Thinking of getting one , although i have several knives that will fillet or skin/gut any critter thus far .

What is the draw to them ? beauty ? unbeatable edge holding quality ? ergonomics ?

Beauty

Beauty.

I want all of the above. I have four that I bought in classified over last several years.

The draw is the illusion that you are possessing something personal, yours alone.

Reality is that they are no advantage over a decent butcher's knife.



Added, don't get me wrong, I am a sucker for nice knives...but I do not lie to myself.

Enjoying and appreciating the craftsmanship and time in creating a piece of art.

Buy the best you can afford. Some of the older knives by American knife makers can be argued to fall into this category too.

I’ve made a lot of knives for folks on here. I’d like to think it was “beauty” that first caught their eye...that’s one of my goals with each knife, certainly. But it goes much deeper than that. Utilizing good steel is job 1 for me. Good steel, heat treated and tempered properly. Only then can you expect to get the best performance from that blade. My most recent personal knife gutted, skinned, quartered an antelope then an elk. I cleaned it up a few days ago and put it away. It was still shaving hair and the edge had never been retouched once. Credit the steel for that ...

Lots of mass produced knives do NOT utilizethe same steel as we knife makers use. Most of it will be foreign (China) made steel. It won’t hold up.

Our handmade knives will certainly run more than the Walmart specials but you get much more for your $ with a handmade knife....some folks are perfectly happy with a Havelon knife. If so, I’m happy for you. But, there’s a pride of ownership experience that you’ll never get to see.

Lots of good makers work shown here....check us out.

S30V from Benchmade and Buck don’t hold a candle to an S30V blade from Ingram or May. The Ingram/May will take and hold an edge significantly better and are no more difficult to sharpen when they’ve been used.

Beauty and functionality.

If you want a very nice custom knife check in with our own michiganroadkill, he makes a great knife.

I really appreciate the craftsman ship and artistry involved but because I worry about losing it, I tend to lean towards something that works and I won't lose sleep over it if I lose it or it grows legs and walks off sometime.

.[/quote]

S30V from Benchmade and Buck don’t hold a candle to an S30V blade from Ingram or May. The Ingram/May will take and hold an edge significantly better and are no more difficult to sharpen when they’ve been used.
[/quote]

Eggzackly my point. It’s all in the heat treat process. I do my own ht so I know what I’ve got. By the way, I have a Chris Reeve folder (two actually) and their blade steel, S30V and S35V, is as soft as butter...neither will hold an edge after opening the mail!

I didn't know that. I thought S30V was S30V.

You're comparing two factory made knives to custom knife makers.I know Charles May heat treats his own knives but I'm not sure about Gene Ingram.

Your opinion about Buck knives appears not to be founded upon fact,as Paul Bos has been heat treating Buck knives since 1970 and he is considered to be the Dean of the heat treatment process .

If you want to make a more fair comparison how about comparing Ingram and May to other custom makers.

Randall Made Knives forges their blades from bar stock and they're competitive with any other maker as far as cutting potential,durability and ease of sharpening.They also don't use any of the powder-made steels such as S-30V.

Does May forge his blades from bar stock?

Does Ingram forge his blades from bar stock?

If custom knives offered anything like all the edge holding hype some of them promise then every butcher would be using them .

As in any tool, look at what the pros use

I use a Spyderco made with chinese 8cr13mov 5 days a week had it a year and only touched it up once on a dmt sharpener. How a blades sharpened means whether it'll hold up or not. I don't hate buck knives but there are way better steels out there. You can holler that 420/440 are equal to m390 s30v etc. Till the cattle return it just ain't so.

"Forged from bar stock" does not yield a superior blade to the modern powder metallurgy process, for several reasons. First, the PM blades have finer grain structure than forged bar stock blades, which means they do indeed hold an edge better, in addition to being "tougher." Second, the alloy chemistry is better controlled, meaning you can get a more consistent heat treat from PM blades. Third, you can get alloys that simply aren't possible by other means.

[quote=horse1
S30V from Benchmade and Buck don’t hold a candle to an S30V blade from Ingram or May. The Ingram/May will take and hold an edge significantly better and are no more difficult to sharpen when they’ve been used.
[/quote]

I've a Bos HT S30V Buck Kaala that has been cutting hides, meat and against bones for years. If there is a difference in performance of the steel between the Kaala and an S30V Ingram. I've not noticed.

No, "every butcher" doesn't use custom knives because they are significantly more expensive and therefore don't provide a very cost-effective alternative vs. just sharpening a commercial blade.

I'd stick with a name brand that's sure to appreciate in value..

1. Beauty
2. Having a unique design, in many cases, having the exact features/components you choose. With commercial knives, you're stuck with whatever designs the manufacturer offers. With a custom, you can get whatever combination of blade and handle length, scale material(s), grind type, steel, shape, thickness, etc you want.
3. Pride in ownership from owning something unique and hand made out of quality materials
4. Edge retention from good steel and heat treat

Exactly the same reasons one would buy a custom rifle vs a factory rifle: to get exactly what you want instead of someone else making those decisions for you.

The point being which knife maker goes through a more traditional and laborious process to produce a knife

Stock removal process or forging from bar stock.

The claims of the powder-steel knives is meaningless,especially since most users will never tax the ability of their knives during normal use.

Would I personally rather own a knife made by Benchmade or a Randall Made?

I've a Bos HT S30V Buck Kaala that has been cutting hides, meat and against bones for years. If there is a difference in performance of the steel between the Kaala and an S30V Ingram. I've not noticed.


[/quote]

As with everything else, there are always exceptions to every rule. There are commercial knives that have edge performance equal to and in some cases better than custom knives, sure. But as a category, the safer bet is with the custom knife out of a high performance powder metallurgy "super stainless" with optimal heat treatment.

Some customs have quality, beauty, & good ergonomics no doubt. But that stamp on the blade accounts for a good chunk of the price. The prestige of ownership drives a lot of the desire to pay extra, not better steels.

A knife maker has no access to better S30V than the corner job shop does. Order from a reputable co. like Crucible or Carpenter & you'll get the best available. Same goes with the quality of work done at a reputable heat treat facility, which by the way will generally have a lot better equipment & work under more & consistent controlled conditions than the custom maker performing the role in his shop.


Edit, slow typing & not seeing 3-5 post before I entered in case I repeated or otherwise, some posters.

Olmike: Pride of ownership and appreciation for quality workmanship and beauty are the main reasons I bought my few custom knives - I have well over a hundred factory "Hunting/utility knives" - so I do not NEED any custom knives. I just enjoy owning and investing in them.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

Perhaps, but a lot of users will, and the other benefit is the powder metallurgy blades are also far more corrosion resistant.

I have one of those and the only problem I have with it is that my wife loves keeping it in the kitchen !

Why buy a nice vehicle when the Volkswagen Golf will get you to work every day?

Why buy a custom rifle, when an out of the box Savage Axis will kill your deer every season?

Why eat a USDA prime bone-in ribeye steak when ground chuck from the supermarket will give you the same grams of protein for much less?

Why buy a custom tailored suit when coveralls from Walmart will hide your naked body just as well?

With a custom anything, you can get exactly what you want, by definition. With a mass-produced product of any kind, you're limited to whatever the manufacturer offers. In many cases, you may love the mass-produced item, but you never get a say in its design. Some people want custom items because they enjoy owning a thing that has all the features they want. Other people look at the same product as a utilitarian tool only and don't care about looks, feel, and overall design. Neither camp is "wrong."

Butchers, like every other worker who uses a tool, are concerned with performance over time.
If any of the highly touted "super blades " allowed a butcher, or taxidermist, or skinner, to cut longer and quicker than another who used an easy to sharpen blade, then they would.
But all knives get dull and need sharpening and it matters little if they hold an edge twice as long if they take three times as long to sharpen !

I remember discussing this with Tony Marfione.He was asked by Dick Barber to provide feedback when he was developing his new S30V steel.

Most knife makers use the steel that is popular during the time of manufacture.I can remember when ATS-34 was the darling steel.Them came 154CM then 20C-V and then the newer powder steels.

Even given all of this advancement with newer steels,I still prefer to buy knives such as produced by Randall Made for some of the reasons you mentioned.There is one more reason though,resale.

A good knife, even a custom one, is like a good fishing lure. You never really have it for a real long time, you only get to use it often for a while before you lose it. I related the story on here once about the very nice bone handled folding stock knife that my late little sister had given me once for Christmas back when we were just kids. I gutted lots of deer with that knife and it was my constant companion on every deer hunt. Then one day I felt in my pocket and it was gone. I looked for that knife for days retracing my every step because I realized then that it meant more to me than any buck I was hunting. I was devastated until the last day of the season when it rolled out from under the seat of the truck. It has been safe in my drawer ever since. Don't use what you cannot afford to lose if for only sentimental reasons.

You buy one that is perfect then you find one more perfect- and buy it. After you have amassed a nice collection you will likely discover the first one your bought is your favorite.

Custom or not where do I get one of these?

I have a few custom or semi custom knives, Busse, Blind Horse, and Alaska Knife works. All are good knives and different in shape and size as well as steel. I use them all for different reasons, mostly sentiment as two were gifts. But for day in day out use my late 70’s Cammillus SS jumbo trapper gets way more mileage. It’s easier to sharpen than the AK knife works or the Busse and holds its edge longer than the Blind Horse. I’ve cut up or skinned everything from birds and fish to bears, coons, elk, and caribou with that pocketknife.

They pop up on eBay once in a blue moon. Puma Model 6317

...and then there's http://northernknives.homestead.com/sweetfactory.html

The beauty is it is literally whatever you want it to be. You pick the scales, liners, design, steel, sheath, etc. The fit/finish should be much, much higher than most factory knives. I became interested in them when I saw the edge retention on a buddy’s vs the factory knife I was using. Been hooked ever since

Due to their perfect simplicity, the Puma forestestmaster and the Case Yaughtsman knives have always been two of my favorites.
My daily wear knife is either a custom copy of the case built by a friend, or one of the old Gerber minimags. I have worn out half a dozen of those.

Good post. (Others do.)

I'll agree with this! Additionally, maintaining an edge versus re-sharpening an edge makes a huge difference in edge retention.

Any of you guys familiar? I love them. Very sharp and they do hold an edge..

Arno Bernard

Some folks like one of a kind artifacts of the artisans skill, some folks appreciate the simplicity of form following function.

If'n I had my druthers I'd get in the way back machine and get a couple or three Gerber A400's, maybe a Flayer (skinner) as well. Only armorhide I have now is a little Pixie bought after they had discontinued that line. Simple, highly functional and utilitarian, does everything a knife should be asked to do. And for a straight forward working knife they sure appreciated in value. Original armorhides in good condition fetch way over $100 and some much more than that these days.


A400

I tried going the custom knife route for a few years. Finally concluded a Mora will do everything I need a hunting knife to do. Customs sure are prutty to look at and who am I to tell anyone how to spend their money.

I have three custom knives; all from the same maker (Bob Lay). Two of them, I use regularily; the other is just a showpiece. I have these just because Bob is a friend of mine and he makes pretty knives which work well. My favorite one is one of his first knives, made of carbon steel. Plain and beat up, it's just fits my hand and does what I want. Another knife I like is an old, leather handled, Kinfolk knife which my dad carried for sixty-plus years. GD

Agreed 100%, Hank. I am very happy with the knives I've bought from you for myself and others.

Keep up the great work, my friend.

I'm going to blood your custom this year.

Yup well that’s all the convincing I need....I was just thinking about this very thing...I’m going to pick out one or two and order them . A lot of good info,Thanks!

Just not true. No flies on anything made by Gene or Charlie, but Buck and Benchmade kinda know what they are doing.

Hell, a sharp rock will do everything a fellow needs to do! 😏

I have more custom knives than I'll ever find a use for in my lifetime. All from the same maker simply because I like the looks of them and the price. Most of them are there just to take out and look at once in a while and try to remember the specifics of the materials they are made of.
Only need a couple of them from time to time while the rest remain in the case.

And someone was right when he said that your favorite one will be the first one obtained.

Mine is a seven and a half inch drop point with bison horn scales. Too beautiful to want to use but I know it will hold up to anything I need to do with it.

Another thumbs for Hank and his knife making abilities. Plus, he’s a super guy to do business with! 😎

BS!

I’ve run the best Gerber blades they ever made..the older ones. And some high end-price wise blades from Kershaw and BenchMade.

Yes, they all will get the job done. But, I found a need with all of them to run a stone over each during field work and later skinning.

And, never was I able to do two or three animals without sharpening the blade.

Now, with most of my custom knives, I don’t need to run a sharpener, unless I’m caping or wringing a lot of legs and taking heads off.

😎

I find that if I spend more money on something that I keep better track of where it is. I just got into higher end knives and bought a few Bark Rivers. Then I had MRK build me one. Nothing wrong with the Bark Rivers, but if I had started with the Tim Olt, I wouldn't have bought them.

Speaking of Case....,
Their Canoe isn't a bad knife either. The single blade Canoe is getting tough to find!

same could be said about custom rifles, shops ike Echols,Ralf Martini , Holland & Holland**, etc use Hoenig stock duplicators,

while other smiths will brag about how they inlet and shape the whole stock by hand,
but that does not mean a superior end product..... one smith who 'proudly does it all by hand',

...will then use CNC to make a variety of custom metal components...LOL.

any custom product industry is loaded with self promoting hype or BS that customers will fall for.
and a person could be passing up some great knives if they have a bias view against modern PM steels.

Purdey will make you a fine piece from PM Damasteel.
https://www.pm-review.com/100000-shotgun-manufactured-from-powder-metallurgy-formed-damascus-steel/

(** I think some folk would be horrified to learn the amount of work done on prestigious 'old school craftsmanship'
H&H and Purdey that is actually done by modern machines)

Well, I guess since you've polled every butcher, taxidermist, and skinner on the planet, know what all of them universally use, and thus speak from authority on the topic, then you're more qualified to comment than me.

People of all walks of life use a lot of things for a lot of reasons, many of which have nothing to do with what is truly "best" in any specific single criteria. Perhaps a lot of butchers, taxidermists, skinners, et al have determined that a commercial knife is the perfect tool for them because they get performance they deem acceptable without the worry of beating up an expensive custom knife. As stated earlier, ultimate edge performance is but one of many reasons to buy a custom knife. The main reason for buying anything custom, regardless of what it is, is getting the exact design that you want rather than having those decisions made by someone else. To many, myself included, that reason, and the pride of ownership of having something nicely made and unique, is reason enough even if edge performance was equal to a commercial knife. You may think it's a waste of money, and that is valid as it pertains your wallet, but the OP asked for compelling reasons to buy a custom knife, and equally valid reasons were provided.

You are barking up the wrong tree......

Great reading all the opinions - learned a lot , thanks for the pics & links also .

Hope you enjoy it!

early this year i picked up 14 knives in Spain and Italy. some customs ,hand made , some factory.
some because o

f feel , they just fit my hand , felt good , balance beauty.
others beauty of design.
others history of local use and very unique designs.

I even found a near new Reminton folder in Rome 40-50 uears old, never been sharpened.

better than buying trinkets.

norm

That Buck Kaala is a limited production, essentially custom shop knife. My comparison was more along the lines of Ingram/May vs. a "production" knife in S30V from Buck or Benchmade. I'm no metallurgist, but, I can tell when a knife gets dull and when it stays sharp.

I see virtually 0 difference between Ingram or May's S30V. Howe's Elmax is another that stands out to me as very well done. Gets extremely sharp and stays that way. Few strokes on ceramic sticks and it's back to very sharp.

Absolutely true. I've owned 1/2 dozen each at least from Benchmade and Ingram just in S30V. I own Benchmade's in M390 and a couple in 154, they don't hold an edge like Gene or Charlie's.

FWIW, I prefer Sog and Mcusta's VG-10 to Benchmade's anything as well due to edge retention.

Makes sense to me.

Coming from a dude that has made a living with a knife,
And who seems to like customs,
It's probably legit.



Honestly my first thought were,
Those posting about the superiority of customs don't know
that many farm out their HT.
Considering Bos is among the best at custom HT,
And was responsible for Bucks process and application...


Why do buyers of fancy stuff have such a hard time with their decisions?


"I like nice stuff."

Good enough!

How do you explain the vast majority of professional chefs who use high end knives to take what comes in the door and do the real work of butchering day in and day out? These people daily take whole gutted fish, whole top rounds of beef, whole loins, the whole major cuts of virtually all animals and reduce them to serving sized portions. When their knives aren't cutting meat they're cutting the vegetables to go on the plate with the meat.

On the rare occasions that I do buy meat I most often buy whole break down cuts and those cuts are almost always hack jobs cut off the bone by people running the common Mora/Victorinox type butchering knives. That reason is likely that these are minimum wage or close to it workers AND THAT'S WHAT THE EMPLOYERS PROVIDE.

Not really all. No doubt some of their products might involve CNC, but their bespoke models not really..

What is it about the old Gerber Minimag that you you like? I've one that I bought in the 1970s and only use it as a trout knife. The blade shape and Armorhide handle seem perfect for that chore. Consequently, it has not had hard use since cutting small fish is not much of a challenge for hardened tool steel.

Oh so custom knives are just like custom rifles!?

I have two custom knives (Ingrams) that I use for game processing and I really can't say that they are worth so much more than something you can buy from a mass manufacturer. What I really like, though, is the way that I can specify blade length and shape, and scale material, with the customs, and that actually has a lot of value to me. For example, I filled my elk tag earlier this week and will be breaking it down today. I have an Ingram drop point with stag scales and it fits my hand perfectly and is the perfect size for field dressing as well as breaking down the larger cuts. It feels like a scalpel and the scales help with grip when the going gets bloody.

I'm sure there are knives available from the larger makers that would work just fine, but it's nice to have something that is made explicitly to your specifications.

I have worn one virtually daily ever since I returned from Vietnam and they are a useful as a kitchen pairing knife, hold and edge very well, very tough and can be bent almost 60% without breaking or warping and with the Lamb grip fit the hand well and don't slip when wet or bloody.
Plus they were never expensive and as I wore them down they seemed to get better. I have worn out maybe 8 or 10 and am down to my last three.

I purchased a couple of those for my mother when I was a young fellow, probably the cruellest thing I could have done to her, the one she has left gets used for digging weeds in her garden.

It was truly pitiful to watch her attempting to sharpen them on a carborundum stone...funny though.

Sadly, yes....The purveyors of these knives will lure you in with pictures of their beauties they have made. Hookers of steel is what they are...Laffin 😎

I have 3 custom knives, the Randall is from 1960. My father gave it to me for Christmas, my middle brother got one just like it with his initials on it. The Olsen's were my Fathers, he gave them to me when he quit hunting in the 90's. They all have been used for a long while and have held up well. The Randall stag handle has a rack in the handle, I assume from drying out. I oil the handles with mineral oil now and they are fine. I have other knives but these are my favorites.

That pretty well wraps it up. People buy custom knives for the same reason they do a lot of things...vanity. If its made 'just for you' it makes you feel special.

And don't get me wrong, Ive been toting around a Model 7 Randall for 47 years....so I'm "vain" too!

But the fact is I use a lot of other factory knives and most will do anything the Randall does...handily.

But I also now shoot a .275 Rigby instead of a 7x57....

so yeah...I'm pretty much like everyone else....

I've got J.A. Henckles in the kitchen. They don't hold a candle to any of my customs from Hank, Rick, Tim or the other craftsmen guys here.

To me a knife is just another tool.

One point not brought up here is the angle of the bevel. Wouldn't a more acute angle "feel" sharper but dull faster than a wider angle of the same steel?

In theory, yes, but it all has to do with edge geometry, which will vary from maker to maker.

I didnt know original Pumas were labled as such on the blade or had brown leather sheaths.

Mine are a light, high yeller.

A sharpened blade will have one bevel for sure, probably two bevels and a good chance of three bevels
from the spine down to the cutting edge ---as received from the maker/manufacturer.

Each of those bevels will be either flat, concave or convex.

Angles will vary with the thickness and width of the blade and the makers methods and targeted results.

The width at the cutting edge prior to initial sharpening will vary also.


Then the owner/user will sooner of later modify that geometry to fit his preferences and/or methods of sharpening.

Results, at any stage, in the eye of the user will be anywhere from being a p.o.s. to scary sharp ----on a use by use basis.


And then there is all the different blade materials, heat treatment, mediums, materials and equipment used and.........

I just about talked myself into giving up!!!!!!

But on the other hand......

Hmmmmm.....Seems I may have underestimated the Gerber MiniMag. But then again, as the saying goes; it is archer,not the arrow. Do you use the MiniMag to dress out bears?

This is Phil Shoemaker we're talking about. He uses it to kill them...

I'd like to hear what the knife people use as their sharpening system and how and why they sharpen the way they do .

I can get a knife or broadhead razor sharp by the edge is gone before i've got a 100lb. hog filleted . I don't try to cut bone or rough-house the edge either .

Mike,

I have no dog in this discussion, just going to pass along my experience: I have probably 10 manufacturers hunting knives from makers like Benchmade, Gerber, Buck, SOG, and Cabelas. My best knife ever by far is a custom from Tim Olt that I purchased summer before last. Next best is an older Buck 118 in 440C. Cold Steel has decent factory blades, but a custom from Tim or Godogs will not only look better but stay sharper longer, and probably sharpen up fairly easily for the next task. I would have been money ahead if I'd learned about customs long ago - really doubt I ever go after another factory fixed blade knife.

Bless you, good hunting,
bludog

Yes, they are great for capeing and removing toes.

i have a friend who makes custom knives. he made a set for my daughter to give to me using wood out of my 100year old house that you couldn't hardly put a nail through. They are beautiful, and they sit in a locked area, too pretty to really use. Same with a bunch of puma's that i always had a graving for. I got cheap knives for use, the good ones are works of art and i treat them as such.