Why no Charles May knives ?

pitdog

pitdog

Joined
Apr 13, 2007
Messages
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I have been looking at Charles Mays website and he makes some awesome looking knives and yet it's very rare that I hear him mentioned on this forum !!!
I know his knives ain't cheap but neither are Busses, Fehrmans etc and they get mentioned, I just wondered why his knives weren't more popular ?

Two examples...
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i first heard of him from an article that i read over at outdoors-magazine.com, and have been impressed with his work since.

it would be an honor to own one of his blades somday, i really like the scandis i see around here every once in a while (i think hollowdweller has one?)
 
Wow, I love that first one. I've seen his name before, but not his knives. I gotta check it out now.
 
I really love a lot of his stuff (or the pictures anyway). The price and wait have probably kept a lot of folks away. His handles seem a little uncontoured.
 
I'm less than a month away from receiving my Skifa Scandi. I ordered it last September so it should be up and ready to ship out anytime now. I'll have a review pretty soon. Charlie does some nice knives but since he is a custom maker, he doesn't have the ability to make the same production volume as those like Busse, Rat, Falkniven or BRKT.

Charlie is also a great guy to b.s. with and I can recall more than one occasion around a fire that he and I laughed ourselves silly.
 
His knives are awesome. I have 4 of them and two more on order. I post his stuff ove at knifeforums. Im deathtakeslast there
 
I probably own as many Charles May knives as anyone. I own the longest one and the shortest one made to date. (Shortest not pictured)

CharlieMayCollection_4344.jpg


His knives are popular and he has a backlog. You would have to discuss time frames directly with him.

Charlie makes as fine a knife as anyone. His ergonomics are dead on and fit and finish are impressive. I also have another on order. Charlie is a knife user as well as a maker and he is very particular and precise about his work.

The top one pictured in the initial post with the black scales is an OSK1 model. You should handle Charlie’s personal OSK1, it feels unbelievable.

I wouldn’t keep spending money on his models if I didn’t feel I was getting the best knife and value for the dollar, and I own a stack of knives.

I have not regretted owning my Charles May pieces and I am one of his biggest critics. His website is:

http://charlesmayknives.blademakers.com/
 
caine said:
Whats that long one called
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The long one on top is a version of his "Camp Knife" model. 6 1/2 inch S30V blade with an overall length of 11 inches. It has desert ironwood scales. This one is the longest one he has made to date.

Below it is a "FireMaker" S30V with natural micarta, below it is his "Big Woods" model D2 with desert ironwood. I held the first Big Woods he made and insisted he make me one just like that one, very ergonomic knife.

The next three are my first ones, a "Bladie Mae" with Stellar seacow scales, then a scandi "Trace" with orange G10, then a "Slitter" with cocobolo and no liners.

The one on the left is one of his "Neckers" in S30V. I have a pair of jeans with a nice one inch slit from just barely touching the edge to my leg.

My "Short" one is not ready to be revealed yet, it is part of a ongoing project I cooked up.

I also have a "Fishbone" on order. The one I held was for another customer and had green micarta. I tried to con Charlie out of it by saying the guy who it was for would probably drop it in the water and lose it. Charlie didn't bite, he just gave me a look. I wanted that knife and I will gut some fish with mine when I get a chance. Once again, I held it and realized the usefulness of this knife.

Just like going to a show, it's hard to tell about some knives until you put them in your hand.
 
2 year wait. This is from Charles May to me in an email...that means secondary market to guys as impatient as me. I did the 1 year wait on the Skookum...that was painful.
 
I have two Charles May knives, a FireAnt and a Slitter. They're great knives, and are well worth the price. Bill.
 
I post pics of my Charles May Swamp Oak here all the time.

I also recently received a Scandi Skifa and it is back to him for a rework on the scales.

The thing I like about his scandi grinds is his blades are mostly 1/8" the right thickness IMO

I think his blades are of excellent design.

HOWEVER a warning is that he does NOT contour handles. Can't get him to do it forget it. What you are going to get is 2 relatively flat relatively thin scales.

BOTH of the knives I got from him came with very thin scales. BOTH went back and he put thicker ones on them.on I wanted.

The Skifa I got I ordered with curley maple scales. The wood had almost NO figure, it was also more thin than I wanted. Now if I lay out 250 bucks for a relatively small knife I sort of feel like some care should go into selecting the wood. I returned it with some wood with good figure I'd bought.

The good thing is the knives I have bought are small. The Skifa is a lot smaller than I thought it was. So the handles are not super wide and thicker square scales seem to work ok.

I love the Swamp Oak I got from him once he put bigger scales on it. Probably one of my favorite blades.

But if you are going to order one from him first I'd go for the micarta, or pick wood out myself and send it. Second I would really impress on him that you want thick handles. Third forget any contouring. He's got an almost 1 year wait so I guess he has to zip them out really fast without a lot of bells and whistles to keep up.
 
Hollowdweller turned me on to Charles' website a year or so ago, and I still go and lust there. My problem is that buying knives directly sucks $ out of my supplies budget. So, basically, I don't buy a knife without selling one to fund it nowadays. Its been a while since I just bought a knife. Its not an easy thing to control either.
 
wewaslim said:
I have two Charles May knives, a FireAnt and a Slitter. They're great knives, and are well worth the price. Bill.
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I'm inline (18 month wait) for a FireAnt. Looks good in the picture. About the size of aBRKT Little Creek but much wider blade. Wewaslim could you post a picture holding the knife to give me a good perspective of size?
 
I ordered my Skifa-Scandi while in Iraq...really helps when Uncle Sam gives you 15 months of busy wait-time:D Charlie was great to work with and let me pick out a set of scales...a very beautiful set of diamondwood.

As mentioned his knives do have a thin profile but I must say his scandi grinds are superb.

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ROCK6
 
CharlieMayCollection_4344.jpg

The camp knife at the top isn't too dissimilar to one of Ray Laconico's. Excellent looking bit of design...minds thinking alike and all that.
 
I traded into one of his big hand scandis. Not for me, I really would like to take a look at his non Scandi grind bushcraft styles. I like his work.
 
I have more than a few of Charlies knives in my collection and user rotation. His latest that Charlie originally dubbed the ST6 and is now called the Cow Killer makes for a great EDC knife and I intend to replace my current Fire Ant pocket carry with the next Cow Killer I get. Since the one I have now is a "first of" or #1 I want to keep in my collection but the overall ergonomics compared to the Fire Ant are sure to make it a winner.

I just purchased a used Big Hand Scandi here on Blade Forums and called Charlie as I want the seller to send it to him directly so Charlile can sharpen and clean it up. I am not sure where the 2 year wait is coming from because Charlie is still quoting 18 months on new orders and seems to beat that date by a substantial amount. While 18 months is a long time, a number of other custom makers are quoting even longer times so you just have to weigh out your options and decide what works best for you.
 
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