When I started making knives, I got a ton of support from the community – and nobody was as surprised by this as I was. At the time I had very little metalworking experience. Although, I had built some furniture, done some carving and refinished teak on sailboats, so I had a little experience working with wood.
By 2007 I had sold my sixth knife. Actually, it was one of a batch of six knives – I sold 5 and gifted one to a soldier who was serving in Iraq. These knives were so ugly that, looking back, I am still shocked anyone wanted them – I think the handles were the selling point. Even though those early handles were ugly, I think I was onto something.
Early on I had a few vague ideas of what would make a good handle. I have always believed that knives need feminine looking curves to be sexy. To this day I still don’t like bumpy, humpy looking shapes, with jutty, manish looking features.
I also knew that the hand likes to grip a knife handle that is fatter at the spine side and tapers toward the edge side. This gives the cross-section profile – on a good handle – a kind of egg shape. In addition to comfort, this egg shape properly indexes the handle in the hand. A user should be able to feel where the sharp parts are without having to check visually.
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Hunting is much more than pressing the trigger; it is an entire process you should enjoy year round. From preseason scouting to year round consumption of harvested wild-game meat, hunting can become more of your lifestyle than hobby. Some people think hunting is just as simple as pressing the trigger but to the true hunter, the experience extends long after you leave the field. You hear a lot of people say “I want to know where my food comes from” but so many of the same are quick to hand off their kill to a butcher. No disrespect to the great butchers out there but there are some hacks (no pun intended) in your industry with less respect for the game brought in to be processed. The only way to follow your game from field to table is to take it from field to table by yourself. In this month’s blog, I want to share some of the tips and tricks I’ve learned for butchering wild game. I believe in processing my own animals and staying hands on as much as possible through the process.
Andy Roy
Author
Andy is the President of Fiddleback Forge, as well as the head knife-maker. He started making knives in 2007, before going full time in 2009. He still makes every handmade Fiddleback Forge by hand.