Spyderco Forums

sal wrote: ↑

Sat Mar 12, 2022 10:49 pm

Hi NASA,

Thanx again for your service and thanx for sharing.....and thanx for the support across the years. The Aluminum handle was the first one we made. Does yours have a number on it?

Talkin' Story: I was an associate member of the Custom Knife-maker's Guild and the American Blade-Smith's Society. Learning as I could. We'd been making sharpeners for a decade and stainless steel handled "Clipits" for a few years. Bob T and I had been friends seeing each other on the "show circuit". He said he liked my "hole Opener idea and the clip, but my designs were just ugly. "Handles go way way, blade goes anther way, terrible". I said, "You design a pretty one and I'll make it".

That's how the Spyderco's first collaboration began. One of Bob's requirements was that it be made in the USA. (Always the Patriot) Another was that he wanted special Blade steel, ATS-34 as I remember. This commitment was challenging because all of our knives at the time were being made in Seki-City Japan. I'd already spoken with most of the US makers and they didn't want to use the steels that I wanted to or hold the tolerances I wanted. I knew Bob would be just as finicky as I was so the only solution was to try to farm it out until we could build our own factory in Golden, which Gail and I were planning anyway.

We outsourced the first couple of runs to Les DeAsis at Benchmade, another friend of mine, and to Rob & Vince Ford, whom I met recently at a knife factory auction. The first several runs were challenging to say the least, but "Persistence is King". Bob T was our first collaboration with a Custom Knife-maker.

sal

Manixguy@1994 wrote: ↑

Tue Mar 15, 2022 3:34 pm

Best buddy Rick asked me to post his Jess Horn with picture and uniform his Grandfather wore in WW1 . He is the friend who started me down the Spyderco road years ago . His collection is amazing . MG2

NASA50 wrote: ↑

Tue Mar 15, 2022 7:14 pm

WWI Uniform and picture - That is so awesome - I love it !