Robert Young reinvents a classic Loveless fixed blade in flipper form.

Robert Young reproduces BLADE Magazine Cutlery Hall-of-Fame® member Bob Loveless’s New York Special fixed blade in a flipper folder format, and it’s something that would probably please even Bob himself.

Young also makes a standard fixed-blade repro of the knife. He holds it and the folder—when the folder’s open, both knives are the same size—side by side at shows to see if customers can tell which one’s which, and nine times out of 10 they can’t. Around 1976-77 when he was 16 and a California resident, he learned a man making knives lived three doors down from a friend’s grandfather’s house. Robert visited the man and it turned out to be Loveless. He had no idea who Bob was until later and then visited him about a dozen times.

“He taught me and I improved a lot real quick,” Robert said. “I wished I’d stuck around there more than I did but I was kind of embarrassed once I found out who he was. I didn’t want to bug him a whole bunch, but he did teach me quite a bit.”

New York Special Flipper Specs
Blade length: 3”
Blade steel: RWL-34 stainless
Rockwell hardness: 62 HRC
Blade grind: Double hollow on a 3-inch wheel
Blade pivot: Ceramic bearings
Scales: Stag
Liners: 416 stainless, integral
Closed length: 4.25”
Maker’s price for a similar knife: $1,500

More Custom Knives:

• Pat Antuzzi’s Hand-Knapped Fixed Blade
• Matt Aaron’s Blacksmith’s Automatic Folder
• Jordon Berthelot’s Integral Hunter
• Rhidian Gatrill’s Safety Hunter Reproduction