- Joined
- Feb 28, 2007
- Messages
- 9,786
I don't have nearly the numbers of knives that many of you have, but this year has definitely been a good 'knife procurement' year for me. Mr. Breeden managed to provide 4 knives to me with a 5th currently being made. I bought two knives from Mr. Kiedasisch (JK-knives), 1 from Jimi Wade and have just filed an order with Christof (Koyote) during the holiday break. I also managed to buy a bunch of RC knives, ordered my first scrapyard.
My choice of knives and their makers usually comes with a lot of forethought and consideration. Often, my interest in their work is first was sparked by independent reviews of their knives. Like many, Bearthedog, with all of his evil posts on every knife forum on the planet, certainly influenced me on many occasions (I have yet to regret any of his recommendations).
The second aspect has a lot to do with the makers themselves becoming more and more active in W&SS. John, Christof and Bryan make so many great contributions to the threads, whether it be showing their latest wares or photo-blogs of their walks and trips. There are of course many other makers who also show up here - Ray Laconico, Andy (Fiddleback), Doug (DP-knives), Scott Gossman and so on. As these folks post and contribute to this subforum that I hold so dear, I get some perspective of their personalities and lives. I learn the ups and downs of their business’, both when things are going well and not so well. They come here to seek our advice, ask about tweaks or improvements or to show what was their thought process in making a certain designs. Some of this activity is directed advertisement, but not all of it. Some of it is genuine interest in feedback, and we see this through modifications in their future work, willingness to take open criticisms and ability to provide positive feedback and comments to competing makers. They support each other and consider one another community even when vying for the same customer base.
The third part is the ordering process. Pretty much everyone that I’ve dealt with so far has been open to modifications, minor and major and very precise about expected turn-around times. They usually tell you their honest opinion about an option you select and whether it is right for the application you want to use it for. Pretty much every order I’ve started with a maker on a custom knife has involved 18-20 responses back and forth that initially start with the specs/prices and drift through how the knife is being built, the maker’s philosophy on the pros and cons of the design, even exchanges of personal information about our respective families and personal lives. Pretty much every maker I’ve ordered from I feel as though I gotten to know them a little better for the process. I also get the additional knowledge knowing I’ve supported a person in their chosen career path. Somebody who has worked hard to learn skills and make an honest living. We all talk about supporting American companies, but what about the true American company – the entrepreneur, the mom & pop business that was built on blood, sweat and tears?
While not completely the same as custom-makers, the Rat Cutlery crew, has met about 75% of these criteria. Jeff Randall and Mike Perrin maintain a highly interactive subforum of their own. While they stick mainly to their own area, they remain honest to the core and face criticisms with equal enthusiasm as posts that applaud their products. I bought my first RC- product in the midst of the Ontario controversy and haven’t looked back. I have noticed others with the same approach who have caught my eye. Ethan Becker [edited per Siguy - sorry Ethan, typo] is one of them and I admire his personal approach to promoting his work.
All of these things are pretty intangible, and yet I feel as though they are major reasons why I choose to support certain folks to provision the sharp things I enjoy so much.
Why do I like knives? Some people really get off on the specs and the ‘new’ steel. Those things hold relatively little interest for me. I’ve come to understand what I want a knife to do and realize that I do not need anything particularly fancy to achieve those goals. No, I really like basic, simple , functional knives with proven shapes and robust features. I like the aesthetics of them, knives that scream – "use me because I look like I was made for use’n." Knives that my grandfather would hold in his hand and just nod in approval. Finally, knives where I know the maker and can tell a little story about the guy from Nebraska who runs a tree cutting service and has a dog who likes to wear sunglasses. Or the one who decided to shrug corporate life and retire doing something he loves. We sometimes talk about knives having soul and character and it is always left unsaid that it is the maker that injects that soul into their work.
So I will probably still buy the odd production knife out there when I see a design that really captures my eye. However, it is the custom makers that hold more intrinsic value to me. In the end, does it really matter if one knife slices with 0.3 N less force than the next? Does it really matter if I need to sharpen my knife twice a month instead of once a month? Probably not (I’ll sharpen them once a week whether they need it or not
). Having a knife in my hand that comes with story – now that is something I like!
My choice of knives and their makers usually comes with a lot of forethought and consideration. Often, my interest in their work is first was sparked by independent reviews of their knives. Like many, Bearthedog, with all of his evil posts on every knife forum on the planet, certainly influenced me on many occasions (I have yet to regret any of his recommendations).
The second aspect has a lot to do with the makers themselves becoming more and more active in W&SS. John, Christof and Bryan make so many great contributions to the threads, whether it be showing their latest wares or photo-blogs of their walks and trips. There are of course many other makers who also show up here - Ray Laconico, Andy (Fiddleback), Doug (DP-knives), Scott Gossman and so on. As these folks post and contribute to this subforum that I hold so dear, I get some perspective of their personalities and lives. I learn the ups and downs of their business’, both when things are going well and not so well. They come here to seek our advice, ask about tweaks or improvements or to show what was their thought process in making a certain designs. Some of this activity is directed advertisement, but not all of it. Some of it is genuine interest in feedback, and we see this through modifications in their future work, willingness to take open criticisms and ability to provide positive feedback and comments to competing makers. They support each other and consider one another community even when vying for the same customer base.
The third part is the ordering process. Pretty much everyone that I’ve dealt with so far has been open to modifications, minor and major and very precise about expected turn-around times. They usually tell you their honest opinion about an option you select and whether it is right for the application you want to use it for. Pretty much every order I’ve started with a maker on a custom knife has involved 18-20 responses back and forth that initially start with the specs/prices and drift through how the knife is being built, the maker’s philosophy on the pros and cons of the design, even exchanges of personal information about our respective families and personal lives. Pretty much every maker I’ve ordered from I feel as though I gotten to know them a little better for the process. I also get the additional knowledge knowing I’ve supported a person in their chosen career path. Somebody who has worked hard to learn skills and make an honest living. We all talk about supporting American companies, but what about the true American company – the entrepreneur, the mom & pop business that was built on blood, sweat and tears?
While not completely the same as custom-makers, the Rat Cutlery crew, has met about 75% of these criteria. Jeff Randall and Mike Perrin maintain a highly interactive subforum of their own. While they stick mainly to their own area, they remain honest to the core and face criticisms with equal enthusiasm as posts that applaud their products. I bought my first RC- product in the midst of the Ontario controversy and haven’t looked back. I have noticed others with the same approach who have caught my eye. Ethan Becker [edited per Siguy - sorry Ethan, typo] is one of them and I admire his personal approach to promoting his work.
All of these things are pretty intangible, and yet I feel as though they are major reasons why I choose to support certain folks to provision the sharp things I enjoy so much.
Why do I like knives? Some people really get off on the specs and the ‘new’ steel. Those things hold relatively little interest for me. I’ve come to understand what I want a knife to do and realize that I do not need anything particularly fancy to achieve those goals. No, I really like basic, simple , functional knives with proven shapes and robust features. I like the aesthetics of them, knives that scream – "use me because I look like I was made for use’n." Knives that my grandfather would hold in his hand and just nod in approval. Finally, knives where I know the maker and can tell a little story about the guy from Nebraska who runs a tree cutting service and has a dog who likes to wear sunglasses. Or the one who decided to shrug corporate life and retire doing something he loves. We sometimes talk about knives having soul and character and it is always left unsaid that it is the maker that injects that soul into their work.
So I will probably still buy the odd production knife out there when I see a design that really captures my eye. However, it is the custom makers that hold more intrinsic value to me. In the end, does it really matter if one knife slices with 0.3 N less force than the next? Does it really matter if I need to sharpen my knife twice a month instead of once a month? Probably not (I’ll sharpen them once a week whether they need it or not
). Having a knife in my hand that comes with story – now that is something I like!
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