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Over a year ago, someone said something in a forum that resonated with me about supporting custom knife makers, and since then I have exclusively bought from custom makers.

And when I talked with Devin a while back he mentioned how hard it was to compete in terms of price with the Japanese makers -- I mean, come on, a Konosuke HD 240 wa gyuoto is $206!!

I know not everyone can dish out the cash during these lean times, and I still would love to try out a lot of knives, but for now I can and prefer dealing with the makers involved in the knife forums.

Here is my knife family so far.

* Pierre x3 (smaller knives)
* Ealy (gyuto on the way)
* Fowler (just purchased two gyutos)
* Devin (one mid-tech, one custom, and one suji on the way)
* Marko (suji on the way)
* Martell (240 gyuto)
* Adam Marr (honesuki on the way)
* Pendray (hunter)

None of them have been adopted, but I still need a Rader, Harner, and Burke (among others).

k.

Edit: Correction, I have bought a yanagiba from Jon and have my eye on one other knife. Other than that it is all custom makers.
 
I have been trying to support the members here as well, to date:

Pierre (paring)
Broadwell (gyuto)
Thomas (2 gyutos)
John Jones (cleaver)
Jbroida (gesshin stones)
Marko (Yoshikane Suji w/custom handle and hopefully gyuto next year)
Martel (Handle and when he starts the butcher collection, (hint, hint))

It is my hope to work with all the makers here, but it may take a few years.
 
Ditto on taking a few years, however a few years ago things where better :p

Harner x6
Stephan handles x2 (Dave Installed)
Jbroida X1 (on the way)

As this get better I'll add to the list. However I'm a picky bugger on my style of knives and some makers do not off these interests. But we shall try :)
 
I'm pretty new to J-knives but it didn't take me long to see the value in buying from custom makers.

Carter - x1
DT - x2
HHH - x1
Ealy - x1
Rader - x2(waiting)
Marko - x1(waiting)
Jon Broida Gesshin stones x2
Keller - 1 handle(I wish I could acquire more)
Martell - Hiromoto re-handle x2(waiting)

I can't wait to see what 2012 will bring, but 2011 has worked out pretty well for someone starting from scratch.
 
None in my family unfortunately.

I definitely respect the custom makers and admire their work greatly. But as much as I love knives, I still mainly view them as tools and the $300ish-mark has been my limit for a single piece. I've owned a mid-tech and used someones custom before...neither felt as natural or cut as well as my thin knives that I know and love.

If there was a significant performance gap, then I'm sure all mine would be customs.

For what it's worth though, I've been supporting JKI since the minute it opened.
 
Seriously Oivind, AMT 8?? Bravo.

AMT gives by far most bang for the bucks. His knives will outperform most makers, and I guess only BB and DT is ahead of this one next year.
MC got a great blade, but the handles and finish sucks and Im not sure about the HT either. This 3 elements will put him behind AMT next year :)


Edit:
All my future buys will be from AMT. I will probably end up with far more than 8 from him...
 
AMT gives by far most bang for the bucks. His knives will outperform most makers, and I guess only BB and DT is ahead of this one next year.
MC got a great blade, but the handles and finish sucks and Im not sure about the HT either. This 3 elements will put him behind AMT next year :)


Edit:
All my future buys will be from AMT. I will probably end up with far more than 8 from him...

Wait who is AMT? Marko? Adam?
 
I'm all about keeping it in the family. So I had to adopt a few to put them there.

Randy - 4 Damascus Dragon slayer set. 1 gyuto, 1 slicer, 2 paring knives
Spike- 1 pettysuki from hell
Will-1 Petty jewel
Del- waiting on 1 gyuto and 1 petty
Randy again- 1-Something special
Colin- 3 Bill the Butcher belts for my kitchen staff.
 
I was just wondering what a custom knife is - is the DT mid-tech one? Or a standard Takeda? Or is it more about buying from small makers, or the ones who are active here? In any case, I decided that I pretty much had what I wanted in knives - and ran out of money - before this forum started and all these great craftsmen came together here. I probably could have bought a few board feet of wood less and could have gotten a few knives instead, and I am definitely curious about many of them, but I seem to have lost that last bit of drive that used to push me into unreasonable actions :laugh:

That said, what might count:

7 Carters (down from 10)
1 Takeda with Fish handle
2 Harners
1 Moritaka (made to my specs)

Looks like I should diversify more in the future. But I do have a few Keller handles :wink: and otherwise customized knives, like a Hiro AS with a Fish handle or a Blazen and a Guede bread knife with koa handles. Handles were made by Adam, Butch, and O'Malley.

Stefan
 
Does it count if you custom make them for yourself:help4:
 
Ok, I'm a dummy, what is a fish handle?

I have come customs on the way.
Gyuto from Mike Davis
Gyuto from Pierre
Surprise me from Butch Harner
Surprise me from Delbert Ealy
 
Ok, I'm a dummy, what is a fish handle?

Here ya go, Mark:

http://www.kitchenknifeforums.com/s...Poi-The-Original-Rehandle-King&highlight=fish

Fish'n poi is a popular Hawaiian song. There are actually 2 songs with that title, here is the one we hear in the radio every day. I have adopted it as my personal hymn :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGpteUCfJJQ


Here is the other one that is also great. Especially since my wood shop is in Iwalei in an old pineapple cannery :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ki_CFXrRUjQ

Stefan
 
When they step up to the plate I'll buy more.

Too much sizzle.
 

Oivind,
You are very generous with your praise and your unyielding support, but sometimes too much excitement can be unproductive and create unnecessary pressure and unrealistic expectations.

Please hold your praise (or criticism) of my knives at least until after the passarounds or after I deliver your knives.

M
 
So far I've only taken money from a custom knifemaker.
 
Man i am a slacker...Just 2 of mine and one Ealy gyuto....Need to expand my horizons....Just broke.
 
AMT gives by far most bang for the bucks. His knives will outperform most makers, and I guess only BB and DT is ahead of this one next year.
MC got a great blade, but the handles and finish sucks and Im not sure about the HT either. This 3 elements will put him behind AMT next year :)


Edit:
All my future buys will be from AMT. I will probably end up with far more than 8 from him...

Not to hijack but...

Genuinely curious, what makes you suspect of Carter's heat treat?
Was it a single knife or multiples?

What characteristics did it (they) have that led you to believe this?

Thanks Oivind!
 
Well, Im satisfied with my Carter, but based on what Ive read from others I have jumped to the conclusion that his HT varies a lot from knife to knife. However Carted is a man of word and fixed one forum members knife big time. I might be wrong about his HT. Just speculations from my side. Sorry if it came out wrong.

I am one of those that love Carter.
 
Well, Im satisfied with my Carter, but based on what Ive read from others I have jumped to the conclusion that his HT varies a lot from knife to knife. However Carted is a man of word and fixed one forum members knife big time. I might be wrong about his HT. Just speculations from my side. Sorry if it came out wrong.

so a bunch of BS. got it.
 
Devin Thomas-1 western damascus AEB-L parer, 1 wa AEB-L petty, 1 western 240 AEB-L gyuto
Lloyd Harner-1 CPM 154 parer
Dave Martell-1 western 300mm 01 sujihiki, 1 rehandled Hiromoto AS 300mm sujihiki, 1 rehandled Hiromoto AS 240mm gyuto
Delbert Ealy-1 western 240mm AEB-L gyuto to come
 
IMHO, a maker's knife is

Heat treat
Geometry
Steel choice and ergos (perhaps tied as distant thirds, followed by f/f, etc)

So it does catch the eye when it gets brought up... btw, to anyone domestic who may be currently outsourcing to Bos, please feel free to pm. :angel2:
 
One thing I enjoy about custom makers is that their knives are generally "one of a kind" as they makee them by hand and do their best to keep function and quality high. I EXPECT flaws vs a machine made knife because each piece of steel is different, each hammerblow is different. So short of a maker trying to short me out by sending an obviously screwed up knife, I'm happy with the knife. If it's not the same as the very next knife made, I'm ok with it and enjoy the difference. Maybe thats why I don't look at production knives anymore, no variation, boring.

I wrote a whole lot more but decided it was a waste of yours and my time...
 
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