CustomKnives.Com
"Many Knives by Many Makers"
10 reasons to purchase my knives
I feel there are many things I do, that make my knives a better value. Most of these are not major procedures, but I feel they are all important to help me produce the best quality knife I can. Please notice the differences of my knives.
(1) Each knife is one of a kind. I have no one helping me in my shop. I send all steel (except carbon Damascus) to Paul Bos for heat treating. If the heat treating is not right, you end up with a piece of good looking steel. I do heat treat the basic carbon Damascus steels.
(2) On all of my knives I apply a layer of Carbide on the tang of the blade and the end of the Titanium lock. That means the contact points are 72 RC.
(3) All my folders have a full back spacer, this helps keep your knife sharp (no coins touching the sharpened edge), and helps keep your knife clean. And in my opinion, I feel a partial spacer looks really, really cheap. Like I said, that's just my opinion.
(4) I use heat treated (RC62) stop-pins, at least .094 in diameter. I feel that the stop pin must be at least as thick as the blade steel. Some makers use a stop pin as small as .062 (1/16”). This pin is very important, it has a dual function. The most important function is the lock-up of the blade to the Titanium lock. That pin also stops the blade from hitting the spacer and dulling the edge when the blade is closed. Some also use a stop pin of 416 stainless that can only be heat treated to a maximum of RC42. That is too soft and will eventually cause your blade lock-up to become loose.
(5) Both liners are always Titanium, some makers use stainless steel on the solid (non-locking) side.
(6) I make everything except the screws, and stop pins, and both of these I have to modify.
(7) I hand cut, hand shape, and hand finish all parts of each knife.
(8) The washers I use are no more than .010 to .015 -.016 in thickness. If you check some makers knives, you will see they use washers that are .040 thick. Why you ask? The thinner washers require more skill from the knifemaker. If the blade is not ground exactly the same amount on both sides, the blade will either be scratched by the liners or will be off center. With the thicker washers, the blade has less chance of being scratched, and if ground off center it does not look as bad.
(9) I am a voting member of the Knifemakers' Guild. Now I want to state right up front, there are a lot of very good Knifemakers that are not a member of the Guild. Some are just not joiners, some have been Guild members and have just decided that it was not for them. There are more advantages for you my customer, than for me.
(10) I use “Skill Not Technology”. I take my time, yeah I take a lot of time, but you end up with a knife that is one of a kind. Not one of 1,000. That's important to me, and I feel that's important to you. My knives pay the mortgage and the car payments, they put food on the table, only my best effort will allow me to stay a full time maker.