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. Email Bob at theknifejunkie@gmail.com; visit https://theknifejunkie.com.
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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 Jacob Asuit of Very Good Knife Company. I had my first exposure to Jacob's knives on a few of my favorite YouTube knife channels, Choir Boys, Cutlery Outdoors, Peterbilt Knife Guy, and the Last Huntsman, all of whom truly put these very good knives through their paces. Much more so than I probably ever will. The knives came through their tests with flying colors, which to me was a thrill considering I had already fallen in love with how these knives look and knew it was only a matter of time before I got my hands on one. Well, at Blade show this year I got that opportunity and bought a beautiful first strike directly from Jacob and got a chance to meet him in person. We'll talk with Jacob and find out how his knives became so very good.

Bob DeMarco [00:01:06]:
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Bob DeMarco [00:01:55]:
Jacob welcome to the Knife Junkie Podcast. I'll get this out of the way because I just want to show it off, but so has been owning this first strike. This. This beautiful nice clip point blade. And it's really cool that I had a chance to buy it from you and your wife at Blade show this year. So I'm really happy to have it.

Jacob Asuit [00:02:17]:
Thank you Franky. I am. I've got a first strike sitting right next to me as well. I like quite a lot. This one is not quite as pretty as yours. Still it's been beat up and got some scratches but I like my first strike. Yeah, Blade show was a good time. It was great to meet You?

Bob DeMarco [00:02:34]:
Yeah. Oh, so that wasn't your first blade show, was it?

Jacob Asuit [00:02:38]:
That was my first time on the table.

Bob DeMarco [00:02:39]:
No way.

Jacob Asuit [00:02:40]:
Oh, yeah. I've been going to blade shows since I was a little kid. My dad used to table take me just about every year. And then when we became knife makers in 2009, we started going every year. And I've only missed a few years in between 2009 and now. And so I've seen a lot of blade show.

Bob DeMarco [00:03:02]:
Oh, man. Well, okay, so I want to, I want to dig into that, but first, you know, you just mentioned you and your dad making knives. Tell us about that.

Jacob Asuit [00:03:13]:
So, so I, I, I started making knives with my dad in 2009. He was a stonemason for about 35 years, and when that all went downhill, 2008 era, he was a massive case collector and he started selling off his case collection as we needed some money and being at the gun show. We went to gun shows every weekend for a year doing, selling case knives. And we, we started making some knives.

Bob DeMarco [00:03:49]:
Like.

Jacob Asuit [00:03:51]:
Kind of like this one. Cool. And I mean, it's, it's a 440C Pakistan Blade with a deer antler handle and piece of Trone on the end. Um, but, you know, everybody starts somewhere. And this is where we started is doing stuff like this. And, and it just morphed into making our own blades. And I mean, that's half of it right there. So we were at a gun show one weekend and somebody said, who does your blades? Or something along those lines? And, and our answer was we bought them.

Jacob Asuit [00:04:29]:
And so they said, oh, you're, you're not a knife maker. You're a knife assembler. And the attitude just kind of changed. So I made knives with my dad under two Jake's knives from 2010 full time, 2010 up until 2022. And 2022, I split off on my own. And the beginning of 2023 is when I started Very Good Knife Company. And it's been a, it's been a Ride 2 Jake's.

Bob DeMarco [00:04:58]:
It's like the, the sequel to Chinatown. One of my favorite movies of all time.

Jacob Asuit [00:05:02]:
Yep.

Bob DeMarco [00:05:03]:
To Jake. So I take it your dad was, is Jacob. So that's a kind of a, that's kind of a sobering comment. You're not a knife maker, you're a knife assembler. Did that resonate with you or did that.

Jacob Asuit [00:05:15]:
Oh, yeah. Bug you? Yeah, no, it definitely, you just didn't want to be that anymore once you had reached this level. I mean, we were making. See if I Could have one here. I've got so many knobs and I haven't organized, but even still, I have so many boxes and, but I don't know. There's nothing wrong with this, but we didn't make the blade. And when you can't say that you've done every part, then I mean, does it matter that you did any part? And that was kind of our mentality with it. And of course, in the early stages the blades were not great and, and that's to be expected from somebody new.

Jacob Asuit [00:05:58]:
But, you know, we, we learned our way throughout the journey. We at, at the prime of two Jake's knives, we were making Damascus. This is a Harley chain Damascus over, over a piece of 1095. This has got mammoth tooth and rosewood and, and then here's one with a, a hippo tooth. And this is to Jake's Damascus. We made our own Damascus, but it morphed into where I'm at now, having been on the, the side of really intricate custom work for the majority of my career. Pretty much all of it was, was high and custom work. Very custom, as custom as you could get and you know, like, like mammoth tusk and mammoth tooth.

Jacob Asuit [00:06:57]:
And this is, this was my first piece of Damascus. It's etched really deep, but it, it's no longer dark because it rusted. And I cleaned it all up and it got all shiny on me. But anyhow, I, I, I got to experience the best of that side of things and, and, and throughout the way. I started my own brand in 2015 called Bloodline Knives. And I didn't really know quite what I was doing enough to run with it.

Bob DeMarco [00:07:33]:
And that, the, that Bloodline knife. Can you hold that up real quick so we can take a look at it? That looks like a very different aesthetic. This looks kind of a, in your sort of se. Or tops kind of.

Jacob Asuit [00:07:45]:
Yeah, yeah. During that eras, I mean that, that was, that was se top. Well, I mean that was the beginning probably at the right at the rise of the tops era. And that's where I was mentally, you know, gotcha. I feel like as a make or where you are with how you like things and what you prefer definitely has a lot of influence on what you're doing for sure. Like during that, that final, I also tried to come out with my own Izula, if you will. It's, it's not an azula in any way, but, you know, it's the same, it's the same class of knife, a skeletonized handle. But this one was called the Cub it's powder coated as well.

Jacob Asuit [00:08:40]:
And you know, I did bloodline up until probably 2018, 2019, and it just kind of fizzled. I never kept up with it because I was still doing two Jake stuff, you know, and, and the tensions with my dad and I over that just kind, I just kind of left that. And I wanted to do two Jake stuff. It was making more money and, and it seemed to be the way to go, so I went that way. And then in 2022 when I split, I just decided that I didn't want to do custom work at all. I mean, not that I didn't enjoy it, because I do. I just, I would rather make a knife that somebody uses, you know?

Bob DeMarco [00:09:23]:
Yeah.

Jacob Asuit [00:09:24]:
What I ended up seeing was you had all these people that loved everything, whether they used it, whether they bought it, whether they passed it up, sit there and talked with you for two hours at a show. It didn't matter. People didn't take, you know, a really fancy knife like this and go use it. And unless they're using it, they're just not, they're not as in love with it, I guess you could say, unless you're a collector and you're looking at them all the time, but then, you know, you're using it for a little different purpose. But yeah, I want, I've always wanted to shift towards more utilitarian knives, and that's where I am now.

Bob DeMarco [00:10:08]:
I gotta say, that's like a major frustration that I hear from, from many knife makers. It's maybe frustration is the wrong word, but, but it's a, it's kind of a dilemma. It's like you want people to buy your knives and you're thrilled.

Jacob Asuit [00:10:22]:
Yeah.

Bob DeMarco [00:10:22]:
Happy that they, when they buy them because they love them and they're, and, and you know, what's the word? I'm flattered if they want to keep it in there, keep it pristine and keep it in their case. But at the same time, you're putting a lot of work into that knife as a tool and you're also spending a lot of time perfecting it for, for its use. And then to know that it's not getting used, that's got to be a little frustrating.

Jacob Asuit [00:10:48]:
It is. When you sell knives for 1500 to $5000. I mean, we've sold knives for, for high five figures too, with pal site meteorite, big giant cave bear jaw handle. I mean those, those are, I mean, if you ask me, the people that buy them have more dollars than cents, but I'm not going to tell them Though if they're throwing those dollars my way, you know, so, I mean, when you're getting paid for it, there's, I mean, it's just not the way that I want it to go. And, and I would rather sell five knives for the price of one high end custom that five people are going to use every single day, you know, rather than have that one person that has it in their safe and nobody ever sees it, nobody ever touches it or. I don't know, it's just the way I feel about it. Yeah.

Bob DeMarco [00:11:41]:
So in reading your bio on, on your website, there was something that, that really jumped out to me in that there was a period of time, not exactly sure where it falls in the timeline of what you just told us, but there is a period of time where you were working for a big knife outfit distributor. I'm not sure what it was.

Jacob Asuit [00:11:59]:
Premium knife. Premium knife supply. Yeah.

Bob DeMarco [00:12:02]:
Tell me about what you were doing with all of that grinding. Tell me what that looked like.

Jacob Asuit [00:12:08]:
So premium knife supply is actually. Well, I'm not sure because I haven't talked to them a very long time, but premium knife supply was located in Hayesville, North Carolina. To my knowledge, they are still located in Hayesville, North Carolina, which is an hour north of here. So really close. And starting out, that was our go to knife supply. And my dad became really close friends with the guy that owned it, Doug Metzger. And when Doug owned it, things were a lot different than they are now. But everything was pretty much like China, Taiwan made blanks and, and they were, they were these kind of blanks, you know, and they sold kits and, and all kinds of materials.

Jacob Asuit [00:12:55]:
But it was all, it was all pretty much. I mean most knife supply places are driven towards the hobbyist or beginner maker. And Doug came to the shop one day, he actually lived about 20 minutes closer. He lived in Georgia in a place called Hiwassee, which is the neighbor town to Hayesville. Both of them are kind of on the line of North Carolina, Georgia and, and Doug lived in hiawassee which is 20 minutes closer. So he would come to Cleveland every now and then and he came by the shop and I was grinding a blade and he just kind of peeled peeking. Doug, the big dude, real big dude. And he just kind of peeked over my shoulder while I was at the grinder and, and startled me.

Jacob Asuit [00:13:42]:
He's like, you grinded pretty nice there. And, and I finished it out before him and, and when I got finished, he had sit there, talk to my dad for probably 20 minutes and, and he come Back over and he's like, you want a job? I'll, I'll pay for, I'll bring you the belts, I'll bring you the drill bits and, and I'll pay you. I, I think it was like five or six bucks a blade to bring me. So he, he paid me about five or six bucks a blade to drill them. Drill pin holes in the handle, which for most of them was two or three holes, and then grind them. Most 90% of them were hollow grind and 90% of them were tool steel as well.01 tool steel. My job was to drill them, grind them and heat treat them. And I would leave them in the, you know, the quenching oil, leave them nice and dirty with all that junk burnt onto it from tempering.

Jacob Asuit [00:14:44]:
And I just give them to him like that. And it was all done in the shop. Being that he was local, Doug would bring the boxes of blades that started out, he would, he brought me like 200 blades, which for, you know, a nice supply company that's selling blanks is nothing. I mean, I would go to the store and watch the packing people that work there pack up 20 or 30 blades in the half hour that I was standing there, you know, so two or 300 blades, them is nothing. But the first time he brought me blades, probably about 200 blades, and it took me probably two and a half weeks to do all those. And I spent a lot of time on them. And they were good, they were satisfactory. He was trying to go like, bring everything American made.

Jacob Asuit [00:15:39]:
So I wasn't the only maker that he had subcontracted to do this as well. I was one of three at the time. And I don't remember the other two because I never met them, they were up in Hayesville. But I got that gig solely off of my skills that I had at the time and convenience sake, I would say had a lot to do with it for sure. But as the months went on, we, I mean, after that first order, he brought me little more than 400 blades. And I was like, Doug, I don't know if I could handle all this. He's like, just tell me when you're done or do half of them and I'll come and get them. Or, you know, we'll figure it out.

Jacob Asuit [00:16:22]:
It's not a big deal. But here's your blades, here's your belt. He was bringing me belts. He ended up introducing us to a, a belt broker, a Pelt distributor. So we had an abrasives connection pretty early on with. I don't have any more. But we did at the time, his name was Al, but Al would bring Doug's belts and he would bring our belts and I would do work for both of us. But it ended up turning into working for Doug and not doing anything for two Jakes.

Jacob Asuit [00:16:55]:
And the thing is though, if you count up all the blades, I made a ton of money, but the amount of blades that I did was worth 50 times the amount of money that I made in experience.

Bob DeMarco [00:17:09]:
Yeah.

Jacob Asuit [00:17:10]:
Because I was given access to an unlimited amount of grinding experience. I mean, there was no worrying about cutting them out. There was no worried about doing the whole. The profiling or anything. It was just that he brought me laser cut blanks that were right raw. I had to clean them up and grind them, and that was all that mattered. And by the end of it, he was bringing me batches of around 600. I have a picture.

Jacob Asuit [00:17:40]:
The picture that's on the website is like 660 blades. And it. And it only took me two and a half weeks. So the first. So the first time he brought me blades was about 200 blades. Took me about two and a half weeks. And the last round of blades he brought me was like 660 blaze was that picture on the orange table on the website. And by the end of that, I was like, I'm done.

Jacob Asuit [00:18:05]:
I have had enough. I've. I'm. I can't do this anymore. I don't. I don't even know if I want to do this anymore because it just became so repetitive and. But by the end of it, I had grown so much in my skills and just grinding alone, it was worth every bit of it. And I'd do it all again for sure.

Bob DeMarco [00:18:30]:
It's like you were a monk getting your reps in and, you know, you came out the other side. Just. Wow.

Jacob Asuit [00:18:39]:
Yeah.

Bob DeMarco [00:18:40]:
I mean, you know, not to toot your horn, but I got to say, it's very evident when I look and I looked at all of the knives on your table and they are all, you know, extremely well done. And they look like. I don't want to say a machine did them because that. That's not even, you know, they. They just really look so well done. And you look at them from side to side and everything. And that's from doing thousands and thousands of knives. No doubt.

Jacob Asuit [00:19:11]:
Yeah. My. So the two Jake's knives were all serial numbered. We started that somewhere around the 500 mark after about 500 knives, which is about a year and a half of doing it, which the first 500 or so you know, they, they looked like they were Doug blades. You know, they were kit blades. And once we started making our own blades is when we started serial numbering them. And the serial number the last time that I was there in 2022 was 6100. Somewhere in the 6001 hundreds.

Jacob Asuit [00:19:56]:
That was, that was the, the two Jake's numbers.

Bob DeMarco [00:19:59]:
Where, where were you selling?

Jacob Asuit [00:20:02]:
So we, we never did hardly any online sales. My, my dad specifically traveled all around the country for, from 2000, about 2012. And he, he's still out there.

Bob DeMarco [00:20:17]:
I mean, wow.

Jacob Asuit [00:20:20]:
Every art show that you could possibly imagine, all the big ones like Cherry wood, Dogwood Arts and apples, all the major juried shows he was in because at this stage, you know, the, the knives weren't, they weren't utilitarian. This is, I did this sheath and this knife as well. Um, that's another thing. I have a massive, extensive background in leather work as well. But I just, I don't know, I feel like it's kind of wasted because I don't get to spend any time on it. But this is, this is, this is my personal, this number 4867. It's kind of hard to see there but this one has Choya cactus that's filled with crushed Royston turquoise. It's got walrus cheekbone up front.

Jacob Asuit [00:21:09]:
This is mammoth tooth. It's a pretty art knife. It's an art knife to me. This is, you know, this is to Drake's Damascus. I made every piece of this to the steel, you know, and it's got a sharpened Swedish.

Bob DeMarco [00:21:26]:
So not all art.

Jacob Asuit [00:21:28]:
It is. That's true, that's true. So I, by the time we were doing this kind of stuff, they had turned into full on art pieces. So I mean he just doing the gun shows and any kind of knife shows, you know, he just went and did art shows because tell you truth, there's rarely ever any other knife makers there. And it turned into having a couple of stores and he's still in a couple of ace chain of stores, a extremely ritzy high end western store called Kimo Sabi there you can look them up and see the knives. There's some two Jake's knives on there as well. And they, they actually mark everything up a hundred percent. I'm not joking, 100%.

Jacob Asuit [00:22:22]:
And that's, that's so, I mean whatever it would sell at in the store, we'd get 50% of that even if it was six grand. Wow. And it, that's, I mean by the time we done Tapped into the, the art market. There was no need to change. And, and, but again, you're, you're selling to a different market. And, and it takes a different mentality. It takes a real true seller to be able to sell things like that. And, and I, I'll.

Jacob Asuit [00:22:59]:
I'll be totally honest with you. I can't bullshit enough to. I, I can't bull crap enough to sell things like that.

Bob DeMarco [00:23:10]:
Well, sounds like your dad has that end of things covered. And, and he's taking care of that and that's cool. And then, and then eventually you, you light out on your own. And so how did that happen? Like after you left the company, how did you decide to. Did you know you were gonna do another knife company or.

Jacob Asuit [00:23:34]:
No. So how did.

Bob DeMarco [00:23:36]:
Tell us how the. About the birth of very good knife company.

Jacob Asuit [00:23:39]:
So things that. Just working with family. I'll just say is. I'll never be able to tell it all. Not in 15 podcasts. Not in 15 podcasts a day for 15 years. I wouldn't be able to tell you at all. It's not fun.

Jacob Asuit [00:23:56]:
I'll just say that. And it, it really changed me as a person. It has changed my life in every single way that I could have ever imagined, in ways that I would have never been able to imagine. So in 2021, I. I had a dirt bike wreck. It was pretty minor, but I, I ended up tearing off this finger and then crushing this one as well. So these two dudes are broke, but they still work fine. It should have been a minor thing, but I went to a local hospital instead of the good hospital because, I mean, I thought it was just.

Jacob Asuit [00:24:40]:
It shouldn't have been as major as it was, but I ended up back in the hospital the next day, septic. And it about killed me over something. I mean it was seriously, I mean, this one was a hot dog then tore off, but it got drugged through the dirt and the local hospital sewed it up and I went septic. And I spent three days in the hospital. It about killed me and it drained so much energy off of me. I mean, it's unexplainable how the. How sepsis can rot you. And the recovery from that was way more than it should have ever been.

Jacob Asuit [00:25:18]:
So I was out for a month and a. Well, two months. And during that two months I built a brand new website for two Jake's. I spent 250 hours on a brand new website and it was beautiful. It was a great looking website. And when I was ready to get back into the shop My place had kind of been taken by someone else and it didn't really bother me. I knew where I stood with all my skills, but having freshly broken fingers, I was off the grinder. So I got moved to some other jobs and it, it just kind of brought out some true colors and, and to be totally honest with you, it just needed to happen the whole thing.

Jacob Asuit [00:26:08]:
And 2022 was a rough year. That was in December of 2021 when I got wrecked. And 2022 was a rough year for me and I was kind of on the side. I've been riding dirt bikes and, and like amateur racing level dirt bikes. And I had a big practice track out back in my last place. And In June of 2022, I ended up having a wreck and breaking both of my legs. Broke both, both tib and fib on both sides in a tibial plateau type 4 fracture on my right knee. I spent six months in a wheelchair for, from that one.

Jacob Asuit [00:26:52]:
And you know, I, I could never help but feel like looking back, like all of it just needed to happen in order for me to get the separation that I needed to get and grow the way I needed to grow. But in my recovery, I was pretty certain that I never wanted to make knives again. To be totally honest with you, I had been so burnout for other reasons that weren't related to the knives, to the knives specifically, but rather the experience that I was a part of. You know, it just wasn't good. It wasn't a healthy relationship. So it was, it just needed to happen. So by the time 2023 came around, I was about a month out of therapy, or I was still a month into therapy. I'd only been standing and walking for about two months with a ton of assistance as well.

Jacob Asuit [00:27:52]:
And by, by the time I was ready to like get back to doing something like work wise, I had, we had already had events, had already happened in conversations that already happened, and I had already quit. I had split with him during. I was in a wheelchair when I was split with him. And by the time 2023 came around, I was ready to go back to work. I didn't know what I was going to do. I just didn't. I didn't know I had been making knives for 12 years. And I mean, what else do you do? I mean, it was literally my only job for 12 years.

Jacob Asuit [00:28:31]:
The only other thing that I did in those, from 2010 up to 2022 up to now, the only other thing that I've done is tree service. I helped a friend Grow a tree service business because I had previously worked in tree service before not making knives, but that was also an on the side thing. I was still doing knives full time, just once or twice a week I was working with him. But 12 years of making knives and not really knowing or doing anything else and I, I'd never really felt my.

Bob DeMarco [00:29:11]:
Own.

Jacob Asuit [00:29:13]:
Accomplishments or, or I don't know. I don't know if I didn't feel like I had done all that I wanted to do with it in a, in a good state of mind where I wasn't under stress and, and I wasn't worried about making someone else happy. It just, just being able to, to do my own knife making. And I decided since I already had equipment and I already had a shop and I already had everything I needed, then I was just going to go back and, and really dive in and cut myself off entirely and do my own thing a hundred percent with nobody else's fingers in it.

Bob DeMarco [00:29:57]:
Well, so tell us, what was your initial philosophy for, for your company and for the knives you're going to be making and what was your first knife for a very good knife company.

Jacob Asuit [00:30:12]:
So the name was inspired from a TV show that I spent a whole bunch of time in the bed when I was recovering watching, called Parks and Rec. And what was funny about Parks and Rec is, is when we first watched Parks and Rec, I already kind of looked like Ron Swanson and dressed like Ron Swanson. I already had a mustache and the hair like Ron Swanson. So it just made it hilarious to us that, you know, I was portrayed stereotypically in this, in this extreme hit show, you know. But, you know, in the later of the series of the show, he started a company called Very Good Building and Development Company. And, and pretty much his thing was I wanted to display the, or portray the quality of my work without seeing seeming arrogant or too straightforward. But, you know, telling me pretty much this is what you get and that's the way it is. And, and not only that, but it's, it's a name to stand behind too.

Jacob Asuit [00:31:22]:
You know, you can't just, can't just show up and, and half ass it. It's got to meet its name and, and it doesn't say the very best either though. It just says very good. But to me, people take things as literally or more literally than they should, and I'm not going to tell anybody that they're wrong for doing that. I'm not saying that I don't do that. But you know, it's, it's not something that I can ever slouch on. I. I just can't slouch on the name.

Jacob Asuit [00:31:54]:
Very good. So if the product has got it stamped right on the side, it's. It's pure accountability, and that's just the way it is.

Bob DeMarco [00:32:02]:
Yeah. Yeah, no kidding. That's going to keep you, keep you straight for. For a long time. And I. Jim is now scrolling through your. Your designs, and you have a lot of designs and as a matter of.

Jacob Asuit [00:32:16]:
Fact, not on there yet.

Bob DeMarco [00:32:19]:
Like the eagle, which is so cool. This giant sacks. I love that thing. So what, what was the, the initial design like? Were the initial designs for hunters or just. Just kind of anyone who needed a knife? Yeah, EDC kind of stuff.

Jacob Asuit [00:32:37]:
So on the, on the page there, you'd see the. The number one knife is the adventure. And so I actually started making this knife with bloodline, and it looked a little different, but this is the bloodline adventure and the blades pretty much the same. I just found places that I could make changes and do better. But I carried this knife from the day I made it. I carried it for two and a half years, and it went around the country with me doing art shows with my dad. And I quit carrying it because the sheep quit holding a knife, and I was too attached to it by that point to let it go. And then I ended up changing it into what it is now.

Jacob Asuit [00:33:28]:
This is a bloodline adventure. This is the revised version, and it is pretty much identical to what I make now. And so that was already my favorite knife. And I knew that that was going to be. That was going to be the number on my flagship. And it today, it is still. It's not my number one seller, but I do think it is my number one knife. It's my number two seller, and it gets beat by something that fluctuates.

Jacob Asuit [00:34:00]:
So, I mean, it's hard to say that it's not number one when it's consistently number two. Right, right, right. So up against all these other knives, it hasn't moved from that number two spot. So, I mean, to me, it's still number one. But so do you.

Bob DeMarco [00:34:14]:
Do you find that number one is whatever your newest thing is.

Jacob Asuit [00:34:20]:
Has changed? And it. My number one seller can be whatever I want to be because I. I can only make so much at one time, but I do like to spread it out, and I do like to drop as many, as much variety as I can. There are some models that I don't make because they won't sell, and then there are some models that I can't make enough of. One of those would be the, the Tradition Junior. It's, it's my number one seller above everything else that was a number one seller. If I make these, they don't stay in the store ever. They never have and they probably never will.

Bob DeMarco [00:35:00]:
It's kind of like nessmuk, right?

Jacob Asuit [00:35:02]:
Yeah. But if I make, if I make wasps, then they'll sell to. They will sit around longer than a Tradition Junior. Still, though, adventures are, are king. But I. When I first started Very Knife Company, I had five models, maybe six. I had the adventure, the tradition, Roughneck, Lineman, Mantis, and wasp. So six models is what I started with.

Jacob Asuit [00:35:35]:
This is a bloodline tradition and it is a little different looking than the, the current tradition that I make. But this was a pretty hot one that I used to sell quite a bit. And Bloodline was pretty much the same thing as Very Good Knife company is. It just had a little different look. But my, my philosophy was pretty much the same. Although I do like the name Very Good Knife Company Much better.

Bob DeMarco [00:36:06]:
So the philosophy was knives that working. Working.

Jacob Asuit [00:36:10]:
Yeah.

Bob DeMarco [00:36:10]:
Working man could afford and for lack of a better term, be lovingly beat up.

Jacob Asuit [00:36:16]:
Absolutely.

Bob DeMarco [00:36:17]:
And. Yep. Yeah, I think, I think you nailed it. But, but something that maybe you weren't, maybe you weren't expecting or, or I don't know. I, I mean, I can see the difference between this first strike I have in front of me and your bloodline knives. They're so clean. The, the, the designs are clean and the execution is, is just so clean and impeccable on all the knives I saw on your table. But of course, this is the one I have the most exposure to.

Jacob Asuit [00:36:45]:
Now that's a good one to have exposure to because it's really, to me, it's, it's, it's one of my best, if not the best. It's one of my favorites. I like big clip points and, and I, I don't know. I, I think it's just so, just in. It's fun to just hold. The integrated double guards are my heart and soul. And cleanliness is one thing that I learned. The knife needed to be, whether it was a custom, whether it was a, a beater, it didn't.

Jacob Asuit [00:37:18]:
It doesn't really matter to me. The knife needs to be finished. Having been to Blade show so many years, I've seen so many knives and handled so many knives, and I know I'm not the only one in the world, but as a maker, you have to choose to intake something. And I intake. I I was most inspired by the knives that did not stand out at Blade show because when I was a kid, you know, 20 years ago when, when you went to Blade show and I went to Blade show before having made knives as well. When you, when you go to Blade show and the, the qu. Your quality isn't there, then you're judged for that, you know, because you took up a spot at a table that somebody else was trying to get. So you, you, you either show up with good stuff or you don't show up next year.

Jacob Asuit [00:38:25]:
And for me, my most important aspect of, of finishing any knife is, is actually finishing the knife and not leaving any little micro detail anywhere for anyone to pick apart. And, and it doesn't mean that that's perfect perfection. And I don't feel like we should, we as the community should settle for anyone telling you that it must be a massive amount of money for it to be cleanly finished like that. I disagree. And that is why I run my own race here. So I like my knives to be as cleanly finished as humanly possible. I don't, I don't know that it can get any cleaner, it can get better, it can get prettier and that's fine. But clean is the name of the game for me.

Bob DeMarco [00:39:21]:
Clean is also the name of the game in your designing at how do you come up with new designs? What's your design process?

Jacob Asuit [00:39:30]:
So during doing the Doug Blades for, for Premium Knife Supply, I, I was granted the opportunity to hold a bunch of designs that sucked. I mean I'm, I mean I, I really mean it with the deepest intentions. They suck really bad and they were, 90% of those knives were terrible. Like the design was not thought out. It was all done on CAD without ever having feeling anything. They were sent off. You know, and he knew this. It's not a big deal.

Jacob Asuit [00:40:08]:
You know, that wasn't the, that wasn't the purpose of, of his sales or target. Rather I was granted the opportunity to touch a whole bunch of no good knives. And so you learn what not to do. That's a, that's a good way to start with. Designing knives is over and over and over feeling every little trial of, of aesthetics. I mean really that's what a lot of it is is aesthetic issues or rather chasing aesthetic quality rather than actual hand feel quality, if that makes any sense. So when we were doing during the two Jake, so we did a whole bunch of custom stuff and, and lots of Damascus work, but I did make a whole bunch of, a bunch of knives like this you know, I, I just did because there was always people at the shows that would want something like that. To me, I always found or shook hands with more people that wanted anything, anything that you could just use or beat up.

Jacob Asuit [00:41:27]:
You know, I heard more times you got anything that you can actually use, use, you know, because they look at them and be like, dang, they're pretty, but I don't want to use it. So we started making knives you could use. And of course, they look like very good knife company knives. That's just what they look like. And, and I, I would go up to the grinder. I would cut out knife after knife. This was for two Jake stuff. I would, I would take pieces of bar stock and cut them into short pieces.

Jacob Asuit [00:42:00]:
No marking, no nothing. Just walk up to the grinder and profile out the shape of a knife. It didn't matter what it was. We didn't need patterns. We didn't need anything. You know, all the handles are glued and pinned on, so it's not like I was trying to fit a CNC handle or anything. You know, everything was just flying by the seat of our pants as fast as we could possibly make them. And so having tried everything, you just.

Jacob Asuit [00:42:28]:
I, I grew a mental note of what works and what doesn't with a knife. And so I had that to start with. That's. That's a biggie for designing knives. If I'm designing anything new now, it's still going on paper. Like, this is a new one that I have going. This is my next newest model. This is the counter strike.

Jacob Asuit [00:42:50]:
Oh, cool. And it's an EDC size first strike. And which some people might look at you crazy. Like, what I EDC that thing anyway. No, no, thanks. I mean, you would. I wouldn't, but that's fine. You know, around here it's probably okay, but in the city, you might get frowned upon.

Bob DeMarco [00:43:12]:
Oh, that looks cool. Cool. I mean, and I love the, the look of that handle too. I like the integrated guard, the short clip point. I. I'm gonna be. I'm gonna be keeping my eyes out for that. So you do it all on paper.

Jacob Asuit [00:43:27]:
Some of them. If I know exactly what I'm going for and I don't have something that's close already, I'll just run to the grinder and I'll just cut it out like a sculptor. Like I said, I've. My, my. In all seriousness, my knife count is over probably 16 or 17,000 at this point. I don't know what more I need to, to just pull it right out of the brain. And I feel like I have a harder time with things if I put them on paper. But then sometimes if you're, if you're running off of, like, the, like the counter strike.

Jacob Asuit [00:44:06]:
It took me a few. A few drawings to get it where I felt like I wanted it. The thing is, I'll take it from this and I'll take it to the grinder, and it won't come out exactly like this. It'll come out slightly different because I can't feel this piece of paper. When I get it in my hands, I'll. I'll change what I need to change. And I'll. And I'll.

Jacob Asuit [00:44:29]:
And I'll. I can feel things. I mean, I've just gotten used to feeling things, what they feel like before having handles. And like I said, knowing what doesn't work is probably more important than. Than knowing what does work for sure.

Bob DeMarco [00:44:47]:
And then once you're at the grinder, it can kind of talk back to you, right. And you know, every time you put it in your hand. So maybe I need to. On paper, it looked like this was a cool area, but spot on. I need to take some off. I want to ask you about your build process, but since we're talking about design, can you show the eagle? I believe it is this, this thing. This was, it was a hard decision between this and the, and the counter.

Jacob Asuit [00:45:14]:
So this is my personal eagle. This is one of the first three that were made. The other two belong to Gabe and I. I didn't keep a huntsman when we did the Huntsman design, and I really wanted one. So when he, he bought the first two and I made the third one because it was an extra, and I was like, this was mine. I'm keeping it. I'm not getting rid of this. And so I did, and I absolutely abused the heck out of it.

Jacob Asuit [00:45:45]:
I, I beat it up to where I had to put a new edge on it. I, I spent a couple weekends clearing trails in the woods with it, and I, I guess I have a tendency to be a little bit more aggressive on knives, mainly. I, I didn't really figure this out or, or consider this, but it's probably because I can just go make myself another that I don't have the same kind of respect of, oh, I probably shouldn't break this. I, I would just rather go test it and, and find out. I mean, really, I want to know. And people don't really care what the maker has to say. They want to know what other people have to say about their knives. So I don't video a whole bunch of it and I did do, I do have some abuse testing videos on YouTube.

Jacob Asuit [00:46:35]:
One of them is with this knife. And this is the Roughneck. I, I still make this one, but is probably my second least most popular knife. This one actually cut a nail. You can see it right there. And it, it handled it exactly perfect, like a champ. I, I, I very much abused this knife and it held up to all of it. Of course it's 316 thick, but it is hollow grind and, and it's only about 25,000ths at the edge.

Jacob Asuit [00:47:05]:
So I mean, it handled everything exactly the way that I would want it to handle it. But I get kind of abusive with testing, just using in general. I really want to know. But the Eagle, man, this thing is so cool. It really, really is a cool knife.

Bob DeMarco [00:47:28]:
Like a field.

Jacob Asuit [00:47:31]:
It is a hand, that's for sure. I do have a Huntsman here, though, that I, I keep forgetting to put on the website. But it's the one that you probably, you probably handles this one at Blade Show. Oh, yeah, that I had on the table. This is the Huntsman. This was Gabe's first design that I did. And it's got the exact same handle, tit for tat as the Eagle. They are identical.

Jacob Asuit [00:48:01]:
His handle was inspired by the, the BK7 with the, with that exposed pommel and a lot of curvature and, and it really allows you to move around. I've only heard like one or two people say that their hands don't fit in this. Well, I, you know, I can't account for Shaquille o' Neal when I'm designing knives either, because, I mean, there's only one Shaquille o'. Neal. Just saying. I mean, not everybody is seven feet tall and has, has bear paws.

Bob DeMarco [00:48:34]:
So that's a big handle. I got to have to handle cabs.

Jacob Asuit [00:48:38]:
It's, it's huge. Yeah, it's a, it's a lot of handle. But, yeah, it's been, it was a fun project for sure. And I, I quite like it.

Bob DeMarco [00:48:48]:
You know, I, I wanted to ask you, and I keep putting it off. How do you make them, like, take a soup to nuts through making one of these knives? I, you have. And the reason I ask you that is because I, I totally, it resonates with me, this idea of walking up to the grinder and, you know, you having something in mind but having things change. But, you know, you have regular models and they're, they look, they seem to be all the same, so how do.

Jacob Asuit [00:49:18]:
You make them so for anybody that wants to actually see it like really detailed in depth? Um, if you go on my YouTube channel, you can find. I have videos that show every single process. I mean I don't hide a single thing, nothing. Um, there's no real secrets that need to be kept in, in basic knife making. But everything starts out in bar stock form. I use three different stock thicknesses. I use 316 stock. I use 532 stock which is something this, this size right here compared to the 316 and, and I use 8 inch which is about as thin as I like to go.

Jacob Asuit [00:50:03]:
Um, I do like knives a little beefy, but everything starts in bar stock. And I, I don't use water jet currently. I have used water jet in the past. I did use water jet with, with bloodline and, and I do have some knives that are water jet but, and I'm not that I'm anti. I just, I haven't done it. But here's a cud. This one's been water jet. It's not anything fancy but this is revival of that cub that I used to make it.

Jacob Asuit [00:50:36]:
Anyway, aside from this particular knife, every single thing is hand blank. All of them. Wow. And I did a live stream. Was it yesterday or the day before? I, I do try and go live in the shop and I show all, most all of the processes on live stream too. Sometimes I'm live four or five hours. But anyhow, everything is bar stock. It's all, it's all stock removal.

Jacob Asuit [00:51:08]:
I use layout dye in old school patterns. That's, that's the way that I was taught to do things. And I shadowed some people. Like I learned a good bit from Ray Ennis from Ntreck knife raised dead.

Bob DeMarco [00:51:24]:
Now to Love N Track knives.

Jacob Asuit [00:51:27]:
Yep, yep. Some of the best ever made to probably the best ever made with 440C, that's for sure. But anyhow, Ray was a good knife maker and I learned the things that I needed to learn about cutting corners efficiently and not the wrong way. Things that you just don't need to do and things you do need to do. So I, I still do things the way that he was doing things which is layout, die and pattern. So everything's hand blanked and, and I'm. And I'm able to get them. I mean as close as water jet cutting is, is able to get them.

Jacob Asuit [00:52:10]:
I don't feel that it needs to be any more precise. Um, I, I do all, every process in house, even heat treating. So heat treating. Sometimes I do that on Live stream as well. You can watch that as well. Um, but I do have a video on that. I heat treatment in an old even heat kiln, a set pro. It's, I had to do have a new kiln coming, but they take six to eight weeks.

Jacob Asuit [00:52:32]:
So hopefully mine survives that much longer because it's done thousands and thousands and thousands of knives. And, and as, as far as, as far as handles go, handles are as basic as it gets. I, I use basic materials, things that won't really have any issue with durability, like Micarta. I love canvas Micarta because it's, it's almost as tough as the steel. And, and I, I really like to simplify things. So I do have, I have little jigs and little setups that help me here and there. But as far as like the grinding goes, everything's done 100% freehand. I don't, I don't use jigs.

Jacob Asuit [00:53:23]:
I don't use, I don't use any jigs at all for grinding them. In fact, when we first started trying to learn how to hollow grind, we ended up buying one of those $800 hollow grinding jigs from Jants and they were always advertised in Blade magazine. And, and we thought that's got to be it. That's got to be the game changer. And it, it probably did 50 or 60 knives, ended up in a cabinet somewhere. I don't know where it is nowadays. But it, it wasn't efficient. And you know, there's a lot of people that are grinding with jigs now.

Jacob Asuit [00:53:59]:
And I have no hate towards you, but in truth, if, if any of you want to ever progress, you got to get it out. You got to get out of that. Because the time that you're wasting and the things that you're not learning, by not holding the knife and feeling it, you can get better. But there are ways to simplify things for sure. And I've, I, I mean that's half of my job on, on, on the daily is trying to figure out other ways to simplify things. And my recent job has been trying to figure out how to simplify things to teach someone else. I'm, I'm hopefully bringing an apprentice here real soon, so.

Bob DeMarco [00:54:40]:
Oh, okay. Well, I was going to ask you what, what the number one thing you've learned in this knife, in this particular knife is. Business. Very good knife company. As opposed to the other knife outfits, including two Jake's before. What's the number one business thing you've learned?

Jacob Asuit [00:54:59]:
Well, nothing's for certain that's for sure. I have learned, I have learned that in knife making you go one of two ways. You continue to go custom or you, or you take it to a next step and, and you go production. If you, if you try and stay in between for too long, you will burn yourself out. I guarantee you, you will burn yourself out. I understand burnout on knife making to the deepest of levels. I've made knives, hundreds of knives in a row that I did not want to make, that I didn't want to do. I didn't want anything to do with them.

Jacob Asuit [00:55:49]:
And the thing is, if, if you've overextended yourself, you're losing sight of what you originally started for, even if it is going to a high level. So for me, I've learned that this definitely staying in your lane as far as what kind of knives you make. You, you gotta pick, you really gotta pick in this industry because both directions will eat you alive. If you want to compete, if you, if you want to contend, if you really want to get your name out there, both sides will eat you alive. Obviously one side is gonna take a lot more money and a lot more business mindset. For me, it was a matter of choosing what do I want to do for the rest of my life, what do I want to not do for the rest of my life, and where do I want to leave off on this. And I would like to, I would really like to have this self sustaining because I feel like I've done the things that I set out to do. I originally set out to very good knife company.

Jacob Asuit [00:57:06]:
I wanted to, to just be totally honest, I wanted to change the industry. I feel like there's too many, too many makers that are on the in between and they're making production or custom production style, level, quality of knives, but they're selling them at custom prices. And it can work if you have a market, but you will run out of market eventually. And if you don't pick a lane, you have to pick a lane. And if you're gonna do custom, then do custom. If you're gonna sell them as custom, sell them as custom. If you're gonna do production, sell them as production. Because there's no reason for, for someone to logically go and buy a knife that is, you know, on this level of custom.

Jacob Asuit [00:58:03]:
Now this is custom. You could say this is custom if you want. But you know, 15 other knives are made exactly the same way as this one. And they all look identical. In fact, they all fit the same sheath mold that is not made exactly for this, but it is just slightly different. So it does fit, right. The finding a good balance of. How do I say this without stabbing anyone? Finding a good balance of value and quality.

Jacob Asuit [00:58:44]:
All. It's subjective. Everything is so subjective because everybody's opinion of what something is worth is totally different. But it's hard to call this custom when you can buy something so incredibly close to it. That is production. And the sad truth is nowadays, and this way is probably always going to be this way, but the production one is probably better than that custom one because it may be more precise than that custom one. You know what I'm saying? It. It.

Jacob Asuit [00:59:21]:
So it. If you're going to do custom work, go do custom work and don't settle for simple things. Go better get bigger. And not necessarily bigger in terms of like how much you're putting out, but like show people what you're capable of and get creative with things. Instead of trying to simplify a custom knife, custom up a custom knife and simplify your production knives. That's what kind of advice I would have. That would be my number one thing. The things that I've learned.

Bob DeMarco [00:59:52]:
Jacob, as we wrap here, two things. I just want to make an observation. I mean, you, you call your knives production, and, and I, I trust and believe you, but you cut each one out by hand and your hands are on each one. So it's something a little bit different from production and something a little bit different custom. But I'm, I'm incredibly impressed. I didn't, I wasn't expecting you to. I wasn't expecting that because they are all so fine, so well made. And, and, and each model seems to be so much like one.

Bob DeMarco [01:00:27]:
The one sitting right next to it. Tell people how you do your drops and how they can get in touch with you, how they can buy a very good, nice company knife.

Jacob Asuit [01:00:37]:
I, I just to touch on that, I do have to say production, because before long I, I do guarantee they will be production made. They will be made here in my, in my house, but they, they will be production made. But as, as far as the drops go, I do as many drops as I can handle. Sometimes I get stuck in ruts with doing orders, though, and I'm, I'm gonna have to cut that off at some point. But I have an order of 30 knives going to Lamnia next week, and that is where I would like to end up. And, and to me, that's where the production side is gonna lead. You have to kind of pick, pick that. But as far as my drops go, I do Send out newsletters.

Jacob Asuit [01:01:28]:
You subscribe to my newsletter on the website Brigitte Knifeco. Com. And on a normal basis, I like to do two drops a month every other week. And my, my drops are anywhere from 20 to 40. And that's, that's where I'm able to keep it right now. Um, but I, I will increase, I guarantee you I will increase those numbers tenfold in the next couple of years.

Bob DeMarco [01:01:55]:
Outstanding. We all look forward to it. Jacob A. Sweet of Very Good Knife company. Thank you so much for coming on the show. It's been a real pleasure talking with you. I knew it would be just for meeting you, you know, for very briefly blade show. But man, I'm so glad we made this happen.

Bob DeMarco [01:02:10]:
Thanks a lot.

Jacob Asuit [01:02:11]:
Thanks for having me.

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Bob DeMarco [01:02:46]:
There he goes. Ladies and gentlemen, Jacob Sweet of very good knife company. Whatever you do, you have to check out one of his knives. You too will be hooked as I am. And now I have three, four other models. Definitely the Mustang and definitely the Eagle I need to get my hands on sometime in the future and I plan on doing that. You should plan to do something similar. All right.

Bob DeMarco [01:03:10]:
For Jim working his magic behind the switcher, I'm Bob DeMarco saying until next time, don't take dull for an answer.

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