Years of doing this has taught me many things......first, theres nothing new under the sun when it come to knifemaking....only different "twists". Next, patents on knives, especially for the lone custom maker, is simply not worth it.
As far as folks "copying" knives or ideas, it is what it is. Most respectable knifemakers have a good moral compass.
An example is when Tom Ferry brought the first bit of Timascus to show me (years ago)....he handed me this small cube of material, I felt the heft of it, and asked "Is this what I think it is? Titanium laminate?" He replied "Yes." I handed it back to him and told him I did not want to know ANYTHING about it until he had it all worked out and established as "his" product. As crazy as I am about laminating steel, I knew it would be hard for me to resist trying it if I asked any questions....and risk hard feelings and a friendship in the process.
Another example of "new" ideas are my EBKs. When I started producing those way back in 1997, nobody else was making anything like them.....a super simple small knife, with a horizontal kydex sheath for everyday carry. They quickly became my best selling knives, and over the next few years, I kept noticing that more and more makers were coming to shows with a similar sized knife. Some would take that as "they are copying my design!"....but I chose to take it as a compliment.
One individual comes to mind.....he had several knives on his table at a show that were VERY close to the pattern of my EBKs. I asked him about those knives, and what he called them. His response was...."Those are my ECROs". I looked at him with a questioning look and he said "Ed Caffrey Rip Offs!" Others might have gotten angry over that, but for me it was probably the nicest compliment that I had ever received from another maker. It's not about what you can "get" from the knife world...its about what you can GIVE. I was profoundly humbled to think that I had created something that my peers felt worthy of replicating. It's all about keeping things in perspective....knives are just "things", and in a hundred years nobody is going to remember any of the knives I produced, but if you create something that others feel worthy of replicating, it can have an impact on the entire craft forever.
We all tend to have our own "little secrets", but more often then not they are things that our experience and/or skill level allows us to do, and that others have either not though about yet, or their skill level hasn't brought them to that point in their careers. Those who hold tight to their "secrets" fall into one of two catagories......1. They are afraid that somebody is going to "take" what they have. or 2. They don't have anything on the "back burner" (they've locked themselves so tightly inside a "box", that they simply don't have any "new" ideas they want to try).
