Home Forums Gear Knives and Blades educate me please ... if you can :)

My point about the Krein A-2 carbon knife ,witch sold in a few hours with spots all over it,btw.....
Depending on the maker & the knife,etc. You can get a custom that has already been in someone's collection, sometimes easier & less $that ordering currently. There are many ways to go about obtaining a good hand made knife.

Vince, I have found that buying a pre owned knife from a collector, almost always gets you a prime specimen with very little if any use on it.
Cost won't always be a lot cheaper, but enough so that I don't feel bad about ordering it.

another reason to do so, is that the knife is ready now, and you don't have that awful three to six months wait.

Pre fabricated , you get See how it looks/ came out, too

His price range is around 200. Recently I've sold quite a few knives that were $300 knives for 200 or less or more

Claybreaker,
Vince has always treated me well and gets in a lot of good stuff from other folks collections so you could have a knife by this fall if that's a concern.

For under $200 I think the first guy I would talk to would be Joel Clark (nimrod1949 on the 'fire) His prices are beyond reasonable and he builds a great knife out of top quality materals

Unknowns before they are known is a great way to fly too. I have knives I had made that cost me $60. 10 years later they are selling for $300-400

Steelhead,

My memory could be faulty, but I seem to recall that you posted about your satisfaction with your fine Ingram knives way back about 2002 or 2003... and I wonder if you helped drive his prices up!

Seriously, I hadn't known of Ingram (or May) knives before I joined the 'Fire. Of course, I found about a lot of other things that I need to spend money on here as well!

John

I just looked at Joel's site and see his prices have went up about 35 bucks since I last ordered at the first of the year. I'm sure his wait list is growing steadily too. He is well on his way.

Steelhead is right about the up and comers some good knives to be had for fair prices

Yea, I was to first to post his wares on the 'Fire, much to my chagrin......

Ha! No good deed goes unpunished!

John

Those dudes oughta do you a favor ever once in awhile for bringin' em' tens of thousands of dollars worth of business over the years. The advertisement they've received here alone due to you has been nuthin' short of remarkable. Their work stands on it's own, no doubt about that...but bringin' their good work to light, here, has paid off like a slot machine for em'.

"but bringin' their good work to light, here, has paid off like a slot machine for em'."
FYI:
When you add up the expenses from day one, there just ain't that much money left over. Some however have done better than others, and deservingly so.

Claybreaker---call some makers and have a chat, whether you buy or not.

Tim

You're assuming he hasn't, Gene is a magnificent man. I don't post anything in hopes of getting something for nothing.


I believe your view is pretty slanted.

Good for him. Good business practices are just that.


Agreed. He's a good dude.


I know ya' don't.

I have frequented many knife forums for years. When talking about dedicated hunting knives you will always get a ton of suggestions. I have found that the makers on this forum are some of the best for hunting knives. Thin fairly short blades with good designs that work well for hunting purposes. Ingram, May, Winston, Rosi, and the Menefee's will all serve you well. Those are only the one's I have experience with, I am sure there are more.

I'm of the same mindset as Steelhead with regards to posting pics. I post pics because I'm happy with the product and or the maker. Regarding knife materials, synthetics are the toughest obviously, but Desert Ironwood is tough as nails too.

Claybreaker, Check out Rocky Menefee and Wayne hendrix too.

I just bought a rocky knife off Vince and also spoke with him today about building me another. Rocky is a super guy to talk to and he does business they way it should be done, I think he will be building me some more in the future

Claybreaker,

I have had Dale Atkerson (above) make a couple for me, I sent him a pattern for both and he did a wonderful job. The first one was a very specific tool I wanted with a very heavy blade made in D2. It turned out to be an extraordinary knife that I have used every day for a couple years now and have only sharpened it twice. HEAT TREATMENT does that! I have butchered a dozen-fifteen deer with it. For that kind of heavy duty use having a lot of steel behind the edge truly makes a huge difference in how long it cuts like intended. This spring I had him build another to a specific pattern, his choice of steel and scales. This is a boning knife. He did it in 154 and so far it well exceeds my expectations. It's heat treatment certainly lets it do a lot of work and not go dull. I sharpened it once to put the edge like I wanted it and it's stayed sharp through a decent amount of work I am of the opinion that most good candidate steels will make wonderful knives if the heat treat is good.

I have several superb knives I use for gutting, skinning and disassembling deer or he'd be making me one of those too. I plan on modifying a design of one and having him make me one out of D2.

If you are going to start down the road with a hand made knife choose a pattern and size. Listen to your knife maker's advice about steel. He will know what he can do in heat treatment (or what his heat treat guy can do). D2 is a great place to begin. It's tough and very wear resistant. Proper heat treatment can make it very hard and that keeps it sharp for a very long time. Pick a pattern, pick a maker, discuss it and have one made. You won't get a bad knife and if it isn't what you need, do another.

While I'm still learning myself I'd like to suggest Battle Horse Knives as a step toward a full custom but at reasonable prices.
I bought one back before the split when it was BLIND Horse Knives but the patterns and steel are still available. I got a woodsman pro, which is a little thicker, in O1 tool steel, and I love it as a belt carry tool. It stains easily from anything salty,(blood) or acidic like fruit.(apples) The stains don't bug me at all, and it's about abuse proof in my opinion. (short of the internet hero beating on things with a BFH)
My son just bought a Large Workhorse and it feels very good in hand, geometry is very useful, and is a better slicer than the Woodsman pro.
While I've not been impressed with some of the stainless blades there are some that I've used and would use again. S30v and CPM3v are two I have used and think highly of. I have a couple in ATS34 one custom one production. They hold an edge well but not as good as S30v or CPM3v.

The CPM3v is this one.