BLADE Magazine

Mokume + Titanium Laminate = MokuTi Damascus

In the northern Mississippi town of Blue Springs, in a rural area between Tupelo and the Tennessee border, a company called Chad Nichols Damascus is forging steel that is taking knives to a new level. The company’s owner and namesake, Chad is an easygoing Southerner who created a damascus product called MokuTi that boasts a stunning combination of shapes and colors.

The name explains it perfectly. It is mokume that includes titanium laminates. MokuTi adds an exceptional visual boost to a knife, with swirled or mosaic tones of blue, gold, orange, silver and pink, depending on the composition of the materials used.

In his affable manner, Chad assured that Chad Nichols Damascus did not invent the colorful titanium laminate; the company just came up with a new way to achieve it—which, he noted, was not an easy task.

“We haven’t invented the wheel or anything,” Nichols said of MokuTi. “I don’t have to be the first one doing anything. I just want to be the last one doing it. We run this like a business, not an ego trip.”

Years in the Making

It would figure that something that looks as good as MokuTi would be difficult to produce. Nichols said it took several years to figure out.

“That’s not blowing it out of proportion,” he laughed. “I messed with it for a while, then I just put it away because I kept failing.”

He remembered getting tunnel vision trying to figure out why it was not working.

“You keep doing it and it’s insane,” he said, “because if it didn’t work the first three times and you didn’t do anything different, it’s not going to work the fourth time.”

Through trial and error he was finally able to figure out how to bond titanium with the other metals, but he is understandably tight-lipped about his proprietary secrets.

“I’m not going to tell you how we do it,” he admitted, “but there’s things we do that might seem minute to some people. However, we found those things to be critical.”

He explained a myriad of variables when bonding the layers in presses and rolling mills, including oxygen, heat and surface texture.

“Without getting into too much detail as far as bonding the layers, I’ll just say it’s tricky and it doesn’t always work,” Nichols allowed. “If I don’t make MokuTi for a month or two, I kind of count on the first two tries being crap.”

The experimental journey to fruition brought Nichols’ shop down some rocky roads.

“We recently made some MokuTi and threw zirconium in there,” he noted. “We love bonding titanium to other metals, but you just can’t do anything with [titanium and zirconium]. They just won’t bond because I guess the ductility is too different and the metals move at different rates during forging. It was a disaster, so we quit trying.”

It is all part of the ride, he said, and you cannot be scared to “just throw something in there” and see what happens.

Meteorology Matters

Another variable that affects producing MokuTi successfully is the atmosphere. While forging carbon damascus is fairly predictable, Nichols said forging MokuTi is much more complex.

“When you get into stainless and even Mokume, with the copper and brass with the nickel silver in it, and especially with the MokuTi, it gets complicated,” he continued. “What people don’t understand about forging, especially down where I live, is that with humidity of 100 percent is going to get hotter than if it’s 50 percent the next day.”

A Sixth Sense for MokuTi Damascus

Nichols searched for the words to explain his approach. Maybe it is a feeling, maybe it is a sixth sense, and maybe it is just exposure and experience.

“I hate saying this but you just get in tune with what’s going on. It’s like using the word ‘organic.’ I hate it when I have to use that word, but sometimes there’s no other word to describe it,” he lamented. “We made a new pattern a couple weeks ago called ‘Boomerang’ and some guy goes, ‘What’s it like?’ and, between groans, I said, ‘It’s very organic looking.’”

Put a Tie on that Knife

“I’ve used MokuTi on a variety of styles,” said Michael Burch, Missouri knifemaker and owner of Burchtree Blades. “It’s like putting a tie on a knife—it just adds some class.”

Adding MokuTi as an accent is a common way to integrate the material into a knife without breaking the bank. Still, it is not cheap. The more of it the maker adds to the knife, the more it adds to the sale price.

“I charge twice as much for MokuTi bolsters as I would titanium bolsters due to the extra finishing time with polishing and heat coloring,” explained knifemaker Peter Carey. “I use MokuTi on all my folders because it’s strong and has an exotic look.”

Carey said he also uses it as an accent material on his knives, such as for bolsters, pocket clips, back spacers, thumb studs and pivot rings. He said accenting with MokuTi injects some color and flash without overwhelming the knife. A good example of employing MokuTi is as a pivot collar on a stonewashed framelock, Burch added.

“It makes for great contrast and can really dress up a user folder,” he observed. “It’s costly but if customers saw what went into making it, it would seem cheap.”

“It appears that everyone likes the material and it usually ends up on my higher-end knives,” Carey said. “Some of my customers ask for it as full scales or for a framelock, so I use it that way also.”

As Carey noted, MokuTi comes from Nichols Damascus as a billet that must be worked to shape and then colored.

“[Chad] usually colors it so you can see the pattern, but that gets ground off when you work it,” Carey said, explaining that it is a surface color that does not go all the way though the material. “When you get it to final shape and finish, you have to heat color or anodize it to the colors you want.”

“The other cool thing about MokuTi is dealing with Chad,” he maintained. “He’s a great guy, a friend, hard working and you can’t beat his customer service.”

Your Turn: Learn How to Forge Damascus

Editor’s note: All images are courtesy of their respective manufacturers.

Today’s sporting cutlery market is flooded with some very good foreign-made knives, and it may seem USA-made models are threatened in terms of quality, but nothing could be further from the truth. The American knife industry is still the leader of the pack.

USA all the Way, Even When It Gets Tough

Emerson Knives, Inc., and president/founder/custom knifemaker Ernest Emerson are unabashedly pro-American made. Emerson founded the company in 1997 on the principle of designing and building the best USA-made production tactical knives anywhere.

Along with his wife Mary, Ernest has consistently grown the company by listening to what consumers want. Emerson knives are 100 percent made in the USA, right down to the screws. Emerson is an ardent supporter of the military, law enforcement and other first responders, another good reason why it’s so important that the company’s knives be made entirely in the USA.

Nonetheless, there are downsides.

“There are very few advantages in building a manufacturing operation in America,” Emerson says, citing state and federal taxes and ever-increasing regulations. It’s actually tough for a business to remain competitive here. However, I believe it’s worth the effort, restrictions and extra burden because I will do anything for America. I know my business is putting Americans to work with American wages who can earn a living in this country.”

He adds that the taxes he and his employees pay go directly to supporting the country and the U.S. military and its infrastructure.

“We have to manage our business smarter, more efficiently and more strategically to ensure a profitable and viable existence,” he stresses.

It’s the same attitude that makes the Commander and CQC7 models the company’s best sellers. The CQC7 is durable and comes in three sizes and two distinct blade shapes. A sexy piece with its ergonomic handle paired with a recurved clip-point blade, the Commander is a formidable cutting tool that comes in five iterations, each varying in size. Maintaining the popularity of these knives down the road is important to Emerson.

â”In order to stay viable,” he notes, “I believe the future lies in the industry’s ability to design and build knives that the consumer really wants.”

Consistency Counts

CJ Buck, president of Buck Knives, says a major advantage to having knives made in the USA is owning the integrity of the manufacturing processes.

“Consistent processes create consistently performing products,” he begins. “It also ensures product quality improvements are held as processes evolve.”

Another advantage is heightened flexibility and responsiveness.

“We can fix a design or quality issue quickly or adjust to spikes in our forecast since the partnerships between our factory and our USA vendors can be aligned immediately,” he explains.

On the other hand, domestic production carries its own set of challenges.

“When importing, if you need to add capacity you simply contract with another factory or, on the other side, cut a factory off,” he explains. Stateside you have to invest in more equipment, people and buildings. Consequently, as Buck laments, “If you are forced to reduce your output, the pain and loss of investment is in laying workers off.”

As for the future of American knife manufacturing, Buck is optimistic.

“The United States continues to lead in innovation,” he states. “Our culture and national character give us a substantial, sustainable advantage in that area.”

“Made in the USA” Means Better Quality Control

Microtech Knives built a solid reputation in the 1990s on designing and making some of the market’s most progressive production tactical folders, and continues to push the envelope. Why manufacture in the USA?

“So we are able to keep flaws to a minimum and catch mistakes early on,” reasons Hank Greenberg, the company’s custom shop manager, adding that if a company offers a solid made-in-the-USA knife with quality materials, then consumers will have no problem paying a fair price for it.

Americans build Microtech’s knives, such as the Ultratech out-the-front (OTF) auto and Socom Delta tactical folder.

Taking Care of Fellow Americans

HTM Knives is based in Forney, Texas. An acronym for Hand Tech Made, HTM was founded by knifemaker Darrel Ralph as a result of an ever-growing demand for his custom models. HTM allowed him to offer his designs to more people at a lower price and accelerated delivery times.

According to Ralph, HTM makes its knives in the USA “to take care of Americans and to take care of the people who take care of us. By having our knives made in the USA, we have total control on quality.”

Ralph says the Gun Hammer and Mad Maxx are HTM’s best-selling knives. Both began as full customs, so it made sense to produce them under the HTM banner. For the Gun Hammer alone, HTM offers several iterations in varying blade shapes, finishes, steels and coats.

“The military likes both knives and guns made in the USA,” Ralph notes. He says his Gun Hammer and 18 X-Ray automatic are among HTM’s best sellers with military customers. The company also offers designs by such makers as Kirby Lambert and Greg Lightfoot.

Ralph indicates there is a 23 percent scrap rate for knives made overseas.

“You have to figure in for that rate,” he says of foreign-made knives. By having their knives made in the USA, he reasoned, the HTM brain trust has total control over the processes, and can rectify any production issues that might arise before they become a problem.

When it comes to the advantages of knives made in America, Ralph says U.S. companies have access to the best steel and high-end materials.

It should come as no surprise then that Ralph says there is a huge upswing in companies manufacturing knives stateside. He specifically cited Buck Knives, who has been returning some models to “made-in-USA” status after previously being off shore produced. He also noted a growing trend of custom makers offering mid-tech/semi-production knives.

“They are growing the American market instead of stealing from it,” he observes. “That’s what we need in the knife industry.”

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