Suggestion to all: design *your* knife!

[Jim March]

You don't necessarily have to have a custom maker actually roll it in steel, but the process will tell you a lot about how *you* use and handle a blade and help you buy more intelligently.

Doesn't matter if your primary interest is a fighter, a utility piece or some combination.

Draw it out on paper, or draw it "directly digital" on a PC, or best yet mock it up in Plexiglass carved with a dremel or similar and modeling clay grip slabs. When I did up The Outsider that way, final details of the grip design became clearly necessary and there's no other way I could have found out.

The Outsider is now as little as two weeks from my eager mitts. We'll see how well it actually turns out...but regardless, the design process was a blast and taught me a *lot*.

Jim March

 

[Joe Talmadge]

It is a fun exercise! My knife has come to fruition in the T.H. Rinaldi Tactical Kitchen Knife. A lot of time is spent making agonizing compromises. One of my biggest compromises is the fact that I really wanted the knife to be very easily affordable. That puts constraints on things like steel choices, more complex handle shapes, etc.

Anyway, it's a fun exercise. Doing a folder in the same vein (not too expensive, very high performance) would be fun, too.

Joe
jat@cup.hp.com

 

[ToddM]

I have to agree fully here, I've never been as excited about getting a knife as I am about getting the two fixed blade tanto's I designed. Alan folts was nice enough to put the idea in my thick skull and I went to work. Some drawings, lots of eraser bits, some cardbard and wood/clay later and I had a design I was really happy with.

I owe a lot to Alan for helping with with this and having the patience to put up with questions.

Another tip might be as I did to ask the maker to do them as a "kit" for you, not all of us can grind our own blades or heat treat but it does not take much to finish off a set of handles and pin them. (I hope)

Then not only do you get to have a design of your but you get to actually put some of your own work into the design.

I would recommend it to anyone that's serious about knives to try it at least once.

Todd

 

[Alan Folts]

I agree with ToddM on this one. I think that if you put some work of your own into a knife, wether it be in designing or putting on handles or whatever, you tend to form a bond with it, it tends to be more to you than just a knife..Maybe we should name our knives..

.. but seriously, i found on the first couple knives i made way back when, that once i was finished, I got a great sence of value from those, even though they werent my best work.

But be cautious, designing your own stuff can be very addictive, then your gonna wanna try to make it yourself, and after that you might as well just hang up everything else cause all of a sudden your a knifemaker..

Alan Folts..

 

[Darrel Ralph]

I have to agree here. I here some uptown makers that say I make what I want . Well the client has a right to imput as far as im concerned. They are paying the bill. As long as its a knife the maker wants to make.
Wood works very well as a blade . Then I use clay and sometimes wax to mock up a knife.
When creating a thumb ramp for a folder this comes in real handy. I have picked up 20 folders that the thumb ramps dont fit the hand. I cant figure what there for?
YUP its a great way to build your own..

 

[Marion David Poff]

Designing your own knife is extremely rewarding, I am working on several knives including a small utility knife, slightly dressed up, with Alan Folts, and I am ever so excited...

Marion David Poff