Hi!
My name is Mike and i’m the owner of Tricksterknives brand.
My adventure with knifemaking started in 2016 when after years of of thinking about starting this hobby I watched a lot of YouTube and found out that It’s much simpler than I thought.
At the start i was treating this as good fun. I designed a knife, tried to make it as well as possible, then carried it for a while before eventually it ended up in one of my drawers. Once in a while i managed to sell something to lower the cost of my hobby.
Since 2019 i specialized in very thin knives purpose built for fighting. I work in tool steel up to 3mm thick, almost all of my knives are either reverse(with sharp “in edge”) or double edged.
In making my designs i use my over 15 years long practice of martial arts, combatives and modern systems of knife fighting to create tools that perform in simple, fast and intuitive techniques – those that are most practical in today’s tactical reality.
Aside from projects that serve mostly as a creative outlet for me you will not find huge, heavy, long knives that are more suited to techniques close to historical fencing.
Only thing that i’m not doing by hand in my workshop is cutting blanks. Laser cutting gives me consistency and saves time that i can spend focusing on grinds and finish.
I do all of my grinding freehand without using any jigs.
My favourite handles are made out of resin stabilized paracord, but i also make them out of materials such as g10, carbon fiber, epoxy hybrids and wood.
I make kydex and handstiched leather sheaths.
I do all of my heat treating in my workshop.
Aside from knives i also make aluminium trainers of my standarized models and non bladed self defense tools.