightweights. For a college student who would not likely be needing any kind of hard use knife, the lightweight versions are perfect. Tom uses slightly thinner Talonite and Titanium stock to construct these knives, and they are significantly slimmer and lighter. The action on these knives is extremely smooth...smoother than my Sebenza which was recently refurbished.
Tom has been making knives for just under twenty years, and those years of experience show in his knives. They are very well thought out, and robustly constructed. His years of experience also show in how sharp his knives are. Tom Mayo knows sharp. He got my Sebenza and Random Task sharper than I thought physically possible. I often read about how sharp Sebenzas are when they leave the CRK shop, and when I got mine I was quite impressed....In comparison Tom does a much better job at sharpening.
If any of you are going to be at the Blade Show West in two weeks make sure you find Tom and handle one of his TNTs. If youre lucky he might have one left for sale. His knives are very impressive and Im grateful that he was willing to take some time out of his schedule to let me visit his shop. Hopefully next week Ill be able to go over and watch him build TNTs.
~Mitch
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My Hobby Page
He showed me a drawer of knives he just finished up. To be honest from the pictures on the web I wasnt that enthused about the TNT. HOWEVER, seeing them in person definitely changed my feelings toward these knives. His standard models are extremely beefy and well designed. The finish on handles shows great attention to detail. The ones I really liked were the medium sized lightweights. For a college student who would not likely be needing any kind of hard use knife, the lightweight versions are perfect. Tom uses slightly thinner Talonite and Titanium stock to construct these knives, and they are significantly slimmer and lighter. The action on these knives is extremely smooth...smoother than my Sebenza which was recently refurbished.
Tom has been making knives for just under twenty years, and those years of experience show in his knives. They are very well thought out, and robustly constructed. His years of experience also show in how sharp his knives are. Tom Mayo knows sharp. He got my Sebenza and Random Task sharper than I thought physically possible. I often read about how sharp Sebenzas are when they leave the CRK shop, and when I got mine I was quite impressed....In comparison Tom does a much better job at sharpening.
If any of you are going to be at the Blade Show West in two weeks make sure you find Tom and handle one of his TNTs. If youre lucky he might have one left for sale. His knives are very impressive and Im grateful that he was willing to take some time out of his schedule to let me visit his shop. Hopefully next week Ill be able to go over and watch him build TNTs.

~Mitch
------------------
My Hobby Page