Aside from all the little bits and pieces you need to make a custom knife (and there’s a fair few – marine grade epoxy, bespoke rivets, liner material, plenty of PCD tooling and a huge amount of 3M 410B just for starters) there’s the bread and butter; something for the blade, something for the handle.
Without opening the whole jar of worms that is the ‘best steel’ debate again, we’ve always plumped for 14c28n for our custom blades. Not only is it a fantastically consistent metal, it mills well and having made several thousand blades we think we’ve got the heat treatment nailed. With a hand-thinned edge at the optimal 60 HRC, you’ve got to go a fair way to beat it.
Right from the very beginning we’ve been supported, guided and looked after by Richard at Barmond Sheffield. He’s forgotten more about knife-making than we’ll ever know and is the main man when it means regular deliveries of immaculately cut billets of Alleima’s finest. If you’ve a penchant for something a bit more exotic, he has some excellent Japanese Steels (including our favourite Takefu San Mai) and also some amazing stainless damascus made in Sweden by Damasteel.
If you’re after a supreme edge without all the frippery, then a powdered metallurgical steel is probably the answer. There are a few out there, but our choice is always RWL 34, which again we can get from Richard in the sizes needed for each customer.
If you want to get really niche, then it’s also worth having a look around Eurotechni and some of the US suppliers, such as Alpha, Jantz and USA Maker. We’re able to work with (and etch if required) pretty much any steel you take a fancy to. He says. Bravely…
Handles-wise, the game opens up even more. We make around a quarter of our handles in-house, using everything from veneer to paper, epoxy resin to marble powder, via goat’s leather, pistachio shells and plenty else besides.
For our standard materials, we seem to have settled on (mostly) solid surfaces or wood.
Solid surfaces are fantastic to work with, are tough and durable and sit very well in the hand. First invented by DuPont as Corian in the middle of last century, the patent expired in the late 70’s and since then plenty of others have piled in. Having tried almost all of them, in addition to Corian our preferred materials are the only UK-made solid surface (the lovely Capsule) and then Staron, which is amazingly well-coloured and vibrant and extremely tough. Best of all it’s supplied by Blackheath, a worker-owned company in Birmingham.
For wood, we are huge fans of a good bit of tropical hardwood. Tight grains, an inherent slight oiliness and high hardness and density mean that they’re (very nearly…) maintenance free, and actually benefit from continual use. They’re lovely to work with and are available in a range of colours and patterns to suit almost all tastes. A long time ago, in a different life, we came across Dalmann in Mozambique, and we’re incredibly fortunate to find them now almost on our doorstep. They have an absolutely fantastic range of woods, and many of them are amongst our most popular.
For woods that are closer to home, we consistently find ourselves returning to Surrey Timbers, Vastern and Tylers, with the occasional foray in to Fallen & Felled to see what lovely trees they’ve managed to collect from across the capital and beyond.
Getting slightly more esoteric, we’re huge fans of Fat Carbon and their amazing work, and Scott at Surface Matter is our fantastic supplier of both Richlite and Durat, with the former being a mainstay for our magnetic racks and stands and our chopping boards. He also has a good stock of Plasticiet – which isn’t a handle material choice, but is certainly something to consider for a distinctive knife stand. Also coming in as a stand contender are the lovely people at Smile Plastics, with whom we’ve worked on a couple of interesting past collaborations.
Why do we go to these lengths? Because we passionately believe that a custom knife is the best knife – it’s yours and it’s special. Because it’s those things (and because we’ve made it very well) you look after it, and so it continues to cut and perform day in, day out. And because it does that you love it even more – and so the virtuous circle continues.
As ever, if any of the materials above are of even the vaguest interest, do get in touch to discuss how we can incorporate them in to something made just for you.