Jump to content

Comparing hand made knives


Recommended Posts

Well this has taken me a while but I now have the time for a bit of a write up, earlier this year my eye was caught by a blade that Midnight had made and was for sale, this was cable damascus which for rarity alone was worth a look, I have only ever seen one cable damascus blade before and it was a lot courser that the one Matt had made.

So after a few pm's we "shook hands in cyber space" and away we went, the blade would be handled by matt in a bit of buffalo horn and then off to Gaffer for a sheath, time and transport later and the knife arrived and to say that the quality of it was brilliant is a massive understatement, if anything this knife should be a fancy show piece with liners and patterned pins just to do justice to the quality of the forging

So what to compare this level of workmanship too is the question, well I am fortunate enough to have made a sensible purchase back in 1987 from a little known knife maker called Howard Hitchmough, very soon after Mr H went to live in America with his wife and has continued to hone his skills as you can see here http://www.hitchmoug...ives.com/

this fella eats sleeps and breathes his craft and as you can see from the web site he really is one of the best knife makers in the world

I have attached a couple of pics of the Hitchmough knife, its surgical steel with a linen micarta handle which has aged really well You can't compare the looks because they are different knives for different jobs but the quality of the blades, although differing in type and finish, are equal in every way

I think the people buying hand forged and hand finished knives from Matt may be making some very shrewd investment purchases if they look after their blades, if you look at HH website you will get an idea of how much his work sells for now he is established

Thanks for the knife Matt and you have a PM

 

post-8257-0-20924600-1350198421.jpg

  • Like 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

thanks you for that john , thats a lovely bob lovless style fighter you got !

its funny since i made the cable damascus knife , i can see i have come on alot. my fit and finnish is better , and my knives with my sheath just sits well with me (no offence kev)

as a maker i feel like im refining my styles and finnish alot . and its great new to my ears that i may be of a simialar calibre to the greats at my early stage off career .

some of you wont know but i took alot advise from john on what is expected from a hand made custom knife , and its taken months to adjust some of the basics to get them right but do think it shows .

i forget how nice that little bundle of cable looks , iv never forged another from it as the last two failed to weld up !!

all the best , matt

Link to post
Share on other sites

The sheath that Kev made was just the job, took a while but got the in the end !

That little HH knife was made around 1986 and I bought it from the fella who had it made, I have spoken to HH via mail and he says he doesn't remember making it but it

isn't his style of knife now, he originally made surgical instruments like scalpels, but it has the rare as hens teeth makers mark for HH London England

Hence why I suggested that you should mark you blades Matt

It is better to keep all of the process in house that way you haven't got different bits flying here and there for finishing and you can give people a firm time for delivery etc

Between the two of you I ended up with a very pretty but useable knife, so ta very muchly to you both :thumbs:

  • Like 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    No registered users viewing this page.

×
×
  • Create New...