BLADE Magazine

Custom Knives Require a Special Kind of Tender Loving Maintenance

Most everyone knows what’s needed to care for a utility knife, including maintaining a working edge and wiping it down after use. However, keeping your custom knife as stunning as the day you first laid eyes on it is another matter. BLADE® polled four veteran knife collectors for their input on the subject. After years of collecting, they have more than a few ideas on how to keep knives presentation ready.

It may not be apparent when buying just one knife, but tallied up and considered together, knife collections can add up to a serious investment.

“It’s imperative that you preserve it as a group,” said U.S. Army veteran and long-time knife collector Louis Chow of San Francisco. “And even more so for the people that prefer a certain maker, you can say Loveless collectors or Moran collectors or what not, because it becomes a collection that is actually known to others.”

Chow has searched for custom combat/military type knives from those by BLADE Magazine Cutlery Hall-Of-Fame© member Bo Randall to sub-hilt fighters by Cutlery Hall-Of-Famer Bob Loveless.

For the diverse kinds of knives in his collection, some with stainless steel blades and others with leather grips, Chow has reached for one product over the past three decades to keep things pristine: Renaissance Wax. Chow began using it after maker Clay Gault recommended it. Gault was known for his natural handle materials.

“If it’s good enough for the British Museum, I think it’s good enough for me,” Louis said of Renaissance Wax.

Researchers at the British Museum learned that natural waxes went acidic over time, which was not good for the museum’s relics. In the late 1950s, Dr. A.E.A. Werner reportedly developed Renaissance Wax in the museum’s research laboratory.

With Renaissance Wax, Chow doesn’t have to distinguish between blade and handle. It works equally well protecting carbon blades, stacked leather handles and the sheaths that encompass them.

When knives sit in padded, acid-free cases, the wax doesn’t soak into the fabric of the cases as oils do. After returning from knife shows and to remove the traces of soda, coffee and fingerprints, Chow wipes down his blades with cotton buffing cloths from auto centers or specialty shops. He uses the cotton buffing cloths instead of microfleece because the latter tends to leave fibers everywhere.

Chow also uses a polish paste on his carbon steel knives if he notices rust beginning to form. He’s careful to use a mild polish without a lot of grit, such as Simichrome or 3M. Other polishes have a fine grit that, “if you have a mirror polish blade, that might change the condition of the finish.”

See the Light

Paul Kessler not only preserves the finely fitted and oft en engraved knives he collects, but he displays them as well. Of maintaining knives, he said, “It’s like taking care of your eyeglasses.”

The mortgage advisor’s maintenance routine begins when a new knife joins his collection. He cleans the fresh blade with WD-40. Kessler uses WD-40 only to clean blades. It tends to migrate, he says.

To lubricate folder pivots he uses Tuf-Oil or Breakfree.

“It’s a recommendation that I received from knifemaker Tom Overeynder, and they both work extremely well,” Paul noted. “They’re Teflon-bearing oils that won’t coagulate.”

Moisture and light are Kessler’s biggest concern when storing his knives. Just as sunlight changes the cabinetry of a kitchen, it can affect knives, he said.

“What happens with mammoth ivory, sunlight fades the color,” he observed. “When exposed to light, cocobolo gets darker. Elephant ivory, on the other hand, darkens and ‘patinas,’ and actually looks nicer.”

The first line of defense against light is museum glass that deflects the harmful rays. Kessler’s cases are lined with a Ph-neutral cloth and he turns to industrial magnets that hold the knives in place with 100 pounds of force.

He has used cigar boxes and antique picture frames to display his knives. They are French fitted, dustproof and airtight.

He stores fixed blades out of their sheaths and automatic knives with their springs not under pressure.

“I’ll use mineral oil with the 0000-steel wool on something that’s been exposed to the sun to bring the color back a little bit,” he said.

Every three months, Kessler moves his knives’ actions and oils the pivots with Tuf-Coat lubricant. He does not use Renaissance Wax. He finds that it leaves a film, giving the knife less of a luster.

Instead, he turns to RustFree, a product sold by A.G. Russell Knives. Kessler works a little on a cloth, wipes the knives and stores the cloth in a bag.

No Knife Wash Blues

Carlos Lopez is a residential builder in Florida. Being a purveyor of high-end custom knives and running the website knifetreasures.com is his “fun job.” He compares the care of a high-end custom knife to that of a car.

“It’s like you drive a car, it gets dirty, you wash it. You gotta maintain it,” he said.

Showtime is maintenance time for Lopez, who will wipe down and open and close each blade. He uses light oil and Renaissance Wax. The cleaning continues throughout the show.

“At a show, anytime anybody picks up a knife, after they see it, you wipe it clean,” Lopez said. “Fingerprints and oils from the fingers can eventually damage and rust a blade or handle.”

However, instead of turning to a cotton cloth, Lopez uses microfiber. When a microfiber cloth gets dirty, he throws it away. The key, he says, is to keep the cloth clean so it doesn’t pick up a piece of dirt that will scratch the blade. He gets multipacks of the microfiber cloths because he has to throw away the many that get dirty.

Living in Florida, Lopez keeps his house air-conditioned. This maintains his home—and the knives within—in a low-humidity environment.

If one of his knives develops rust, Lopez usually sends it to the knife’s maker for a fix up. If the original maker is deceased, he sends the knife to a maker who does similar work. When it comes to specialty materials such as ivory, Lopez recommends two treatments. Applying Renaissance Wax—letting it dry and then buffing it off —or baby oil helps seal the material.

“If you go to dry-weather places with ivory pieces they can crack within a day,” he advised, “so yeah, you need to maintain them and seal them.”

Don’t Over Oil!

Unlike bone handles or carbon steel blades, maintenance for tactical knives is a bit easier—or so says Chris Schluter, a stay-at-home dad in Chicago who formerly worked at the German-American Chamber of Commerce.

“I love the utilitarian designs which a maker can dress up or down as desires,” he observed.

“Part of the beauty of tactical folders is that, normally at least, not a lot of care is needed,” Schluter said. “This can depend on materials, of course. However, many materials commonly used on tactical folders are by design robust and maintenance free. G-10, titanium, carbon fiber, zirconium, etc., really don’t need care. That leaves one with the blade to care for. Even then, it’s usually a high-performance”—and thus low-maintenance—“stainless steel.”

When it comes to the care of tactical folders’ pivots, they don’t need a lot of lubrication, Schluter noted, because they are often made with tight tolerances.

“Bob Terzuola once humorously mentioned to me how often people ‘over oil’ their knives, telling me how he would sometimes get knives back for a refurb that were literally dripping oil,” Schluter recalled. If lint collects in a folder’s hard-to-reach crevices, a blast of compressed air does the trick.

“Pivots which become loose over time should be tightened with the proper screwdriver or Torx wrench and a drop of Loctite® added,” Schluter said.

He stores most of his 300 custom folders in a large gun safe in padded pouches, and dozens adorn the walls of his office in display cases. As for care, he tries to wipe down each knife with a high-quality oil like Tuf-Glide a few times a year, or after he handles one.

“Unfortunately—or fortunately, depending on how you look at it—I just have too many knives now to do this all at once,” he writes. “These days I do this in batches or when I happen to be handling a piece.”

The key for him is to avoid the ever-creeping rust. For the knives in his safe, he throws in a few moisture-absorbing desiccant packs and moisture removers.

“As with any treasured belongings, protecting them is a priority,” he stressed. “I would hate to open my safe and find a bunch of rusty knives.”

Find More Knife Maintenance Tips in This Download

The gentle rise of the tip area of the blade is the classic sign of a skinner—or in this instance, the Semi Skinner #2 by H.L. Holbrook. The 3.5-inch blade is CPM 154 stainless and the handle is stabilized maple. Overall length: 8 inches. Contact H.L. Holbrook, Dept. BL3, POB 483, Sandy Hook, KY 41171 606-794-1497. (Chuck Ward image)

Scott Gallagher employs a 3-inch damascus blade, a damascus single guard and a handle of Arizona ironwood for his hunter. Overall length: 6.5 inches. Contact Scott Gallagher, Dept. BL3, 335 Winsten Manor Rd., Santa Rosa Beach, FL 32459 850-865-8264. (Chuck Ward image)

BLADE Magazine Cutlery Hall-Of-Fame© member D’ Holder outfits his Big Dog fixed hunter in a 5.5-inch blade of 154 CPMV stainless, an ancient walrus ivory handle with scrimshaw by Stan Hawkins, and an engraved buttcap and guard by Bruce Shaw. Contact D’Holder, Dept. BL3, 226 West Blue Wash Rd., New River, AZ 85087 623-742-7399 [email protected] (SharpByCoop image)

A 4-inch clip-point blade of W2 tool steel with hamon and a spalted sycamore handle and fileworked copper spacer distinguish Ben Breda’s hunter. Overall length: 9 inches. Contact Ben Breda, Dept. BL3, 56 Blueberry Hill Rd., Hope, ME 04847 [email protected]. (Caleb Royer image)

A gorgeous Arizona ironwood handle with a domed/curved 416 stainless steel butt plate and G-10 spacer, and a 5.75-inch blade of 1084 carbon steel help complete Eli Jensen’s Forester MKII hunting knife. Overall length: 10.75 inches. Contact Eli Jensen, Dept. BL3, 2840 W. Dreamscape Way, Chino Valley, AZ 86323 928-606-0373 [email protected], Facebook/Instagram: Eli Jensen. (Sharp-ByCoop image)

Kenneth Lange received an order for this hunter by a family friend whose husband is celebrating 10 years on the police force—thus the thin blue line on the black G-10 handle. The 4.5-inch blade is 1095 carbon steel. Overall length: 9 inches. Contact Kenneth Lange, Dept. BL3, 1200 County Road 5711, LaCoste, TX 78039 210-218-9415 [email protected], Facebook/Instagram: kjl_handmadegoods KJLhandmadegoods. (SharpByCoop image)

With his son Jack expressing an interest in joining the military once he graduates high school, Peter Pruyn figured a reproduction of the Bob Horrigan Fighter by one of his mentors, ABS master smith John Horrigan, would be just the ticket as a gift form his military son in waiting.

“ABS master smith Red St. Cyr, another one of my mentors, said when you feel you’re good enough to make a knife in the style of one or more of your mentors, do it,” said Pruyn (Pruyn rhymes with pine).

Horrigan, a U.S. Army Ranger veteran, law enforcement officer and firefighter, is one of Peter’s mentors, ergo Pruyn’s version of the Bob Horrigan Fighter. Peter’s version has a few differences—among them a 5.5-inch blade, 154CM stainless steel, flat grind, embellished red skulls and a Cerakote® finish by Jesse Ruiz of Legendary Coatings instead of John’s 6.5-inch blade, 440C stainless steel, hollow grind and sand-blast finish.

Peter’s daughter Sophia fashioned the lanyard and attached the Emerson skull bead.

For more information contact Brothersville Custom Knives, c/o Peter Pruyn, Dept. BL3, 110 Reel Ln., Grants Pass, OR 97527 631-793-9052 [email protected], Facebook/Instagram: Peter Pruyn.

SPECS

• KNIFE: Reproduction of John Horrigan’s Bob Horrigan Fighter
• MAKER: Peter Pruyn
• BLADE LENGTH: 5.5”
• BLADE STEEL: 154CM stainless
• BLADE GRIND: Flat
• BLADE COAT: Emerson skull embellishment w/Cerakote® finish by Jesse Ruiz of Legendary Coatings
• HANDLE: Micarta SHEATH: Kydex under leather w/red skull embellishment, felt inside Kydex, snaps, MOLLE compatible, multiple carry options, by Will Elmore

See More Photos of Custom Knives

Editor’s note: This article is from the knifemaker’s point of view, but it could also be used by collectors to better understand price.

Make the Equation

Most manufactured products, whether factory or custom made, have similarities. For those of you unfamiliar with cost accounting, one of the similarities is basically what the costs for building a particular item are.

In the case of custom knives, such costs include those for the machines, belts, drill bits, saw blades, propane, tongs, hammers, etc.—in other words, anything in the shop used to produce the knife.

Other items not necessarily taken into account are those such as the cost of electricity, machine wear and tear, etc. Obviously, materials are easy to account for.

Then there is the amount of money you want—want being the operative word—to make selling your knives, followed by the amount of profit you want to make. The resulting equation is:

Shop time + material costs + maker’s pay (labor) + net profit = the actual cost (or price) of the knife

(Editor’s note: for collectors, the wiggle room on negotiation could be found in the net profit part of that equation.)

When the Price is Too High

Again, you’re a knifemaker. Are your knives too expensive? The short answer is “probably.” Over the past 32 years of asking knifemakers the question, the two most prevalent answers I get are:

1) My knives are priced on the advice of another knifemaker;

2) My knives are priced based on what others are asking for similar knives.

While makers who incorporate such pricing strategies can justify them, both approaches incorporate what I call lazy pricing. While you may not realize it, other knifemakers are your competitors.

While they may mean well, their advice for your knives is misplaced. First and foremost they are knifemakers, not knife buyers. What they know are their knives, their market and their clients. This may or may not have any impact on your knives, or, more importantly, the selling of your knives.

In some cases other makers may understand that you are a competitor and suggest you raise your prices, giving their knives more perceived value.

While attending the 1989 Knifemakers’ Guild Show, I was standing at the table of a very well-known knifemaker and checking out his knives. A new maker approached the veteran maker and asked him to critique his knives. The veteran maker asked him how long he had been making knives and for his price for one of them.

The new maker replied, “I have been making knives for two years and this knife is $250.”

The veteran maker said, “You are doing good work. I would raise the price of this knife to $325!”

As you can imagine the new maker thanked the veteran maker, smiled and returned to his table.

In the next few minutes a potential buyer was questioning the veteran maker about the $375 price tag on a particular knife. The veteran maker was quick to point down the aisle, saying, “See that maker right there? He has only been making knives for two years and is asking $325 for one of his knives. Quite frankly, my price is a bargain.”

Whose interest did the veteran maker have in mind while recommending pricing to a fellow maker who sought his advice? To date I have never had a maker using this strategy tell me the veteran maker suggested that the maker lower his or her prices. I found this to be a real eye opener, and it changed the way I looked at custom knife pricing.

When the Price is Too Low

If you are a knifemaker, remember that, early on, people are paying for you to learn your knifemaking skills—a sort of scholarship program, if you will. The object of the exercise is to get as many of your knives into the hands of buyers as possible. You can do this by utilizing value pricing. Your market position will indicate to you what the price should be.

As your knifemaking skills and following develop, your pricing, because of your rising position in the market, will continue to increase. At this point your pricing will be determined not by a friend or another maker’s similar work, but through your understanding of your position in the market and how you got there.

Ask the Author More About Pricing at BLADE Show 2018

BLADE® field editor/custom knife purveyor Les Robertson of Robertson’s Custom Cutlery will instruct two classes on knife collecting during the 5th Annual BLADE University.

Conducted the day before and the Friday and Saturday of the BLADE Show June 1-3 at the Cobb Galleria Centre in Atlanta, BLADE University is the most comprehensive array of classes on the subject of knives and knifemaking of any knife show.

From 9:45 to 10:45 a.m. on Saturday, June 2, Robertson will conduct the class “Knife Collecting for Beginners” and discuss what you need to know before you start buying custom knives.

For more information on these classes and others in BLADE U., visit bladeshow.com.