Thursday, October 6, 2011

Scrap Knives- The Story

As a new knife maker finances are tight and fully funded by the day job. From day one I hated the idea of throwing away steel that was too small to make a full sized, handled knife.  I was also trying to come up with a way to make my grinding skills better quickly.  I had tried the age old suggestion to grind mild steel to practice, but it did not grind the same way as a clean tool steel.

The light bulb came on, why not put that pile of scrap steel to use and make some small knives.  There was just two rules; they had to have a three finger handle or better and they must come from scrap.  If there wasn't any suitable scrap there would be no Scrap Knives. Thus started my "Scrap Knife" line.  I have since made 16 Scrap Knives; no two have been alike (helps keep the creative/artistic juices flowing).  I put the same care and effort into them as I would a full size knife.


They have simple skeleton handles and come with a leather pocket sheath about the size of a credit card with the thickness of a thin wallet.  All are marked "Sharpwerks" on the left side and more recently I have started adding "Scrap" to the right side.  Some of the varied features are fully radiused edges, thumb jimping on some, copper accents, cold blue finish, and different blade patterns.

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