For me collecting was about getting different mechanical types, if it had a dark horn handle so much the better. Once I got the standard stiletto and basic OTF I wanted more.
Had to have a gravity stiletto, looked for years for a trapdoor stiletto, paid a grand for a AK47, the single action OTF was a pain to find....
Now I pretty much have what I want, just a few more items to check off the list.
And I'm sure you'll all cringe, but I've taken every one of these apart at least once just to learn how it works, another reason I bought them. There just wasn't a 'how to build switchblades' book out there, so I had to buy them all.
And now that I have all these switchblade-autopsy photos, design schematics. and cool prototypes I seen to work so much I have little time for what I want to do...make knives. I hate having a real job and working overtime, just dosen't leave much time or energy for being creative. Working nights and living jetlag everyday dosen't help..I hate being scatterbrained so much.
Some day I'll get my act together. I have some pretty nice prototypes; gravity knives, AK47s, single action stilettos, those three are the top left three knives in the picture above. I just struggle with taking it all to the next step. I get stuck at that 90% ...that last 10% I struggle with. Bill DeShivs knows, he's held my gravity knives. They would be great if I really knew what I was doing....and did more
Truth is I'm just not good enough yet.:unsure:
I'm sure by this point people think I'm just a hack as I've been 'trying' for years and just spinning my wheels.
I have great designs and well made prototypes. I hope someday you guys can hold one of them.
...I'll get there someday.
Current project I'm working on here and there...
Waterjet cut parts to make more of this handmade AK style automatic.
The handmade one works great, really nice snap. I hope I can make a small production run sometime this year.
Funny how I built this in a couple weeks but making more is taking so much longer. Just have to work out a couple bugs on the digital design.