Heard of this guy?

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ThEoRy

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Anyone here know of or have heard about this guy Chris Williams?

http://williamsknife.com/

A friend of mine saw a local catalog with his stuff in it and asked me about it. I never heard of him, do you guys have any info?
 
Anyone here know of or have heard about this guy Chris Williams?

http://williamsknife.com/

A friend of mine saw a local catalog with his stuff in it and asked me about it. I never heard of him, do you guys have any info?

That VG10 blade looks like its one of those blanks that Texas Knife Supply used to sell.
 
I read the article on him in Garden and Gun. He charges $275 for an oyster knife. Haven't handled any of his stuff and with prices like that I probably never will. He's pretty close to my town and would love to "buy local" if and when possible, but not at that price point.
 
Yeah I mean it's like $875 for a 210mm vg 10 TKS blank? Was this guy previously a tactical/outdoor knife maker? Quotes like "VG-10 core, this knife will hold an edge that is unparallelled." Make me go, huh???
 
For the price of that, I'll take two Rodrigues, or a couple Harners, thanks. Or a DT, or....
 
The paring knife has a good look to it but again prices vs steel would make it a silly choice I bought my LR harner for less and could easily get a Del Ealy and just keep the extra $50.
 
Someone gave me his wando fillet knife, which is a small fish fillet knife, a few years ago. It came with a note saying that he didn't like to send out blades that were too sharp and a few passes over a stone was all it needed. I don't think I ever got it as sharp as I would have liked to, and it really needs to be thinned behind the edge. The handle is pretty nice though. I have never heard of 'Russian Nut Elm' as a handle material but it is a pleasant looking light wood. I have no idea what the blade is but I heard something about him using old band saw blades for his fillet knives. I can't comment of edge retention because I've never really worked hard enough to get an edge to retain.
 
Good eye Pierre. Its Brads steel. and brads heat treat and grind.

http://www.alabamadamascussteel.com/servlet/Detail?no=269

Wow, so he buys a blank for $150, puts a handle on it, doesn't even so much as sharpen the blade, and sells it for $750..... his handles look nice, but not $600 nice...

And I love this quote from the description of another one of his pre-made vg-10 blank knives "There’s really nothing like the Kiawah large stainless Damascus Chef knife..."
Really? No other vg-10 and nickle Damascus kitchen knives? Well, maybe none with an asking price of $850....

It's hard to fault someone for trying to make a living mak...errrrr....assembling knives, but the lack of disclosure and the full-custom-knife pricing almost seems like it borders on a scam.
 
Wow, so he buys a blank for $150, puts a handle on it, doesn't even so much as sharpen the blade, and sells it for $750..... his handles look nice, but not $600 nice...

And I love this quote from the description of another one of his pre-made vg-10 blank knives "There’s really nothing like the Kiawah large stainless Damascus Chef knife..."
Really? No other vg-10 and nickle Damascus kitchen knives? Well, maybe none with an asking price of $850....

It's hard to fault someone for trying to make a living mak...errrrr....assembling knives, but the lack of disclosure and the full-custom-knife pricing almost seems like it borders on a scam.

Unfortunately, this practice isn't isolated to the "custom" knife world. A few years ago I spent a decent amount of time and money buying and flipping watches. The market is full of small independent "watchmakers" who buy off-the-shelf cases, movements, etc., have them assembled in a factory somewhere, and then put up a nice website to market and sell them for 3-4x what they're really worth. Sure, they look nice, and mostly work, but there's no craftsmanship that goes into making them.
There's certainly more value (to me at least) in a machine/tool made by someone who has a genuine interest and passion for his craft and has invested time and effort into learning how to make it better and passing that on to others. For watches, this can be a one-off case design, improved materials etc, or in our case, a perfected grind, better HT and so on.
There's nothing wrong with seeing an opportunity to fill a niche and making some money, but don't pass yourself off as the next Devin Thomas, or Helmut Sinn, just be honest about what you're offering.
 
There's nothing wrong with seeing an opportunity to fill a niche and making some money, but don't pass yourself off as the next Devin Thomas, or Helmut Sinn, just be honest about what you're offering.

Well said.
 
So with Wando, Edisto, and Kiawah I am guessing he is in Charleston. I have worked in 4 restaurants in Charleston before coming back to Charlotte, and no one used anything from him. But that is some spendy stuff for vg-10.
 
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