A couple of months ago I had an awkward conversation with the wife about the growing pile of knives on my bedside.
I am an outdoorsman. Simple as. We run a small holding as a hobby and let's say I'm involved in a wide range of country sports. I always have a knife on me of some kind and am often in a position to have a need for carrying something that the law demands special circumstances to do so legally.
Knives are like golf clubs. You need different properties for different jobs.
So back to the conversation with the wife. I have a habit of dumping my pocket contents and knife on the bedside and on this occasion there were maybe 6 sitting there. So I reached over and picked one up and started talking about what it was useful for and what features I liked. After doing all of them she had long since glazed over and asked me why I didn't design one with the features I liked get it made and get rid of the pile.
Luckily I had a number of browny points banked and a birthday a couple of months away so having warned her this was going to be an expensive gift she told me to go ahead anyway! Can only say the prospect of a birthday present hasn't had me so excited for decades.
So over the course of the next week I bought some graph paper and set to work distilling everything I need in a knife into a design.
I had seen "Hillbill" Mark Hills work on this website. "Angst" recommended him when he made me a replacement sheath and so did "FGYT", Duncan, who had done some previous blade work for me but was in any case too busy to hit my birthday deadline.
Unlike Duncan though Mark lives miles away and I didn't relish the prospect of trying to go over the finer points of such a personal design long distance.
Mark was however really easy to deal with. He "got" my design straight off. He knew what was going to be tricky and what would work. We exchanged maybe 20 private messages on here and at the end we had finessed materials, finer points of the design, price and delivery.
I settled on Elmax about 6mm thick as a material, guided again by Mark, which has the best qualities of both a carbon steel and Stainless. I need a knife that will sustain heavy use for years and potentially some neglect. The handle is brown Micarta and the sheath saddle leather. These latter points got batted back and forth and changed as I moved back from fashion to function.
The material had to be ordered from the USA. In between time Mark needed my original design.
A couple weeks later Mark and I were back in touch. I have to say that one of the best things about working with him was how he included me in the process. Decisions were made together. He went the extra mile to make me feel like he was the skilled hands crafting something very personal to me.
He kept me up to date with where I was in his queue and how he had done at the Bushcraft show etc. Then it was next. The actual build was done over a few days.
Suddenly there was a flurry of photos as my knife emerged from a bar of expensive Elmax. Brass guard, shades of Micarta then the decision over what hardness the blade should be.
The result? I'm delighted! Mark says the handle is out of proportion but I have big mits and don't want to let this thing slip!
It's the sharpest thing I own. I shaved my hand processed a heap of wood, shaved some more. It's still the sharpest thing I own.
The sheath is gorgeous. Press studs allow me to quickly donn and doff it from my belt or pack strap without fuss.
Hope you guys like it too. Excuse the crappy lanyard. My daughter and mate have great cordage skills and both have vowed to make me one this weekend which will be spent on a course with Wildway Bushcraft.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I am an outdoorsman. Simple as. We run a small holding as a hobby and let's say I'm involved in a wide range of country sports. I always have a knife on me of some kind and am often in a position to have a need for carrying something that the law demands special circumstances to do so legally.
Knives are like golf clubs. You need different properties for different jobs.
So back to the conversation with the wife. I have a habit of dumping my pocket contents and knife on the bedside and on this occasion there were maybe 6 sitting there. So I reached over and picked one up and started talking about what it was useful for and what features I liked. After doing all of them she had long since glazed over and asked me why I didn't design one with the features I liked get it made and get rid of the pile.
Luckily I had a number of browny points banked and a birthday a couple of months away so having warned her this was going to be an expensive gift she told me to go ahead anyway! Can only say the prospect of a birthday present hasn't had me so excited for decades.
So over the course of the next week I bought some graph paper and set to work distilling everything I need in a knife into a design.
I had seen "Hillbill" Mark Hills work on this website. "Angst" recommended him when he made me a replacement sheath and so did "FGYT", Duncan, who had done some previous blade work for me but was in any case too busy to hit my birthday deadline.
Unlike Duncan though Mark lives miles away and I didn't relish the prospect of trying to go over the finer points of such a personal design long distance.
Mark was however really easy to deal with. He "got" my design straight off. He knew what was going to be tricky and what would work. We exchanged maybe 20 private messages on here and at the end we had finessed materials, finer points of the design, price and delivery.
I settled on Elmax about 6mm thick as a material, guided again by Mark, which has the best qualities of both a carbon steel and Stainless. I need a knife that will sustain heavy use for years and potentially some neglect. The handle is brown Micarta and the sheath saddle leather. These latter points got batted back and forth and changed as I moved back from fashion to function.
The material had to be ordered from the USA. In between time Mark needed my original design.
A couple weeks later Mark and I were back in touch. I have to say that one of the best things about working with him was how he included me in the process. Decisions were made together. He went the extra mile to make me feel like he was the skilled hands crafting something very personal to me.
He kept me up to date with where I was in his queue and how he had done at the Bushcraft show etc. Then it was next. The actual build was done over a few days.
Suddenly there was a flurry of photos as my knife emerged from a bar of expensive Elmax. Brass guard, shades of Micarta then the decision over what hardness the blade should be.
The result? I'm delighted! Mark says the handle is out of proportion but I have big mits and don't want to let this thing slip!
It's the sharpest thing I own. I shaved my hand processed a heap of wood, shaved some more. It's still the sharpest thing I own.
The sheath is gorgeous. Press studs allow me to quickly donn and doff it from my belt or pack strap without fuss.
Hope you guys like it too. Excuse the crappy lanyard. My daughter and mate have great cordage skills and both have vowed to make me one this weekend which will be spent on a course with Wildway Bushcraft.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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