HOW A BLADE IS BORN

Custom knife maker, Phil Siddell, explains the complex process of knife-making

- Phil Siddell

With all the space-age electronic gadgets that infiltrate our daily lives, it’s easy to forget that we’re still reliant on one of our earliest inventions. Some 2.6 million years have elapsed since our ancestors first began manufacturing and using cutting tools, yet we all still reach for a blade of one form or another several times a day. The knife is as much a symbol of human ingenuity as say, the wheel or powered flight. No matter what the current negative public discord around knives would have us believe, these trusty tools are deserving of our deepest appreciation. Knives, perhaps even more than rifles, have long kindled an atavistic fascination within me. The price of the particular knives that were my younger heart’s desire always outstripped my fiscal means, so perhaps it was inevitable that I’d eventually take to making blades for myself. After near enough two decades at the grindstone, there are few things that bring me the same level of satisfaction as putting a custom knife to work.

RAW MATERIALS

So, what makes these custom knives so special? Well, much like your favourite airgun, it’s rarely one thing alone that lends the finished product its magnetism; it’s some happy combination of form and function and maybe a dash of je ne sais quoi. All knives come from the same place, a plain old lump of steel; but not all are created equal. From the moment Bronze Age peoples recognised the potential of that titular metal, humans have been constantly refining the core material of every knife. Today we use hardenable steels (alloys of iron and carbon with other additives) that have been designed specifically for the high-end custom-knife maker.