October 2024 Huntsman and Tradesman Orders
October 2024 Huntsman and Tradesman Orders
Order Status Update and Production Schedule Page
Update: Jan 1st, 2025
Updated by: Cody
Total Orders
We received approximately 66 orders in total; order #9768 to #9833. Just a few of these orders included multiple knives, so its looking like somewhere around 70 knives to build.
Estimated Wait Time
The original estimation of 8-12 weeks +/- still seems to be accurate for most orders, though they will all be on the later end of the estimation.
This is because of "typical stuff", murphy's law. To elaborate: the steel company ended up shipping about 2 weeks past when I expected. Waterjet took about a week longer as well, then the blades were delivered to the wrong address (holiday season craziness). Thankfully, we did retrieve the blades a couple of nights ago, and we jumped right into stage 4.
Steps to the Knifemaking Process
Listing out the steps is something people might find interesting. The step we're currently at will be highlighted in orange.
- Reply to emails, organize the orders, do a tally of all of the blades, handle materials, and consumables required to create the knives.
- Order the steel (2-3 week window typically). Note: This took more like 5 or 6 weeks this time.
- Order handle materials and consumables.
- Once the steel arrives: Cut out the blades profiles, ream the holes, straighten the blades, grind the pre-heat-treat edges, do any necessary pre-HT surface grinding.
Note: As of 1/1/2025, we're currently at the end of stage 4. The goal is to have this stage done within 3-5 working days (shipping to heat-treat by January 6th). Last time heat-treat only took about a week, hopefully it is fast this time as well. - Send the blades to heat-treat. (1-3 week window typically).
- Prep handles while awaiting heat-treat by cutting the blocks in half, flattening the handle scales, and gluing the scales to liners. Then, we may prep the bolts and tubing, cut the handle scale perimeters, drill the holes, and the do the ramps on the handle scales so that they are ready to be bolted on and epoxied when the blades come back and are finish-ground.
- Once blades return from heat-treat: This is where the true one-piece-flow begins. We will go order by order and start to finish the knives one at time.
7A. Surface grind the blade.
7B. Put the satin finish on the blade flats.
7C. Re-ream holes if necessary.
7D. Grind the edge bevel (full-height convex, saber convex, or scandi, based on order)
7E. Tape the blade; acetone clean and rough-up the blade's handle tang for epoxy.
7F. Cut the lanyard tube, acetone clean it, and rough-up for epoxy. Clean and rough-up the loveless bolts for epoxy.
7G. Epoxy the prepared handle scales (from step 6) onto the blade; bolt on the hardware, allow to set and cure. At this point, given there's a little bit of down time, so we usually bring another 2-3 knives to step 7G.
7H. Contour the handle.
7I. Hand-sand and buff the handle.
7J. Finishing; remove the tape, clean the blade, sand the spine of the knife, etch the spine of the knife with our maker's mark, clean the handle with a magic eraser loaded with mineral oil, use wax and soak it in with a heat-gun if (it is a natural handle material). Clean the blade up for pictures. - Photo and video the knife after finishing and upload it to Instagram.
- Wipe the blade with mineral oil for shipping, fit it into its sheath (sheath making is also done in-house and has its own entire process, handled by Amber). Package and ship the knife, sending a tracking number to the customer.
That pretty much sums up the process, though many mini-steps aren't detailed above. Of course, it doesn't include accidents either, such as "handle material has massive void in the burl; sand off the entire handle and start over again". But it's broadly accurate for when things go smooth.
When we get to step 7, I'll highlight the order(s) we're currently on. This will help give the customer a general idea as to where they are in the line-up. I'll try to update the page at the end of every work day.
Step 7 One-Piece-Flow Order Status:
- 9768:
- 9769:
- 9770:
- 9771:
- 9772:
- 9773:
- 9774:
- 9775:
- 9776:
- 9777:
- 9778:
- 9779:
- 9780:
- 9781:
- 9782:
- 9783:
- 9784:
- 9785:
- 9786:
- 9787:
- 9788:
- 9789:
- 9790:
- 9791:
- 9792:
- 9793:
- 9794:
- 9795:
- 9796:
- 9797:
- 9798:
- 9799:
- 9800:
- 9801:
- 9802:
- 9803:
- 9804:
- 9805:
- 9806:
- 9807:
- 9809:
- 9810:
- 9811:
- 9812:
- 9813:
- 9814:
- 9815:
- 9816:
- 9817:
- 9819:
- 9820:
- 9821:
- 9822:
- 9823:
- 9824:
- 9825:
- 9826:
- 9827:
- 9828:
- 9829:
- 9830:
- 9831:
- 9832:
- 9833: