Knives (handmade) 101 #8 How to Spot a Real Deal?

In the last few years, knifemaking has become a bit of a trend.
Everybody who has any kind of tools in their garage wants to make a knife.

This is not a bad thing. I do like the fact that so many people are starting to get into crafts and doing things with their hands. On the other hand, this inflation of knives is doing as any other inflation would - there are a lot of knives out there.

Consequently, some of them are not, what you would call, a premium product.

So, in this session, I'll mention some of the things to look out for when buying a handmade knife.

I. Fit & Finish

This one is not a determining one but it's a good indicator of quality.
F&F is the last step of knifemaking and most of it can't be done automatically so it takes a lot of time and patience to do it properly. People who are just starting and have not mastered the basics of knifemaking tend to lack the patience and the skill to bring the finish to a higher level. Hence, their knife will be a bit Han Soloish - scruffy looking.

Scratches, wobbles, uneven bevels, rough spine and choil, handle that is a bit funny-looking, pins that are not aligned, transitions between materials that have space in-between or can be felt with finger... These are just some of the indicators of possible bad craftsmanship.

In order to not trash others, I'll post some of mine from the early days.
Disclaimer: I'm not immune to mistakes, and I'm far from perfect. So, if not stated otherwise, the examples of fails are mine. Also, none of them got sold - I haven't started selling knives until much later in my "career".

This is one of my early ones - you can see the grind being a bit undefined

This one was fail all over the place - handle is rough, pins are here-and-there and most importantly I didn't do the heat treatment properly

II. Fancy materials

If you see someone doing heat treatment in his backyard using barbeque and motor oil while selling 2nd generation powder stainless steel knives - that's a dead giveaway he or she doesn't have a clue what is what.

There are quite a few popular fancy approaches to making knives like pattern welded steel (what is commonly called Damascus), Sanmai construction and super-steels are just a few of them.
Are they superior to simple high-carbon steel like the one I use? They can be but, and this is a big but, only if they are done lege artis.

Some of the guys out there are trying to skip steps and are trying to make something that is way out of their league.
Check out my 2nd post in How to make a knife series - Materials, I'm talking about steel and what kind to use there.

III. Design/Idea Fails

The thing with doing anything is that when you start you will be bad. That's just the nature of the beast.

So, even though the idea in knifemaker wannabe is clear and perfect the transition from the mind to the real world is not that smooth.

*This is one of mine that was next to perfect in my head

It's not a rule but a guideline - if it looks bad, it probably is bad

So, look at how the knife looks - do the lines flow naturally, are there any strange transitions and so on.

Your eye is a perfect tool for finding stuff that doesn't look right - use it.

IV. Do Your Research
A knifemakers community is a strange beast: almost all of them will go out of their way to help a new guy out. They will explain in details almost every basic thing, even though it takes you 2 min to find a tutorial on YouTube. They will even send you materials for free. And so on.
But boy will they get nasty if you're full of s*#$t.

So, if you find a knife from a knifemaker that you like and you would like to buy it - do some Googling.

See what happens when someone is making shit and saying it's diamonds.
Just Google Chelsea Miller check her page and see the prices.

I'll give you a sec to do that.

OK, now go read this

Every time her name pops up everyone who is anyone in knifemaking gets a seizure.
To conclude, be careful, just because someone claims something is good and the price is high doesn't mean you will be getting the perfect knife you were looking to buy.

That's it for now. Thank you for reading and your support. Be sure to drop a comment below if you have any Qs.

Also, be sure to check my previous posts on handmade knives.

1. Handmade Knives (custom) 101 #1 – Are You Bipolar?
2. Knives (handmade) 101 #2 – What’s Wrong With My $10 Supermarket Knife?
3. Knives (handmade) 101 #3 What to Think About When Buying a Knife
4. Knives (handmade) 101 #4 Full Custom Build
5. Knives (handmade) 101 #5 If I Spend a Few 100 $ On a Knife Will It Be Sharp Forever
6. Knives (handmade) 101 #6 Design - How to Get the Knife Out of Your Head