I'm looking for a knife maker to create a custom knife for me...actually, for my wife. Here's the situation:
(Tom, Dave...anyone else from the Club here, if you spill the beans you will eat hot death. Be warned!
)
Okay, the wife in question is a martial artist (as opposed to a marital artist, as I misspelled it the first time- she's that, too), and assuming she passed her recent testing, is about to become a black belt candidate. This gives me a several months to a year or so time to get her a suitable gift for her (hopeful) promotion to black belt. Once students become black belt they are expected to have their own knife with which to perform the blade forms. How very fortunate.
The 'official' knife is basically a no-frills fixed-blade tanto, and this creation would need to stick to the standard diminsions.
Beyond that there is some room for 'play'. As far as handle material goes, I would prefer to stick to something functional and (alas) boring, like a nice grippy G-10. The blade, however, is where I would like some originality/quality/flair...possibly damascus steel in a nice pattern? Or, a more 'traditional' approach of highly polished steel with a hamon?
I'm a traditionalist in general, but lets face it, modern martial arts are a hodge-podge of east-meets-west from the beginning, so I don't see the need to adhere to *strict* tanto-style blade tradition.
Also, it would be nice to include our club logo and my family coat-of-arms in the knife at some point, either etched/engraved on the blade, or perhaps on the furniture. I can provide line-art renderings of these designs (they're both pretty simple).
Time and budget concerns...I hate to say cost is no object. Cost is ALWAYS an object...but I have always been prepared to pay more for quality. And the EARLIEST I would possibly 'need' this knife would be late in the year (November)...and that is extremely unlikely.
So, custom knife afficionados...any suggestions as to which custom knife maker I should employ?
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"A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects." -Robert Heinlein
(Tom, Dave...anyone else from the Club here, if you spill the beans you will eat hot death. Be warned!
Okay, the wife in question is a martial artist (as opposed to a marital artist, as I misspelled it the first time- she's that, too), and assuming she passed her recent testing, is about to become a black belt candidate. This gives me a several months to a year or so time to get her a suitable gift for her (hopeful) promotion to black belt. Once students become black belt they are expected to have their own knife with which to perform the blade forms. How very fortunate.
The 'official' knife is basically a no-frills fixed-blade tanto, and this creation would need to stick to the standard diminsions.
Beyond that there is some room for 'play'. As far as handle material goes, I would prefer to stick to something functional and (alas) boring, like a nice grippy G-10. The blade, however, is where I would like some originality/quality/flair...possibly damascus steel in a nice pattern? Or, a more 'traditional' approach of highly polished steel with a hamon?
I'm a traditionalist in general, but lets face it, modern martial arts are a hodge-podge of east-meets-west from the beginning, so I don't see the need to adhere to *strict* tanto-style blade tradition.
Also, it would be nice to include our club logo and my family coat-of-arms in the knife at some point, either etched/engraved on the blade, or perhaps on the furniture. I can provide line-art renderings of these designs (they're both pretty simple).
Time and budget concerns...I hate to say cost is no object. Cost is ALWAYS an object...but I have always been prepared to pay more for quality. And the EARLIEST I would possibly 'need' this knife would be late in the year (November)...and that is extremely unlikely.
So, custom knife afficionados...any suggestions as to which custom knife maker I should employ?
------------------
"A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects." -Robert Heinlein
