First, some pics:
I started by making some scales for knives I had laying around. I was using anythng...old cutting boards, scrap g-10, some store bought micarta. Whatever looked cool as a knife handle. I "pimped" a few Emersons for myself and a few knives for friends, but it was more a hobby than anything else. Then I met "Cubby" from Cassel Knives, who makes a lot of really cool stuff from g-10. SO, I grew some balls, grabbed some g-10 stock and made my first knife. It was a totalt hunk of pooh. Of course I was only workign with a dremmel tool at the time so nothing was smooth. I've since added a few tools to the shop to make life easier.
I made a few more play things and posted soem to my FaceBook site. A friend on FaceBook took note of one of my knives and told a friend of HIS, a Navy EOD member. The EOD guy liked the idea of a non-corrosive, non-reflective, non-magnetic, non-metallic knife for the specialized duty of Explosive Ordinance Disposal. He contacted me and I made him a basic tanto style fixed blade. The guy loved it!
Then I got an Emerson La Griffe. I immediately fell in love with the handy little design and the potential of the knife. As I played with it, I wondered what it would be like with a second ring toward the rear of the handle. I got in touch with Fred Perrin, the original designer of the La Griffe and asked if I could make a prototype of the La Griffe in Micarta or G-10 and if it would be ok to modify his design. Much to my surprise (I'd never dealt with a professional knifemaker in a business setting before and was expecting to be rejected) Mr. Perrin not only approved the idea but was enthusiastic about the concept! So I got to work making the first prototypes of what would later become the Mini-STITCH. A few weeks later, the standard STITCH design came to fruition. Basically it's a curvier, larger version of the stitch, stretched and curved to handle more like a karambit than a miniature neck knife (which is the Mini-STITCHes primary role)
About the Mini-STITCH:
This is made from 5mm Micarta, G-10 or Cellulose Epoxy stock and features a pair of 26mm finger rings (large enough to accomodate most gloved hands), Warncliffe style blade with swedge, and rear break. Many have additional features including (but not limited to) rear, ring-mounted control points, scalloped and/or grooved handles, and double blades.
Pics:
The above is a black an dgreen g-10 standard MINI-STITCH with 26mm finger holes, grooves, and a rear hole "control point."
About the STITCH:
This is again made from 5mm Micarta, G-10 or Cellulose Epoxy stock and features a pair of 26mm finger rings, Warncliffe style blade with swedge, and rear break. The design is larger and is designed primarily as an item that can be used in non-permissive environments. I'll leave it up to you, the end user, to define a non-permissive environment. Additional features of the STITCH are the elongated body and curved overall shape. The blade profiles and additional features are the same as those for the Mini.
Pic:
The above is a standard STICTH in flat black g-10. it has standard 26mm finger holes, grooved and scalloped handle, forward thumb ramp and rear "brake."
Again, I'd like to thank you for looking and hope to post more in the future!
Here's some group shots:
STITCHes
MINI-STITCHes
Hanging out at Myohoji Temple after being blessed by the local Buddist monks near my apartment in Tokyo. They looked at me kinda funny when I asked them to bless some "tools" like these, but they shrugged and played along with this silly "Gaijin" or "foreigner." They then refered me to the Bishamon-ten shrine in Iidabashi. Apparently those monks protect the shrine of the war-God, Bishamon-ten, so in the future I'll have my "tools" blessed there.
NEW LOGOS!
