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I found this knife for sale that Charlie and I had made in 2003 and had to get it. It shows signs of use but not very much abuse. The D2 has some small pits, which is typical of D2 that has been used, and a few scratches. The Micarta scales are in good shape and the sheath has held up well. It is good to see what one of our knives looks like after 22 years of use. It is also good to look at an early knife and recognize the changes in the design that we made over the years. This one was made when we were doing batches of 100 knives at a time and not really taking many custom orders. I'm probably going to keep it and use it myself. The hard part is going to be leaving it as we made it in 2003 and not up dating it to the level I would make it today.

Love it Harry! Interesting story. Hope you’re doing well.

Looks just about perfect as it is. I wouldn't change a thing.

It’s still an impressive knife!

Looks very nice, I'll bet it Cuts!

Dang, I like that........

Just for the curious mind..


What changed ( improved) the most in 22 yrs?

Design?
Grinds / lines?
Function?
Technique?


Just curious of your thoughts.. i dont have any makers that cover that many years..

Most i have is some David Winston knives from 15yrs or so.


Edit… now i think about it. Maybe 20 yr winstons.

Thanks for the comments!

It wouldn't take much to bring it up to my current standards. I’d probably just thin the handle a little and round up a few places to make it feel better in the hand. I don’t worry about the scratches it shows from use, but there are a couple that I left that I’d clean up. For a basic three piece knife it has held up well.

I’d probably take off the grooves in the back of the blade. We haven’t used them in years because they can be a cause of stress risers. We’ve never had a blade come in that was broken because of them but there is no point in risking it.

Another difference between then and now is the steel. We decided to test a bunch of steels and pick a couple to focus on. D2 didn’t make the cut. Neither did a lot of others. We ended up with CPM S30V and CPM 3V. 20 years later we would probably pick the same 2 for the majority of our blades. To us, they seem to have the best balance between corrosion resistance , edge holding, toughness, ease of heat treating and the ease of sharpening. If the customer wanted something different, we never had a problem using what they wanted.

After spending about 8 years on the Knifemaker’s Guild Technical Committee, I tend to look at knives with a critical eye. (I hate it! Because it makes it hard to just enjoy a good looking knife!) I never say anything to the maker unless he asks me to, but it’s how I see knives now. I looked at my own from 20 years ago and the construction is good, the symmetry is good and I like the design, but I could see some scratches that could have used a little more work. In all honesty, at the time, I was trying to make a usable knife that I could sell and make a little money on, not a show piece.

Over all I’m not disappointed in the knife or how well it held up.