Showing my ignorance: What exactly is a Mid-tech knife?

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I'll tell you what, I do love a handcrafted sandwich. LOL (I never ordered one from a machine though.)

It's all b.s.

Kit Carson told me years ago that he couldn't necessarily make a better knife than the Sebenza...but he could give the customer what they asked for. (And in a video, I remember Andrew Demko saying something similar, as in that he couldn't make the AD10 better than the manufacturing company for Cold Steel in Taiwan, all he could do was make it more expensive.)

Kit was a wonderful man who let many folks copy his designs and when it was mentioned to him, he said "we all stand on the shoulders of those who came before us."

I say buy the best quality knives you can from the best quality people and companies. Forget the semantics.
 
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Spillproof said:
So they mined their own ore and produced their own steel? They cut the exotic trees used in the inlays? They built their own machines? They grow cotton to make buffing wheels? They hand-craft the media used in their blasters?

See my point?

This is a word game and people are invested in it.

Knife Bros are gonna Knife Bro.
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Your point is to be argumentative? If you cannot see the difference between a custom and a production knife then I don't know what to say.

If you the say Mid Tech is a made up word/phrase, well all words are made up. We need to call a concept by some name and Mid Tech is what is used currently. Should there be something better? Yes, but I don't have anything better. Do you?
 
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I think his point is valid, and I don't find it offensive.

Is it still a custom if it doesn't come from a one man shop? What if there are two who share the work? Or if both can make the knives, sometimes separately, or together, but under a company name rather than their own?

What if they make the knives in advance and you have to order from what they produce? Doesn't custom imply that the customer gets to opt for features of their own choosing?

So then it might come down to handmade vs custom. But is it handmade if power tools are used? Where is the line? Is there a line?

What if I have a one man shop, send out my blanks to be water jet cut elsewhere, they come back to me and I put an edge on the blades, assemble them and have a few different scales I can fit to the project?

These are just a few scenarios. I'm happy if I know what goes into the manufacture, then I can decide if I Iike the product that emerges.
 
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When Matt cmftw made my knife, we spoke on the phone (and email) and we hashed out all the details. I designed the knife and he made the knife from scratch, by hand with the exception of he bought the micarta/steel. It's a custom made knife, a handmade knife. The word "custom" gets bastardized, customized isn't a custom. Handmade means made by hand, the grey area is does buying the micarta make it not fully hand made? To me I'm ok with it, though their are levels to how custom and how handmade knives are. If a knife has no handmade components then it is production solely. If it has a small amount of handmade it can be considered a mid tech but that's what gets abused for marketing.
 
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shinyedges said:
When Matt cmftw made my knife, we spoke on the phone (and email) and we hashed out all the details. I designed the knife and he made the knife from scratch, by hand with the exception of he bought the micarta/steel. It's a custom made knife, a handmade knife. The word "custom" gets bastardized, customized isn't a custom. Handmade means made by hand, the grey area is does buying the micarta make it not fully hand made? To me I'm ok with it, though their are levels to how custom and how handmade knives are. If a knife has no handmade components then it is production solely. If it has a small amount of handmade it can be considered a mid tech but that's what gets abused for marketing.
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I've seen people get so anal retentive about the definition of 'custom' that to them it literally only meant a one-off, completely hand-made knife made to the customer's specifications. I mean, you could define it like that, but I think the purpose of the OP's post is a more generally accepted definition even if there isn't a universal one.
 
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madcap_magician said:
I've seen people get so anal retentive about the definition of 'custom' that to them it literally only meant a one-off, completely hand-made knife made to the customer's specifications. I mean, you could define it like that, but I think the purpose of the OP's post is a more generally accepted definition even if there isn't a universal one.
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It definitely is a hot topic, custom and handmade are not always the same thing like when a maker makes all his knives by hand but it is a model of his that he produces, it is a handmade knife but not custom. Custom in my mind involves the customer/maker making the decisions for that specific knife. It can't be produced over and over or it isn't a custom anymore. Materials wise, it gets sketchy on what constitutes fully handmade, and the claws come out over it. For the guys who make every fastener, and part of the knife, that is truly special and in a league of it's own.
 
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Blues said:
I'll tell you what, I do love a handcrafted sandwich. LOL (I never ordered one from a machine though.)

It's all b.s.

Kit Carson told me years ago that he couldn't necessarily make a better knife than the Sebenza...but he could give the customer what they asked for. (And in a video, I remember Andrew Demko saying something similar, as in that he couldn't make the AD10 better than the manufacturing company for Cold Steel in Taiwan, all he could do was make it more expensive.)

Kit was a wonderful man who let many folks copy his designs and when it was mentioned to him, he said "we all stand on the shoulders of those who came before us."

I say buy the best quality knives you can from the best quality people and companies. Forget the semantics.
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2 things:
1. Handcrafted sandwiches are not BS, they are amazing
B. I had one of the first AD15's direct from Demko and it was great. Then I got the Cold Steel version and I was really surprised at how nice it was. It was good enough that I didn't feel bad about selling the "custom" one at all and let me get $800 back in the pocket
 
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unwisefool said:
2 things:
1. Handcrafted sandwiches are not BS, they are amazing
B. I had one of the first AD15's direct from Demko and it was great. Then I got the Cold Steel version and I was really surprised at how nice it was. It was good enough that I didn't feel bad about selling the "custom" one at all and let me get $800 back in the pocket
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I rest my case. (I have the titanium AD10 and an AD15 from CS as well, and they are surprisingly excellent.)

As to the sandwich, I haven't had a machine made one, if you don't count the slicer on the counter. So, that's still unresolved. ☺️
 
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Wow, this question sparked some thoughts, that's for sure! I appreciate all the responses!

I guess it's quite a bit like a lot of things, the definition varies depending upon the person.

I'd say that I do not own any Mid-Techs going by the general definition of a Mid-Tech is somewhere between Custom and Production. I have a bunch of Production knives however lol!

...Well I do have a Custom Shop Benchmade, does that open a can of worms? LOL!

BTW: All my sam'iches are artfully created handmade wonders of bread and fillings. 😊
 
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So, I bought 2 factory Para 3's (one cruwear, one maxamet) swapped the maxamet blade into the cruwear's handle, disassembled the maxamet's handle, painted the liners gitd, replaced the scales with natty g-10, Lynch clip, and tied a neat little fob, all to my spec for my own amusement.

Q: which of these knives is either a mod, a custom, or somehow a midtech?

Because in some internetty places I've seen the three used almost interchangeably, and in others folks fight to the virtual death over which one you're wrong to apply.

And now I need to stop at the deli on the way home for some Lebanon balogna.
 
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Whisperstealth said:
I'd like to know: What is a Mid-Tech knife exactly?

Thanks in advance for an explanation!
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As you can see if you ask 20 people that question, you will get 30 opinions!;)

As has been so eloquently stated there is no one definition.

The term began in the late '80's early '90's when machining and automation began playing a bigger and bigger role in knifemaking. Custom makers and small shops were able to offer a less expensive option to a full custom build but with certain custom additions like a hand ground blade.

It falls under my category of "I can't say exactly what it is...... but I know it when I see it"
 
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I always thought mid-tech was anything that used higher-end blade and handle materials, tighter tolerances that may or may not involve some handwork, and possibly produced in limited numbers, to justify a modestly higher price tag. I have a few in the collection (an Ochs Worx, a couple of CRKs and TRMs, a handful of ZTs, and a few Bucks) that I’d put in the class that fit that description. Curiously, I also have a whole bunch of lower-end knives that function just as well, though you can definitely feel a difference between them and the mid-techs that’s kind of difficult to put into words.
 
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Mid-tech's are great!

You get a well known brand or maker's knife at a lower cost.

Instead of the Owner actually making the knife, you are getting their apprentices, minion's, or maybe even someone from a far away country pressing the "Start Button." It's nice, Out poops a knife and you get that.

mid-tech are NOT custom, nor handmade. They aren't..

In My opinion........ with Customs (you) the consumer makes some input, Not just the color of the handles that some lackey screws on.... You, maybe say you like this model, but would like the blade to be 6.375" long. That. You get to talk to the maker, and they help you with making your Favorite knife.

In My opinion handmade means No 0's or 1's.
 
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