I am not sure if you have noticed, but there is scant information out there that contains critical evaluations of custom or handmade knives. Aaron Shapiro has put out about as much critical information as anyone in the community and he has received quite a bit of flak for it. But the truth remains--no one really ever says anything negative about custom knives.

I think part of that is a very good thing--negative feedback for a custom maker can be devastating. It can put the maker out of business and we in the knife community not only benefit from having a large number of creative minds, but we also root for the little guy.

But the other part of the embargo is an insidious thing. I have had many collectors tell me that they don't want to say anything for fear of being blacklisted by makers. That is, if they spoke out on a given knife a maker might never sell to them again and other makers might do the same. For a collector, people that spend thousands and thousands of dollars on custom knives, that sort of punishment is just too much. And so the embargo on critical information regarding custom knives continues.

Until now. I am done with this silly game.

I am not a collector, so I don't care if I get black listed. If I never get another custom knife again, I am fine with that. I have plenty and since none of us strictly needs even one, I am okay. Second, I am probably not willing to pay the prices that some of the really high end makers charge direct. Finally, if I really want a handmade knife, I can get one on the secondary market. The prices might be higher, but the availability is greater, so it is a trade off. Basically, I am assuming that by publishing this, no custom maker will ever sell direct to me again. If that's the case, so be it.

In the end I write this website for you, the reader. I want you to be informed. I want you to read. And I want you to enjoy gear. If you spend $750 on a handmade knife and it is terrible, I don't want you to be stuck with it and miserable. I rather you know so that you can avoid buying it in the first place. I want you to be informed and enjoy the stuff you have. As I approach 300 reviews, I feel like it is getting to the point where you can CTRL+F just about any production knife or light and find a review in my Big List of Reviews. I like that. I want to add handmade knives to that list, especially ones that don't rate so highly. My experiences with Charles Gedraitis, Gareth Bull, and Steve Karroll have all been first rate--both dealing with the maker and the product itself.

But it is not always like that.

You may notice that there are few knives in my Instagram feed that appear and then disappear without ever getting a review.

Here is why--they all had problems, serious problems. In most cases I was able to rectify the problem and in a lot of cases it was rectified by returning the knife to the seller, even if the seller was the maker. But I never mentioned why. I am not so persuaded by the second reason for the embargo. I could give a shit. I was, however, persuaded by the first reason.

I am not so persuaded anymore. The business of being a knife maker is a challenging one, but in the past three or so years it has been a booming business. More and more makers enter the field and it has become more and more competitive. The amount of money out there is insane. Virtually every maker of renown has filled books or isn't using a book system anymore. Lots of makers have deals with production companies to fall back on if business gets slow. We have reached a point where these are businesses and not necessarily some guy in his garage. So that "little guy" feel, while still definitely there, is not as strong as it used to be. With the hobby flushed with money right now I feel like the damage that could be done by a single review is negligible. Saying someone's knife stinks isn't going to put them out of business, not in this age of perpetually filled books and four figure direct costs.

There are two other reasons I feel like criticism of handmade knives is okay. First, I recently bought a knife from a very famous maker and it was not very good. I confirmed with the maker that there were no machining mistakes or fit and finish problems. All of my issues were based on design choices. And so, once I had confirmed that the knife wasn't a lemon, I sent this maker an email with a list of issues I had with the knife and its design. He didn't lose his mind. He didn't threaten me over email. He took the criticisms in stride. Hopefully they will make him a better knife maker. Good, well-meaning criticism will help the hobby and the individual crafts person, not hurt it. Second, there is that pesky business about being in service to the reader. I have taken enough flak from enough companies by now that flak from a knife maker isn't going to bother me all that much, especially if it is spawned by an article that helps you figure out how to spend your money.

So the embargo is over. Up next is a run down of a few customs I have had problems with and what those problems were.