Running Water Podcast with Jordan Budd

Cutting-Edge Insights: All About Knives with Siembida Custom

• Jordan Budd • Episode 4

Share episode

Send us a text

Join us on a cutting-edge episode where talk all things knives with Evan Seimbida, a master craftsman from Siembida Custom Knives. If you've ever wondered about the intricate details of knives, the importance of ergonomics, or the pros and cons of different blade options, you're about to discover a wealth of knowledge. Evan, with his deep expertise, guides us through a lively discussion, offering insights on the recent trend shift from replaceable blade knives to fixed blade options.

Our conversation doesn't stop at blades, we also carve our way through the complex world of knife steels and the importance of finding a balanced steel that suits your specific needs. Evan introduces his Magpie model, a versatile do-it-all knife that embodies the principles of balance and multifunctionality. We talk the significance of ergonomics in knife selection. We share our favorite handle materials, ranging from carbon fiber and G-Carta to stabilized woods and ivory.  So, join us for a conversation that's sure to be a cut above the rest for both knife enthusiasts and novices alike.


Speaker 1:

What's going on everybody? Welcome back to the toolkit on Jordan bud. And today we have a super cool guest, evan Sambita of Sambita custom knives. He is out in the east. He does custom knife work with a bunch of different kinds of steels, different designs, different handle options and Completely custom. So I had him on on the rock cast quite a while back. I think that you can dig into rock slide and find the archives. You can dig up that episode if you want.

Speaker 1:

But we're gonna talk with him again today. I thought he'd be an awesome guest to have on. We're gonna discuss, like ergonomics of knives, you know, choosing the right knife for the job, what he, you know, really likes as far as backcountry knives versus Frontcountry knives. We also dig in a little bit on replaceable blade knives and why why each of us don't really like them, kind of the evolution everybody was using those replaceable blade knives and now it seems like everybody's kind of going back over to Fix blade options. So that's really interesting. We're gonna talk about different kinds of steel options, that you have some of the pluses and minuses of all of those, and we're gonna talk a little bit about sharpening as well. So Real quick, I got a question on Instagram this morning that related to knives, so I thought that it was kind of interesting what do you use for a knife sharpener? And he says thanks and cheers from Alberta. So this relates right to this episode.

Speaker 1:

So I like this sharpener right here. It whoops this way and it's backwards because the camera makes it backwards, but it's the guided field sharpener from work sharp sharpeners a thing I really like about it as it has Like it has your knife guides, so it has a guide. Here it says 20 degree guide, so it you can lay your knife on the side of it. Let's see, here I Can lay your knife on the side of it. It would give you that angle guide and it has. It has kind of a rougher diamond on one side and a fine diamond on the other and then it has a ceramic portion here on the top it has your ceramic and then here it has a leather strap, so Really lightweight, really pretty small.

Speaker 1:

I won't always take this thing with me like in my pack out in the field, but I will have it in the vehicle all the time. So if we get back and I can touch it up, or if I'm bored Sometimes I'll just sharpen and we'll touch it up. So yeah, this is, they're pretty dang cheap and they're small and they're just nice to have around, so that's that's what I like to use. So, without anything, I guess, left to cover, we are going to dive right in with Evan. All right, we are back with Evan. Some beta of some beta custom knives. Dude, I haven't talked to you in like Years. I think the last time we talked you were getting ready to go full-time with the shop, right?

Speaker 3:

Yeah, it's been a minute. Yeah, yeah, it's been a minute, but things have changed a lot.

Speaker 2:

All better.

Speaker 3:

but yeah, I'm full-time and I don't have a side hustle or anything right now, it's just so fun, we were talking, a little pre recording, about how nice it is having your own business.

Speaker 1:

Like there are some downsides, definitely, but like we were talking about how nice it is to be able to have some freedoms, to be able to go, like when you have to be home you have to be there and working, but it lets you go do other things that you normally like you'd have to approve time off for months in advance.

Speaker 3:

Oh, yeah, like when I worked at the factory job I used to have like you'd have to get permission. I felt like I was a kid, you know, living with my parents. I'd ask permission anytime I wanted to do anything. And yeah, now, like I said before we start recording, like I'd be a terrible employee at this point, like I'm so used to the freedom. It's insane. I want to do something, I just do it. You know, like I've had times where I've worked all week and then all weekend and then all the next week and then taken like two weeks off. And then I've had times where I've woken up sick and I'm like I'm sick, I'm just gonna work Saturday, like no approval needed, just do what needs to be, done and it's been working.

Speaker 3:

It's been pretty cool.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, it's so, yeah, it's so nice. I couldn't imagine going back either. It'd be awful. But yeah, anyways, we're gonna. We're gonna talk about knives. So what's like, what's new in the in the custom? Are you still just doing like all made to order? Are you still, before you were, doing like you would make kind of a cool knife and then you just put it up for sale on Instagram? Are you still doing that?

Speaker 3:

Well, I'm doing a little bit of both and then I've got a third option I just added in. So about 75% of what I do is custom order. So I've got a wait list and that's about eight months out right now to get a custom order. And then I do every week, just about every week, I do what I call open sale knives, which is what you're describing. I do something that just sounds like fun and I put it up for sale and then and that might be like it might be anywhere on the spectrum From mild to wild, it might be, you know, a budget build, it might be really expensive Just whatever I feel like using that week, and then I occasionally do Well, now it's trying to do every week now what I call a stock knife and I have two different models that are my most popular models and I'm just doing.

Speaker 3:

They're all exactly the same. So they're all in my stock standard option steel. They're all an odd drab G10 with carbon fiber pins and a black sheath. And the idea is, if I make two or three every single week, if I have a customer call in and say, hey, I know it's last second, but I've got a mule deer hunt next week. Can I buy something? Well, you can get this, yeah, and it gives you a good feel for what my stuff is like, and then, if you like it a lot, which I hope you do, come back and buy a custom next year.

Speaker 1:

Perfect. Yeah, dude, that's a great idea. So, yeah, I just I wanted to walk through a little bit on like what we covered last time. So I had you back on the rock cast when I was hosting that and I thought like we had such a cool conversation about knives and I listened back to it a couple days ago and one thing that was kind of cool I thought this that stuck out to me was you were talking about how knives are. Like you know, people put so much Emphasis and time and money into other portions of gear and it seems like people are starting to do that with their, their knives, and I think even more so now. Like replaceable blade. Knives used to be the thing, like everybody was. You know different companies. We're trying to make different handles for the blades and all this stuff, and now it seems like it's starting to shift back over towards a good fixed blade. And have you seen that shift?

Speaker 3:

Big time. Like it's interesting, because whenever I started this is like a hobby, that's like you're saying like there's a few people that used fixed blades but none of them used custom work, none of them used semi, like small production shop stuff. There was always like a buck or case, a Little bit of bench made and then it was. If it wasn't one of those, it was a replaceable blade knife and yeah, everybody likes how well they cut until they lose a blade in the gut cavity or break one and you know have to deal with that, you know in the cold and your fingers don't work right. And yeah, I've seen a heavy shift towards fixed blades again. Yeah, it's, it's so interesting.

Speaker 1:

What are your, what are your thoughts on just replaceable blades, like in general? You just touched on one problem with them breaking the tips out. I've had broken tips and had them fly back towards me. Yeah, I'm not a big fan.

Speaker 3:

I totally see their benefits. I'm Like I've got a buddy who's a taxidermist and he uses a scalpel all the time when he's doing, you know, like skinning out heads and stuff like that.

Speaker 3:

But I mean, even he'll tell you like it's not as effective. In my opinion, and his opinion too, it's not as effective as a fixed blade for for skinning. It's just so much like faster, it's more effective, it's more ergonomic to use a fixed blade whenever you're skinning and that's what we're doing in the field Is we're breaking down animals, we're not skinning faces out. I mean, you can keep your animal in the field too. But that's like 5% of the job, like right. The other 95% is deboning, skinning, you know, working on bone joints, separating, bone joints.

Speaker 1:

Yeah yeah, and like you said, the ergos Just having a better handle and Something to you know everybody. For a while, like with the replaceable blade kind of movement I guess, if you will it people wanted to go to Really lightweight, like skeletonized handles, and those things were hard to hang on to. Especially you get like all grisly and fat and stuff on your hands and it's like there it's tough to hang on to.

Speaker 3:

So yeah, well, like the selling point was always how light they are. Like, oh, look at this, yeah, this, the knife, including the sheet, is like 1.2 ounces. And then all the people that would get them would get them, and then they would stuff stuff into the skeletonized holes and then wrap it In paracord. So they had this bigger, bulkier handle and they're like, oh, it's great. Now it's like not always three ounces. You just totally undid everything that you said you wanted to buy.

Speaker 1:

You know, yeah, yeah. And then it went from that to like, alright, I'm gonna take a replaceable blade and I'm gonna take a fixed blade, like I was on that for a while, I'll admit, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 3:

So yeah, a lot of a lot of folks, a lot of folks it I've noticed a lot over the last couple years have said well, yeah, I like the idea of a fixed blade. I don't want to sharpen my stuff in the field, so that's why I take replaceable blades. And I think most people don't realize just how good some steels can be and I think most folks their experience.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, most folks experiences like buck or case and I'm not crapping on buck or case, but those are like consumer grade steels. They're very, very low quality when it comes to like how they score an edge retention and things like that that. Everything they care about with with case and buck with the majority of their stuff, is how Economically can we produce it and is it gonna rust whenever somebody puts it through the dishwasher? That's all they care about. And Some of the new steels we have now, like Magna cut it's absurd the edge retention that you can get out of them.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I want to. I want to talk about that too, and we're gonna dig, yeah, we're gonna dig in. All that stuff is so I don't know. It's so interesting. But one question I wanted I wanted to lead with with you is like what's the most annoying email you get about?

Speaker 3:

knives.

Speaker 1:

Just oh, guaranteed.

Speaker 3:

Hands down. My favorite question is what are your knives cost? I'm like that's like the most blanket question in the world. Like you wouldn't go to a car dealer and be like what's a vehicle cost? Like what do you want? Like you said before, you want an F-150. Do you want a Ferrari? You want a smart car. Like what are your goals? And Like then I have to respond with that. And then they say I just want a price list. And I'm like so I got a break down all 30, some of my models. I actually lost count where I'm at. I'm always putting on new stuff and, and you know, being custom, like you can't just give a price for a model. There's a price for the model where it starts and then where it might top out. But then if you have a customer that has really extravagant taste, that can bump up even more, so it's Ah, just the the broad question of how much something costs, it's like, ah, and it's not anybody's fault, it's usually it's somebody's first custom knife. So right, yeah, I mean.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I can understand it, but I think the problem with just price shopping on stuff like that is you're gonna end up buying a knife off a price and it's not gonna be like the night, the, the, the better option for the application that you're using it in like I.

Speaker 2:

I remember last time.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I remember last time we talked we were talking about, I think, blade. We were just talking about knives in general, how big some of them can be and like Doing the outfitting and stuff. Like I've gotten people that have Huge knives, like huge blades that I've used to like try to get something and it's hard to like. That is not the knife for that job. I don't think just you know, like legit six inch plus Blades and it's, it's just too much. And like really big bulky handles Trying to move in and out of places. It's just rough, rough to work those things.

Speaker 3:

Oh yeah, like everybody always asked me what I like in the the backcountry and like I Stuff's little the stuff I prefer. Yeah, you know personally. You know little tiny guys, six and a half inches overall, two and three-quarter inch blade and most, most folks want something like Gigantic and it's like just, you can do it, but it's like that's not what you want. We're not cutting steaks and stuff in the field, we're skinning, you know yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah for sure.

Speaker 1:

So can we dive into that a little more like choosing the right knife for the job? And another thing, too is I I'm a big fan, especially a lot of folks I feel like that are watching this or like just getting into it or just trying to go, you know, up and in, like just Make their gear a little better and like most people can't buy two right.

Speaker 1:

Or at least right off the bat. So like I'm a big proponent and like what is one really kind of do-it-all design In your mind to make it like, if you're just gonna buy one to do pretty much everything? What would that look like?

Speaker 3:

Well, if you're gonna do like one for everything and you're, you're making compromises at that point, yeah, so you're not going ultra light, you're not going super heavy, you're kind of going in the middle. That'd be something like this, which is my magpie model, and it's about a little over eight inches long, about eight and a half inches long with a three and a half inch blade. It's not the lightest knife, it's extremely ergonomic. I think that's probably my most ergonomic handle when it comes to stuff for breaking down animals and in fact, I skinned deer for a deer processor whenever I have free time and that's the knife I reach for every time, and I'm talking like 20, 25 deer a day. You know skinning.

Speaker 3:

Yeah and you know that's the knife I want, but it does leave some stuff at the table. You know it's a little bit small, for you know if you're gonna be doing breaking down stuff in the kitchen when you get back. And it's a little bit big for you know. I mean it's not too big to do it, but it's a little heavy whenever you're packing as light as you can to go up above the tree line.

Speaker 1:

You yeah, gotcha. So what should people like have an internal conversation with themselves about when they're going to look at something Like you know there's, like you're getting ready to go to Idaho on a hunt that'll probably be a bad country, like, so you're thinking about that. Some folks are just thinking about hey, I just want you a knife to gut a white tail or a mule deer in the field, and then I'm taking my deer, the processor, so I don't really have to worry about anything after that. Can you talk about like those two things and what you would start thinking about as far as choosing a knife for both those applications?

Speaker 3:

Yeah, well, so for, like the front country hunter, which most of us are, I mean, I mostly think about ergonomics and a knife blade shape that lends its weld to skinning without poking into the guts. I know everybody likes gut hooks, but with a properly shaped blade you really don't need a good hook and it's just something that's a pain to sharpen. That night, the same knife I was showing the magpie. That's kind of what I would recommend for the front country guy. But the camera, there we go.

Speaker 3:

My windows were small so I'm probably exaggerating, but I've got a graceful curve. It's real subtle but it's just enough that I'm not poking into the guts when I'm zipping up through a deer and it's also got an aggressive enough tip to work around fine areas while having enough belly to get everything else done. And that's kind of what I want with a knife, at least me personally. I want something that I can work on an animal and be effective, be nimble, be quick at the same time. It's not going to be uncomfortable and that's kind of a tough combination. Sometimes I think most folks reach for blades that are real deep in the belly and they have a real big blunt nose and that just makes it really difficult to work around tight areas like the elbow joints and ankles and things like that on deer, because at the end of the day, that's what we're doing, especially if you take your animal to a processor you're just skinning in the field. So Right.

Speaker 1:

Would that be like a drop point?

Speaker 3:

Yeah, it's a. It's technically a drop point, I guess it's not. It's real gradual. I mean, if you like, the line, the curvature of the handle just keeps going until it gets the tip, but it doesn't drop aggressively like a lot of knives.

Speaker 1:

Got it.

Speaker 3:

Knives that drop really aggressively when you turn it upside down and you work up the animal just like a zipper, that initial cut. It ends up forcing you to hold the knife at a really steep angle to ride that tip and it makes it really difficult. You end up like slipping and making cuts like that. But with this I can run it down at a shallow angle and just one long cut up the animal. In fact, on my Instagram I have a video in the processing shop Basically I think it's called why I don't like gut hooks and I show I zipped down an entire leg on this big buck in one cut explaining. You know you don't need a gut hook. And here's proof zip, and with the right angle it's literally one cut. I think most folks get too caught up in either the gut hook and they end up with too blunt of a blade because of that, yeah, or they get caught up and having those really big bellies because they're worried about poking stuff. It just slows you down, though.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and then, like you were talking about, you can go too far that way, but then you can go too far the other direction too, of like, is it called a clip point where they it's like really narrow and then that's too pokey right Like that. That will clip your guts.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, and that makes it really difficult. I've got a buddy who he he likes skinning with a boning knife and which is not far off from a filet knife it's real pokey like that and I mean for him it works, but I feel like like I've watched him skin with it. He does a good job but it slows him down because he's always working to try to keep that tip from going down into the guts and you know, cut open a stomach or something like that.

Speaker 1:

What about the like steels? There are a ton of different kinds of steels and I think that that's where people kind of lose it sometimes is they don't even really understand or realize that there are all these different kinds of steels that are going in to these knives. It's just not like one is the same as the rest.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, well, so steels, it's uh, that's like one of my favorite topics. And knives, yeah, there's a lot of parallels between knives and guns and I'm a big gun guy, right, Like I love rifles, rifle cartridges, I like geek out on ballistics and, um, so, like a knife, steel is more than just like how long is it going to stay sharp? Um, I compare the steel alloy to picking a cartridge for your rifle. Um, it doesn't mean anything. It is a bad choice or a good choice, but there are certain applications that are better than others. And, just like cartridges, there's ideal bullet weights and, you know, loadings. There's ideal sharpening angles and sharpening methods and, uh, it's, it's like a whole rabbit hole. But, to make things simple, I have three steels that I use and then my favorite steels Like I don't offer anything.

Speaker 3:

That's like not my favorite, you know like um, but I try to stick with what we call balanced steels, and that's being balanced is like there's three different attributes of a knife steel there's strength, there's edge retention and there's corrosion resistance. And a balanced steel has all three of those sort of in tandem. You're not giving one up to get the other two high up on the scale and um, a lot of the seals you see.

Speaker 3:

Like you know, benchmade, for example, has stuff in S one, 10 V crazy steel. It'll hold an edge for, like, the rest of your life A little bit exaggerating, but it's not strong at all, like you can't do anything even slightly rough with it or break Um, and it's not as corrosion resistant as some other stuff. And there are other steels that are super focused on corrosion resistance, like I mentioned, with, uh, a lot of cheaper production knives, like in 420 and 440 and those like they're almost impossible to make rust but they won't hold an edge for crap. And uh, so the steels I work with I prefer to have something that has all three of those attributes, um, you know they're not giving anything up. They're really well balanced Um, but there's a lot of good seals out there.

Speaker 3:

I mean, like the three I use aren't the only ones on the market, obviously, but I prefer one called AEBL. It's all letters. I don't actually pretend to know why it's called that, yeah, um, but it's a European stainless steel and it's super fine grain, easy to sharpen, takes a screaming edge with like very little effort and it's really strong. You're not going to break it whenever you're like working into the ball and socket joint on a hip, uh, trying to break that tendon that holds them together, you're not going to break the tip off. Um, the downside is it's not like rust proof, it's. It's corrosion resistant, it's a stainless steel but it's not rust proof and you're you're going to get through like maybe an elk, elk and a half, before you have to touch the edge up. Edge retention isn't insane. Um, the other one is Magna cut and I mentioned that before. Um, stuff's pretty insane. It's, uh, the edge retention is stellar. It's nearly impossible to make rust and it's still really strong. It's just more expensive, a little harder to sharpen.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, so is that kind of an elite of its own that Magna cut?

Speaker 3:

Yeah, I mean there. Like I mentioned, there are other steels that hold an edge longer, but not with all the attributes that Magna cut has. Uh, for reference, like I mentioned, I skin dear for a processor buddy.

Speaker 1:

Yeah.

Speaker 3:

It gives me an excuse to try out new heat treat recipes, new blade shapes, all that stuff. And when Magna cut first came on the scene, I said, okay, I'm going to see how far I can push this before I need to sharpen it. And most people think I'm nuts, but I did 54 deer on one edge Never sharpened.

Speaker 1:

That's why it was insane.

Speaker 3:

Now like full disclaimer, I write it across a smooth like non abrasive steel just to take out rolls, because I was doing awful things with those splitting rib cages, I was cutting out butts, I was separating elbow and knee joints, I was taking as popping vertebrae on does. I was doing terrible stuff. I just wanted to see what it took to make it stop working. But 54 deer that's, while being rust proof or nearly rust proof and also being stronger than most stainless steels. It's pretty incredible stuff.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, that's awesome. I was looking at just a few companies that had knives and the way that they were listing them. They were talking about your stainless steels, like you were just talking about. Then they also mentioned ball bearing steels and then they'll call it a tool steel. Can you kind of run through those?

Speaker 3:

Yeah, so well. Tool steel is kind of like a catch-all. Tool steel is any steel that has a high enough carbon content to be hardenable to a workable hardness, and that doesn't necessarily mean a hardness that you can make a knife with. Some tool steels need to just be able to take impact and they're really good at taking impact, but they're not good at holding an edge, because that's not what the steel is designed for. There are some steels like 4140's, an example. That's a tool steel and it's on the edge of what we would call a tool steel. We make rifle barrels out of it, but we don't see knives made out of them. It's a relatively malleable steel and that gives the ability to be just obliterated with pressure like in a rifle and not shattered, but it's not going to make a good knife. We have other steels like A201, 1095, a lot of these steels you see on the shelves offered by knife makers and they weren't made for knives. Those steels were actually made for making tool and die stuff, for making car parts in the 40s and 50s, and we still use them. Somebody figured out that we're good for making knives and now we use them a lot.

Speaker 3:

Ball bearing steels are similar. They tend to have different traits. They're zeroed in on different traits and the idea is that they can take a lot of pressure without cracking. You think about a ball bearing. You have a round ball and then you're putting all the force you have on one tiny little focus point because it's round. It needs to be able to handle that without shattering or cracking or breaking apart. Those tend to make good knives with appropriate heat treats. They're messy to work with. They're not as clean to work with as air-hardening steels, but they tend to make a really tough knife.

Speaker 1:

I was using one the other day that had a ball bearing steel in it and it seemed like edgy tension wasn't what I thought it was going to be, pretty much skinny one elk, and I was like Not even actually the whole elk, just doing a. What do you call it? Just a shoulder mount? Yeah, a regular shoulder mount. I was touching that thing up again quite a bit. At the end I was basically just resharpening it there when I got down with that cape. That was kind of interesting. Then I started looking at different folks that are doing the stainless steels. There are a ton of different kinds of steels. It's harder to keep up with than calibers.

Speaker 3:

There's hundreds of different kinds of steels.

Speaker 1:

It's insane.

Speaker 3:

I've got a book by a guy named Laren Thomas and it's Knife Steels and Engineering. It might be quoting the name wrong. It's about heat treating and mechanics of knife, geometry and things like that. He's got just a short rundown of basic a bunch of steels that are popular. The list looks like Barnes' book cartridges of the world. It's insane. That's not even a fraction of what there is out there. They're making new steels every day.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, you can definitely see how it can be confusing. You pop on a website to look at a knife and you see what it's made out of. You're like there's four numbers after a ball bearing steel. You're like, what does that?

Speaker 3:

even mean. Yeah, it gets confusing. That's one of the reasons I only offer a couple different steels. I offer steels that work well for everybody and that I also have a ton of experience with. Somebody calls me and they want a knife. We tend to talk about that at some point in the conversation about steels. The biggest thing is find somebody that knows their stuff about steels and ask them. Don't just go on Google and type in what do you think about this steel and go to a message board, because most people on message boards are talking out their backside.

Speaker 3:

They have no idea what they're talking about. A good steel with a poor heat treat is still a terrible steel. It's not going to cut. Well, you have to have all of that stuff good geometry, a good heat treat, combined with a good steel.

Speaker 1:

How would you know about heat treat? Is that more of a brand type thing where that's why you go with a brand you trust, because they have?

Speaker 3:

a good heat treat. Yeah, you can't look at a knife and tell that it's been heat treated properly. It's kind of another rifle analogy. If you have a rifle that has a way off from square bolt face and maybe that the trigger is like a non-consistent trigger it hasn't been inlayed to the stock well, it's not bedded. It might look great throughout the shelf Then it's going to shoot terrible and you're going to have to go through this huge checklist to figure out what's wrong with it.

Speaker 3:

A knife can look absolutely amazing and then be made with terrible steel or made with good steel with a bad heat treat. The biggest thing is to go to a reputable maker, especially with a lot of these small batch steels like MagnaCut. They're getting to be more mainstream. But I would make sure that you get something from somebody I'm going to totally prop myself up here Somebody like me, because if you buy something from me and I'm not perfect, I totally screw up. Sometimes you get a knife from me and you're like, hey, you said this would last 20 or 30 deer. I needed to sharpen after one. I'm going to be like, hey, send it back. I will either double check it and make sure it's not something you did. Maybe you're just cutting into teeth like crazy with your skin that head.

Speaker 3:

Or maybe I screwed up, in which case I'll make you a new knife. I warrant my stuff, but if you buy it from somebody that doesn't have reputation, doesn't stand behind their work, then you're hoping that they did a good job.

Speaker 1:

Right, yeah, that's tough. How would you recommend somebody just look at a grip and know if it's going to fit them? Is it pretty self-explanatory?

Speaker 3:

Not always. I think a lot of folks get stuff because it looks cool and they see stuff and they think, well, the first thing people always ask is is something grippy? And I'm like, yeah, but that's not that important. It's important, don't get me wrong, but it's like that is towards the end of my list of things to consider. Because if it's really grippy but not ergonomic, I'm not going to be accurate with my cuts, I'm going to start slipping when I get hand fatigue, I'm going to start making mistakes, I'm going to do bad stuff. It either hurts my animal or hurts me. And I want something that's going to be ergonomic, that's going to give me control, not just when I'm starting, but when I'm at the end of skinning that elk or bison or the 15th deer that week, because I'm the guy that skins deer and deer camp and everybody's just killing it on gun week. I want a knife that's going to let me keep up and stay accurate with my cuts. The other thing is I mean again, there's nothing wrong with being grippy, but some folks get so wrapped up in the idea of something being grippy that they get something that later on they don't actually care for. And if you don't like the knife. You're not going to carry the knife and I don't know.

Speaker 3:

I think that, like people get so wrapped up and, it being grippy, the animals already dead. You're working on dead animals Just to hope so. And like it's not, it's not pumping blood out everywhere all over you. If you've done it, if the animals dead it's, it's been killed by a hunter. You know like it's been. It's died through bleeding out. It's largely bloodless. There's nothing on earth that's still grippy through fat. I mean, fat is always slick, it's like motor oil. Yeah, blood, though it's not bleeding whenever you're working on it. So there's not much of an issue there other than gutting the animal.

Speaker 3:

I would focus mostly on ergonomics. That's my big thing. The other thing is knives that have the tang sticking out on the edges. So you know, full tang knife, the tang is exposed all the way around. A lot of guys get knives that have the scales or CNC machine and they're smaller in profile than the tang and so the tang sticks out all the way around the edge and it looks kind of cool, looks kind of tactical, but then that wears hot spots in your hand, some fears, and you're blistered up and everything by the time you get done through. You know working one or two animals down.

Speaker 1:

What materials do you like for your handles?

Speaker 3:

Oh, that's a huge rabbit hole. I work with all kinds of stuff. I've got carbon fiber I like, so for my customers tend to like my cart of stuff because my car is ergonomic, it looks pretty cool. There's stuff called G-Carta. It's made in Nampa, idaho, by a guy named Greg Hansen. He makes composites that are it's like my car, but instead of being industrial and made he industrially oh tongue tied. It's small batches of fabric that are rolled up with resin and pressed into blocks and then cut whenever it's hardened. So you get a lot of cool patterns and colors.

Speaker 1:

Oh yeah.

Speaker 3:

And he's got a zillion different color combos and he's always dropping new stuff. It's pretty cool. I work with stabilized woods, that's woods that have been soaked in resin using a vacuum process to draw it all the way through. Ivory antler everybody likes antler.

Speaker 3:

As far as me personally, I'm a huge fan of antique micardas. So micardas and industrial material is made for usually electrical work, to insulate, you know transformers and stuff and when it gets old it oxidizes, so it gets darker. It might be like a honey blonde color to start off and then in 50 years it's developed this dark brown we call it bark on the surface and when you cut through it you can see the oxidation layers, just like fading into the honey brown on the inside and it makes for a really cool handle and it's just special, like I'm making a knife right now out of some that's from the Boeing plant in Tacoma, washington, and it's like super old stuff and like they're not making anymore, you know, and it's like it's got a backstory, it's got a place it came from and it's like stuff like that gets me fired up but I can make a handle out of just about anything Is there, yeah, yeah, and is that more when you're choosing your handle?

Speaker 1:

is that more of a just a personal preference thing, or are there, you know? Besides, maybe like care.

Speaker 3:

There is some care with some materials, like I said, ivory, elk, antler, bone, some woods, like you don't want to like like get it wet, wipe it off and then just throw it in the drawer for next year. You want to oil it and you keep it hydrated so it stays pretty and stays, you know, from shrinking and stuff. There's other materials, like I said, carbon fiber and G10, that don't need any care whatsoever and they're bulletproof. They're really tough stuff I actually didn't mention. I've got the stuff called Sure Touch and I'll show up. Yeah, there we go, but it's G10 and rubber layers. Those layers you see there black, are rubber.

Speaker 3:

So it's absurdly grippy. Going back to the grippy thing is grippy without without giving up stuff Like you don't have little grooves and crevices and checkering to pick up fat and blood and distinct later on. It's not porous like wood so it's not going to pick up. Like you know, you have that shore lunch. You get your three day fishing license when you're hunting out West and you catch some trout. Now your knife smells like trout for the next six months. It doesn't happen with that stuff.

Speaker 1:

Nice, that's. That's super interesting stuff sounds like let's go into field sharpening. This was people really wanted to hear about this. This was like the one thing and man, when we were doing the meat eater stuff, we we had the work sharp guys on and we talked about knife sharpening and I mean we got more comments on that episode than any of the other ones we did.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, well, I mean I I don't have any great recommendations for field sharpening, because it's going to sound like I'm bragging myself up. I haven't had to sharpen in the field. Really Like I I tend to I choose knives that don't have to sharpen in the field. You know, if I worked down an elk, I've still got life left on my edge and I can help my body with this.

Speaker 3:

I do like to bring a little micro pocket stone. It's about the size of a pack of gum or a stick of gum. I want to say easy lap makes it. It's an extra fine diamond stone. It works on any steel, I mean even carbide. It'll sharpen and I bring that and then I'll bring, and this is like something you can't find in a knife shop or sporting good store.

Speaker 3:

But if you go to a machine shop and ask them for a drill blank, that's just hardened drill bit rod without any flutes in it, and get one that's like four inches long, like three sixteenths or so in diameter, it's hardened so your knife can't bite into it and you can use it like a chef's deal, like you see people using the movies. Yeah, and when you're skinning out like caping out a head and you're, you brush up against the bone with your edge or your tooth with your edge teeth. Teeth are harder than steel and what that causes is it rolls the edge. You can't see it, it's on a microscopic level. But suddenly it won't cut. And with that hardened drill blank you can couple strokes and it's not removing any metal, it's just standing that edge back up and now it cuts like crazy again. So with a good steel you shouldn't have to sharpen in the field. You might have to fix rolls, but you shouldn't have to sharpen.

Speaker 1:

Okay, what about? What about a home, when you do have to sharpen?

Speaker 3:

at home. So there's a couple different methods that are cool. There's the KME Bench Top style Like. There's a bunch of different companies that make them. I think workshop makes one now too.

Speaker 3:

But it mounts to your tabletop, has a little chip clip that grabs onto your knife and holds it flat. I've got a knife here. It holds it flat. And then there's a guide rod system with a stone on a stick and you just run it across the knife and it's impossible to mess your angle up. Once it's set those, anybody can make a knife scream and sharp with that system and it's not like hogging down your edge in a weird spot. It's not doing anything that you can mess up.

Speaker 3:

They're great. They take up a little more space, they're a little more expensive, but they're really worth the money, if you ask me, and they work on any knife. You can set the angles. Another one is the Ken onion workshop, which is a tabletop. It's motorized, has a little belt. But if anybody gets one of those, I would advise that when you buy one, go to the Sporting Goods counter at the store you're buying it at and buy off the turnstile One of those super cheap piece of crap pocket knives from China. Get one of those and practice on that like crazy before you put your good knives on it, because it's easy to like round the tip off or hog out the belly right by the handle. It's easy to go too far with those.

Speaker 1:

So get some practice and yeah, yeah, got it With those with. I mean, even like those home style sharpeners are a little more expensive, but they're still like 60 bucks, like they're not like 200. Yeah so yeah, so after we got one of those and I was touching my knives up, like we just started touching like steak knives up and stuff that are in the house and like what a difference it makes.

Speaker 3:

Oh yeah, well, I tell everybody that, like you know, you buy a vehicle and you don't stop thinking about, like changing your oil or getting new tires, like those are things you think about. You get a rifle, you think about cleaning it afterwards, you think about checking your zero, and so many people are like I've had that knife for 10 years and it doesn't cut anymore, but I got to find somebody to sharpen it. Like dude, you should learn how to sharpen.

Speaker 2:

Like that's like you don't hire people who are like you're floors Like just do it.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, like buy the equipment and do it and it works forever. Your sharpening system is good for a very long time. If you wear it out, then you're living a much more exciting life than I'm living because dang.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah, sweet. Anything else you can think of that you want to dig into?

Speaker 3:

Oh man, I mean like it just depends on how crazy you want to get. So, like my little side project that I've been working on has been it's called hog dogging. It's running hogs and hounds down in Texas and because you're running hounds and the hounds are actually catching the pig Unlike running, you know, hounds for cats or for bears you can't shoot them Because you know obviously you've got a dog fighting grabbing onto his face and stuff.

Speaker 3:

And so you get in there with a knife and you, you know, one hand's on the pig that are hands on your knife and you take care of business that way. And so I've, actually I've been working on a pig sticker design for doing just that and it's been wild.

Speaker 3:

I went down and did some testing when I was on an exotic hunt last I think it was November in Texas and it worked out pretty well. I did some, did some fine you know tunings and tweaks on the design. And then after that, I think it was in February or March, I went back down with some buddies. We all had that you know, the refined version of the knife model it's called the Harpy and we cleaned the house on pigs. It was epic and actually I'm going to be going back here in I want to say it's February this coming February to do it again. It's been, it's crazy. If you haven't done it, it's a lot of fun, it's worth trying.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah, I did it once. Just the soft heart of me is like it's primal, it's pretty primal.

Speaker 3:

It is really primal, I mean. At the same time, if you do it, if you make a good stick and with proper technique, it's a it's quicker than an arrow kill. But the idea of like being hands on is it's a bit much for some folks.

Speaker 1:

It is yeah, yeah, yeah, it is Dude. That's awesome. What are, what are the wait times? What are your lead times currently for customs?

Speaker 3:

So, to get a custom, if you get on my wait list right now it's around eight months. It could be a little more, it could be a little less fluctuates, but it's been riding about eight, nine months for the last three years, so it's pretty safe to say it's around there. Like I said, you can also follow me on Instagram or Facebook and I post open sale stuff, usually on my story, so I'll have you know the available posts and if you tap on it you can look at the actual posts and see all the specs. But yeah, any questions, just shoot me a message. You know I try to do one or two fancy open sales a week and then I'll do, like I said, the stock options now with the metal arc and the magpie.

Speaker 3:

So yeah, somebody wants to buy something right before a hunt or they've got, you know, a relative or a friend that's going to go on a hunt, that's you know. They got a cool tag draw and they want to get them something. You know that's a great option to get.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, have you started doing etchings or engravings?

Speaker 3:

Not, I'm not doing custom engravings right now, Like I just engrave my logo and some weird cases I do serial numbers. The etching process I use isn't really conducive to being economical for doing custom engravings. I do plan on at some point getting a fiber laser and doing that, but it's it's not in the cards at the moment.

Speaker 1:

Right, gotcha, all right. Well, where's the best place that folks can get a hold of you?

Speaker 3:

So they can shoot me an email or call me. My email is a Symbita custom knives. I'm assuming we can put that in the tagline or the info for the podcast. My number is 740-270-9057. And you can give me a call or shoot me a text anytime. As long as I'm not like in the mountains and don't have signal, I'll answer the phone and then Instagram or Facebook. That's pretty much where I do like. 95% of my work is on Instagram and Facebook.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, Awesome and well. Thanks again for hopping on, Evan.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, thanks for having me.

Speaker 2:

Thanks for listening to this episode of Jordan's Toolkit. If you have any questions or suggestions for future episodes, please visit the website Jordan-budcom and follow the links to submit an email or voicemail to be played on air. If you're listening on an audio platform, you can also watch this podcast on YouTube via Jordan-bud's personal channel.

People on this episode

Head Shot

Jordan Budd

Host
Head Shot

Lea Piper

Co-host