A gift he will still be using in twenty years
Most gifts get used for a season. A hand-forged knife gets carried, sharpened, handed round to be looked at, and eventually passed down. Engraving is done in our own Memphis workshop before it ships, and it is free.
It is the rare gift that gets used
The Damascus pattern on every blade is created in the fire rather than printed, so no two are the same. The one you send genuinely is theirs and not a copy of the next one off a shelf.
It gets better with age
Carbon steel takes a patina from use. Five years in, the blade looks like its owner rather than like the catalogue photo.
The engraving is the gift
A name, a date, initials or a short line changes what the object is. It costs nothing extra and it is what makes people keep it.
It arrives ready to give
Presentation box, sheath where the knife has one, and nothing that needs assembling or explaining.
Groomsmen gifts, done properly
This is the most common order we take: matching knives for the whole party, each engraved with a name or initials and the wedding date.
The set reads as a set, but every man gets his own. Order six or more and tell us the names when you check out — we cut each one individually rather than running a template. Allow two to three weeks if the party is large or if anything is made to order, and longer if you want a matching handle material across the whole set.
Cut in our shop, not sent out
We engrave on the blade or the bolster depending on the knife. Short is better — initials, a date, a surname, a unit number, one line. Long sentences shrink the lettering until it stops reading as deliberate. If you are not sure it will fit, send us the text before you order and we will tell you honestly.
Because it happens here, we see the knife before it ships and can stop anything that does not look right. That is the part a third-party engraver cannot do.
When you need it to land
Order early in December. Engraving adds time, and the popular handle materials sell out before the ordinary ones do.
If you are buying for someone who already owns knives, go for something they would not buy themselves — a pearl or mammoth handle, a pattern they have not seen, or a fixed blade if everything they own folds. If you are buying for someone who owns none, a three inch folder is the safest first knife anyone can be given.
Everything else people buy these for
Personalised gifts
Anything we make can carry a name. The largest collection on the site, and the one people come back to.
Anniversary
Steel is the traditional eleventh anniversary gift. A date on the bolster does the rest.
Father’s Day
The knife that ends up in a coat pocket for the next thirty years.
Three honest pointers
Smaller is safer
A three inch folder gets carried. A large bowie gets admired and shelved. If you do not know their habits, go smaller.
Ask about wet hands
If they fish, boat or work outdoors, choose 440C or D2 over carbon Damascus. It is the more forgiving gift.
Check their local law
Rules on blade length and carry differ by state and city. Please check the recipient’s local law before ordering.
Buying more than five?
Wedding parties, corporate gifts and retirement sets get their own quote and their own timeline. We have run orders of two hundred knives in under sixty days.