Top 10 New Makers(Article in July Blade)

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nifrand

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"Youse guys" opinions on their picks.
My opinion is they are a bit biased for some reason.
Randy

In no particular order

Dan Farr
Audra Draper
Mike Obenauf
John Young
Chris Smith
Steven Olszewski
Joe Olsen
Todd Begg
Lucas Burnley
Duane Carrillo
 
Hey Randy, could you please list the chosen. Also explain their definition of "new maker" if they elaborated. Of course everyone has their own list, I would just like to be able to compare mine to theirs (lists of course :rolleyes: ).
 
FWIW, the title of the article is "The top 10 most collected new knifemakers".
There were about 14 more on the honorable mention list also.
 
nifrand...elaborate a bit for me. Biased toward what -- advertisers, certain knife styles or some other bias. Of course the list is inherently biased...that's the nature of "Top Ten" lists, but it seems you are hinting at another bias.

Looks like a decent cross section of makers to me. I admit I haven't read the article so maybe you can help me out.

JT
 
Hi Nifrand,

I don't think they have an agenda, it is mostly that they don't know what they are talking about.

At the Blade SHow to win the award for Best New Maker, you have to have been making knives for less than two years. Not one of the top 10 listed fall into that category.

Some like John Young and Joe Olsen have been making knives for 8 years.

Stephen Olszewski and Todd Begg have been making knives for 7 years.

Not picking on these makers, however I think even they would not consider themselves as "new makers".

As with most articles like this when you ask dealers they are going to be biased towards what they like, what they are selling and what they have clients asking for.

If you ask collectors they are biased towards their favorite makers. It becomes a popularity contest. We have seen that on this forum as well as others.

Hard to believe that Brett Gatlin didn't make the list. Then again they didn't seem to mention too many ABS makers.

Id like to see the same article with makers who are actually new makers, 3 years or less.
 
These are one paying collectors opinions, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the management.

Dan Farr-Runs the gamut from make you cry, top notch work, to sort of ho-hum. The Vanguard hunter that he did was exquisite. I plan on chatting with him at Blade. Very fair prices.

Audra Draper-Used to make a servicable Fowler type fixed blade, now specializes in a forged neo-Ken Onion pattern, which is why she is probably collectable right now. I respect the attempt, but the work has no "juice" for me, and is not inexpensive.

Mike Obenauf- With Kit as a mentor, you would have to be legally retarded not to be able to make a smooth, fine folder. Prices seem quite fair. That being said, most of the work that I have seen with his name has been drop points, and I vastly prefer clip point blades in the Model 4 type knives.

John Young- I liked the potential of his work to order 2 knives from him last year. They should be here next week, and I will post pictures and my thoughts on the knives. He has been a very easy maker to work with, listens well and communicates well, too. The prices were very fair when I placed the order, they have gone up since then.

Chris Smith- Not familiar with the work.

Steven Olszewski- Top notch workmanship, folders run the gamut from just really nice to "kitchen sink" over the top. I think his prices are absolutely insane, and these knives were built for guys like Ed Wormser and Don Guild.

Joe Olsen- Really nice guy, work has really come into it's own being in the last couple of years. I don't own any of it, but that doesn't mean that I wouldn't like to. Prices are on the high side, but still reasonable.

Todd Begg- Some nicely machined touches on some fairly ugly knives. Would not own, do not care for the overall package, and I think the prices are a mite on the high side.

Lucas Burnley- Not familiar with the work.

Duane Carrillo- Ugly ass tactical boat anchors with :confused: oddly machined saw teeth. Some of the more ungainly designs that I have ever seen in my life.

"New" makers that float my boat this year, and are a "must-buy" are Jerome Anders, Aaron Frederick, Burt Foster, Charles "Chuck" Gedraitis, David Mosier, Nick Wheeler, and the afformentioned John Young.

Best Regards,

STeven Garsson
 
I can't comment to the Bias because I don't read Blade so I think I'm missing your inference.


What gets me curious is how they defined "new", some of these people have been around a while and are maybe just recently getting popular.
 
I felt the article could have been done better.

If I remember correctly, they asked only four dealers, and not even every one of these dealers has been in the industry all that long or could be considered a foremost expert. In fact, I would even wager that one of two of these dealers has probably handled less knives in his entire career than someone like Les Robertson sells in a year.

So the conclusions drawn by the article were based, in my humble opinion, on incomplete information. They should have done a better job defining the criteria, and should have solicited the input of more dealers (and maybe a few prominent collectors as well).

So yeah, I was disappointed with the article.

Edited to add:

Kohai, Lucas Burnley is a relatively new maker who does some nice work, but currently does not accept orders (I asked him just a few weeks ago) and sells knives primarily at shows or through one of the dealers interviewed for the article - Moore Cutlery
 
Audra Draper is a master smith and she's been making knives for a while. She does good work, but I don't consider her a new maker.
 
I don't know all those makers. Of those I know, Dan Farr and Todd Begg are the ones I'm most interested in. I had one Mike Obenauf, and I found it less well finished than my factory made Sebenza, so I sold it.

Audra Draper is in no way a new maker, so I don't believe she belongs in this list (which has no implication on the quality of her stuff).

Nick Wheeler's quality is above that found in the average MS knife, I think - but my sample is arguably limited.
 
Thanks for the mention fellas :)

I think I should get a refund, as I sent a check to get my name dropped and they forgot! ;) :p ;)

It was mentioned that they felt anyone doing this for 10 years or less, is a new kid on the block and not yet well established with collectors.

-Nick-

http://www.wheelerknives.com
 
To prevent me from forming a biased view of these makers. . . .I request that they send me some of their wares to evaluate. It's only fair ! :p :D

And I promise. . . .I will not use the knives to split concrete blocks ! :D
 
I agree with WWG on most counts. It almost appears as though they did not agree on the intent of the article very well before it was put together. While BladeForums comprises a small percentage of the overall knife market, the fact that little or no mention of a majority of these maker's takes place on this board makes me a little suspicious of their claim of "most collected" Also, the annual production of a couple of these guys does nothing to reinforce that belief as I know them to be quite low in numbers. My list would definitely be closer to Steven's.
 
Nick, you definitely belong on that list.

It seems to me that this was based on the opinion of a group of four dealers. The makers that they would recommend would be ones that they have experience with. When I see an article like this I don't take it as anything definitive, but only as a guide for checking out some makers that I might otherwise have overlooked.

My interest is in forged knives and there was a definite lack of steel bashers in the Blade article. The ones listed I already knew about, so the article was really of very little use to me other than as an interesting read.
 
Well for what it's worth, here are my thoughts. New maker is kind of a misused phrase. Most of us when we first got started and were truly new at making a knife made some god awful stuff, I still cringe when I look at my first folder (auto). It takes a number of years for a maker to first learn how to do it right from a technichal stand point and then for him to develop his own style so that his knives don't look like sombodys else's. This can take years, he might get a little exposure along the way but when he finally starts making something that is in demand he is now the new guy on the block. Hense new maker. I made my first auto in "91", 14 years ago. Nobody ever heard of me until a couple of years ago and that was just a brief blurp in some press along the way.
 
If the criteria was 10 years or less for a new "maker". Then 3 of the 4 dealers were "new" dealers. Additionally, 3 of the 4 dealers sell factory knives as well. I would imagine it is difficult to gain an indepth knowledge of both factory and custom knives. Especially if you have been doing it for less than 10 years.

Perhaps the dealers lack of experience taints their view of the makers, the market and who really is collectable.

Then again, Blade does like to "spread" it around to numerous dealers over the course of the year. Perhaps it was just their turn.

WWG
 
Hell I won "best new maker" at blade in 01. I figure if I hadn't faded in and out of the game so much ( my fault of course, just need to keep myself off the bottle and out of jail, which is all over now and I'm back in the game for good now), I might be on one of those collectible lists. Oh well, live and learn.
Personally I think advertising in blade has some advantages.
 
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