October 2024 Huntsman and Tradesman Orders



October 2024 Huntsman and Tradesman Orders

Order Status Update and Production Schedule Page

Update: April 6

Where we are at now is we have all the knives in from heat-treat and all the handle material is either in stock or on its way.  The vast majority of the knife handle scales were glued to liners while we waited for the blades to come back from heat-treat.

It took a while to get the steel, and even longer for it to get heat-treated, and I'm not sure why.  It may have had to do with Crucible (who makes the CPM Magnacut) going out of business.  But, we're making good progress and are looking to have the vast majority of these orders done within the month of April.  These are going to be a very busy next few weeks!

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
It is currently early April, and we're looking to get all of the existing orders shipped within approximately 30-40 days, so a little over a month for the latest orders.

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.

  1. Reply to emails, organize the orders, do a tally of all of the blades, handle materials, and consumables required to create the knives.
  2. Order the steel (2-3 week window typically).  Note: This took more like 5 or 6 weeks this time.
  3. Order handle materials and consumables.
  4. 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.
  5. Send the blades to heat-treat. (1-3 week window typically).
  6. 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
  7. 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.  We do the blade's satin flats, grind and finish the cutting edge bevel, epoxy the handle scales to the blade, contour the handle, make the sheath and firesteel (if they were added).
  8. Photo and video the knife after finishing and upload it to Instagram.
  9. 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.

 

Step 7-9 One-Piece-Flow Order Status:

Black: Coming up; all materials are in shop
Blue: Awaiting handle material
Orange Bold: Started, being worked on
Green Italics: Shipped

Note: The goal is to work approximately in order.  We may need to skip around a bit if certain handle material require certain protocol, but generally the knives will be completed as follows.

  • 9767: scales complete
  • 9768: scales complete
  • 9769: scales complete
  • 9770: scales complete
  • 9771: scales complete
  • 9772: scales complete
  • 9773: scales complete
  • 9774: scales complete
  • 9775: scales complete
  • 9776: scales complete
  • 9777: scales complete
  • 9778: scales complete
  • 9779: scales complete
  • 9780: scales complete
  • 9781: scales complete
  • 9782: scales complete
  • 9783: scales complete
  • 9784: scales complete
  • 9785: scales complete
  • 9786: scales complete
  • 9787: scales complete
  • 9788: scales complete
  • 9789: scales complete
  • 9790: scales complete
  • 9791: scales complete
  • 9792: scales complete
  • 9794: scales complete
  • 9795 A: scales complete
  • 9795 B: scales complete
  • 9796: scales complete
  • 9797: scales complete
  • 9798: scales complete
  • 9799: scales complete
  • 9800: scales complete
  • 9801 A: scales complete
  • 9801 B: scales complete
  • 9802: scales complete
  • 9803: scales complete
  • 9804: scales complete
  • 9805: scales complete
  • 9807: scales complete
  • 9808: scales complete
  • 9809: scales complete
  • 9810: scales complete
  • 9811: ordering handle material (custom green material)
  • 9812 A: scales complete
  • 9812 B: scales complete
  • 9813 A: scales complete
  • 9813 B: scales complete
  • 9814: scales complete
  • 9815: scales complete
  • 9816: scales complete
  • 9817: scales complete
  • 9819: scales complete
  • 9820: scales complete
  • 9822: scales complete
  • 9824: scales complete
  • 9825: scales complete (requested r-series build style)
  • 9826: scales complete
  • 9827: scales complete
  • 9828: scales complete
  • 9829: scales complete
  • 9830: scales complete
  • 9831: scales complete
  • 9832: scales complete
  • 9833: scales complete

Note: Any of the later ordered Tradesman and Huntsman custom knives will come after this initial wave; a new list will be made, and we'll follow the same process.  All blades are back from heat-treat for all orders, so that step will be skipped with any later orders.