Hottest Makers of Today

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Permalink Reply by Jan Carter on May 31, 2011 at 7:12pm

Barry,

Show us a pic of the William Rogers?  I would love to see it

Barry Stone said:

I guess it depends what you count as hot and whether you mean up and coming or long term established. I like the knives of David Steir of Steier knives and Magnus Axelson. I recently bought a 12 inch folding Bowie from a young blacksmith in the UK called William Rogers and his work is awesome. I saw another folding bowie he was making for someone else that was so nice I nearly fainted in his shop! Three of my buddies I go shooting with have got their orders in already. I also like the fighters and bowies by J. Neilson.

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Permalink Reply by Jan Carter on May 31, 2011 at 7:25pm

This is very hard to answer.  We see some awfully nice work on here by a number of makers that frequent this site.  Then there are the ones we see on line and at shows.  Custom Slipjoints...TA Davison hands down in my humble opinion..Fixed blades, thats harder still.  Jake Debaud is doing some very nice work and it will be interesting to see more of it at the blade show

 

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Permalink Reply by Les Robertson on June 25, 2011 at 10:13am

Hi Scott,

 

What you are getting here are peoples favorite knife makers.  Not necessarily the "hottest" maker.

 

Now that it is common knowledge that Bob Loveless did not make his own knives for the last 25+ years...his prices have started to drop in the aftermarket (with the exception of his fighters).  If you actually have a Loveless and can prove it...sky is the limit.

 

Chris Reeve and William Henry are factory knives....as are Randall's

 

Ken Onion's knives have had a downward trend in the aftermarket for a couple of years.  This was bound to happen due to the extreme over inflation in the aftermarket.   This is due directly to the after market...not Ken.  Knives directly from Ken...yes, those are super hot.

 

Tony and Reese Bose...no brainier...if you can get one directly from them.  All you have to do is win a lottery at the Blade Show.  In the after market expect to pay at least double.

 

The forged blade market has slowed over the last 18 months.  Top 10 ABS MS's are still doing well.  Same can be said for the top 10 ABS JS makers.

 

Remember custom knife sales go in cycles.  Forged blades were very hot for 7 years.  Now we have cycled back to tactical folders as the most popular knives.  If more makers would actually put guards on knives and stop trying to get $500 for a guardless fixed blade...they would take off.  As it is...how hard is it to cut out a blank and add two pieces of G-10 or Micarta.

 

So many makers have entered the slip joint market that and ran their prices up.  Sales have started to flatten.  Not for all makers but even some of the guys at the top of the list are having slow shows and slow sales.

 

With all that said:

 

What are your criteria for hottest maker?

 

Mine are:

 

1) Demand

 

2) Ability to actually get the knife from the maker

 

3) Utilizes materials that will translate well into the future.  Not using "fad" type materials.  Mokume, Giraffe Bone, etc.

4) Pricing their knives correctly for their position in the market.  Makers sell in the primary market.  However, when you go to sell or trade your knife you do so in the after market.  Much like in school if you have done your homework before you buy the knife...you probably won't get a good grade on the "test" that is the after market.

5) Actually answers emails or phone calls.

 

Im not much into Grail knives.  Those are generally knives that are almost impossible to get and as such their prices are ridiculous .  These knives become a game of "Musical Chairs".  Except in this case if you are the last person sitting in the chair....you now own a knife you will never get your money back out of. 

 

Think of all those collectors who paid $4,000 - $5,000 for a Loveless Hunter...only now to find out he didn't make it and watch 30% of its value already dropped....and it will continue to drop.

 

 

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Permalink Reply by Robert Burris on June 25, 2011 at 11:08am

I think a knife maker is hot when he sells all of the knives he makes and maybe even has a waiting time for one. A marker that has a following where his customers buy mutiples of his knives. If a maker has all this going for them the value of their knives should stay strong.

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