Knifemaking is the building of a knife, which includes the blade, handle and other accouterments. Blades are made by either removing metal from a steel blank via a grinder – known as stock removal – and the forging to shape of hot steel into a blade in the process known as bladesmithing. Other parts, including bolsters, guards, pommels, etc., are needed to complete the finished knife.
Synthetic materials from the Danish company known as Raffir include Raffir Fossil.
Richlite and Raffir: Two Synthetic Materials on the Rise
Synthetics continue to surge in light of the growing scarcity of some natural materials.
According to Chris Hartman, a 37-year veteran in the family business at Masecraft, the buzz about two synthetic materials, Richlite and Raffir, continues to grow.
“These product lines are totally different from each other, and they work like other materials that our customers already use, so the transition is easy,” he maintained.
Raffir
A few examples of Raffir Fossil. (Image courtesy of Santa Fe Stoneworks)
Distributed domestically by Santa Fe Stoneworks, Raffir is a resin-preserved material used in jewelry and other products also.
“It works well in fine handles and accessories in which aesthetics are of great importance,” Chris advised. “There are several categories. The first, Raffir Fiber, is a composite material of neutral plant fibers cast in resin.
“The second, Raffir Metapol, has aluminum fillers shining through a deep resin matrix. Raffir Noble is a composite material with fine brass and bronze-mesh layers encapsulated in a translucent epoxy resin. The last two categories, Raffir Fossil and Raffir Wood, are genuine rare fossils and fine-grained wood blocks that have been filled with a unifying and strengthening resin through a high pressure process that stabilizes the materials.”
The finished Raffir fossil and wood materials maintain the original structures of the untreated substance while obtaining the mechanical advantages of the homogeneous resin compound.
The Raffir materials are worked with the same tools that most knifemakers already own, therefore little or no additional investment is required.
Richlite
An example of Richlite. (Mark Newman image)
Richlite is a durable, versatile and sus-tainable material made from recycled, resin-infused paper and pulp derived from trees that have been harvested responsibly, Chris says.
Complete with Forest Stewardship Council Certification by the Rainforest Alliance and GREENGUARD Certification, it is also antimicrobial, which is a benefit in food preparation.
“Richlite is tough enough to build skateboards and skateboard parks, so it will take a beating and hold up to the elements,” he added. “Richlite is made in the USA and actually costs less than other like materials. It is similar to working with Micarta, G-10 or carbon fiber, and many of our customers are familiar with them. Customers appreciate that they are no longer inhaling carbon-fiber or fiberglass dust, which some of our customers just don’t like dealing with.”
Other Synthetic Knife Handle Materials
New composite laminates and hybrid materials are on the horizon, and their growth is steady.
“Even though they are mass produced,” Chris said, “they can still be individually unique. They are stable and available in sizes that can easily be used in CNC cutting for production, or can still be cut and worked with standard tools and be handmade.”
BLADE 2018 Knife Guide
Read more about hot knives, knifemaking and collecting in the BLADE 2018 Knife Guide. Download it here.
Is a U.S. Army Ranger made or is he born? Is it the training he receives that makes him a Ranger, or is there some innate quality in him that draws him to Ranger training in the first place? If you tell former U.S. Army Ranger Sergeant Kyle Gahagan (pronounced guh-HAY-gan) that he doesn’t have the proper credentials for full-time employment with your company, he’ll proceed to acquire three doctorates. If you were to suggest that he not go to work at the auto-body shop if the pain in his right arm is so bad that he cannot hold a toothbrush, he’ll go anyway and tape a hammer to his forearm. If you crush his 10-year-old spirit by telling him that the knife he spent hours making is no good and throwing it on the ground, he will one day use that craft to not only heal himself from the emotional ravages of war, but to help heal other veterans as well. Never tell an Army Ranger he cannot make a knife.
U.S. Army Ranger Sergeant Kyle Gahagan, right, pauses for a drink with Chris Hickox after his first tour in Afghanistan. Kyle is using blacksmithing to help counsel veterans as they find new missions in life.
Kyle doesn’t remember a time when he didn’t want to be a soldier. As a boy, he would dress the part and play army for hours. He came from a military family with a grandfather who served in the U.S. Navy during World War II and a father who retired as a full Colonel after a near-three-decade career in the Army’s Armor branch. Kyle was born in Colorado and lived in Kentucky and Germany, but from ages 8 to 11 the family lived in Savannah, Georgia. He would see the then-black-bereted Rangers of the 1st Ranger Battalion, who were stationed at Hunter Army Airfield in Savannah, and he knew that’s what he wanted to be. “I thought they were the coolest guys on the whole planet,” he said.
Growing up Kyle remembers a giant-to-him W. R. Case & Sons bowie on display above the mantle. He was not allowed to touch it, but he spent many hours studying it. When he became a knifemaker the only thing he wanted to make was big bowies. Only now he was bigger and so his bowies kept getting larger to recapture the proportion of his boyhood fascination with the big bowie. “I had to scale that back a bit,” he says with a laugh. This one has a 12.5-inch blade of forge-welded 1075 annd 15N20 steels with a fossil walrus ivory handle. Maker’s list price: $3200. Contacts for Gahagan Knives are listed at the bottom of this article.
Kyle got his first knife from his maternal grandfather when he was 5. It was a little Old Timer pocketknife to go with the shotgun he got for deer hunting. “I hunted with my grandfather until he couldn’t hunt anymore,” he said. His father transferred back to German, so Kyle saw him infrequently. It was his grandfather who spent time with the hyperactive boy, teaching him how to hunt and build things, how to work with his hands. At 10 his grandfather handed him a piece of aluminum and told him to go make something with it. It was his first attempt at making a knife. Although not an easy material to be cutting and grinding on, he crafted something resembling a knife. There was no heat treating involved, he said with a rare chuckle.
As Kyle learned more, he once spent a long time forging a knife. He hammered painstakingly to forge-weld steel for the blade. He made a wooden sheath, carefully lining up the wood grain. “I was so proud of that knife,” he said. He took it to an area knifemaker. That maker couldn’t stop telling him how bad it was. He threw it on the ground. “It crushed me,” Kyle said. “I didn’t make another knife for about 20 years.” He didn’t even tell his grandfather what had happened. “I think he thought I just grew out of my interest in it.”
U.S. Army Ranger Kyle Gahagan, second from left, was deployed twice to Afghanistan. This was taken in Kandahar before a mission on his first tour.
In 1999 at the age of 19, Kyle enlisted in the Army with a Ranger contract. He was engaged when he went in and was married in between basic training and Airborne school. He went into the Ranger Indoctrination Program and Ranger school and was assigned to his boyhood heroes’ unit, 1st Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment. But then 9/11 hit and he was being deployed back to back. He did two deployments in Afghanistan and two in Iraq, but because they blend into what amounted to nearly three years of being gone, he can’t quite recall the order. He was a SAW gunner in Afghanistan, he led a team for a while, and in Iraq, he was an S3, which organized training operations in the rear and coordinated missions during combat.
During one training session, Kyle was giving a private a block of instruction on the M203 grenade launcher. It hit a buried mortar not 15 meters away. They were able to determine that the grenade had not had sufficient time to arm itself, so the mine had caused most of the damage. Kyle received shrapnel wounds to his face, chin, neck and right leg. In a parachute training jump Kyle got his right arm entangled in his rigging, which led to a torn tendon and debilitating tendinitis. His unit was involved in the Jessica Lynch rescue, but the mission that had the most impact on Kyle was the Ranger rescue of a Navy SEAL team on the third day of Operation Anaconda, a sweep of al Qaeda and Taliban forces in the Shahikot Valley of Eastern Afghanistan.
Although not on the mission, Kyle lost three friends on the firefight atop Takur Ghar Mountain: Rangers Marc Anderson, Bradley Crose (with whom Kyle attended paramedic school) and Mathew Commons. You can read about the harrowing battle for Roberts Ridge in Sean Naylor’s “Not A Good Day to Die, The Untold Story of Operation Anaconda” and in Malcolm MacPherson’s “Roberts Ridge, A Story Of Courage And Sacrifice On Takur Ghar Mountain, Afghanistan.” Kyle can go for days without thinking about his brother Rangers, but then something in life will remind him that they’re not here to live their lives.
This Gahagan Knives bowie has a 10.5-inch blade made of forge-welded 1075 and 15N20 steels. The handle is mammoth ivory with a bronze guard. Maker’s list price: $3000. Contacts are listed at the bottom of this article.
Kyle would have stayed in the Army, but after seeing his parents divorce and his father remarry two more times, he knew he didn’t want to lose his wife over his career choice. He felt it wasn’t fair to Dana, so he transitioned out in 2004. Their daughter, Zoe, was born right after Kyle got out, and their son, David, was born in 2011. At first Kyle wasn’t sure what he wanted to do. He worked in an autobody shop, but when the pain in his right arm, exacerbated by a bone spur on his clavicle, got so bad he could barely function, he knew he had to find other work. “On my last day, the pain was so bad I couldn’t hold a hammer—I couldn’t hold a toothbrush.” He taped the hammer to his forearm and at the end of the day told his boss that he just couldn’t do the work anymore.
He was at the right place at the right time to land a job as an IT (information technology) contractor for Lowe’s, developing three data centers, one in Texas and two in North Carolina. When Kyle applied for full-time employment, the company told him it could not hire him because he lacked a degree. So, he went back to school. His mother was a teacher, so education has always been important to him. In the end, “100 percent and then some” in keeping with the Ranger creed, he came away with three doctorates, two in education and one in psychology.
Kyle Gahagan made this 10.5-inch blade with forge-welded 1075 and 15N20 steels. The guard uses the same steel, and the handle is ringed gidgee wood. Maker’s list price: $3500. Some Gahagan Knives pieces are available through https://exquisiteknives.com or you can contact Kyle via the methods listed at the bottom of this article.
During this time Kyle was an administrator to a local college, a school principal and eventually an acting superintendent. His frustration grew as he continually tried to hold students and parents to high standards. Kyle ensured that the children had what they needed to succeed, but if they didn’t follow the rules, they faced the consequences. He felt undermined, however, by a politically-correct environment in which his decisions were often overturned. Eventually, he just quit.
When Kyle was a school administrator, his chief financial officer asked him to make a knife he could give to his future brother-in-law as a wedding gift. Kyle was reconnected with that kid who had became engrossed in making the best knife he could make. “I enjoyed the process,” Kyle said. He began making knives “as a hobby.” Although he may not have recognized it at the time, that sounds like too casual an approach for a craft that would end up tying his love of knifemaking, education, psychology and his warrior brethren together, giving him a new mission in life.
In 2013 Nate Bocker began Resilience Forge in Virginia. Nate served in the Army with the 249th Engineer Battalion. The active-duty sergeant sought a way to help the wounded warrior community. He thought by teaching veterans the skill of bladesmithing they could hammer out some of the issues associated with post-traumatic stress disorder, receive appropriate physical therapy for some injuries and have the foundation of a new skill they could expand into a trade if they so chose. Nate’s first student christened the program Blade Therapy. Kyle then launched Resilience Forge North Carolina and began implementing standard operating procedures so that the non-profit could expand nationally. No matter where a veteran attended, they’d know that the program would be the same.
The Department of Defense made a video of ABS journeyman smith and former Army Ranger Kyle Gahagan, third from right, to celebrate the work he’s done in helping veterans. You can watch it below.
The irony is that there is no structure to the program. Veterans when they’re transitioning from active duty or medical care into civilian life don’t have a schedule. “My door is always open,” Kyle said. All a veteran has to do is call ahead and he is there to provide counselling in the active environment of the forge. “Sitting on a couch and talking doesn’t work with the military mindset. They want to be producing something,” he said. Lots can unfold in the course of making a knife in one of Kyle’s classes. Take the 96-year-old veteran who was on Omaha Beach on the D-Day Invasion of Normandy. “He couldn’t do much,” Kyle said, but it was only a couple of weeks after visiting Resilience Forge that the veteran’s wife called. “She said, ‘I don’t know what you did, but my husband is happier.’ He had opened up to her,” Kyle said. And now Kyle is happy too. He’s found his new mission.
He knows what it’s like to reach that point where it’s darkest. Where the trudging goes on incessantly, you feel miserable physically and mentally, you’re exhausted and there’s no clear purpose to your life. Irrespective of his constant advancements career-wise, Kyle knows the heartbreak of remembering lost buddies. Anderson had been a school teacher. “We all face it,” Kyle said. At one point the emotional and physical pain was so bad that he walked away from the one thing that could have ever compelled him to leave the Army: his marriage. That lasted six months. There is a point, even in knifemaking, when the challenges seem to go on for too long, when things don’t fall naturally into place, when braking the blade seems nobler than letting it crack under stress.
Kyle taps into each veteran’s ability to adapt and overcome. Even though he’s teaching a physical skill, he’s giving veterans back their confidence, their ability to overcome and adapt. He helps them find their flexibility, their resiliency, their ability to fight back and achieve self-sustainability again. He can’t tell the veteran what his new mission is, but he can guide and support him while he figures it out. And that knife that they thought they couldn’t finish becomes a token of what they’re capable of accomplishing.
DoD News In Focus: Taking the Edge Off
Kyle’s plans, not surprisingly, are big. He currently puts veterans up in area hotels. He’d like to get a camper that he could use to haul a mobile forge to VA hospitals. He could use it for sleeping on those trips and to accommodate veterans when they’re at Resilience Forge. The VA is now sending patients to him. He sees the program expanding across the country, and eventually, Dana leaving her insurance agent job and working with him. He hints at perhaps another doctorate, and in 2018 he’ll be testing for his American Bladesmith Society master smith rating in Kansas. He uses a power hammer when he’s forging his own knives, but he teaches by hand. He’s hoping to stave off another tendinitis surgery, but he can feel his tendinitis getting worse. Like many veterans, his battle for coverage continues. Even so, his mission is crystal clear, and he is happier than he’s ever been.
Donations and Inquiries
To make a donation to Resilience Forge North Carolina, you can access gahaganknives.com through Paypal, or you can mail a check made out to Joy To The World Foundation to Kyle at the address below. The Joy To The World Foundation provides administrative services, such as tax preparation, to non-profits.
You can read your digital issues of BLADE Magazine anywhere you have your phone, tablet or computer, and there’s no need to find storage for all your old issues.
If piling-up issues of magazines seems like a waste to you… If you feel like you don’t have time to read a magazine… If you like the stories we offer in BLADE, but want a more economical option, then a digital subscription is the answer. An annual subscription to BLADE is $17.98, $4 off the print price.
If you could apply a motto to VMX Knives it would be: Let’s have some fun. At least that’s the impression you get after talking with co-owners James Robert Buckley of Maverick Customs and Kyle Vallotton of three-generation-strong Vallotton Custom Knives. Rob and Kyle became friends online. For BLADE Show 2017, Kyle—sporting a new do—invited Rob, whom he calls Buckley, to share space at the Vallotton table. But due to a confluence of issues, Kyle, who is known for his butterfly art knives, had no balisongs at the table this year. Rob, a machinist and welder before getting into knifemaking, asked Kyle if he’d look at a design he’d come up with for a balisong. Kyle liked it. The men agreed to make the knife together, Kyle bringing his expertise in the art-balisong industry to the newcomer and Rob offering to show Kyle what he knew about machining steel. It wasn’t long before a work flow was ironed out and the VMX-1 was brought from paper to reality, a baby born of blue mohawks, butterfly knives and buddies.
James Robert Buckley is the owner of Maverick Customs out of Horse Cave, Kentucky. He is also the co-owner with Kyle Vallotton of VMX Knives.
Rob Buckley grew up in Glasgow, Kentucky, about 45 minutes northeast of Bowling Green. While in high school and working at a family-owned cabinetry shop, he came to a realization: “I hated wood,” he said, laughing. But he took college-level courses in welding and machining. “It got me,” he said of metalwork. At 17 he entered the Army, wanting combat medic, but settling for infantry. He sustained injuries that would require surgery before continuing his training, so he accepted the proffered medical discharge. Returning home, he landed a machining job in Dickson, Tennessee, where his parents were living at the time. After those few months as a manual machinist and welder, he moved back to Glasgow to work as a certified welder. Six months later he took a position at a magazine printing plant, staying for 10 years. He left for a computer numeric controlled (CNC) machinist position, but he found operating the computer-programmed mills and lathes not as satisfying as hands-on metalworking. Three years ago he began making tools, then later knives, full time.
Kyle Vallotton hit BLADE Show 2017 with a blue mohawk. He is a third-generation knifemaker and the fifth person in his family to be making knives under Vallotton Custom Knives. He is also co-owner of VMX Knives with James Robert Buckley of Maverick Customs.
Kyle Valloton marks the third generation and fifth family member to be making knives under Vallotton Custom Knives. He began in the shop when he was 10 years old. He took some time off to test jobs away from the family business, such as telephone sales representative, but by the time he was 23, he knew he wanted to make knives for a living. He grew up in Umpqua, about an hour and a half south of Eugene. His grandfather Butch was an innovator in the tactical folder and automatic knifemaking world. The Vallottons hold 15 patentable developments with seven still-running royalty contracts. Vallotton innovations appear in numerous production knives, from Gerber to Spyderco.
Kyle Vallotton, left, specializes in high-end balisongs, tapping into both the artistry of his dad, Rainy, and the innovations of his grandpa, Butch, right.
Kyle’s dad, Rainy, made his mark in the high-end art-knife market, and Kyle’s specialty is the butterfly knife. He taps into both his grandfather’s exactitude in specifications and his father’s artistic flare. Kyle’s demeanor exudes good-natured enthusiasm and a sense of fun without being reckless. He contemplated attending BLADE Show 2017 sporting a blue mohawk, but wasn’t sure how it would go over. Finally, he decided to do it. “Let’s have some fun,” he said. “Everyone loved it.”
The VMX-1 prototype was made of BG42, but the production model has a 4-inch blade of CPM 154 steel. The prototype handle is black titanium, but custom-colored anodized titanium handles are available. Artwork by Zach Burcham of West Main St. Tattoos in Glasgow, Kentucky.
The balisong segment of the knife community is a microcosm of the knife industry itself. There are those who use the knives in the practice of Filipino-style martial arts; those who use the knives in a mesmerizing display of twirling and tricks, resplendent with the individual’s unique style; and those who collect the knives created as works of art. In addition, because many states have laws preventing the sale of balisongs—only trainers can be used by residents of those states. Kyle mentioned that he follows Knife Rights‘ work to overhaul outdated knife regulations in numerous states.
Rob jokes that he knows just enough about flipping balisongs to cut himself. In fact, VMX Knives will sell you its butterfly knife without an edge if you prefer. At any time, you are welcome to send it back if you decide you want to go with a live blade.
Zach Burcham, owner of West Main St. Tattoos in Glasgow, Kentucky, designed the logo for Maverick Customs and was brought in again to combine the M from Maverick Custom’s logo as well as a V for Vallotton Custom Knives to create the VMX Knives logo. Like the VMX-1 balisong itself, the logo uses old-school lettering with a modern twist.
Rob got his tattoo artist, Zach Burcham of West Main St Tattoos, who designed the M logo for Maverick Customs—named after Rob’s son—to come up with a logo that incorporated a V for Vallotton with the M for Maverick, and the VMX Knives logo was born. It is representative of the gold-leafing in signs of yore in the style of David Smith, for example, but with a modern twist, which is exactly how this team approaches their design.
The VMX-1 has phosphor bronze washers, titanium screws and standoffs, and a floating latch system designed by Kyle Vallotton. It measure 5.25 inches closed, 9.25 open. Artwork by Zach Burcham, West Main St. Tattoos in Glasgow, Kentucky.
Right now, whichever of the two are ordering supplies in the course of their personal knifemaking businesses purchases whatever VMX needs. They split those expenses 50-50, watching the price of titanium as it fluctuates. At present, Kyle machines the profiles and handles then sends them to Rob, who likens what he receives to model car parts connected to their frames by plastic tabs. “From the sheet I surface everything flat, chamfer holes and shape the tops by hand,” he explained. He also applies any final finish, such as anodizing, and machines some internal parts. Currently, the blades go back to Kyle for hand-grinding, hollow on the belly and convex on the point. Soon unused equipment at the Vallottons’ will be heading Rob’s way so he can also do the grinding. Once all the components reach Rob’s shop, they’re ready for clean-up, assembly, packaging and shipping.
VMX Knives has built a high-end balisong that Kyle Vallotton hopes will change the way flippers think of flippers. You will find some offered for sale at Blade HQ or you can custom order yours by contacting Rob Buckley at Maverick Customs via methods listed at the bottom of this article. Tattoo art by Zach Burcham at West Main St. Tattoos in Glasgow, Kentucky.
“They are the strongest folding knives,” Rob said of balisongs. “There’s no locking failure; the pin stops it from closing.” No matter how tight tolerances are, owners will often loosen up butterfly knives for better flipping. “So it’s like a chain-link fence,” Rob said. He and Kyle are striving for a knife that is as tight as a bushings-and-washers construction can be while still allowing for smooth flipping action. In the future, they hope to offer a bearings model, as well as a limited-run high-end model.
Even though Rob Buckley is in Kentucky and Kyle Vallotton is in Oregon, the men have worked out a division of labor that maximizes the strengths of each. Rob receives the parts on sheets. From there, they undergo numerous processes before they are ready to be finished, assembled and shipped.
The balisong community is an entity all to itself within the knife industry. Both Rob and Kyle acknowledge the achievements of others who started where they are now, while simultaneously carving out their own space in the market. Bladerunners Systems, which goes by BRS, started out as “flippers making flippers for flippers,” Kyle explained.
“I met the BRS boys before they became BRS,” he noted. “They are a bunch of balisong enthusiasts and great guys doing a great job.” In Kyle’s opinion BRS excels at using overlay materials that look cool and grab the attention of the crowd. “They are a big production company making a decent knife.”
“They make a great product,” Rob agreed, adding that butterfly knives made by Bali-Song Inc. (1979-1983), which became Pacific Cutlery Corp. (1983-1987), which became Benchmade (1988 to present) are well made as well. In fact, he owns a Benchmade Balisong 53 Mangus and a Spyderco Spyderfly.
VMX Knives is set to release its first round of VMX-1 balisongs in mid-November, 2017. They received 15 preorders, enough to get the project off the ground.
Kyle explained the partnership’s goals with the VMX-1. “What I have been doing and am now doing with VMX is simplifying and changing the norm,” he commented. “We are a small company making a very high-quality knife for the same price, and it’s custom-to-order.” Kyle wants to change the way flippers think about flippers. “I want to push boundaries and change things for the better. It’s what I wanted to do when I started making balis.”
It is obvious from their banter, that Rob and Kyle enjoy ribbing each other and genuinely respect what each brings to the project. The online acquaintances who developed a friendship and started a business together have also seemingly adopted each other’s families. Only Rob does not flip balisongs in front of his impressionable son, he admitted with a laugh.
Contact James Robert (Rob) Buckley, VMX Knives, 111 Corner Ave., Horse Cave, KY 42749; 270-576-4392. You can view the work of Rob on Facebook at Maverick Customs and Kyle’s work along with the work of other Vallottons at Vallotton Custom Knives.
A Digital Subscription To BLADE Is The Answer
You can read your digital issues of BLADE Magazine anywhere you have your phone, tablet or computer, and there’s no need to find storage for all your old issues.
If piling-up issues of magazines seems like a waste to you… If you feel like you don’t have time to read a magazine… If you like the stories we offer in BLADE, but want a more economical option, then a digital subscription is the answer. An annual subscription to BLADE is $17.98, $4 off the print price.
David McConnell is a stamping press repairman who hopes to convert to full-time bladesmithing soon. His first knife, was a cheap Wal-Mart special. Over the years he got frustrated with the lack of quality in such knives and began thinking about making his own. He knew he could make a better knife for himself, and he did. Only his buddy loved it so much that he bought it from him, David said, laughing.
David McConnell of North Woods Forge in Michigan. He forges, preferring a primitive style, using natural materials..
The self-taught bladesmith has been making knives for 11 now, including tomahawks and axes. “I like to make hunting knives and more traditional stuff,” David noted.
David McConnell made this bowie with an 8-inch blade of 1075 steel. The handle is blue-dyed and stabilized curly maple. Blue curly maple bowie. Guard is nickel silver. Overall length is 14 1/4 inches. Contacts listed at the bottom of this article.
He is an avid grouse and deer hunter, as well as and ice and fly fisherman. He lives in Kalkaska, Michigan, with his wife and 15-year-old son.
David McConnell started teaching his son Parker McConnell to fish early in life. The National Trout Festival, now in its 81st year, is held in April in Kalkaska, Michigan. Parker got this trout in the kid’s pond.
Best-selling knife patterns: 3 ½- to 4-inch-bladed bird-and-trout, 4- to 7-inch-bladed straight-back hunter, classic bowie
Favorite blade steels: W2 for hamon, toughness, ease of forging and grinding; 1075 for ease of forging and heat-treating
Blade grinds: flat ground, sometimes with appleseed edge
How he tests his knives: “If it can cut a nail and have no deformation or chipping and still stay shaving-sharp, I would have to say that’s a pretty good blade,” David commented.
Favorite handle materials: bone, wood, antler. “I just like the feel and warmth you get from natural materials.”
Price range: $85-$600
Knife shows he attends: local gun-and-knife shows and blacksmithing events
This 15-inch bowie has a 8 7/8-inch blade, flat-ground, appleseed-edged and forged from 1084 cable-patterned steel. The handle is made from axis deer crown antler with a brass guard and blue and white fiber spacers. Maker’s list price: $375.Bladesmith David McConnell puts on a forging demonstration at Black Iron Days at Hartwick Pines State Park in Grayling, Michigan. Every August blacksmiths from all over Michigan and a few from Ohio host demonstrations for the public for the whole weekend.North Woods Forge’s ulu has a 4 1/2-inch blade forged from 1095 steel. The handle is made from whitetail antler. David McConnell loves making primitive pieces and being an avid deer hunter, he often opts for antler material.
You can read your digital issues of BLADE Magazine anywhere you have your phone, tablet or computer, and there’s no need to find storage for all your old issues.
If piling-up issues of magazines seems like a waste to you… If you feel like you don’t have time to read a magazine… If you like the stories we offer in BLADE, but want a more economical option, then a digital subscription is the answer. An annual subscription to BLADE is $17.98, $4 off the print price.
Tyrell Johnson has always been interested in knives and firearms, and two-plus years ago he decided to take a knifemaking class at Montgomery Community College in North Carolina. “As my wife can attest, I’ve had many hobbies in my life, but knifemaking immediately struck a chord with me,” he commented. “I knew right away that this was what I was meant to do, and I’ve been making knives ever since. I eat, drink and sleep knives.” Travis Daniels, of TED Knives, has been a helpful mentor to him. Tyrell does both stock removal and forging, and especially enjoys forging brut de forges.
Tyrell Johnson is a relative newcomer to knifemaking, but he loves both forging and stock removal. His 5-year plan is to retire and devote himself full-time to knifemaking.
Tyrell currently works full time as a waste treatment plant operator, but in five years he expect to retire and focus fully on knifemaking.
• Best-selling knife patterns: drop-point hunters, kitchen and filet knives
• Preferred blade steels: W2, 1084, 1095. “I love carbon steel. It has a great history and the keeness of the edge is hard to beat,” Tyrell noted.
• Blade grinds: hollow for slicing, flat for durability
• How he tests his knives: cutting paper, shaving hair, chopping wood
• Favorite handle materials: Micarta, exotic woods, burl wood, resins—“I love working with the scales produced by J Hue Customs by Tim Kipps,” Tyrell added.
• Price range: $150-$350
• Knife shows he attends: BLADE Show
• Member of: North Carolina Custom Knifemakers Guild, American Bladesmith Society
Tyrell hand-makes all his sheaths from premium 8-ounce leather or Kydex.
This brut de forge has a 4.25-inch hollow-ground blade forged out of 1084 carbon steel. The scales are fashioned from desert ironwood. The overall length is 8.5 inches. Maker’s list price: $275 with leather sheath. Contacts listed at the bottom of this article.Tyrell Johnson and his wife, Lisa, sneak away for some trout fishing.Tyrell Johnson’s cleaver has a 6-inch edge on a 3-inch wide 1095 carbon steel blade. The resin-breech wood scales were made by J. Hue Customs. The cleaver is 10.5 inches overall. Maker’s list price: $225-$250. Contacts listed at the bottom of this article.Tyrell made some san mai steel, sandwiching 1084 with mild steel. He wanted to try out his new tire hammer.Tyrell Johnson forge-welds some cable-pattern steel in his North Carolina shop.
Tyrell made a combat knife for the North Carolina Custom Knifemakers Guild’s cutting competition last spring. The knife could not be longer than 15.5 inches overall with a maximum blade length of 10 inches. At least one visible pin had to pass through the handle, a tang was required and the knife had to have a lanyard hole with wrist lanyard and be accompanied by a sheath and zippered pouch.
This Tyrell Johnson Knives’ Fighter was made using 1084 steel. The knife was 15 inches overall with a 9.75-inch blade. Tyrell used ambrosia maple burl for the handle. The sheath was 8-ounce premium leather with eastern North Carolina copperhead skin inset. “I personally harvested and processed” the snakeskin, Tyrell explained. Travis Daniels taught Tyrell how to make his own sheaths.
Contact Tyrell Johnson, 252-341-4791, [email protected], on Facebook at Tyrell Johnson and on Instagram @Tyrell_Johnson_Knives
A Digital Subscription to BLADE Is The Answer
You can read your digital issues of BLADE Magazine anywhere you have your phone, tablet or computer, and there’s no need to find storage for all your old issues.
If piling-up issues of magazines seems like a waste to you… If you feel like you don’t have time to read a magazine… If you like the stories we offer in BLADE, but want a more economical option, then a digital subscription is the answer. An annual subscription to BLADE is $17.98, $4 off the print price.
Mike MacInnes of Holland, Michigan, remembers his first two knives, both given to him by his dad. The first was a Buck 110 clone and the second was a Solingen hunting knife. Mike has been involved with black powder rifle hunting and gunsmithing all his life.
Mike MacInnes is a part-time bladesmith. He only makes, and therefore sells, the kinds of knives he likes to make, one of the joys of keeping making as a hobby while he holds on to his day job as a vending route supervisor in Michigan.
In 2012 he wanted to donate a knife for an auction to benefit the Michigan State Muzzle Loading Association. He called his friend Al Englsman and asked if he would help him make a Scagel-style knife. He enjoyed making the first one so much it lead to others. He advanced quickly, probably because his work on rifles aided his craftsmanship.
Betty is a mountain cur, dogs specifically bred to trail and tree small game or hunt and bay larger quarry.
Mike had met Al, who is a breeder of Mountain Cur, when he went to buy his squirrel-hunting dog, Betty.
Mike MacInnes and his wife, Erin, sometimes get out to Holland State Park in Holland, Michigan. The lighthouse in the background is called Big Red.
Mike is a route supervisor for a vending machine company by day, but loves his hobby. He only sells what he likes to make. He’s grateful for the influences of Bill Binky growing up, Marv Palmer and Joe Valentin. He lives near Lake Michigan with his wife, Erin, and their two children.
Best-selling knife patterns: full-tang hunter with 3- to 4-inch blade; hidden-tang drop-point hunter with 4- to 5-inch blade
Favorite blade steels: 1080; 5160
Blade grind: full flat
How he tests his knives: slice paper, shave hair, cut phone books, chop wood
Knife shows he attends: Badger Knife Club Knife Show
Facebook Groups he participates in: The Real Knife Makers of America, Knife Gods, Blade Smithing World
This 4 ¾-inch drop-point hunter was forged from 1080 steel. Handle is made of oak burl with black fiberboard liners. Overall length is 8 ½ inches. Pins are brass. Price is $175-$450.
Mike’s isn’t taking any more orders until he catches up on the orders he’s taken and finishes knives for upcoming shows. Follow him on Facebook though for updates on peeks at works-in-progress and finished pieces.
This hunter has a 3.25-inch blade forged from 1080 carbon steel. Its handle scales are made from bocote wood. The pins are brass. Maker’s list price: $185. Contacts listed at the bottom of this article.This Mike MacInnes piece was forged from 1080 carbon steel. The blade is 4 inches long with an overall length of 8.25 inches. “The handle is made of some of the nicest walnut that was even harvested here in Michigan,” Mike declared. The shape of the handle is a little thicker in the butt than he normally makes, but it felt so good he will probably do more in that style. The guard was forged from 416 stainless steel with a matching pin. The sheath was hand-stitched and -tooled by Mike. Maker’s list price: $350. Contacts listed at the bottom of this article.
You can read your digital issues of BLADE Magazine anywhere you have your phone, tablet or computer, and there’s no need to find storage for all your old issues.
If piling-up issues of magazines seems like a waste to you… If you feel like you don’t have time to read a magazine… If you like the stories we offer in BLADE, but want a more economical option, then a digital subscription is the answer. An annual subscription to BLADE is $17.98, $4 off the print price.
In a recent Facebook post, Mike Jeffries of 2 Birds Metal Works asked fellow knifemakers if they had a website, if it was worth the time and money to set up and maintain and how they approached it. He often throws out marketing-related topics for discussion. If you’ve followed any of those threads, you’ve already picked up some digital marketing tips from fellow makers. So, with Mike’s permission, our first in a series of Marketing For Knifemakers articles will delve into some of the feedback he received, assess some statistics and provide examples of custom knifemaker websites. Obviously, if you are an uber-successful full-time knifemaker, you can stop reading, unless you want to reach a still wider audience. This article, though, is aimed at those on the cusp of going larger or full-time with their craft. So, knifemakers: Do you need a website?
Experiment. Do a search for “custom knifemaker.” The first one to come up is Dark Timber Custom Knives, run by Peter Kohler. Why? A blog, and most of the photos are labeled. There needs to be content that bots can search through.
We’ll save whether you should go the do-it-yourself route or hire a pro for another time. We simply want to determine if a website is worth your time, money and effort at this point in your knifemaking career.
What Are Your Knifemaking Goals?
Are You A Hobbyist Or Part-Timer?
There is no shame in continuing to improve your craftsmanship, loving the journey and decidedly not going forward with a website. Continue to learn with each knife, sell a few to keep yourself in supplies and follow along with the community to stay up on industry news. Facebook (FB) and Instagram (IG) are all you really need.
Is Knifemaking Your Calling?
If you’re “arrived,” you already have a website and you can stop reading, unless you want a few tips on maximizing your customer base. If you’re striving to reach higher rungs on the artisan ladder, focus on bettering each knife, learning from mentors and obtaining your journeyman smith rating if you forge. You can either start a website or wait. Once you think, and your peers confirm, that you’ve hit your knifemaking stride, though, you will definitely need a website. You will also need to tailor that site to reach the public you set out to attract.
Bob Kramer of Kramer Knives maintains a website that reflects his appreciation of metallurgy and how it contribute to his “effortless art.” A website is an “experience” that should reflect the maker’s philosophy, style, story. Kramer’s does all that, which is why he come up third in a search for “custom knifemaker,” right after Arizona Custom Knives.
Are You Actively Growing Your Business?
You’re comfortable with your style and level of craft. You’re 100 percent committed to knifemaking as a full-time trade. You’re making money at it. You may be maxed out, or you may go through times of feast and famine. You, perhaps more urgently than other custom knifemakers, could benefit from a website sooner rather than later.
Whom Do You Want To Reach?
Honestly assess your style of knives and ask yourself who would be interested in your work? That can be a distasteful question when you solely want to focus on your art, but it’s not just about selling knives. It’s about tapping into the community that will be assessing and judging your pieces.
Kyle Royer Knives‘ website is full of professional photos by Caleb Royer and every single one of them includes full specs. Kyle is an American Bladesmith Society master smith. He was 23 when he wrote his About page. He’s 27 now. Is it perfectly grammatically correct? No. Is it genuine and true to him and his knifemaking journey? You bet. Your knives need to be perfect, not your writing. Write as you would speak.
The Collector
If your folders are carried in a velvet pouch or arranged on a display shelf, a website, of course, is essential. You already know this. You’re spending the majority of your time in your shop or socializing with your clientele in the normal course of living your life. However, “owning” your name may not be enough in a waning high-end knife market. Is your site attracting the gentleman who wants something to go with his watch, the art collector who may be looking for a new-to-him art to explore, or neither. We’ll be exploring more about best practices for your site in an upcoming Marketing For Knifemaker’s article.
The Brotherhood
If you’re making tactical knives for the military, for law enforcement or for civilian self-defense, then you need a website, period. This category also includes trainers and balisongs for combatives instructors and practitioners.
Dawson Knives comes up fifth in a “custom knifemaker” online search. This site is both exquisite art and an homage to the military. However, it’s high ranking is due in no small part to its depth. Check out its active blog, The Daily Grind.
The Outdoorsman
If you’re making knives and tools for bushcrafting, camping, hunting, fishing or survival, you, too, need a website. Obviously, there is crossover in these categories. Your Rambo-esk survival knife may be totally tacticool, so you’ll want to appeal to The Brotherhood as well as The Outdoorsman.
The Everyman
The everyman carries a knife for everyday chores, or keeps one in her purse, or has a few in a kitchen “junk” drawer. You absolutely need a website to reach this person.
The Cook
How can you convince people who cook that you can make a knife that will perform as well as an expensive classic, but in a color other than black? Answer: a website.
How Do People Find You?
Word Of Mouth
There’s still 30 percent of the adult US population (250 million) that is not online. That’s where you stake your name on the quality of your product and never let it out your door if you’re not 100 percent sure of it.
You also learn to ask. You ask your happy customers to write reviews for you. You ask your less-than-happy customer to honestly share his disappointment and how you went above and beyond to not only make it right, but make it better than all right. You ask fans to tell their friends about you. You ask them to share your posts.
Article Appearance
Print publishing is indeed on the decline, but digital publishing is coming into its own. Articles in which your work is included can give you a boost in search engine optimization because it’s packaged with over 300 words and includes links, images and video—all things that help rank that article, and thereby your knife images, higher.
Social Media
If you’re on the cusp of growing larger, you undoubtedly have social media well underway. We’ll be doing articles on each platform and how you can best maximize it to get your type of knives in front of a broader audience.
Online Search
This is where we want to focus. In order to meet new customers where they are, you must put yourself in their shoes. Sit down at the computer and think like a non-knifemaker. That can be a challenge. By focusing on Facebook and Instagram, knifemakers are talking to each other and customers who already know them. There is so much overlap that the circle of influence has shrunk to solely each other and fans. Fellow knifemakers are the best source of cheerleading, constructive guidance and fellowship, but they can’t help you reach those outside the knife industry.
Mike Jeffries of 2 Birds Metal Works in Louisville, Kentucky, will often throw out marketing questions for knifemakers on Facebook. Some of the feedback he receives is invaluable, though you should always verify current marketing practices because things change quickly in the digital marketplace.
Make a list of the things that people might type into a search engine to find you. Enlist a non-knifemaker’s input if necessary. Let’s use 2 Birds Metal Works as an example. Mike makes knives to handle your cutting needs “from kitchen to camp.” So, his aim will be to attract the The Outdoorsman and The Cook. Except for current customers and fellow makers, people know neither “Mike Jeffries” nor “2 Birds Metal Works,” so what might they enter to stumble upon Mike’s work.
Mike Jeffries’ chef knife has a 7-inch AEB-L stainless blade with a Vintage Blue Westinghouse Micarta handle with Shadetree Emerald Burlap bolsters. The signature pins are made of copper. The overall length is just under 12 inches. Maker’s list price: $300-$380. Contact Mike Jeffries, 2 Birds Metal Works, [email protected], 502-592-4240, on Facebook at 2 Birds Metal Works & Mike Jeffries Knives.
As clumsy as that sounds, that’s what you want to have happen. Mike offers a chef knife with a teal blue and lime green handle. Let’s say a woman is searching for a housewarming gift for her sister, whose favorite color combination is teal and lime. She types in “teal and lime gift.” That’s it. Nothing about knives in the equation. If Mike has written a full caption to go with an image of his knife on his website along with the suggestion that it makes a nice gift, he has just increased the chances of his site coming up in a search. If he also describes in a blog post how he made this knife and covers his reasoning behind his color choices as well as all his other creative decisions, he’s gone even farther to ensure his site has a chance of coming up on a vague search like in our example.
Is it foolproof? Of course not, but you’re honestly playing the search engine optimization game with images and descriptions and blog posts. If you do that for each type of knife you make, over time, it will pay off in higher rankings for a variety of searches.
Isn’t Social Media All A Maker Truly Needs?
In A Word, NO!
Digital marketers had predicted that websites would give way to social media and email would die at the hand of Messenger. That’s not how it’s turned out.
The only way your Facebook profile will come up in a online search is if someone actually searches for your name or company name. You’re trying to reach people who have never heard of you and don’t even think of knives as an option for, say, gift-giving. You could argue that you would never want your art falling into the hands of someone who can’t appreciate what a custom knifemaker does. OK, but what if by getting a knife into their hands by whatever means, you create an impassioned fan, who then tells her friends how brilliant the colors were, how perfectly the knife worked, how great it felt…
Content Is Still King
Words still matter in this hashtag world. “Content” refers to anything used to fill an article, social media page or website. It can be writings, visuals in still or video form, and links, but in order for visuals and links to have weight, they must have words associated with them. And you need a place to park your content where it’s forever accessible, and not lost on some never-ending feed. (Saving posts helps you, but not your potential customer.)
How can this be? Isn’t Facebook pushing video? You bet. It’s trying to be You Tube, which is owned by Google, and although FB has a more engaged audience, more people visit You Tube in a month than visit FB. Efforts are probably underway to extract video content so transcriptions can be combed by search engine robots. But even that won’t help if a maker is just silently showing all sides of a knife. We’ll talk more about video and how best to harness it in another Marketing For Knifemakers article.
J. Neilson, American Bladesmith Society master smith and “Forged In Fire” judge, has a website that makes exceptional use of photo description. Knives on the Neilson’s Mountain Hollow site not only get a list of specs, but a full description of inspiration, construction or something else memorable about the build.
So back to words. Every day the Google bots do their thing, combing articles, photo titles and captions, video titles and descriptions, links and meta data fields, to rank websites according to relevancy. Ever wonder why video is embedded in an article, or why slide shows come with accompanying written commentary? Words, dude, words. The term “blog” may be passe, but blogs still matter—greatly. You are reading one. We call it an “article,” but it’s still an article under my name and the Mightier Than The Sword banner. Every single example of a website that comes up high under a search for “custom knifemaker” includes either a blog or highly descriptive photos captions. J. Neilson’s blog ranks high in a search for “custom knifemaker” not because it’s filled with “Forge In Fire” references, but because of his depth of description on each of many, many knives.
Battling Anti-Knife Bias
As many of you are fully aware, there is definitely bias at Facebook and it’s against weaponry. Selling of guns and knives is not allowed, so don’t put prices on your marketplace items. Even though they encourage you to boost your post, if you ever try to, you’ll be informed that what you’re selling goes against FB policy. So, what’s a custom knifemaker to do? Play the game, organically and on your own terms—with a website. Your post to Facebook lasts about 5 hours; your blog post/article has a 2-year lifespan.
What does “organic” mean, anyway? It refers to building content naturally and not paying for ads to boost results. It’s about “articles” or “blog posts” on your website, photos, video and links that all work together to speak on a specific subject. The words are compiled naturally, and not “stacked” repeatedly in an unnatural cadence.
Normally, Mike Jeffries focuses on “kitchen to camp” knives, but he decided to try an old-school American Bladesmith Society-style knife, but with a full tang. The Cowboy Fighter even caught the eye of Jason Knight and Murray Carter when they stopped at the 2 Birds Metal Works table at BLADE Show 2017. A blog post would be the perfect place to tell this knife’s story and what it meant to Mike on his knifemaking journey. The 7 3/4-inch blade is made of W2 steel with hamon. The handle is walnut burl with unidirectional carbon fiber bolsters. Overall length is 13.5 inches. Maker’s list price: $750 with leather sheath by Two Drunken Celts Custom Leather. Contact Mike Jeffries, 2 Birds Metal Works, [email protected], 502-592-4240, on Facebook at 2 Birds Metal Works & Mike Jeffries Knives.
Let’s say you have a blog on your WordPress website. You should aim for a minimum of 300 words per post to optimize search engine optimization (SEO). You explain what you’re working on that week. You mention blade lengths, because people use blade lengths as part of their search criteria if they’re in a state that limits them. You mention steel, your process, the handle material, including color, price, what comes with it, how it is shipped, and how people can put in an order for one. You give shouts out to your suppliers and mentors or supporters on the project then share it to Facebook.
You will still be speaking to your established audience while increasing your chances of being picked up in a generic search. Pretend you are talking to people who know nothing of custom knifemaking, because you are. Take the opportunity to educate as you go, minimizing abbreviations and lingo. You’re broadening and educating your clientele with each post. You write, “Everyday (one-word adjective) carry, abbreviated as EDC, refers to something you carry every day (two-word noun).” See how I did that? (Laugh here.) At the end of the week, you write another post sharing how you did. You include pictures of your works-in-progress, rather than “WIPs,” and a finished example. You share your successes and challenges.
Instead of saying “click here” for a link, link to the applicable words. Never forget the “web” part of the worldwide web. Link to others when appropriate, but do not link to everything. You don’t want to pull your potential customer away too frequently. Pick and choose wisely, and be sure to set the link so it opens in another window so they can easily return to your site. All of this helps to rank you higher in searches. It’s more time-consuming than FB or IG, but can be done less frequently, and over time, garners stronger returns on time spent.
5. Who Controls Your Website Experience?
Guess what? You don’t get put in a time-out on your own website. You control your content and exactly how it looks and reads. You can build a photo gallery of finished work that includes a written description with all specs and includes the prices—imagine, no Facebook jail! You can have an About page that gives your journey as a person and as a knifemaker. It doesn’t have to be long, but it should be at least 300 words and include images from benchmarks in your life. People are buying a part of something you’ve poured your heart and soul into; they want to know who you are.
This is a good time to mention that you can’t take too many great photos of your finished work, but bad photos hamstring your marketing, period. Mike Jeffries takes some nice photos, but not enough of them to have samples of everything he’s made. His Campcrafter model is his flagship camping knife. It has a 5-inch blade of 80CrV2 high-carbon steel. Overall length is just over 10 inches. This one has a black and burl handle. Maker’s list price: $250-$325. Contact Mike Jeffries, 2 Birds Metal Works, [email protected], 502-592-4240, on Facebook at 2 Birds Metal Works & Mike Jeffries Knives.
You can include platforms to sell directly from your website. You can and should drive traffic to your social media sites and include your website on your social media profiles, but you are in charge of your website content, for better or worse. Best of all, you can include at the very least, a newsfeed, but hopefully you’re seeing the benefit of a blog, so you can share industry new that your customers might benefit from, including your own promotions, giveaways and waffles (sorry, a website won’t change state laws). A blog within your site gives you a platform from which to explain thing about your craft, offer your opinion, talk about your life as a knifemaker, projects you have in mind, specials you’re running, shop tours you’re hosting, hammer-ins you’re organizing. It’s a place where you can put in words what you normally say in a video.
“But I hate writing. That’s too much of a time-suck.” Agreed. Perhaps you know someone who likes it. You can offer them short money to do weekly posts for you. “Arrgh, a money-suck.” Try to look at it as an investment in growing your business. I see plenty of knifemakers who can’t even Share a post. Their buddies do in 2 seconds what they couldn’t figure out in two weeks—that’s an actual quote from one of them. Trade your buddy a knife for an equal value of his digital expertise.
What Does Your Knifemaking Destination Look Like?
Ranking higher in online searches is a long-term endeavor. It takes consistently delivered content over the course of an extended period of time. Google is no more friendly to weapons than Facebook, but all knifemakers are playing under the same set of rules and the ones with websites and blogs are being rewarded.
Make a list of all the terms you want to “own.” Start building content around those terms, and your website will populate itself into relevancy. Remember, it sometimes happens in life that the most gifted are not always the ones who obtain success with their given talent. It is the ones who can take their art and persistently and accurately market it, who will garner both recognition and thereby profitability.
At the same time, if you’re constantly sucked into the money and time trap of marketing, there will be no knives to market. Use your time at the forge and the grinder to think. Start a notebook of both your big vision and the baby steps necessary to get there. Then enlist the help of people who truly get who you are and what your knives are about, so that you are free to make more knives.
A Digital Subscription To BLADE Is The Answer
You can read your digital issues of BLADE Magazine anywhere you have your phone, tablet or computer, and there’s no need to find storage for all your old issues.
If piling-up issues of magazines seems like a waste to you… If you feel like you don’t have time to read a magazine… If you like the stories we offer in BLADE, but want a more economical option, then a digital subscription is the answer. An annual subscription to BLADE is $17.98, $4 off the print price.
Read more about hot knives, knifemaking and collecting in the BLADE 2018 Knife Guide. Download it here.
