I want to make knives. Not hand make as a hobby, but as a manufacturer.
I am severely disappointed with my choices in knives right now.
Spyderco, Benchmade, Schrade, even Buck are in a race to the bottom to bring me crap steel made in China.
If I want made in the USA, I’m generally going to be paying a lot more than I want to. Only Kershaw right now is delivering made in the USA at a reasonable price.
What I REALLY want is “the one knife to rule them all.”
I, like many people, carry a Swiss Army Knife for the tools and a bigger, better lockback for the knife.
Why?
Because the choice is “good tools, crap knife, or good knife and no tools.”
Even the big SAKs are Krupp 4110 steel, which is the European version of 420HC, which is some bullshit steel. Leatherman uses 420HC bullshit in their knives. On their high dollar tools they use 154CM, but the blades are rinky-dinky.
What I want is a knife, Spydero Endura size, a solid 3.75 inch drop point blade, made out of a premium steel – I’m a big fan of CTS XHP – with the basic tools I use daily, e.g. bottle opener/pry bar (yes, you can pry with that, it’s not a blade), can opener, screw driver, awl (actually pretty useful for opening heat sealed clamshell packaging).
I want a cross between a Victorinox Adventurer and a (now discontinued) Kershaw Piston.
Since, apparently, the entire knife making world is suffering from a case of “me too” and just making crap Chinese variants of the same shit over and over again, I’m going to just have to start rolling my own.
https://youtu.be/OSDFLgq4EDs
Trust me the steel is fine, heat treat and geometry of the blade matter way more.
420HC and 1.4110 are no where near VG10 or S30V. Heat treat all you want (it’s what I do for a living), but you can’t make a 0.5% C steel into a 1.5% C steel.
Maybe you need to spend more then $50. I work for you one the makers you listed and unless you are buying budget line stuff then you are not getting China steel.
For $100, Spyderco will give me VG10 and Kershaw will do 14C28N. If I want a Spyderco made in America, I’m going to be blowing a lot on a Military, their mid level stuff is still Japanese made.
I have a lot of respect for what Kershaw is doing but I’m still not entirely happy.
Knowing personally what it takes to go from R&D, production, to after sale service, if you can do it then do it. Keep us posted if you do. As a knife guy I for sure would be interested to see what you come up with.
I don’t know what you do for a living, but my job is design and production for the hunting industry.
When I am done working for The Man, I want to go out for myself. As a knife guy, I think it would be an easier market to get into than firearms. Also the things I want to do are a little bit different than what everybody else is doing.
I really value made in the USA. That is a major goal of mine. It is something I am proud to be part of right now.
I have bought everything that I’ve seen that I like at the price point I am willing to spend. Making my own is a real dream. Also the things I want to do are a little bit different than what everybody else is doing.
I carry a Swiss army knife, victorinox oho trekker. Has a good thick locking blade and all the normal tools I want. I made a slight modification to the thumb hole and ground off some to use as a bottle opener/ermsonize it and added a pocket clip. Imo it would be the perfect knife if it had a slightly better point to the blade, was minus the saw to make it a smidge thinner, the lock was improved since it is only a bar style lock and cam with a factory swapable pocket clip.
One day when I feel like totally destroying it I will cut the rivets off and take the saw out.
I moved away from folding knives as an edc.
A reasonable sized fixed blade knife I find far more useful than any folder.
Still carrying folding knives, but I only use them as cutlery 😀
I still have a sheath knife I made as a boy scout, when I lost my knife in a river. My father supplied the steel: a section of a HSS blade from a metal cutting power hacksaw. The kind of machine that cuts 10 inch diameter solid steel bar. It took a long time to shape (on a grinding wheel), but it holds its edge for a very long time too. I can cut up roots in the dirt with it without hurting the edge. I don’t know what kind of steel that is, but it certainly is good stuff.
Speaking of interesting US made knives, take a look at http://www.hideawayknife.com sometime.
Check out DPX
https://www.dpxgear.com/shop/knives.html
See the heft and heat
I’ve seen their stuff before. They are like TOPS knives, very “overbuilt” and way more expensive than I’d like to buy.
Am I a cheapskate? I don’t think so. The reality is, expensive knives have a tendency to grow legs and walk away in workplaces. I also want to deliver options at a little bit more of an working everyman price that are US made.
When you build the knife you describe, I’ll be first in line to buy it because you perfectly describe my frustrations and my desire in an EDC. I carry a Delica Wave for a blade and a small Leatherman with no blade for tools and wish for a proper size and weight single tool like you describe..
If you know what you want, hit the gun shows, estate sales, craigslist, St.Vincents and garagesales and buy used.
Might take awhile to find what you want, but half of the enjoyment is the looking and talking.
As long as the blade is not damaged, most of the time a messed up handle can be repaired or replaced. A damaged handle can knock the price way down.