Spyderco Custom Shop

[JoviAl]

As many of you may know I am a big advocate of large bladed fixed blade knives (a la Mule XL), but I completely understand why a production knife company like Spyderco might be wary of making large, expensive knives with a potentially small target audience. I have been searching for over a year now for a custom maker that might be able to make me a full tang H1 SE work knife in the 8-9inch blade range, but nobody seems to work with it beyond Spyderco. This raises the question - would anyone else be interested in having the option of a Spyderco Custom Shop, where for an individually agreed fee you might be able to have a custom knife or blade for a folder made (similar to a prototype)?

I for one would be willing to pay a substantial sum for the exact knife I need for my purposes, as it would be a solid long term investment in myself for a quality tool.

[Mushroom]

"Production knife company" ≠ "Custom shop"

[Airlsee]

Are there no Japanese makers working with H2?

H1 is basically extinct as far as I recall. SE is also going to be a no go for small makers...

Yeah, I don't see this happening unless Spyderco just decides to make a large SE H2 blade.

[horzuff]

I would love it (custom reblades for the Military 2 etc <3) though I don't feel it's at all possible

[WilliamMunny]

I don't have a need for Spyderco to do something like this, but there are a lot of small custom knife makers out there. Reach out to Shawn Huston and if he can't make what you want, he might be able to point you in the direction of someone doing this.

[Evil D]

I bet if someone cared to try you could form a timeline and get an average time between these requests. I'm pretty sure I even made a thread about it way back when I first joined. It seems like a brilliant idea and I would love it if they figured out a way to make it work. I could see myself actually buying more knives if I could order them exactly how I want with the steel/edge that I want.

[zhyla]

SE is also going to be a no go for small makers...

Anyone can make serrated knives. You just buy a grinding wheel for it.

I don’t get this custom shop thing that always pops up. Are you going to pony up $2k for a knife? I can’t see how Spyderco would entertain this otherwise.

There are plenty of small makers out there that will do custom knives.

[Evil D]

SE is also going to be a no go for small makers...

Anyone can make serrated knives. You just buy a grinding wheel for it.

I don’t get this custom shop thing that always pops up. Are you going to pony up $2k for a knife? I can’t see how Spyderco would entertain this otherwise.

There are plenty of small makers out there that will do custom knives.

It can certainly be done for less, nobody is paying 2k for custom Case knives. They'd just have to decide a limited combination of materials and designate a team to do it.

[Airlsee]

SE is also going to be a no go for small makers...

Anyone can make serrated knives. You just buy a grinding wheel for it.

I don’t get this custom shop thing that always pops up. Are you going to pony up $2k for a knife? I can’t see how Spyderco would entertain this otherwise.

There are plenty of small makers out there that will do custom knives.

It's not that they can't, but anyone on the Spyderco forum requesting a custom shop is not willing to pay for it...unless I am mistaken. I'd love to see the custom maker stepping up to make 10" SE H2 at a production price. I'll claim spot number 2.

[Airlsee]

No, JoviAl...not in the foreseeable future.

[Coastal]

Sure, depending on what products and services were offered. Regrinds, re-blades and re-handles of existing Spyderco knives would be my most likely uses. Those might be reasonably affordable services, and it would be nice to retain the Spyderco warranty by using an in-house shop.

[Drubieg]

"Production knife company" ≠ "Custom shop"

I think like Mushroom said, this question is a sort of category error

[Danke]

I just want them to make the stuff in the reveals in short order. Never mind a H-1 Frisbee for someone who's a Xena fan.

[Red Leader]

I could see this working, but on a very, very basic level. Such as - you want a PM2 w/ S90V and red G10 scales. So you select those from the drop down, pay the online price, and your Spyderco is ready in 4-6 weeks. In the meantime, one of the builders at Spyderco grabs an S90V PM2 blade, red scales, and the rest of what they need to build a knife, puts it together at their station, puts it in one of the new (blue?) Spyderco Custom Shop boxes and sends it on to shipping.

If they started w/ just 2-3 of the most popular models (Native 5, Manix 2, and Para 3?), and gave some very basic options, like:

3-4 blade steels (K390 (bring some in from Seki?), Cruwear, S90V, Magnacut)
5-8 handle colors/materials
Aftermarket clips? Or even special scales that can take a wire clip?

Bam, done. That could be pretty cool, and shouldn't take any additional tooling - keep it within what is already being produced. Start small, charge some extra to make the juice worth the squeeze, and if it is wildly successful, then expand it a bit more. If it falls flat, maybe it was small enough that it isn't any sort of risk to the company.

If the whole process needed more control, they could open up the online order page on the first day of the week and then close down the order window to see how many orders they got, and that might help them meter out what production #s look like.

Sign me up for a K390 Manix 2 and red G10 scales!


It's either that, or I'd be down if the 'custom shop' idea just morphed into a 'Mule Team folder' project that has been brought up before that took a Native 5 (change it just a little to make it unique/interesting) with a little more of the MT blade shape, gave it light tan FRN handles, and started doing some interesting new steels. With the Crucible situation, it may leave a vacuum that will be filled with some new and different innovation with blade steels, which could be the perfect moment for a Native 5-esque folding MT project to make a debut.

[Naperville]

I don't believe in pushing Spyderco management into a black hole financially. They have a recipe for staying in business and it works. If Spyderco decides to go the route of a custom shop, as usual, I'll see what is being offered and if I like it I will buy it.

I cannot say that I am going to support something without knowing what it is I am being asked to support.

I DID SAY YES, but of course there is a lot that goes into that. I am not here to hassle Spyderco and the first family.

[Flash]

I think that’s too big an ask for a production knife company. Profit margins too small, logistics too complicated.

Spyderco traditionally have difficulty releasing knives from their own reveals in a reasonable time frame, so a getting them to do a low volume custom or even “mid-tech” which people agree upon would as challenging as it would be frustrating for all involved.

[xceptnl]

I do feel like Spyderco offers almost all of the variety I have come to desire. Left to my own selfish wants I'm sure I could design a custom combination of steels, grinds, edges, handles and patterns for each day of the month/year.
That said, if a K390 Manix 2 (or XL) shows up in red G10, I would feel like Sal has been reading minds and thus would feel compelled to buy one. Or maybe a Caly 3.5 in Hap40 and birdseye maple?

[vjb.knife1]

Instead of H1 I would find a custom maker using Magnacut. It is the popular steel of the week lately and everyone seems to be using it. It supposedly has the corrosion resistance as well as better toughness and edge retention than H1. I found under hard, frequent use that H1 had poor edge retention.

[Sharp Guy]

I bet if someone cared to try you could form a timeline and get an average time between these requests. I'm pretty sure I even made a thread about it way back when I first joined. It seems like a brilliant idea and I would love it if they figured out a way to make it work. I could see myself actually buying more knives if I could order them exactly how I want with the steel/edge that I want.

This is just a quick search for threads with "Custom Shop" in the title. I'm sure there's been more on this same topic

search.php?keywords=%22Custom+Shop%22&t ... mit=Search

[JoviAl]

I don't have a need for Spyderco to do something like this, but there are a lot of small custom knife makers out there. Reach out to Shawn Huston and if he can't make what you want, he might be able to point you in the direction of someone doing this.

Thanks William, ironically I haven’t yet reached out to Shawn (being that he is on here ). I’ll get in contact with him.

As for the Spyderco Custom Shop I was thinking of very small scale stuff at a high price point, either by engaging their existing prototype people or outsourcing it to trusted local makers and providing the heat treated steel blank for them to work with. I own a few bespoke custom knives and would not baulk at $1500-$2000 for the exact tool I desire. It is just a drop in the ocean when I frame it as a business equipment cost. For reference my annual spend on PPE, new chainsaws, wood chippers, rope, equipment maintenance, fuel and the requisite consumables (chains, blades, etc) is in the tens of thousands, and I use them significantly less than my work knives.