All knives come with complimentary blade wax!
Our Process
Starting with our metal
Every knife starts here: a simple steel bar.
All of our stock removal metal comes from California Tool Steel. For our stock removal blanks we use their O1 precision ground knife steel. Our first step is to draw out an original design and cut the allotted material off the original bar.
Profiling
Next we head over to our Ameribrade 2"x72" belt grinder. Here, using mainly our 6" contact wheel and small wheel attachment, in conjunction with Red Label Abrasives, we profile our blank and rough in our bevels.
Drilling
With our bevels ground, our next step is to drill our pin holes in our tang. This is also the time where we drill our epoxy holes, which allow for epoxy to bind through the tang for added handle integrity. Our choice of drill bit is the Spyderco brand for their superior quality, and ease of use.
File Work
Here we add our spine work, jimping, and a choil to our blade.
Heat Treating
Out in the forge, it's time to play with fire. Once the blade reaches a temperature of 1,475º, we quench. This process hardens the steel, strengthening it, but also leaves it extremely brittle, so into our Walmart toaster oven it goes.
Tempering
In the oven, it stays at a temperature of 375º for one hour, tempering the steel and leaving a stronger, more resilient blade. If you're using an oven for tempering, a great technique is to place your tempered blade into a pan of sand inside the toaster oven, in order to combat the fluctuating temperature that comes with the oven kicking on and off. In the shop, we place our blade in our sandblaster, smoothing out our surface. We then submerge the blade in Birchwood Casey Gun Blue, giving it a chemically forced patina. Then we neutralize it with vinegar and cold water, which helps it to resist further oxidation.
Handle Materials
We source our scales from several awesome companies, among our favorites are Glenn's Burly Knives n' More, AAO Customs, Fleming Wood Supply, and Maker's Material Supply. We use 4 hour epoxy from the wonderful people over at West System Epoxy. We use a variety of products from the amazing team at K&S Precision Metals, including but not limited to, their copper, brass, and aluminum 1/8" rods, 7/32" tubing, and sheet metal for liners.
Handle Pt. 1
Using our Shop Smith we cut out the desired shape of our handle from a set of scales sourced from a number of reputable makers. Applying the four hour epoxy onto our knife's tang, we then place our newly cut knife scales onto the tang using small C-clamps to hold them in place until the epoxy is cured.
Handle Pt. 2
Then we place our brass, aluminum, or copper rods from K&S into the holes we drilled through our tang and handle material to uphold the knife's integrity. Now it's back to the Ameribrade grinder to shape our scales. After that we hand sand up through the grits from 240 to 1,500, and buff.
Leaving Your Mark
"If you believe in something, you sign your name to it." - Ron Swanson For electro-etching your maker's mark, you can start by placing a negative image of your logo onto the unfinished blade, and placing the negative connector to the metal blade. Then, attaching the positive connector to a cotton swab soaked in a 20/80 salt & vinegar mixture, press onto the image until you reach the desired depth.
Finishing touches
Using a leather strop, we then strop the blade with 0.1 micrometer formula Gunny Juice, an emulsified diamond stroping compound, giving it a razor sharp cutting edge. We then coat the blade with Glenn's Burly Knife and Board Butter, protecting the blade from oxidation.
Sheath
Every fixed blade knife needs a sheath to hold it and protect it. Available for purchase with every Scissortail blade is a Sew What 7oz. leather sheath. These are high quality, classic, timeless handmade leather sheaths to perfectly accompany your blade.
Our Partners
