The Knife Junkie Podcast is the place for knife newbies and knife junkies to learn about knives and knife collecting. Twice per week Bob DeMarco talks knives. Call the Listener Line at 724-466-4487; Visit https://theknifejunkie.com.
©2024, Bob DeMarco
The Knife Junkie Podcast
https://theknifejunkie.com

Transcribe Your Podcasts and Videos: https://theknifejunkie.com/magic (affiliate link)

Announcer [00:00:03]:
Welcome to the Knife Junkie podcast, your weekly dose of knife news and information about knives and knife collecting. Here's your host, Bob the knife junkie DeMarco.

Bob DeMarco [00:00:16]:
Welcome to the Knife Junkie podcast. I'm Bob DeMarco. On this edition of the show, I'm speaking with Donald Bless of Bless Knives. In this age of high end OEMs and machine assisted custom knives, Donald is part of a rare and vanishing breed. He's a custom knife maker specializing in folders who makes them completely by hand. In the lead up to this interview, he was gracious and trusting enough to send me 2 of his models to check out, and to say I'm impressed with his work is an understatement. Each knife is refined, one of a kind, and seems to have a soul all its own.

Bob DeMarco [00:00:53]:
I was first introduced to Blessed Knives and Donald by Shayne of Edgy American Blades, who describes him as a great guy and the real deal. And coming from Shane, that means a lot to me. We'll meet Donald and talk all about his handmade custom folders, but first, be sure to like, comment, subscribe, and hit the notification bell, and download the show to your favorite podcast app. So while you're doing dishes or driving to work, you can, listen to these mellifluous tones. Alright. Be sure to do that. And also, if you wanna check out Patreon and listen to some of these interview extras we do, just go to the knifejunkie.com/patreon, or you can scan the QR code on your screen. Again, that's the knifejunkie.com/patreon.

Announcer [00:01:36]:
The Shockwave tactical torch is your ultimate self defense companion, featuring a powerful LED bulb that lasts 100000 hours, a super sharp crenulated bezel, and a built in stun gun delivering 4,500,000 volts. Don't settle for ordinary. Choose the Shockwave tactical torch, the knife junkie.com/shockwave.

Bob DeMarco [00:01:58]:
Donald, nice to meet you, and great to have you with us at the Knife Junkie podcast. How you doing, sir?

Donald Bless [00:02:03]:
Doing well, man. Thank you. How are you?

Bob DeMarco [00:02:05]:
I'm doing well. I'm doing well. You know, I noticed recently, ever since Shane said, oh, you gotta check out Bless Knives. And I know you've come to Thursday Night Knives before.

Donald Bless [00:02:14]:
Yep. I've been in there a couple times, for sure.

Bob DeMarco [00:02:17]:
Yeah, so he mentioned you, and then I started noticing that, some of the some of the people who come on Thursday Night Knives who have deep and and really cool collections, have your knives, and they've actually been posting a lot, on Instagram of your knives, and I feel like, you know how kinda when you allow yourself to be aware of someone, you start seeing it more and more? Well, that's you for me, so, it's That's awesome. Yeah. It's really cool to have you here, and, I gotta say thank you so much for sending me these 2 models,

Donald Bless [00:02:51]:
the Rip Oh, you're very welcome.

Bob DeMarco [00:02:54]:
Look at this thing. I will have this for a few more weeks. You know, I always say I'll send it right back, but then I grow attached.

Donald Bless [00:03:01]:
Yep. Yep.

Bob DeMarco [00:03:02]:
But it'll be these will be back in the mail to you shortly.

Donald Bless [00:03:06]:
Cool.

Bob DeMarco [00:03:06]:
How did you get started in knife making, and and why did you go to the most difficult knife making there is?

Donald Bless [00:03:15]:
How did I get started? Well, like most of us knife guys, we all had a first knife. I got mine when I was about 5. Always carried one since. Actually, I had my first knife, this right here. Oh, wow. This sweet little plastic eagle knife. It should lock, but it does not. Anyway, Yeah.

Donald Bless [00:03:33]:
I got this when I was about 5. Been carrying knives ever since. My mom's always carrying a knife, but dad's always carrying a knife. And we're just city folk. We're not, like, out hunting or nothing. You know? There is tools. And then let's see. Oh, I held a custom knife by another maker, a few years back in, I'd say, probably around 2018, and that maker's name is Derek Lee.

Donald Bless [00:04:01]:
And, a buddy a tattoo artist buddy of mine, he had one. He knew I was into knives and showed it to me, and my brain went, I can make that. That's that's easy. It was a little fixie, you know, a little 2 finger, a little fixie job, super nice. And I thought I was bold, and and I started learning to make knives.

Bob DeMarco [00:04:21]:
Well, what what was it? I mean, you you took a look at the knife and you said, I can do that. Have you are you, like, a handy guy by nature? Are you a a builder? Yeah. Yeah.

Donald Bless [00:04:30]:
Yeah. I've always been handy. I've also always been into art, pottery, tattooing, skateboarding, graffiti, stuff like that. And so, you know, I just built skateboard rims, and I could fix anything around the house and all that stuff. So I was like, yeah. I can make that. That's easy. And then, well, I found out real fast it is not easy.

Bob DeMarco [00:04:50]:
What about it? What was the sobering part of it? What brought you back down to earth and showed you it's a real pursuit that that will take work?

Donald Bless [00:05:00]:
Mostly just beginning to research it and learn about it. You know, you think you get a piece of metal and you sharpen it and you get it hot and you stick it in something to cool down, you got a knife. No. You know, you gotta have the right steel. You gotta you gotta do things right. You know, if you can't harden steel, then you're just making an x shaped object. So, I spent let me see. Actually, I made some notes so I knew what I was talking about.

Donald Bless [00:05:27]:
Otherwise, I wouldn't I wouldn't I spent a few months using a file jig, if you're familiar with that. Yeah. And I was shaping just random cheap metal, you know, just trying to get a hang for shaping a bevel and whatnot like that. That lasted a couple months. And then I bought a 1 by 30 sander, like everybody likes to get, you know, the little cheap one from Harbor Freight. I used that for a couple months, and I just I knew I was in it, you know, I want I knew I wanted to make knives. So the next very next tool I bought was my even heat kiln. I I decided I needed to learn how to heat treat before learning how to do anything else.

Bob DeMarco [00:06:08]:
Alright. I wanna talk about that, but, tell people what a file jig is just in case they don't know what it is, and how Oh, yeah. How difficult it is to and how long it takes to make a knife with one of those.

Donald Bless [00:06:20]:
Alright. So a file jig, you essentially have a a board, a long board, it'll have like an eyelet sticking up on one end with a long rod, and you attach a file to that so you can hold a perfect angle. And then you set up your blade, and you just slowly file that until you end up, you know, making your bevel or whatever. And it is very accurate, and it works very well, but it takes a very long time.

Bob DeMarco [00:06:47]:
So I did that, for I did it I made, like, 1 or 2 knife shaped objects like that, probably about 7 or 8 years ago, and, I was like, oh my god. I'm not in good enough shape to do this.

Donald Bless [00:07:02]:
Yeah. It's rough. Yeah. I'm not really too far off from that now anyway, but

Bob DeMarco [00:07:07]:
Well, so, even heat, you go in go into a kiln, having that be your major first ease, I mean, because you're still are you still grinding with a 1 by 30 Harbor Freight grinder Yep. When you get the even heat?

Donald Bless [00:07:19]:
Yep. Mhmm. I I continue to use the 1 by 30, I don't know, probably another 6 months or so, before I had bit the bullet and bought a 2 by 72 beer grinder.

Bob DeMarco [00:07:31]:
So going I was Go ahead.

Donald Bless [00:07:33]:
Oh, I was just gonna say I was pretty much at my limit with the 1 by 30, and it was slow. And I just knew that if I wanted to make nicer things, I needed a suitable tool for the job. Yeah. I

Bob DeMarco [00:07:45]:
think it's kinda cool that you went straight to the straight to the even heat, which is, you know, the the high end that's like the really nice, heat treating kiln. And I think, and I don't know if this is accurate, but when I was plotting things out for myself, I do not make knives and I do not have any of that equipment, but I was thinking if I were to, that would probably be the last thing I would get to, just because you can still outsource heat treating to people who know what they're doing. But so why why were you moved to get that piece of equipment in particular so early?

Donald Bless [00:08:19]:
So I just wanted to be able to do every part of the process myself. So I come from I I worked at a tattoo shop for about 20 years, and I learned the old school way to do everything there, including making my own needles, building my own tattoo machines, winding my own coils. So I just I had to for myself to had to be able to do every aspect of it.

Bob DeMarco [00:08:42]:
Okay. So it's all about being self contained.

Donald Bless [00:08:45]:
Yes. Yeah. If I if I had a lathe that I could make screws, I'd be doing that too. Well, that's coming, man. It is coming.

Bob DeMarco [00:08:53]:
Get one of those twist lathes.

Donald Bless [00:08:55]:
Oh, that'll happen. Oh, yeah?

Bob DeMarco [00:08:57]:
For real? Oh, I plan on it for sure. Okay. So so how alright. I'll get to that in a second, but, you're you're starting with you're starting making fixed blade knives like like a lot of people do. Yes. So how did that evolve into folders? So I

Donald Bless [00:09:16]:
like the little fixed blade that my friend showed me that kinda, like, sparked me into wanting to build them. But I never really carried fixed blades as a younger kid or, you know, young man in high school or anything. I always had folding knives, BenchMates, cheap, Emerson's, you know, CRKT's, all that stuff. So folders were just kind of my gig. And while the I, you know, so I like Bench Maids and stuff like that. And then when I realized that, you know, hey, there's, like, people out here making custom knives. I started researching custom makers, folding knives and my mind was just blown. I had no idea.

Donald Bless [00:09:59]:
Like, the, high level of art that some of them would be. And then that was just that was my goal. That's what I wanted to make was high end handmade folders.

Bob DeMarco [00:10:11]:
I think that's how I got into olders too, like I've always loved swords and and, fixed blades and belt knives and that kinda thing, but can't carry them to work. Can't can't I used to live in New York City. Can't carry them in the city. You can't, there's a lot you can't do with a fixed blade,

Donald Bless [00:10:28]:
for sure,

Bob DeMarco [00:10:28]:
in terms of, like, where you can carry it. And the idea that you could have a great knife and have it in your pocket and, even drop it into your pocket, no one even knows it's there, if you don't have the pocket clip showing, to me, that opened up like a whole world. Who were some of your influences? I mean, you mentioned some of the knives that you collected or carried when you were a young man, but who were some of the custom folder makers that got you going?

Donald Bless [00:11:00]:
Robert Carter, number 1 for sure. Lerman, custom knives. JB Stout, so many. There's just too many. There's too many to list.

Bob DeMarco [00:11:12]:
So did you ever have a chance to, you know, collect those knives or get those knives, experience them, other than looking at them on Instagram or something?

Donald Bless [00:11:22]:
No, sir. No, sir. I still don't, you know, I still don't have any of those. I want to, but now I make them and that's where my money goes, so I don't have money anymore.

Bob DeMarco [00:11:32]:
Yeah. Did you have to sell off tools to get all this stuff? Did you have to sell stuff off to get well, you know, you're a you're a tattoo artist and and an and a potter and did you have to sell your potting wheel and your tattoo to get all this stuff?

Donald Bless [00:11:48]:
No. No. No. So I when I started making knives, I was still working at the tattoo shop, no, it was just kinda like my hobby at the time. And then, the pandemic hit. So, I started trying to hustle a little bit more, make some extra money because our shop closed down for over a year. Yeah. That was rough.

Donald Bless [00:12:07]:
That was super rough. And then about a year into that, my little brother Ernie, he lives with me. He is my partner in crime. He was like, dude, why aren't you just making knives as a living? Like, he was like, you're over tattooing, just do that. So I'm trying.

Bob DeMarco [00:12:26]:
Did you experience a burnout with tattooing? I've heard that from, from several people that that it can get kinda rough, like dentistry, actually.

Donald Bless [00:12:36]:
Yeah. I I mean, I could see that being similar. My biggest issue with it was I was overtouching strangers. It's really gross. Yeah. I was over that.

Bob DeMarco [00:12:47]:
Yeah.

Donald Bless [00:12:47]:
And, like, tattooing so I don't care about or don't wanna tattoo, but that's that's the way of the world. Yeah. I was just over it. I I worked there for 20 years. That's that's long enough.

Bob DeMarco [00:12:59]:
Yeah. Yeah. I could see it being, I had a friend, my wife and I have a friend, who's, for his realm of tattooing, which he does a lot of horror tattoos, and also, oddly enough, kinda like spacescapes, if you will, like Okay.

Donald Bless [00:13:17]:
Yeah. Yeah.

Bob DeMarco [00:13:17]:
Yeah. And, when he was coming up, he's a an amazing artist just, you know, illustrating. He's also a very good writer and painter, but, you know, he's a he's a really good artist, and he had someone come in. I think she was a stripper, and she wanted delicious tattooed on her butt, you know, and he's like, okay, this is what you gotta do to earn your bones, you know. And he started and all he got out was part of a d because it was so painful, jerk, he ran out.

Donald Bless [00:13:45]:
Yeah. And he

Bob DeMarco [00:13:45]:
was like, this is gonna be a rough career, man.

Donald Bless [00:13:48]:
Yep. It can be. It can be a lot of fun too, you know? Best times in my life I've had to have, you know, around that shot.

Bob DeMarco [00:13:55]:
Yeah. What, what similarities do you see in the creative process, maybe where your mind goes or what what the creative process is between tattooing and knife making?

Donald Bless [00:14:09]:
A lot of it is, attention to detail, you know, just making every part of it as best as you can. And then with me in tattooing, so when I learned how to tattoo, Brianna, I've been into art and other things like that, but I was never the kid that could just draw things. You know what I mean? I had to learn how to draw to learn how to tattoo. And so for me, when I was drawing a tattoo, I had to build a tattoo. Like, I'd come up with part of it, and I'd come up with another part of it, and I'd mold that, and then I, you know, And so that's kinda what I was with knives, you know. I'm putting parts there, you know.

Bob DeMarco [00:14:45]:
Okay. Well, so fixed blades, obviously, that's where you start. That's where most people start. Tell me Yeah. About this, tell me about this evolution. You got your eye on some, oh, you have a one there? You have a fixed blade there? Oh, what do you know?

Donald Bless [00:14:58]:
Oh, look at that. That's right. So this is the first knife I ever made. Oh my god. It looks

Bob DeMarco [00:15:05]:
like a park river, man. You Yeah. A little bit.

Donald Bless [00:15:08]:
Yeah. It's an old file. You can probably see some of the file lines here maybe. Yeah. That is beautiful. I left the file lines on the top too. But, yeah, it was just a file. I, annealed it in the oven, so it wasn't 70 HRC, and then I just ground it out.

Donald Bless [00:15:24]:
And then I made the micarta, handle for it out of a coffee sack.

Bob DeMarco [00:15:30]:
Okay. So you made the micarta itself?

Donald Bless [00:15:33]:
Yep. Oh, wow. Yeah. I was doing that too when I started. I wanted to make all my own handle material too, but that is a process to get it, like, down pat, no having, you know, no, air bubbles and all that stuff. Like, I can do it, but I don't really have the setup for it and just dove deeper into the actual building of knives, so kinda got away from that a little bit. Here's another early one.

Bob DeMarco [00:15:57]:
Oh, that's you can see why people do that for a living just in and of itself make that material.

Donald Bless [00:16:03]:
Oh, most definitely, man. There's a lot of lot of people out there that do, and it's a lot of work, and it takes a lot of money and development. You know what I mean?

Bob DeMarco [00:16:12]:
It looks like wait. Hold that back up, please. Yep. It looks like there was a this is your second knife you're talking about, and if you're just, if you're listening, it's a, regardless drop point. It it it seems like a huge a lot was learned in that first knife because this one seems to be a lot more refined just from looking at it. Most definitely. Like, what what would you say the the major what what were the first lessons learned that allowed you to move on to something that looks this good?

Donald Bless [00:16:45]:
Small things like, learning how to sand your handles when you're having a, you know, you got a metal pin, but you got a softer handle material, and, you know, on this bigger knife, you know, I got it too hot, there's a lot of gaps, and you could feel the pins, so I wasn't using the right backing when I'm sanding. So you really learn how to work the multiple materials in together, you know.

Bob DeMarco [00:17:07]:
Yeah, I didn't think of that because the the, micarta, it's so much softer than the steel on the spine Right. But also the whatever the pins are, that if you're just holding it, without having it on block or mounted on something, you could you could really create some divots in there that are unexpected and unwanted.

Donald Bless [00:17:26]:
Most definitely, for sure. Let

Bob DeMarco [00:17:28]:
me see.

Donald Bless [00:17:29]:
Super early one that I messed up.

Bob DeMarco [00:17:31]:
So what what gave you the gumption now to to let hold that knife up again, the one you just had? And then I'm going to simultaneously hold this one up. I mean, there's a world of difference between these two, I would say. And I'm sure there's a couple of years in between.

Donald Bless [00:17:48]:
Oh, yeah.

Bob DeMarco [00:17:49]:
But what I'm I'm curious about how you went from that to this and and and how you made that first step. This is titanium and Yep. Frame lock, and it's really I mean, I've kinda poured over this because, as I mentioned, Shane in the intro, has talked about how awesome your work is as have, 5 Door and and and Whiskey and

Donald Bless [00:18:14]:
5 Door.

Bob DeMarco [00:18:14]:
A couple of other guys have just have mentioned, like, how amazing your craftsmanship is. So I've kinda looked at it and I'm, you know, oh, is it even and all that? Just the fee, not that I'm being effigy.

Donald Bless [00:18:25]:
You should be.

Bob DeMarco [00:18:26]:
But, like, how how did how did it go from, after you made that knife thinking that you could go and do this and then you did it? How'd that work out?

Donald Bless [00:18:35]:
You know, small progressions. You know, here's another, this was, you know, probably a year or 2 after those ones. This is just a it used to have a handle on it. It's a little beater knife that I just use, around the house. It is double edged, though, and I have cut myself on the top by accident because I'm dummy.

Bob DeMarco [00:18:55]:
Oh, really?

Donald Bless [00:18:56]:
Oh, yeah. Good idea. Oh, you just go, and I forgot it was double edged.

Bob DeMarco [00:19:00]:
Yeah. That looks it looks just like a swedge, but it's a zero ground, it looks like.

Donald Bless [00:19:04]:
Yep. Yep. Yep. Yeah. And this thing is, like, super nasty thin on the blade too. That is I just made it to, do testing when I was early on. As you can see, there's a ton of my logo on it because I was learning how to etch that on there. I just use it in the kitchen, and it's, it probably won't focus, but it's so beat up.

Donald Bless [00:19:24]:
Like, there it looks like a serrated edge up here because it just it just gets tossed around the house. You know what I mean? But slow progressions like that with my style, you know, and then this was a couple years after that. This is this is just a blank. You can see it's a lot more kinda like that Ripley style, if you will. Yeah. You

Bob DeMarco [00:19:45]:
feel like that fell in the handle. Yeah.

Donald Bless [00:19:47]:
I mean, I've only actually made one of this model, for a friend of mine who's a musician. I gave it to him as a gift. But, yeah, just slow progression of being able to, get my brain and my hands to do what my brain sees. You know what I mean? And get away from, you know, I mean, like, all knives, you know, like, everybody that makes a knife has a similar has a similar shape to this knife right here. You know what I mean? It's your classic, you know, kinda outdoorsy knife, or even like, you know, like a bigger camp style knife. You know, it's pretty pretty traditional drop point, you know. But trying to get, my artistic side out as far as, like, wanting to be a little out of the norm, you know, and then I go into things like this little guy, and it's just kinda funky.

Bob DeMarco [00:20:42]:
So do you think okay. That you're an you're an artist and and you're a a draftsman, obviously. You learn you say you learn how to draw by tattooing or quarteting. But, do you think that, the development of your style has anything to do with with the drawing aspect of it? Like, are you designing things, by hand? And do you think that you have to be able to do something normal like the camp knife before you can start doing something exotic like the Ripley?

Donald Bless [00:21:14]:
Alright. Let me hash that in 2 sections. Firstly, do I have, do you have to do something normal to get to something like the Ripley? For me, in a way, because learning how to make a more traditional knife for me, you know, the knives I've always used growing up, as far as shape and general overall feel and all that stuff goes. I mean, knives have been looking like this for 100 of years for a reason, you know, they work. So you gotta be able to transfer your funkiness into a usable tool, even though you can't just make it look silly, and that's fine, but I want them to be functional as well. Yeah. So I think learning how to make a traditional knife for me helped me make a functional funky knife, if you will.

Bob DeMarco [00:22:00]:
Yeah. This is the the this is the theme that comes up. I guess I bring it up a lot, but, like, I don't trust a painter who just I'm an abstract painter. I just, like, that's all I do because to me, it's like you gotta it's gotta be born out of you you have to be abstracting something.

Donald Bless [00:22:20]:
Yeah.

Bob DeMarco [00:22:20]:
Whether it's a face or a landscape or something.

Donald Bless [00:22:22]:
There's a theory to some of it. Yeah. Yeah.

Bob DeMarco [00:22:24]:
Yeah. And so I feel like if you're going straight to the crazy looking knife, it's like, are is this a prop for a sci fi movie, or

Donald Bless [00:22:31]:
is this a

Bob DeMarco [00:22:32]:
real knife? You know?

Donald Bless [00:22:33]:
Yeah. I hope hopefully, it makes it into a sci fi movie. That would be amazing. Yeah. But, what was the first part of that that you just asked me?

Bob DeMarco [00:22:42]:
Well, how much the drawing Oh, drawing.

Donald Bless [00:22:45]:
Yeah. To come into it. Yeah. I design a lot. So because I started, kind of playing around with this hobby when I was tattooing, you know, downtime with the tattoo shop, you know, I just be in the back room, like, drawing knife shapes and coming up with stuff. And I actually came up with my first folding design, if you will, the Never When You Wear, by sitting around and drawing in the back. And I did it super manually because I didn't know what I was doing, you know, trying to figure out the geometry of your stop and open pen and all that stuff. And, you know, I had all the supplies of drawing iron at my house, you know, I got a copier and all that stuff, so I can blow it up, shrink it down, put little pieces here and there and make a 1,000 copies and, yeah.

Donald Bless [00:23:30]:
So drawing does really help me because I'll draw ten versions of something before I decide that it's the right version that I wanna make. You know what I mean? You know, I've drawn for all of my knives, you know, I've drawn 20 different blade shapes or variations of the same blade shape or the different swedge or a different hole or, and I dial it into the one that I think just works the best for that design overall. So what does your first folding knife look like? What was the first fold oh, there it is. Let's see it. So alright. So this is just this is all aluminum.

Bob DeMarco [00:24:06]:
It's like a proof of concept, sort of?

Donald Bless [00:24:08]:
Yeah. Mhmm. Nah. But it I mean, it works.

Bob DeMarco [00:24:13]:
Oh, wow. That's that's really it's a nice looking knife, man. And it's nice and clean and simple, looks very usable. Also looks like, you know, kinda tactical, like I like them.

Donald Bless [00:24:25]:
But Right. Yeah. Yeah.

Bob DeMarco [00:24:26]:
So so if you're just listening, this is a, I mean, in a sense, it's like a mock up. It's not a Sherpin blade. It's, it's all aluminum, but it's pretty it's a it's a very functional frame lock.

Donald Bless [00:24:40]:
Oh, yeah. It's fully Yeah. It works. I mean, it's ugly, and it's all off wonky centered and all that, but but it is aluminum. I got big old 4 40 screws sticking out of it and but it works. You know what I mean?

Bob DeMarco [00:24:52]:
So what's your process now? But now that you're making, you know, you evolved obviously from that, how Yeah. How do you go about making a knife soup to nuts?

Donald Bless [00:25:03]:
Yeah. I draw it out on paper, and then as soon as I'm happy with that, I'll draw it down on steel, kinda sketch my line around it, and I still kinda freehand that even, you know? So you can use you know, a lot of people will glue, like, their blade or their handle shape to the titanium and then, like, follow this exactly or whatever. Well, I'll glue it on there and scribe a little line, and then I end up kinda just free handing it on the grinder anyway. And then, yeah, I just I mean, now I just go straight for all all the great materials because I know it's gonna work. Sorry. Drew it a 1000 times. You know what I mean?

Bob DeMarco [00:25:43]:
Yeah. But but tell me take me through the the actual build of of a knife like this. Oh, Because,

Donald Bless [00:25:51]:
do we have enough time for this?

Bob DeMarco [00:25:52]:
Well, wait. Yeah. Yeah. Show me show me, second by sec no. Just because I was talking about how your knives are handmade, they're not, when you go to blade show for instance, you see, you see an award for a machine assisted custom knife, a M. A. A.

Donald Bless [00:26:07]:
C. A. C. A. C. A. C. A.

Donald Bless [00:26:07]:
C. A. C. A. C. A. C. A.

Donald Bless [00:26:08]:
C. A. C. A. C. A. C. A.

Donald Bless [00:26:10]:
C. A. C. A. C. A. C. A.

Donald Bless [00:26:12]:
C. A. C. Alright. Yeah. Alright. So, yeah. So I get everything in just plain bars of steel.

Donald Bless [00:26:17]:
This is just a chunk of, crew wear right here.

Bob DeMarco [00:26:20]:
Oh, man.

Donald Bless [00:26:22]:
You know, I just get raw materials, draw out my pattern on there, freehand, cut it out on the band saw, and then clean up, up to, you know, where I want it to look on my grinder, and, you know, I do it all manually. So the tools I have, which are, well, within arms reach of me, I got a drill press. I got a band saw. I got a grinder. That's it. Right. So before I can even, you know, before I can even drill this or draw my shape on it or anything, I have to fully flatten it and make it parallel. So that means, you know, perfectly flat on both sides, perfectly even thickness all the way across.

Donald Bless [00:27:05]:
And by doing that, I have a granite plate and I, glue sandpaper to it and just and then you check it with the tool. Well, I don't have right here. There is.

Bob DeMarco [00:27:18]:
And you you are your own surface grinder, basically?

Donald Bless [00:27:22]:
I am my own surface grinder. And my I'm a surface grinder. I am a Bridgeport mill. Nice. Yeah. All very, very, very manually. Old timers say the old way. They say you do it the old way.

Donald Bless [00:27:38]:
I'm like, yes. Do it the old way, because I'm dumb. No. It just takes a long time, you know, like and I don't have those fancy tools and I mean, I don't need them because I can do this. But do I plan to get fancy tools? I do. I do for sure. That's gonna save me time. That's gonna save me money, and it's also going to get my work in more hands.

Bob DeMarco [00:28:00]:
Yeah. Definitely. It'll get your work in more hands. It'll also make you more exacting. No. What what I mean is doing all the stuff manually when you get those machines, I mean, you're gonna be your own toughest critic, when you're using them because Yeah. You know, you know the kind of the slow, the old way of doing it.

Donald Bless [00:28:19]:
Yep. Most definitely.

Bob DeMarco [00:28:22]:
So was titanium the first kind of handle material that you were that you were doing this in, or did you start with steel? And, I mean, the reason I ask, it seems like titanium is, might be a difficult material to work with, but, man, you got it all so clean. And I and I know that this is a recently made knife, but,

Donald Bless [00:28:46]:
what

Bob DeMarco [00:28:46]:
what was it like starting with a a new material like titanium?

Donald Bless [00:28:51]:
It was definitely different. You know, you had to learn it's corks and, you know, its own properties. You know, it's very, very different from, you know, working steel even though they look similar when they're raw, you know what I mean? You know, they your tooling, wears differently. Just everything about it is a, you know, a complete difference, you know. So it's a little bit of a learning curve, you know, compared to working with steel or other things. But that is the, you know, titanium. That's that's the material, man. That's that's what we use, so you gotta learn.

Bob DeMarco [00:29:21]:
Yeah. Is it softer? Is it more forgiving on your machines? Or Oh, no.

Donald Bless [00:29:26]:
I mean, no. Kinda though. It's it's kinda different. It will chew up, certain bits differently, like, if you're using steel bits, drill bits or something like that, you know, it it tears up drill bits pretty fast. You wanna use, I use all, solid carbide bits generally. They last a lot longer and stay cutting truer longer on it. And then like when you're grinding, titanium versus steel, titanium will develop a much more nasty burr, on it. So you gotta deburr it a lot, or take smaller, passes so you don't get that, burr buildup.

Donald Bless [00:30:08]:
Yeah. So yeah. Yeah. It's an interesting material to work for sure.

Bob DeMarco [00:30:12]:
So I'm I'm I'm now playing with and holding the vapor. This is a beautiful model right here.

Donald Bless [00:30:18]:
Thank you.

Bob DeMarco [00:30:19]:
And and by the way, I really dig it. As other people mentioned on Thursday night night, I really love how you use the backspacer material or or the handle material as the as the thumb stud. That's a beautiful

Donald Bless [00:30:30]:
Oh, good. Brush. Well, I thought it kinda, like, ties it all in together, you know?

Bob DeMarco [00:30:34]:
So something like this, you got titanium on the lock side and, carbon fiber on this side, steel in the handle. Do were you always kinda working in the multiple materials like this, or did this kind of production evolve out of that?

Donald Bless [00:30:52]:
Yeah. I mean, like alright. So I I like all titanium frame locks personally, but I also do like, funky materials. So, yeah, I just started trying around new stuff. You you know, I've worked with g ten and carbon fiber and, well, that's probably about the run of the mill on that, you know, most of that stuff. Stabilized wood, stuff like that, which not too much on a folder. However, I am putting some on a Ripley currently.

Bob DeMarco [00:31:18]:
Oh, really?

Donald Bless [00:31:19]:
Yeah. I'm gonna be doing I don't even have any of it done, but it's gonna have this burl. Man, that's terrible. You can't see that. Oh, I got another piece. Here's another piece. Yeah. It's gonna have this aphzeleabearl.

Donald Bless [00:31:35]:
It's really hard to see it in my life.

Bob DeMarco [00:31:37]:
Yeah. I can see the swirls in it.

Donald Bless [00:31:39]:
It's really nice stuff. I'm gonna do a backspacer, and then, this knife is gonna be my first thumb disc knife. So I'm gonna do a zirconium disc with a burl inlay.

Bob DeMarco [00:31:51]:
Oh, nice. Oh, so that's the the, the paper blank you were holding up with the wharncliffe blade with the swedge?

Donald Bless [00:31:58]:
Yep. Mhmm. Yeah. Actually I thought

Bob DeMarco [00:32:00]:
it had a cutout for the thumbtape on top.

Donald Bless [00:32:03]:
Yeah. So it'll also be the first official Tanto, Ripley.

Bob DeMarco [00:32:07]:
Oh, nice. Alright. So Ripley, is this is this named after Ripley from Alien?

Donald Bless [00:32:13]:
Yes. It is, sir. Yes, sir.

Bob DeMarco [00:32:15]:
Alright. Well, tell me about that that sort of creative inspiration. What's the kind of stuff you like outside of knives, that feed into this design? Or into your designs in general? This is, like I said, kinda looks like a sci fi, you know, look at that that wharncliffe or sheep's foot or whatever you wanna call it. I've never seen one that looks quite like that, so it's Thank you. Ink but imprint, you know?

Donald Bless [00:32:37]:
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I'm a huge sci fi nerd, like a a total Trekkie, for sure. I was raised on the Alien movies. It was one of my dad's favorite movies, so, you know, I just grew up watching it, you know, Alien, Alien, all of them. And, yeah, sci fi stuff like that, Star Trek, like, you mentioned, when we were off camera that I used to have a well, I have a model called the Defiant that I've never made officially, and that is from Star Trek DS 9, their little mini ship that's all badass. It's named after that.

Donald Bless [00:33:12]:
But I do, yeah. The futuristic kinda style cues, you know, are a little out of the norm, especially on the Ripley. Heavily heavily, sci fi inspired for sure.

Bob DeMarco [00:33:23]:
That's, you're you're you're talking my wife's language. She is definitely kind of a sci fi nerd. She's not a nerd, but you know what I mean? She's she's still yeah. She's Oh,

Donald Bless [00:33:32]:
I mean, I do. I mean, we watch Star Trek every night. Like, we've been rewatching every single Star Trek there is.

Bob DeMarco [00:33:38]:
Really? So,

Donald Bless [00:33:39]:
like, oh, yeah. And I've already seen all of it, like, a 100 times.

Bob DeMarco [00:33:42]:
I was a, when I was in college, it was, not Deep Space 9, Next Generation. So I think

Donald Bless [00:33:49]:
that's all Next Gen. Yeah. That's that's the lifeblood. That's what I was raised on, you know? Okay.

Bob DeMarco [00:33:54]:
Okay. You were probably a little squirt when I was in college while watching Probably. Yeah.

Donald Bless [00:33:58]:
I was born in 84.

Bob DeMarco [00:33:59]:
Oh, okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah, the the those shows were great, and, a lot of people get inspiration from those. And the Dune books, I know, the I don't know if you've seen the new Dune movies, but

Donald Bless [00:34:15]:
I have. They look fantastic. Well, they're so boring.

Bob DeMarco [00:34:18]:
They but the knives are so cool.

Donald Bless [00:34:20]:
Oh, yeah. I know. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Weaponry in all those movies. Yes. Yes. Yes.

Donald Bless [00:34:24]:
Fantastic. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Bob DeMarco [00:34:25]:
Well well, let me I well, since we're talking about this, like, what are your favorite, like, movie knives? What are your favorite, sci fi? Because definitely those Dune knives are so sweet for me.

Donald Bless [00:34:36]:
Yeah. The Dune knives are sweet. Growing up, you know, I always loved the Klingon knives, the the big batlith, the the one with the little flip out spikes on the side. I don't know the name of it. Yeah. There's definitely a Romulan knife too. That's pretty sweet. But, yeah, knives in future movies, I mean, I don't think I've ever seen a space movie where there's not a knife in it.

Donald Bless [00:34:59]:
It might be a generic looking knife sometimes or a crazy looking one, but you always have a knife in space.

Bob DeMarco [00:35:05]:
Yeah. Okay. So that's something that always kind of I was like, really? Are knives gonna look that different, you know, in, you know, a 1000 years when we're flying around in space? Because they've kinda looked the same for the last, I don't know, 50000 years or so. Yeah. Thinking it changed that much, but Hopefully.

Donald Bless [00:35:22]:
Yeah. I'm working on it.

Bob DeMarco [00:35:23]:
Yeah. Yeah. Make that happen. So, I wanna get back to your process. I wanna talk about heat treating because Yeah. I was mentioning, I was being rather poetic and saying that each one seems like it has its own soul. And and, it's it's true with all the custom knives I have, and I have a number of fixed blade customs, not too many folders at all. And, to me, you might have the same model, and it might look the same knife to knife, might be even really close, one example to another, but each one of them is, gets a special attention and it's a little bit different.

Donald Bless [00:36:02]:
Yep.

Bob DeMarco [00:36:03]:
And then people say and and so part of that is is maybe how you kind of wing it. You draw it out, but you kinda wing it when you're at the grinder, what looks good.

Donald Bless [00:36:13]:
Yeah. So, yeah. So, like, they're all like, all my Ripley's are this exact shape, but, you know, it might be an eighth of an inch longer, you know, overall, or this might be a little taller or a little shorter here. You know, like, because I just eyeball it all. You know what I mean? So every one is truly a one off.

Bob DeMarco [00:36:32]:
That you need You

Donald Bless [00:36:33]:
can't swap parts. You know what I mean?

Bob DeMarco [00:36:34]:
Yeah. But then people are very fond of saying the heat treat is the soul of the blade. And and I believe it, but

Donald Bless [00:36:42]:
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Bob DeMarco [00:36:43]:
But I mean, kind of. Yeah. So how did you learn to heat treat, and and and, you know, what tell tell me about the heat treating for you and what that's like.

Donald Bless [00:36:56]:
So, you know, mostly the learning, other than just experimenting after you learn a couple recipes and stuff like that, learning, you'll you'll bug a a better maker than yourself that knows how to do it, you know, and so or ask. You don't even have to bet bug. Most most makers are free with their information. You know what I mean? Me personally, there's a there's a fixed blade maker. His name is Joe McNealey. He's mostly on Facebook if everybody wants to look him up. He still hand files every single blade. He uses a sander and stuff to do, like, his finger notches and things like that, but he hand files every single bevel to this day.

Donald Bless [00:37:36]:
And his knives are phenomenal looking. Yeah. I followed him for a long time and looked up to him and he helped me out when I first got my kiln. I started working with CPM 154. That was the first steel I heat treated and started working with, when I got my heat treated. I picked that because I've had bench made knives in it, and I really liked its properties, for what it was. Easy sharpen, pretty tough, stainless. I don't like to take care of my knives.

Donald Bless [00:38:07]:
You know? Yeah. I like to sit around to be dirty or whatever. You know? So, so I chose CPM 154, to start learning with and asked Joe for his recipe, and he told me how he did and all that. And then, you know, I made 20, 40 dives, like Pixley, it's, in that steel, learning how to do it, dialing it in, learning how to quench it, you know, and then from there and after after learning that and then researching more, you know, you learn how to, you know, tweak that recipe and get a specific HRC in different ways, you know. You know, you you come out with 61, but you did things totally different both times, and that affects how it is. Like, the number is important. I don't like to I don't like it when people say the HRC isn't important because if your heat treat was done properly, then the number is important. Or if you know how you got to that number, it's important.

Donald Bless [00:39:08]:
Right. So you just gotta, you know, you gotta experiment. You gotta make little, you know, coupons and heat treat things differently, you know, you know, different process, different ramp speed, different temperatures, both for austenitizing and for tempering, and just dialing it in till you get to, you know, where where you like it as far as it's, it's feedback in the hand when you're using it, when you're when you're working it, and the end result.

Bob DeMarco [00:39:37]:
I find that a lot of custom makers love, 154, Centimeters or CPM or or I I guess either way, but, why why is that?

Donald Bless [00:39:49]:
One, because of the the things I just mentioned. It's a good overall all around steel, but 2, it's very forgiving to work with and it hand finishes very nicely and very easily compared to a lot of other steels, especially now with all these, Supersteels, if you will. Yeah.

Bob DeMarco [00:40:07]:
Do you have any, any of these advanced Supersteels that you like to work with in particular besides, like 154?

Donald Bless [00:40:16]:
Yeah. MagnaCut, you know, but it's past its heyday, so it's always you know, it gets its hate or it gets its love nowadays. I'm not I'm not I'm not a steel snob like that, but I I really love MagnaCut. As soon as it came out, I had it within the, you know, couple months of it being available, and started dialing that in. And because that's to me, it's like CPM 154 just on fucking steroids. You know what I mean?

Bob DeMarco [00:40:42]:
Yeah.

Donald Bless [00:40:43]:
So I really like that steel. I've used s 90v a few times, and I'm not doing that again until I get a surface grinder. That is not forgiving, to work by hand. What else? Other than you know, that's about the only other, like, super steel I think I like. I've been using a CPM crew wear a lot lately, and I really like that steel.

Bob DeMarco [00:41:12]:
That's kind of an, tough pupper steel?

Donald Bless [00:41:15]:
Yeah. It's like a it's a powdered metal tool steel, but it's non stainless, but it has pretty stainless properties to it. So as long as you're not a total ass about taking care of it, you ain't gonna have no problem. Or if you're working in the sea, maybe not the best. Right. Right.

Bob DeMarco [00:41:32]:
I've always kinda wondered, like, as a knife maker, you know, you're when you're a knife maker, you're also a business owner. Even if it's not your full time thing, you have to be thinking about your expendables, like your belts and all that kind of stuff. And are there certain steels? That's what kinda this is what I always thought about 154. To me, it's one of my favorite steels, period. I love Emerson's and and you were mentioning Bench Maids and then a whole bunch of my, custom knives are out of that. And and it's easy for me to sharp and it keeps an edge for a long time, so I always kinda felt like it must be nice to work with as a maker. A, you see it's very prevalent, but also, b, if I can sharpen it with my, you know, my stone, then working with machines, it must be pretty easy on the machines and the expendables. Like, as a as a business owner, not just a knife maker, how does that play into what you're what you're doing? Do you think about that when you're, picking materials?

Donald Bless [00:42:32]:
No. Actually, I don't think about that. I mean, it is something you have to, you know, obviously make note of and keep track of as a business owner because you're spending the cash. But, no. I don't I don't whether I pick this deal I wanna use for the project, you know, like, whatever is appropriate for it. Like, whatever it's gonna cost me or, you know, for abrasives in that manner, like, that doesn't really factor in because that doesn't matter to me. Like, this is what the customer wanted, so, like, that doesn't matter. I'm gonna use this steel.

Donald Bless [00:43:01]:
You know what I mean?

Bob DeMarco [00:43:02]:
Yeah. Okay. Well, so how does it work? How does your business work? Do you take custom orders? And is that it? Or are you kinda making knives, selling them, and also taking custom orders?

Donald Bless [00:43:15]:
So currently, I'm basically only taking custom orders, due to so when I was making fixed blades, I take custom orders and I would just make knives and put them up for sale or whatever. But now that I'm making the folders to, the, I don't know, level of quality that I am, if you will, and how manually I do it, I literally just don't have time to make anything else other than what I am working on right now. Okay.

Bob DeMarco [00:43:42]:
So as a business owner and you're you're thinking about efficiency and but you also do everything manually, how long does it take you to make one of these knives?

Donald Bless [00:43:51]:
Depending on the build, if it's not a super crazy build where I'm doing some wild stuff or some new things I haven't done before, it usually takes me around 40 hours all total, and that includes the heat treating and all that. Wow.

Bob DeMarco [00:44:03]:
So that's a that's like a full work week to most of us who go to our our 8 hour a day jobs.

Donald Bless [00:44:08]:
Oh, yeah. Yep.

Bob DeMarco [00:44:10]:
So when you're when you're working on that one knife

Donald Bless [00:44:12]:
Mhmm.

Bob DeMarco [00:44:12]:
For that 40 hours, are you also working on other things simultaneously? Is it like batch sort of process?

Donald Bless [00:44:18]:
Only no. It is not generally. I usually only work on other things at the same time if it coincides with the task at hand. So if I can cut out 2 knives worth of handled lengths at the same time, sure, I'll do that. But I won't go out of my way to put this knife to the side to start something else when this is the one that's at hand and needs to be get done, yeah, first. Right. Right.

Bob DeMarco [00:44:43]:
Because Okay. So yeah. Because no. No.

Donald Bless [00:44:45]:
Oh, be well, because alright. So, like, we talked about how I make them pretty much per order. So I have, you know, maybe, I think, 12 people on my books right now. So, you know, there's an order to it, so I'm not gonna put off my current one just to start something else, you know, because then it stacks up weird for me, and I actually end up losing time sometimes that way. Because I'm, like, hopping back and forth between projects. I'm not, like, dialing in on one thing.

Bob DeMarco [00:45:15]:
Right. And then you don't have one complete knife that you can send out and get off your mind and off your books. You got 2 that are nagging at you.

Donald Bless [00:45:23]:
Yep. Yep. And then limbo. Yeah.

Bob DeMarco [00:45:25]:
Yeah.

Donald Bless [00:45:25]:
Yeah. Yeah. Exactly.

Bob DeMarco [00:45:27]:
Well, then okay. So so you are a a custom knife maker only, which I think is cool, especially given how you make them. As you go forward with your business, now I'm not not talking about your art right now, but your business, like, how would you want to, improve the efficiency? Or how would you want to I guess what I mean is speed up how many knives you can get out.

Donald Bless [00:45:50]:
Yeah. Speed up is really yeah. That's what you're looking for. So I do actually have in the works. I'm going to start getting my frame, handles and then the blades just blank water jetted. They'll have undersized holes, so I have to still have to go in and drill and ream everything. But just having these water jet profiles is gonna save me 100 of hours 100 of dollars, you know, worth of time. And I feel at the point I am, you know, well, no one cares if anybody gets anything water jetted anyway.

Donald Bless [00:46:24]:
But I feel myself, I don't have to prove that I can do this by hand anymore. I can get I can get my profile water jetted, and I don't feel like I'm letting my people down in the in the handmade aspect, if you will.

Bob DeMarco [00:46:38]:
Well, it's funny it's funny you put it that way. What what do you think they want?

Donald Bless [00:46:43]:
Oh, I don't know what they want. I just know what I want

Bob DeMarco [00:46:46]:
to build. Is it do you think it's important to your customer, how you make the knife? Or is it just more important that you make an incredibly cool, and and well made knife that cuts like crazy?

Donald Bless [00:46:58]:
I I think the latter is the most important to most people, but I know that my my customers that I have now, my clientele that I've had, do fully, fully appreciate, like, the amount of work and time that I put in it. Especially because just, again, the freehand nature of it, you know, like, so all of my bevels or all my chamfers on my, pullers on the handles, you know, I do that all freehand, you know, I don't have a jig, you know, obviously, I don't have a mill, you know, I just I scribe my line and I grind up to it, you know, and then refine it and refine it. So I think people really appreciate that I can do this by hand what with what most people use a mill to do.

Bob DeMarco [00:47:44]:
Yeah. Especially that. I mean, that this is something right here. Like, this whole pommel area with all of these different, chamfers and bevels coming together and then the slightly proud beautiful backspacer here, Like, this is a very impressive the whole knife is impressive, but that's a very impressive part to me, especially now knowing that you did all that just by hand. Yep. Because everything is, like, it's straight as can be.

Donald Bless [00:48:12]:
And I show that, you know. I I make videos of my process, so I mean, people can go in and see me do it by hand, by, you know, without using the jig and all that stuff.

Bob DeMarco [00:48:20]:
So would you ever bring anyone on or into your company, into your shop to help you make these knives? I mean, would you trust anyone to try and do that?

Donald Bless [00:48:31]:
No. No. If I ever got to the point where I could make, like, you know, mid tax or if I was making, you know, c and c knives or something like that, then, yeah, I'd have a buddy in there helping me or something, but, up until said, way, way future stuff. Well, hopefully, maybe not way, but, Yeah. No. One man show, man. You know? I don't you know? I like doing it by myself. I like my work, you know? I don't know.

Donald Bless [00:48:59]:
But I do want to, you spoke about speeding up process and stuff like that. I also do want to, in the next year or so, maybe figure out a way to do mid text where I'm getting all of my pieces, you know, rough made and then I'm finishing it out and be able to charge maybe half of what a custom cost, you know, and that would be way more accessible to a lot of folks that care to have my designs or care to have a knife made by me. So I I'm definitely working on figuring out a way to get cheaper options, not necessarily like a production knife, but more like a mid tech where I'm still doing a lot of the work, but, you know, you can get it a lot cheaper.

Bob DeMarco [00:49:36]:
Yeah. I mean, I I appreciate that as a as a collector, I appreciate that a lot because, there are many designers, or or I should say, knife makers whose designs I have because either they've made them available through mid tech, like I have a Les George VCEP, and I would never, I not never, but I it'd be hard for me to afford a Les George without that, mid tech process. And also, like, I'm, my my knife budget is allocated in so many, you know, swords. I got other knives to buy too.

Donald Bless [00:50:08]:
Yeah. No. No.

Bob DeMarco [00:50:09]:
So, so to have an option, for instance, my one of my ultimate grails is a custom Charles Marlowe. I love his work. Alright.

Donald Bless [00:50:19]:
Yep. Yep.

Bob DeMarco [00:50:21]:
You know, and he makes so few of them and and they're, you know, it's just not probably gonna happen unless I, you know Yeah.

Donald Bless [00:50:30]:
Like, it'll I'm not getting a Michael Walker knife. Not a not a custom.

Bob DeMarco [00:50:35]:
Yeah.

Donald Bless [00:50:36]:
I don't have that coin.

Bob DeMarco [00:50:37]:
But but since Boker makes their version of it, like, that that hides me over. You know, I can always dream, but, so I like this idea of of kind of a mid tech or or having having more of the parts of of your knives made so that you can do all the stuff that is, like, maybe the most important stuff, you know?

Donald Bless [00:50:59]:
Yeah. Yeah. You know, still hand chamfer everything and, you know, hand grind everything and all that.

Bob DeMarco [00:51:04]:
Yeah. And the bevels and everything. So you mentioned your brother before. I love a good, family knife story. Does he help you in the shop, or, like, what's his relationship to your work?

Donald Bless [00:51:16]:
He's he's more of my steak horse, if you understand, gambling. He is, the reason I was able to do this while I had no job, you know, definitely helped me out financially a little bit, and his moral support, you know, supported me stepping out after 20 years and trying my own thing on my own. It's kinda tough. But yeah. No. My brother, partner partner in crime, smartest kid I know. We've lived together for a long time. Yeah.

Donald Bless [00:51:49]:
So he he helps me out a lot. And traveling, he works shows with me. I don't I I couldn't work a show without Ernie. I'd lose my mind. He he keeps me grounded and out of trouble, so.

Bob DeMarco [00:52:03]:
Good, good, yeah. I mean, if you can if you can have an awesome brother, nothing beats it. I also have an awesome brother and, you know, he keeps me in knives too.

Donald Bless [00:52:12]:
Yeah. A lot of time

Bob DeMarco [00:52:14]:
he's gotten for me. Well, you mentioned shows. Do you Are you a regular attendee or or, not attendee, but, exhibitor at Blade Show and

Donald Bless [00:52:26]:
Becoming so, I would say. So, I worked a show in 2022, Blade West. That was the first Mac show I ever worked. That was when I thought I knew what I was doing. I went to that show, had well, actually, 2 these 2 nights right here. And this one I already showed.

Bob DeMarco [00:52:45]:
Nice.

Donald Bless [00:52:46]:
And then I had this is another Defiant. It's cool. A super funky blade, and there's a wire lock. And it looks good on camera, but it doesn't look good in hand, compared to my work now, I should say. Driver. But, you know, like this one here, you know, there's literally, like, no detent. Like, I don't know what I was doing because I didn't know what I was doing. But, yeah.

Donald Bless [00:53:13]:
So I took 4 or 5 knives at show, didn't sell anything, which I'm glad about. And then I spent the next year after that, a whole year dialing in my my, geometry, learning how to set my detents better, thanks to people like Robert Carter. I'll bring him up a lot anytime you see me, that man. I owe a lot to that man as far as my knowledge. He's he's a great he's a great dude and great maker. But yeah. So I spent a year dialing in my process, before I would sell one, because I got a lot of feedback at that show, that I didn't sell him yet. And I also met, there was a bonus to that though.

Donald Bless [00:53:57]:
I met said Stevie and Oh, cool. I met, Big Red ABC, and I met a therapeutic edge, and I met Shane from Scorpion 6, and so many other people that have, really, really helped me in my journey.

Bob DeMarco [00:54:11]:
So when you when you say you're you're happy, that you didn't sell any, is that because as a maker and an artist, you you're now glad that that what you were making aren't out there in the world representing you?

Donald Bless [00:54:24]:
100%. Yep. 100%. You know, back then, I'd never owned a custom folder as we've talked about already. So when I made that first set, you know, I was like, yeah, I make custom folders. I know what I'm doing. No. I didn't know.

Donald Bless [00:54:38]:
So, you know what I mean? So, yeah, just being able to spend that time dialing it in and learning and then come out and, you know, the first ones I sold, you know, like, they're as good as the ones you were well, now they're even better. But, you know what I mean? Like, I dialed it in and I didn't want shoddy work out there, you know, I didn't want people having problems because I didn't know what I was doing, you know? Like, that's that's on me, not on them. So it was up to me to figure that out before I put them out.

Bob DeMarco [00:55:07]:
So you mentioned a couple of times the great Robert Carter. So he's been a mentor to you, I I take it. What what has he shown you?

Donald Bless [00:55:16]:
You know, a lot. So I met him. We visited Blade in 1 c 3, Blade Show Atlanta, and I got to meet him there. And, you know, I expect you to walk up, check out his knives, say hi, and I'll be out of work, you know. But I ended up hanging out with this dude, like, all weekend. We were getting lit at the fucking pit party. No. It was a good time.

Donald Bless [00:55:39]:
But, no, he helped me with a lot of things, man. My grinds, just talking about theory on grinding, stuff like that. My lockup, the exact way that I grind my lockup. I learned from Robert Carter. My detent the way I do my detent, I learned from Robert Carter. Basically, everything that makes people like playing with a knife, I learned from him. You know what I mean? Like, as far as, like, it works like it should and the retention is where it should be. Your spring tension is, you know, stout but not, you know, too hard or, you know, stuff like that.

Donald Bless [00:56:13]:
Yeah. And and he's an open book, man. I can I can call him anytime and he will just tell me? I'm like, yo, I'm trying this new thing. He'll he'll be like, oh, this is what you gotta do,

Bob DeMarco [00:56:24]:
you know? That's so cool. Well, one thing that I noticed about your knives, especially the Ripley, I've admittedly, I've played with it more, but if it flips open hard, you got, like, a great detent, but there's no lock stick whatsoever, but there's also no, hardened steel lock face insert there. So you have that, like, really well down. That's not, like, that's that's not an easy thing, presumably, or everyone would do that, and they wouldn't have to to put that steel lock face insert in.

Donald Bless [00:56:58]:
That's true. Yeah. Yeah. No. I talk to a lot of people, makers that I try to help with the, you know, that issue. You know? You know, I'm having this Voxeet issue. I'm like, oh, this is exactly how I do it. Now I could tell you exactly how I do it and that mine work the way they do, but I can't tell you why yours is doing what it's doing.

Donald Bless [00:57:15]:
I can just tell you how mine do what they do. Alright. So I'm still learning, man. I'm early in this, like, I don't know if you saw on that sheet, but whatever the number of each that knife is, I think is, at this point, still the highest one of each one of those. Maybe one more on each. So I'm under 10 knives on both of those models. So I'm still learning, man, you know?

Bob DeMarco [00:57:38]:
You say a sheet. There was no there was no sheet in what

Donald Bless [00:57:40]:
I got. It was in the bottom of the box. It was? Yeah. Alright. Well, I have

Bob DeMarco [00:57:44]:
the bottom of the box.

Donald Bless [00:57:45]:
Oh, it was a full spec detail sheet. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, I'm an idiot. I'm sorry. I can send you another one.

Bob DeMarco [00:57:51]:
So anxious to open it up. Oh.

Donald Bless [00:57:53]:
Yeah. That's good. That's good.

Bob DeMarco [00:57:55]:
I didn't notice the written material. Alright. So, as we wrap up here, how how do you wanna see, GLES Knives grow? How do you wanna see your your own knife making grow? Like, where do you want this to be in the future?

Donald Bless [00:58:12]:
Well, I definitely wanna be able to do it, officially full time and make a full time living from it. I'm still not quite very, you know what I mean? And, yeah, I just wanna be able to speed up my process and get my more knives into people's hands, and that's gonna help me do more designs. I had a lot of designs stacked up, and I'd rather be able to put them out myself than go, you know, the overseas route, which I have no issue with. But, like, me personally, I'd rather just get my own work out there. So I really just wanna do everything I can to get as many of my models out as I can, personally and or mid tech wise rather than, you know, just have somebody make the whole thing and be able to sell it super cheap, which is nice for a lot of people, but, like, for me and, like, my artwork, like, I just don't wanna do that. So I wanna try to do as much in house, you know, in here as I can.

Bob DeMarco [00:59:04]:
But it seems like having, 1 or 2 designs that you're, steadfast with and you keep doing and keep doing and and doing variations of as different custom orders come in, when when your process has gotten to the point where you can speed it up or, have broader bandwidth for making more knives, it'll be easier because of all the sweat you put into, those models to to start making newer models, I bet.

Donald Bless [00:59:33]:
Oh, yeah. Most definitely. For sure. It's definitely the goal. Super fantastical goal that I'd always had since I started making these nines is, I'd love to have basically a street shop, like, like a storefront, if you will. But be able to, like, have, like, a case of knives, you know, like you're coming into a donut shop. But but but you could be seeing me work in the back until I came up to help you buy one that are that's already got my my shop. You know what I mean? Like, I think it'd be really cool to have a about brick and mortar,

Bob DeMarco [01:00:05]:
like, I think that'd be fun. That would be super cool. I mean, I'd come and I'm sure everyone who's watching or listening here would would come to a place like that. What? I think that's something to, to to keep in the keep in mind for the offering. Anyway, Donald, really nice to have you here. Donald Bless of Bless Knives, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you so much for joining us.

Donald Bless [01:00:25]:
Thank you for having me. It was great.

Bob DeMarco [01:00:27]:
It's an absolute pleasure. Take care, sir.

Donald Bless [01:00:29]:
You too. Ever start looking for your next knife purchase before your last purchase has even arrived? Then you're probably a knife junkie.

Announcer [01:00:37]:
Knife themed shirts, hoodies, mugs, water bottles, and more, the knifejunkie.com/shop.

Bob DeMarco [01:01:12]:
There he goes, ladies and gentlemen. Donald Bless of Bless Knives. Making knives the old fashioned way with modern materials, manually hand making them, and they are beautiful. And, like I mentioned, they have they don't have any of the trappings, not trappings. They don't have any of the errors and mistakes, that you might expect from a knife without the without the lock bar insert. Beautiful, old, old school, new school stuff. Alright, ladies and gentlemen. Be sure to join me next week for, for Wednesday, Thursday night knives, and, another great interview, and we'll keep rocking. Alright. For Jim, working his magic behind the switcher, I'm Bob DeMarco saying until next time, don't take dull for an answer.

Announcer [01:01:28]:
Thanks for listening to the 9th junkie podcast. If you enjoyed the show, please rate and review at review the podcast.com. For show notes for today's episode, additional resources, and to listen to past episodes, visit our website, the knifejunkie.com. You can also watch our latest videos on YouTube at the knifejunkie.com/youtube. Check out some great knife photos on the knifejunkie.com/instagram, and join our Facebook group at the knifejunkie.com/facebook. And if you have a question or comment, email them to Bob at the knifejunkie.com, or call our 247 listener line at 72446 64487. And you may hear your comment or question answered on an upcoming episode of the Knife Junkie podcast.