Lance Strahl, Ironwood Outfitters: The Knife Junkie Podcast (Episode 609)

Lance Strahl, Ironwood Outfitters: The Knife Junkie Podcast (Episode 609)

Lance Strahl of Ironwood Outfitters joins Bob “The Knife Junkie” DeMarco on Episode 609 of The Knife Junkie Podcast (https://theknifejunkie.com/609).

Lance Strahl, Ironwood Outfitters: The Knife Junkie Podcast (Episode 609)The Ironwood Outfitters Mission: Ironwood Outfitters is committed to making the best damn knives that can cut, chop, and pry their way into anything and look good doing it. Ironwood Outfitters makes knives meant to endure everyday hard use. To ensure quality, Ironwood Outfitters is committed to manufacturing and sourcing only products that are made entirely in the USA.

When Lance started making knives, there was no one to show him how, so trial and error was his teacher. Growing up in the south Lance has always had an interest in knives, firearms, and the outdoors. As he got older, he found a need for better gear that worked both at home and on adventures, so he began investing his time in making his own products that fit both purposes.

Through continuous improvement of both his knifemaking skills and equipment he’s able to make knives that are unpretentious but pretty, and refined but durable. The years of trial and error learning and his subsequent arrival as a professional have led Lance to teaching classes in order to help future knife makers get a leg up.

Because he loves the outdoors, Lance and Ironwood Outfitters is committed to producing sustainable products made in the USA. Lance is also a member of the Fredericksburg Area Woodworkers Guild.

Find Lance Strahl and Ironwood Outfitters online at ironwoodoutfitters.com as well as on Instagram at www.instagram.com/ironwood_outfitters.

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From Boy Scout camp knives to Blade Show success Lance Strahl of Ironwood Outfitters proves that function-first design and traditional craftsmanship still matter. Real makers. Real knives. Real stories. Share on X
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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.
©2025, Bob DeMarco
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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.

Lance Strahl [00:00:18]:
I'm Bob DeMarco.

Bob DeMarco [00:00:19]:
On this edition of the show, I'm speaking with Lance Strahl of Ironwood Outfitters. I was introduced to Lance at Blade show this year by Matt Chase of Hog Tooth Knives, who had nothing but good things to say about the blades and the maker at the Ironwood Outfitters table. This, to me, was a ringing endorsement of the quality of Lance's cutlery. But when I had a chance to take a close look for myself, I was taken in by the seamless blending of adventuring blades with fighting knives. His catalog of designs is quite varied, with material choices that range the gamut, but it all seems to fit together into one unique design vision. We'll meet Lance and discover Ironwood Outfitters knives for ourselves. But first, be sure to, like, comment, subscribe, hit the notification bell and download the show to your favorite podcast app. That way you can listen on the go.

Bob DeMarco [00:01:10]:
If you want to help support the show, you can do so by going to patreon the knife junkie.com patreon or scan the QR code on your screen. And I will add that if you sign up for one whole year, you save 12%. So go check it out at the knife junkie.com Patreon Lance, welcome to the show.

Lance Strahl [00:01:39]:
Hey, Bob, thanks for having me. I appreciate it.

Bob DeMarco [00:01:41]:
It's my pleasure. My pleasure. So I don't know much about you. I know the knives I saw on your table, and we had a chance to talk just for a few minutes because we met in the. In the waning minutes of Blade show this year. But I think I got it right when I said, besides your culinary knives, which I just discovered, you kind of walk this tightrope between adventure knives and fighting knives. How did this all start for you? Sure.

Lance Strahl [00:02:11]:
So I've always been into knives. I was a boy Scout as a kid, and whenever we'd go camping, my. My dad would let me, you know, go to the Little Koa Camp store and pick out a knife. And years ago, we're in Alaska with my family, and on the side of the road, there's a little shop called I'd Rather Be Independent Knives on the Seward highway there. And I got my parents to stop and we went inside. Guys were making knives. It's like this. People don't make knives, right? Like, everything comes out.

Lance Strahl [00:02:47]:
Some little Camp store or whatever. This is incredible. And so we went to, I ended up buying one of the knives I've actually got. First custom knife I ever got, this one right here. And ended up going to Yellowstone the following year. And I didn't realize everything at Yellowstone is going to cost, you know, 4 or 5x. And I was like, well man, I bet I can make knives for less than that. And so, you know, years of buying and collecting tools and designing knives and stuff later.

Lance Strahl [00:03:22]:
Yeah, yeah, most of the knives I make are under 7, $800. But I just, yeah, I just decided, well, I'd rather make my own. And so I built a little forge with some bricks and charcoal and a hairdryer in the backyard and started just rough grinding stuff to shape and heat treating it that way and just kept expanding over the last 15, 16 years.

Bob DeMarco [00:03:53]:
Well, who, who taught you this? How did you learn to make a forge like that?

Lance Strahl [00:03:58]:
So there's a book, I can't remember the name of the author now but called the $50 knife shop. Back in the day we could go to Barnes and Noble and Borders and find anything you wanted. And I picked up a couple books on, on knife making. Their Wayne Goddard. That's who it is, I believe Wayne Goddard's $50 knife shop. And that was where I got most of it from. It really wasn't until years later as an adult that I started to meet other makers and become part of that community and you know, have other people to learn from. For most of the first five, six, seven years of making knives it was that book and Bob Loveless's on knife making and that was about it.

Lance Strahl [00:04:45]:
So I just kind of kept pushing forward and trying new things until stuff would turn out right and take that little win and keep going from there.

Lance Strahl [00:04:55]:
Of the many self taught knife makers I've spoken with a lot of people mentioned the $50 knife maker. That's a, that's a very famous one. But Most people reference YouTube, you know, YouTube videos taught me, you know, this is the first time I've heard someone say books. Refreshing.

Lance Strahl [00:05:11]:
Well, well I was always a big reader as a kid and I want to say, let's see, this would have been 18 years ago at this point. YouTube didn't have the content that it does now. I mean nowadays, yeah, if there's something I can't find, I probably will look on YouTube before I call somebody and ask. But, but yeah, even, even today I'll still reference Loveless's work to try and figure out a problem first. You know, there's so many greats that came before the YouTube era that we really don't have much on film or much recorded from. But a lot of those guys wrote books. Some of them are hard to find, but there's a lot of great traditional craft skills out there.

Bob DeMarco [00:06:00]:
So when was it that you sort of matured into this and how did that, how did that happen?

Lance Strahl [00:06:07]:
So I would say probably about six years ago. Once I was, you know, had a nice job at a, at a little more stable house with a basement that I could build a shop in. I started investing in more equipment, better equipment and really trying to hone my skills now that I had, now that I wasn't renting a house with three buddies and I had this much garage to try and wedge my tools in and not spray metal on their cars. Let me tell you, people don't like that. I, I was able to really start investing in that and developing more of my skills, being able to try new things, putting in a two by 72 grinder, going from heat treating with a pipe duvet style forge to heat treating with an electric kiln and just expanding what my capabilities were, as well as thinking more about the design intentionally instead of going, oh, I saw this, let's copy that. Oh, I saw, you know, this, let's do something with that thing more about, okay, I like what they've done there, but how can I make this my own? Like, I like that blade from here, but I want to do, you know, I want to do that handle different. And, you know, I think we could change up how the grind is. And so once I started doing that, I started really finding that my style is a bit hard to pin down.

Lance Strahl [00:07:54]:
But even in the, even in a lot of the culinary stuff I do, it's always, always been focused on the, on some element of outdoors, some part of, you know, getting out there and being part of nature. I mean, even the two I've got right in front of me here, very different in a lot of ways. We're talking to modern synthetic. This is Griptek. The handle stainless steel compound ground tanto. This one is going to be high. Bring it back in the light here. High carbon steel with some curly maple that I use aqua fortis to finish, which is how they did the traditional Kentucky long rifles.

Lance Strahl [00:08:40]:
So it doesn't seem like there's a lot in common between these two pieces. But even the blue on this is from. I want to make something that'd be a great, you know, fishing companion knife. You don't really think of a Tanto for that, but just something that reminded me of the water, reminded me of getting out on the beach and fishing growing up. And this one, again, more traditional, but still that the handle's taken from a. From a Kentucky long rifle. So it's all. There's finding connection with it.

Lance Strahl [00:09:12]:
Sorry to interrupt you. That's cool that. That that handle was salvaged from a Kentucky long rifle.

Lance Strahl [00:09:20]:
Well, so the. The maple on here is not salvage from a long rifle. The technique is what is. What goes back to that. It's about. About 17, early 1700s, they started using a process called aqua fortis, which is taking your curly maple and then dissolving iron filings and acid painting that on and then hitting it with a torch or a hot iron, but protects the wood and gives it a really nice curl and color to it.

Lance Strahl [00:09:55]:
I happen to be reading the Revenant right now, and he. Hugh Glass has one of those rifles, a Kentucky. I can't remember what year it was rifle.

Lance Strahl [00:10:07]:
And.

Lance Strahl [00:10:07]:
And I had to look it up and it was. It was really cool. So it's kind of interesting that. That you mentioned that. That process. But anyway, you were saying that it's hard to. To nail down your style. How, how would you.

Bob DeMarco [00:10:20]:
How would you describe your style if you had to?

Lance Strahl [00:10:25]:
That's a good question. You know, I would say a lot of Florida, dash of the Southwest, and all functional. Every piece I make, I expect to be used. I don't remake wall hangers. I don't remake anything that I wouldn't expect somebody to cut with. And everything I make is optimized to that purpose. Yeah, I do fancier stuff. You saw this one at the show? Oh, yeah, the big Western fighter here.

Lance Strahl [00:10:57]:
But I wouldn't sell it if I didn't think you couldn't actually use it for that. Now, God willing, you wouldn't have to. But even something like this, you know, I expect somebody to go out and cut with, to chop with. And so I think I make everything with that first and then from there, you know, what are the design aesthetics? What can we do that's gonna be fun or playful with it?

Bob DeMarco [00:11:23]:
So utility is the through line, whether it's a. More of a fighter like your shrike double edge. To me, that's a little salt knife. Or this. Or this West Western fighter, you called.

Lance Strahl [00:11:36]:
It Western Fighter Fighter.

Bob DeMarco [00:11:38]:
But even. Even the. Even the more outdoors knives, those are utilitarian. And then you go all the way to kitchen knives, also utilitarian. So that. That's a fine theme. You know what I'M saying like that.

Lance Strahl [00:11:53]:
Yeah.

Lance Strahl [00:11:54]:
In terms of style, it's. They're all things that are to be used. Hold up that fighter again, if you wouldn't, since it's our minds. Yeah, I remember this one and I saw it on your website today when I was just brushing up. And I love that. I love the shape of that bowie. I love the. Love the large choil.

Lance Strahl [00:12:16]:
And it, it's. It oddly, it reminds me oddly of a movie knife. I'm not going to tell you what it is yet, but it's not more modern than that.

Bob DeMarco [00:12:25]:
Okay.

Bob DeMarco [00:12:26]:
Yeah, Yeah, I like that. I like that a lot. So let's go back to the house. You got your own house and you're no longer wedged in a garage that you're sharing with three buddies. So are you still forging at this point? You're. You're in the basement. Are you forging down there?

Lance Strahl [00:12:44]:
So everything I'm doing at that point forward is stock removal. So I use, I would say about half stainless and. And half high carbon steel. The high carbon varies based on purpose. Again, the stainless pretty much all nitro V. But what kept me away from forging and pushing more towards stock removal is the basement I was in was about 180 years old. And I figured an open propane forge down there was probably not the best safety choice versus having an electric kiln was a much better option. It gave me more of that flexibility working with something like a nitro V, which is great especially for.

Lance Strahl [00:13:35]:
Again, it's somebody that loves fishing. Somebody grew up in Florida around the saltwater. Having. Being able to make stuff that I'm going to use for that too, as opposed to. Yeah, 8670 and you know, A2 and whatnot will hold up all right to that. If you take care of them, they're really not designed for that purpose. Right. So moving into being able to buy steel by the sheet and precisely control temperature for it was a big help in being able to expand the offerings.

Lance Strahl [00:14:11]:
Expand, I guess what my focus is for the knives. But also was a safety choice for that shop.

Bob DeMarco [00:14:19]:
Gotcha.

Lance Strahl [00:14:20]:
They.

Bob DeMarco [00:14:21]:
What do they say? Necessity is the mother of invention. Like, in a way, you have to learn how to do things so that you don't burn down the house.

Lance Strahl [00:14:29]:
Yeah, that would not go on. Well.

Bob DeMarco [00:14:32]:
What are. What are people calling for more when they're. When they're looking at an ironwood outfitters a knife, do they want the stainless or do they want the high carbon?

Lance Strahl [00:14:44]:
So it's been a pretty decent mix, honestly. As far as what I've been seeing, as far as what people want really is either the smaller and I'd love to show you one of my wrapped pieces, but actually now I do have one left.

Bob DeMarco [00:15:03]:
Oh, good.

Lance Strahl [00:15:03]:
So something more like this right here. So traditional wrapped, smaller size. This is the only one I've got left after blade or stuff and mammoth ivory really have been the two biggest, two biggest things people have wanted. The steel choice has been more of a, more of a necessity for folks if they want something specifically for, for saltwater environment versus, you know, up here in Virginia. Hunting and camping, it's not as big of a concern.

Bob DeMarco [00:15:38]:
So between a Japanese style wrap and mammoth ivory. Mammoth ivory, that's. That's quite a spread there.

Lance Strahl [00:15:47]:
Yeah. I just had a customer come by yesterday. What I've been doing since Blade, I don't have any new knives. Show you. Well, got one new one to show you in a minute, but had a really good customer that wanted a set of high free Grips for his 1911 to match a knife I did for him. And so I used to make a lot of those. I haven't as much anymore, but you know, it's a good customer. So I was like, all right, I'll make you a set.

Lance Strahl [00:16:17]:
And they turned out gorgeous. It went really well. He actually had found a 1911 that had a finish that was a Sig, that was very close to the finish on the knife I'd done for him. So came out as a pretty nice match set.

Bob DeMarco [00:16:32]:
That sounds awesome. I mean, that's, yeah, that's. You're, you're the most stylish guy in the apocalypse with that, that, that. So very good customer. You said, how did this happen? That you were making knives and you started accumulating customers.

Lance Strahl [00:16:49]:
So a lot of it in the very early days was word of mouth, of course, just friends of friends, people who knew folks, you know, giving away knives to friends and family. People see them in one. Another one. During the pandemic, Instagram was way different than it is now. And so I was actually picking up a lot of customers that way. And since they've put a little more restrictions on that, it's gone back to a lot more word of mouth. Just hustling, going to shows when I can. And thankfully, I've had a lot of repeat business too, which has kept stuff afloat.

Lance Strahl [00:17:32]:
So.

Bob DeMarco [00:17:34]:
Yeah, because it seems like that can be a really hard part of any business, but especially one where you're hand making kind of a specialty item. People. Yeah, most civilians, so to speak. Non knife guys don't think of, you know, spending money or seeking that out. So building up a customer base can be difficult.

Lance Strahl [00:17:58]:
Yeah. And I've thought about. I know there's a lot of great shops out there that carry knives. I've only really worked with one dealer, Howling Dog. You met at Blade mostly because, you know, I don't make, for the most part, 20 of the same knife. I don't do, I don't do a run of. We're going to do 10 of these in black, 10 of these in blue, 10 of these in red. And I'm just gonna sit there and grind the same thing every day till, you know, till my eyes bulge out because every piece I make is different.

Lance Strahl [00:18:43]:
I've really tried to cater more towards meeting my customers where they are and showing off. Hey, you know, I can do this interesting thing or I can do this interesting thing. If you like what you see, great. If not, I'll make exactly what you want and you can see what I do, so, you know, I can do it.

Bob DeMarco [00:19:05]:
So when you say that I can make you exactly what you want, this is custom, a custom knife in the most pure sense of the word, then.

Lance Strahl [00:19:13]:
Yeah, if you said you like the shrike handle but you wanted a tanto blade, it'd take a little longer than just ordering a strike off a website. Yeah, I'll do it. You know, any, I, I like the customer designs that come in that aren't, aren't necessarily in line exactly with what I do because it's a great exercise. It's a great, you know, way to challenge your, challenge your brain and skills as far as coming up with a new design to someone else's ideas, but also maybe doing something you hadn't thought of before, um, and then figuring out how to declutter.

Bob DeMarco [00:19:54]:
Do you have anything in your catalog that was inspired or started off as someone else's idea that you repeat that you make over and over?

Lance Strahl [00:20:06]:
If you go back up. Well, if you go back up, the top corner there, the top left one, I've actually got a different version, that same one here.

Bob DeMarco [00:20:16]:
Oh, sweet.

Lance Strahl [00:20:17]:
This is one I do make occasionally. This is a Loveless style knife in a lot of ways. You've got the tapered tang with the red liners. This one, it's almost exactly with the micarta there, soldered guard, hollow ground. But where it differs is that this is a clip point. Loveless did a lot of things, a lot of really amazing knives. I'm not sure I ever saw the clip point that he Made and how it came about was in my knife making classes. We had.

Lance Strahl [00:20:52]:
We had. One of my buddies really wanted to take a design. I had what we were making, class knife and make it a clip point. And so I ended up. I modified it for him on the spot. And then I was like, well, I like the idea. I like where this is going. Let's roll with it.

Lance Strahl [00:21:10]:
And so I made more of a. More of a Loveless style ahead. It had bolsters rather than guards, wasn't tapered tang. I was like, all right, this is getting in a direction of something I want to go. And as someone who, again, like I said, one of the first knife making books I have is Bob Loveless is like, well, let's. Let's push this to the limit of sort of that style, but retain the clip for point. And so that's the one you see there.

Bob DeMarco [00:21:42]:
And tell people what that's called.

Lance Strahl [00:21:45]:
This is. This is my Loveless rancher.

Bob DeMarco [00:21:48]:
That is beautiful. Yeah, that's a great name for that knife. That's, you know, it's got the, the western feel with the, with the clip point. Yeah, you've got that Loveless style handle. Let me see that sheath while you're.

Lance Strahl [00:21:59]:
Yeah, sure. There you go. Cool. Just nice fairly simple leather sheath. This is. I got it in there a little off, but there we go. There we go. So this is again, more the Loveless style way of doing a sheath with the liner going up to where your guard is.

Lance Strahl [00:22:22]:
Just a nice polished edge on it.

Bob DeMarco [00:22:25]:
Do you draw all the leather yourself?

Lance Strahl [00:22:27]:
Yep, everything's in house. Um, that's. That's one of the next things I want to tackle and want to work on more is, you know, improving my sheets. I don't, I don't make bad sheets, but everything's simple. Simple and straightforward. Um, the one on the western fighter is a little more elaborate. This one's a. Oh, slightly more recent one.

Lance Strahl [00:22:50]:
Um, but again, just going in that vein and trying to make a little better, a little better, a little more elaborate sheets. And it's something I haven't put as much focus on just because, like making knives, like grinding knives, hand stitching leather is a little less exciting for me.

Bob DeMarco [00:23:18]:
So I would imagine, I would imagine it's also. It also seems like it's taxing on the hands. That and also the. The Japanese wrapping seems like it.

Lance Strahl [00:23:29]:
Yeah. So that's. Once you get the hang of it, it's not too bad. You're pulling it. You're pulling it pretty tight. If you're talking Something on the smaller side. 15, 20 minutes. It's really not that bad.

Lance Strahl [00:23:44]:
Bigger piece. Yeah. You just keep clamps handy so you can take a break.

Bob DeMarco [00:23:51]:
Yeah. Well, you mentioned classes. You teach classes. Tell us about that. How did you start. Why did you start teaching classes?

Lance Strahl [00:24:00]:
Sure. So a few years ago, a friend and good customer reached out and was like, hey, I want to do something really fun for my daughter's birthday. She really likes your knives. She. You'd gotten her one as well. He's like, would you ever consider teaching a class? And my first thought was, well, I don't know how that's gonna go. I had to think was gonna come qualified for that, but I was like, all right, let me see if I can put a syllabus together. Let me see if I can come up with something that I think would be good in a reasonable amount of time, convince it down to two days, and figure out how we can get you from the barest minimum.

Lance Strahl [00:24:52]:
I felt comfortable that we could start at up to a functional knife by the time we leave. And I limit it to three people for that reason. You know, I don't have a big shop. It's not. I don't have six or eight grinders along the wall, so we're not packing folks in there. But yeah, so I, you know, I sat down, I went through it, I was like, all right, I think I can. I think I can do this. The first two classes were all just good friends, pretty much.

Lance Strahl [00:25:25]:
So it's a good test audience. And, you know, some people, I'm always willing to offer people as much or as little help as they want. Some folks want to do it all themselves. No hands on. Uh, and some folks, I've. I've showed em how to do it. They've. They've taken one or two passes and been like, all right, can.

Lance Strahl [00:25:48]:
Can you help? Can you. Can you do this? It's like, all right, that's. No, not why you're here, but if you want me to, I will. So it. It's just something that's grown and developed. Um, I really haven't been doing them as much this past year just because of time. It does. It's two days.

Lance Strahl [00:26:07]:
It's a weekend for me, so. So I haven't done as much lately, but some I'll probably start doing as we get near the end of the summer into fall here.

Bob DeMarco [00:26:17]:
Well, that's. It seems like a. A great service for you to offer, especially considering you kind of scratched together your knowledge and your skills when you started. This is A good way to give, give someone a, a, a head start in a way.

Lance Strahl [00:26:36]:
Yeah, it, it's, it's great to show. I, I would say most people are there for fun. I don't know how many people take it up afterwards, but it's great to give people, you know, an opportunity to start on the right foot and hopefully influence some of them to keep going with it. Um, I, I know for me it would have been, it would have been great to have something like this around when I was getting started. And it really, what matters to me is seeing how much people enjoy it. We, we have just as many, you know, housewives as we do machinists taking the class. So you have people that are great with tools and people that have never touched tools and especially with the folks that have never don't have the experience, seeing them get really excited about, especially the last day finishing it and be like, I did this. That, that's the reward you buy for it.

Bob DeMarco [00:27:32]:
So do you, when you have a cla, when you have classes like this, do you prescribe what knives they're gonna make? Do you, do you keep it in a simple drop in a small envelope?

Lance Strahl [00:27:43]:
Yeah, I do have one of the class knives here. Oh, further away. But this model right here, this is what we switched over to using for the class just because it's something. I was doing something a little bit bigger for the first couple and it was just taking too long to finish grinding. So this is what we're doing now. It's a nice simple mid sized knife that's easy to carry, fairly easy to make. There's nothing, there's nothing complex about grinding this blade. You're not having to work out any of the, any of the geometry, how much trees you go.

Lance Strahl [00:28:26]:
And it's just a good all around knife. So it gives some people hopefully use when they're done. We're not making bowies that cool. Mom's going to go home and put this on the wall. She's not going to use it, but this is something, you know, somebody could use in their garden. It's not. Somebody could use it in the kitchen if they really wanted to. It's not some big imposing weapon.

Lance Strahl [00:28:48]:
It's just sort of nice everyday size knife.

Bob DeMarco [00:28:51]:
So do you find that your policy. That's a loaded question. I was gonna. What you. What do you think the most difficult aspect of knife making is for someone who walks in off the street and is making their first knife with you?

Lance Strahl [00:29:09]:
The, the thing people struggle with the most is, is grinding. You've Got a belt that on the slow end is going about a thousand surface feet per minute with 60 grit sandpaper. Trying to grab the knife and yank it out of your hands. And you have to keep it steady and at the same angle through the entire cut. So it's definitely the most skill oriented part of the class. I would say one, once you get to more complex shapes, more complex knives, there's definitely other things that I still, you know, struggle with and go back on a couple times. But for making something like that, it's a fairly simple pattern. Definitely the grinding and not burning your fingers.

Lance Strahl [00:30:01]:
Yeah, you know, you're running it on there pretty hot. Trying, you know, we got the dunk bucket there, we've got the Mr. Trying to keep it as cool as we can, but it's just something you got to get used to.

Bob DeMarco [00:30:13]:
So let's talk about design for a minute. Like you're saying before, you've got a wide variety of designs. The tanto to me sticks out in a cool way because it's, it's unexpected, especially for an outdoorsy style knife. But I've always thought that that's kind of strange since Americanized tantos like that have become so famous over the last 40, 30 years, something like that, they seem extremely useful in the outdoors or anywhere else. Tell, tell me how you design a knife from the idea to actually making it. That. Do you, do you draft things out on paper? Do you have a preconceived notion how does that work?

Lance Strahl [00:30:59]:
Sure. So I think a lot of it goes to how, how any of it starts is going to be. Either is going to be something I have an idea in my head, just something that's sort of tickling at my brain. A little bit of this could be, this could be interesting, this could be different, something I've kind of seen before, but it's not quite right. And then I'll go basically look at a bunch of knives, scroll through Instagram, scroll through wherever and try and bring that idea in a little more cohesively. Find some other elements to pepper in there. Make sure that, oh, I know why I'd like this. I saw so and so make it like you, you don't want to do that.

Lance Strahl [00:31:48]:
So do the, do the research in terms of, you know, what design elements are out there and what haven't I thought of, what has someone else already thought of that I don't want to replicate. And then I'll sit down. I use Fusion360. I used to draw everything on paper and it's just not good. I can't draw to save my life. The irony being my dad was and my brother is professional artists. So I should be able to. But I can't draw save my life.

Lance Strahl [00:32:28]:
So I use Fusion360 and it allows me to sort of sculpt in 3D space what I have in my head. And I'll just sit there and play with it till the lines seem right. And that could be, you know, that could be 20 minutes, that could be days, weeks of just sitting there, iterating, walking away from it, coming back to it, walking away from it, coming back to it until it just seems right. And then I'll print it out as a drawing and usually put it on a thicker piece of cardboard or a thinner piece of wood and cut that out exactly the shape and just see how it feels. See is the handle right? Because I can run the math. I can know about, hey handle should be about, you know, 3:75 to about 4:25. Seems to be kind of the sweet spot. But then maybe you put a little curve in the back of it just to add some more grip.

Lance Strahl [00:33:25]:
And now it's too small because now it's pulling your hand in more out handed things got. That's a little bit so. And something like that at the back instead of the handle on the Tanto here. These are pretty close to the same, but the Tanto is going to feel a little bit bigger in the hand because you don't have anything pulling your hand in versus this guy here. It's got to feel a little smaller in the hand because this is a curved surface and so that's pushing into your hand. It's going to have more retention but. So I'll print it out and make sure it's gonna be. It's not gonna be cartoon.

Lance Strahl [00:34:08]:
End up being cartoonishly large. It's not gonna be too small. And then I will go ahead and you know, cut it out of steel, run a, run a prototype of it, usually in 18 inch stock, regardless of how big it's gonna be, just. Cause if you're doing something like this and it's too long, you know, quarter inch, it's gonna take a long time to grind. And I don't wanna find out it's a crappy design after four hours of grinding. So I'll usually run it off an eighth inch. And if it's, if it's good, if it's something I like, then I'll decide what steel it's going to be and what fits best for the design. And Make I.

Lance Strahl [00:34:59]:
However many I'm feeling could be one or two. Could be something like the shrike I think I've made. That first bash, including the large ones is eight or so. I. I usually don't get into having stuff laser cut or water jet just because I'm usually not running big enough batches for the collaboration pieces I've done. Those have all been water jet. Just because I was not going to grind 25 knives to shape and cut, cut them out on a band saw and then grind them in the rest of the way, that was going to take half the production time. And because both my partners on those are sheath makers, that was gonna be hard on them.

Lance Strahl [00:35:45]:
Cause even if I'm making the sheets one at a time, great, if there's a little inconsistency, like it's the same design but it's a little thinner at this dimension, it doesn't make a difference. If I'm sending one as a prototype to my sheath maker and he's trying to work on it consecutively, they all have to be exactly the same. Right?

Bob DeMarco [00:36:09]:
Well, since we're there, actually you're. You're talking about that cool looking clip point chef's knife, the Arizona chef or something, Is that.

Lance Strahl [00:36:17]:
Yeah, so that was one of them. The Arizona chef was one I did with Lifetime Leatherworks. That was a. He wanted to go bigger than what I normally do on chefs. So I believe that one was a 10 inch blade. Um, and what steel we end up using for those, it was not something I normally chosen for. I can't remember off the top of my head now. Uh, yeah, that was one I did with Ty out at Lifestyle Leather.

Lance Strahl [00:36:49]:
Uh, just happened to be talking to him one day about, about a pot handle for a cast iron pot. Um, does leather ones of those.

Bob DeMarco [00:37:00]:
Oh, yeah.

Lance Strahl [00:37:01]:
Started talking knives. He's a big chef and so he's like, well, what if we did these for the site? And I was like, all right, we can do that. So those turned out really cool. And he knocked the sheets out to park on those. I think for him being out in the Southwest, the, the handle on those, the rich light that we went with, but really worked well.

Bob DeMarco [00:37:28]:
What was the design inspiration for that?

Lance Strahl [00:37:34]:
So he wanted something like my 8 inch K tip chef here. We wanted something in this vein, but he wanted something bigger, a little more stretched out than what would be a little more traditional K tip shape. So basically I just kind of took this design, brought the point up to more of a western point in this case. Western versus Eastern Meeting Chef's knife style, retained the handle for the most part. I slim. I got rid of a little bit of the finger groove and. Yeah, and just sort of stretched it out. And he wanted to go with something that was, again, more that southwest, a little more rustic.

Lance Strahl [00:38:24]:
So we did do the stonewashed blades on those, and then we went with a desert is the color that they call that rich light. Rich lights like a paper micarta material. And it. They're out in Arizona and so really matched with what the landscape is there.

Bob DeMarco [00:38:44]:
So what is the main challenge of making a chef's knife? And. And when did you start making chef's knives?

Lance Strahl [00:38:53]:
So I started my wife talking into making chest knives is how we got there. She wanted a knife to cut the cake at our wedding with and then wanted it to be functional as well. Not just one of those gimmicks, cake cutting knives that you see a lot of. And so it's like, all right, well, what's. What's something that would be that she would use a lot of or get a lot of use out of. And it was also different. So I went with the K tip design because it's a very functional design. It's somewhere between the western and eastern styles.

Lance Strahl [00:39:40]:
And again, with the handles on the ones I do, somewhere between the western, eastern style, sort of a fusion of the two. And for that one, for her wedding knife, that one has Cuban mahogany, ivory, and blue truestone on it. So like. Or turquoise truestone on it. And a friend saw that and was like, well, I want one of those. I was like, well, let's see. So I changed up the handle on it a bit, changed up some of the material choices, and more and more people were like, well, could you do something maybe for, like, barbecuing? I was like, yeah, okay, I can do a barbecue knife. Sure.

Lance Strahl [00:40:28]:
And so it expanded into. You saw a decent portion of the collection of styles I do for chef's knives. But I have made barbecue forts. I've made, like, the actual meat scimitars. It's always one of those evolving things of, hey, I saw. I saw some guy doing X, Y, Z with whatever. Can you make that? Um, it's like, yeah, yeah, I think I can do that. Um, and so just continuing to expand down that road.

Bob DeMarco [00:41:07]:
So describing your wife's knife's handle and then talking about rich light and talking about the other kind of the wraps. You use a very wide variety of materials in all these knives, also to include the sheaths, you know, Kydex and leather. And so what. What Inspires you to use all that. Such a wide variety of stuff. A lot of people get kind of used to a certain kind of material in terms of the design and also in terms of working with it.

Lance Strahl [00:41:41]:
Sure. So I think for me, like I said before, I wouldn't want to grind the same knife a hundred times and just put three different colored handles on it. I, I, you know, I don't want to make the exact same handle over and over again because that's not interesting to me. And so I try and, you know, make each one unique, make each one a little fun. Give you two examples on here. These are both same model knock, but very different handles. This is some green paper Micarta with some vintage micarta here. This is some Osage with G10.

Lance Strahl [00:42:27]:
And it was, I was down in Key West, I was like, well, wonder what key lime pie would look like as a knife handle. And this one was Shark week was on last year. They had some awesome 80 color 80s colors for a promo. I was like, well, I wonder how I could, you know, incorporate that into a knife handle Felt it had the same sort of Florida vibes. So use the same model of knife for both. But I, for me, it's always just all, a lot of it's all see something cool and be like, hey, I want to try and try and do that, try and incorporate that somehow. Or in the case of something like these two trapper models here, they always, the overall model itself to me always kind of had a rustic frontier vibe. That was kind of what I was creating it for, what I was going for.

Lance Strahl [00:43:23]:
And so more of a southwest feel for the handles always just kind of appealed to me. Just to me that was, that was what fit for it. Um, and for this one actually is a, some Southwest Kydex for the sheath too. I, you know, I've never been afraid of trying new handle materials. I find that 90% of everything looks like something else you've used before. Um, most mammoth ivory and I haven't used mammoth molar. I'll say that no one's ever wondered that. And I've heard it's very cracky and chippy.

Lance Strahl [00:44:04]:
But most, most mammoth ivory works a lot like a bit harder G10 because it's all fully epoxy impregnated at this point. So it works fairly predictably. You know, your paper Micarta's work again, also like a bit harder G10 that you can just burn. There's so many of the same elements and everything, different woods at different dents with different densities, you know, work it. It's nothing that's going to be unpredictable in the sense where I feel like, hey, this might fail because I don't know how the material is going to work. There's definitely some stuff that's been more challenging. There's definitely some like. Well, it's going to be a learning experience, but it's one of those things.

Lance Strahl [00:44:55]:
Use sharp belts and go slow. When in doubt.

Bob DeMarco [00:45:00]:
If you would pick up the knife that had the Osage handle and tell me about this. Yeah, that one, the trap. This one right here, the one that you were showing. Osage orange handle.

Lance Strahl [00:45:14]:
So these are actually both Osage.

Bob DeMarco [00:45:15]:
Oh, okay.

Lance Strahl [00:45:16]:
I do use a lot of Osage.

Bob DeMarco [00:45:18]:
Well, I want I. The one in your. With the purple sheath.

Lance Strahl [00:45:22]:
Purple seeds. All right.

Lance Strahl [00:45:23]:
Yeah. I saw this model a lot on your. On your site and I want to talk about the model. But first I have a question. And as I know, oage is a really hard wood. It's a. I have a beautiful limb of it around here that I've been noodling with for a long time.

Lance Strahl [00:45:42]:
And.

Lance Strahl [00:45:42]:
And then the G10, presumably that's G10 in the middle. Purple in. Yeah, the purple is that. Is that difficult to work with materials of different density across the same handle slab?

Lance Strahl [00:45:58]:
Yeah. So it does present some challenges. It's worse if you're talking about something like a micarta, especially like a heavy canvas micarta that really doesn't want to work down and something that's a softer material. Another piece I picked up from Bob Loveless's book, actually. But what I'll generally do on something like this is I'll work it down on the grinder to about 85%, 90% and you'll sometimes will get like little ripples or it won't quite meet up where you want it to. But what I'll have love was this. In his book, funny enough was backing your sandpaper with a heavy piece of boot sole leather. And that just sort of rides over it allows you to work like you have a.

Lance Strahl [00:46:59]:
Like you have essentially a platen like a hard sanding stick type surface, but is flexible enough to curve around the contours of the material in the set. Why I say the contours as in wrapping this way. So any low spots that just gliding over, it's not getting sucked down into them like it would if you were just using the sandpaper by hand. And that really helps you eliminate those low spots. It's also great when you're working with a softer Material with something like brass or stainless steel for your pins. Gotta be a little more careful when you're doing on the grinder with that. But again, it'll only hit those high spots. It isn't gonna dig into those valleys.

Lance Strahl [00:47:43]:
And it's a really nice way to get a nice smooth, even finish. Right.

Bob DeMarco [00:47:47]:
Cause if you're gripping a piece of sandpaper or you know, I've on. On occasion like put a piece of tape on the back of sandpaper, it still is gonna dive down into whatever is deeper there. And man, that's frustrating.

Lance Strahl [00:48:02]:
Yeah.

Bob DeMarco [00:48:04]:
Pick up that knife if you will and tell us about this model.

Lance Strahl [00:48:07]:
I think so this specific one is the conch. This is the mid size one of the three I did. Again, this would be inspired by Florida. Got a bit of a shark fin here, sort of a shark tooth design. And then look here we got fish, natural fish in the design. So I did this one which is the mid size one, which I thought was the most EDC friendly one. A much larger one that was more on the size of like the Western fighter and a smaller one, again, more along the sides size like the Fusion here. And I'm sold out on the other two sizes, but I do have a couple of the mid size ones left.

Lance Strahl [00:48:59]:
So there's a nice. That this is one where it's more all around kind of playful. Most of them don't have that many hidden elements in there. Most of them are pretty straightforward, just ergonomic. But this is one where I was like going to go all in on just having a fun design project there.

Lance Strahl [00:49:21]:
And all the colors and stuff you have in that also seem like tropical fish kind of things you'd see under the, under the surface of the water on the. The trapper that you were holding up the sort of southwestern south. That Mexican blanket or on the other one you.

Bob DeMarco [00:49:40]:
On the other one? Yeah, yeah, the Mexican blanket.

Lance Strahl [00:49:46]:
Yeah, that's. That's a beauty. So tell us about the trapper.

Lance Strahl [00:49:51]:
So this is one I wanted to make a nice thin, lightweight model that you could carry for everyday use, but would be a good outdoor knife with a good blade shape for that sort of work. Something if you clean small game with and hence Maeve the trapper. So these all actually have tapered tangs as well. I want to try and pull as much weight out of them as I could without skeletonizing or getting something else to sacrifice the strength of it. And then I did it in two different blade shapes, which comes down to more personal preference. Although something like this here is gonna Be a little bit better for skinning, but just wanted to go with some different options there. And then one's more of a drop.

Lance Strahl [00:50:40]:
More of a spear point. Sorry to interrupt you. One's go ahead in case people are just listening. I'm stepping all over your words, but yeah, you've, you've got one that's a drop point and one that's a spear point. And yeah, I think I see what you mean about the, the drop point would be a better Skinner.

Lance Strahl [00:50:59]:
Yeah, you got a lot more belly to the blade there. But both of our hollow ground to a fairly fine edge so that they'd be excellent slicing knives again without giving too much in terms of rigidity.

Bob DeMarco [00:51:14]:
So which is your best seller?

Lance Strahl [00:51:22]:
Best selling knife. I've got is probably got is something I actually don't have with me because I'm out of them. But the little mini tantos that I've done, about the same size as the fusion I was showing you earlier, about this size compound ground. All of them have been wrapped. If I bring them out, we sell out of them. It's just an inexpensive, fun little American tanto knife about this size, A nice little pocket piece. That's the thing that's, you know, consistently wherever we go, whatever we do, those are always sold out right away. Of the bigger pieces, you know, the things I consider a little more practical, a little more useful.

Lance Strahl [00:52:16]:
Um, the Scout 2.0 that we make for the class has been really popular as well. That's a freaking, a good all around functional knife.

Bob DeMarco [00:52:28]:
So you just alluded to, and you mentioned earlier shows. Now is this, is this how you've been able to cultivate your business?

Lance Strahl [00:52:37]:
Yeah, it's definitely been part of it. You know, this was the first year I'd actually been to Blade Show. Um, I think, you know, at the end of the day, no matter what, as an artist craftsman, everybody's got a little bit of that imposter syndrome of the. It's not quite ready yet. I'm not quite ready yet. And so I'd held off until Trevor and his wife Sabrina from Howling Dog this year were like, hey, you should come out with us, share some table space. It'll be a good time. So this is the first time doing that and it was, it was a great experience.

Lance Strahl [00:53:15]:
But in general I've done a lot more the local regional shows and you know, it's, it's definitely been a good way to get sales. I think the best, the best way to spread the customer base has really been again, through, through word of Mouth through working with local shops. We've got a great, great woodworking shop here in town. They've got a big warehouse, they have a membership plan. That's where I get all my exotic hardwood. And so they, they have some of my knives showcased up there. And then again, doing community events around here, working with some of the local charities, some of the local veterans groups, has really been the biggest recurring long term driver. Because you know, you go to a, even you go to one of the big gun shows, you might sell eight, ten knives.

Lance Strahl [00:54:17]:
But so just people walking for the most part, not everybody, just people walking past go, oh, that's cool. Well, I came here with disposable cash, so I'll buy it. But not necessarily someone that's interested in, hey, what's the story? Why did you do this? Like, what are the materials? Why does that matter? And really having that interaction, sometimes you get to. And it's fantastic. But that's definitely a lot less common than someone questioning how many times you folded your steel. So for shows have been great as far as business drivers, but as far as the long term, long term, keeping the business going, getting to keep doing this, it's always been about no customer attention. And what about.

Bob DeMarco [00:55:15]:
So did you learn at Blade Show Atlanta this year that you're not an imposter? What did you, did you come away with from that experience?

Lance Strahl [00:55:24]:
I, I would say I learned that the community was a lot more opening and inviting than I had expected. You know, I, you alluded to Matt Aaron Bus earlier. I, I had met Matt that Friday. We had a mutual friend. He's a former scout sniper. When I worked in a previous job, I worked closely with the scout sniper schoolhouse at Quantico, as well as through rugby and some other things. Being in the area, I know a lot of the guys in that community. So I walked up and I was like, hey, I, you know, I think we have a mutual friend.

Lance Strahl [00:56:05]:
Turns out we, we do have a good mutual friend. And he was like, come out to the bar with us later. And so that night, went down to the pit with those guys, met Brian from FD Leatherworks, James from Wasteland Forge, introduced me to Jimmy and just, just had a great time. Hung out with those guys the rest of the weekend. Came away with invitations to go learn forging from them and, and, and, and invitations to Juni's house and Montana. And so just a great group of guys. And I think that was honestly the biggest takeaway, more than selling knives, more than doing any of that, was just that being Part of the community makes you part of that group. So go ahead.

Bob DeMarco [00:57:07]:
No, no, no. Please finish what you're going to say.

Lance Strahl [00:57:09]:
So to circle all the way back to your question. Yes, but not for the reason of selling knives. Got you, got you.

Bob DeMarco [00:57:17]:
It must have been good for you to see the, I mean, to see your knives stack up. Your knives are, you know, what am I trying to say? You make beautiful knives and they belonged in that room, you know, next to all the other beautiful knives there. And that's got to feel good to know.

Lance Strahl [00:57:37]:
Oh, for sure. Yeah. It was it once. As much as I don't do it. Okay. We all like selling knives as much as I do it because I love making knives and that's. I'd keep doing it if I had the money to and no one did pay me. But yeah, getting the validation of having knives sell there on having people interested from outside the community, just from the community of collectors.

Lance Strahl [00:58:11]:
You inviting me on here was all, you know, great validation of that. I'm on the right draft at least.

Bob DeMarco [00:58:21]:
So what's next for Ironwood Outfitters?

Lance Strahl [00:58:26]:
I think the next is I had a lot of great takeaways from Blade show as well, as far as what, what people liked, as far as what people were picking up, what, how they liked it in the hand where we could improve on some of the models to make it more ergonomic. And so I've got another batch that I'm getting started here pretty soon. And then, Trey, if you see me there next year, I might have some forged pieces on the table. I don't know if they talk me into it. It might happen. Back to your roots, back to the very beginning.

Bob DeMarco [00:59:05]:
All right. Tell people how they can catch up with you, how they can buy your knives, where they can contact you.

Lance Strahl [00:59:12]:
Sure. So everything new is going to be on Ironwood Outfitters, on Instagram, also on Facebook at Ironwood Outfitters, where you go to my website, www.ironwoodoutfitters.com awesome, Lance.

Bob DeMarco [00:59:27]:
Thank you so much. Lance Strahl of Ironwood Outfitters. Thank you so much for joining me on the show. It's been a real pleasure.

Lance Strahl [00:59:33]:
Thank you, Bob. Thanks for having me.

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Bob DeMarco
There he goes. Ladies and gentlemen, Lance Strahl of Ironwood Outfitters. Check him out. He's a fellow Virginian, but also from from out of state. Check him out and really like he's got everything he's got you covered. You like fighting knives like me? Check them out. You like kitchen knives like me? Check them out.

Bob DeMarco [01:00:08]:
Outdoor knives. Some beautiful stuff. So ironwoodoutfitters.com all right, thanks for watching. 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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