And we're BACK! Updates and Announcements, Nov. 16th 2011

I have to say, I've been doing a pretty sheisty job at keeping my Blog updated, I'm sorry for that.  School work has taken its toll on my free time, and I've been spending almost every free minute working on furthering my education or pimping out knives.  That said, we're winding down in the Semester and I have a little free time to update y'all on what I've been up to over the past 6 months.

I've made huge leaps and bounds, introducing my first Balisong to the market, the Luna-Song, introducing two more fixed blade designs, the Rectifier and the Celestion, making strides towards a tactical folder and another Balisong model, customizing knives at the same time as maintaining a high standard of academic excellence.  It's tough, but fun.  Here are some shots of the new knives:

Rectifier

4.5 inch S110V Lum Tanto grind, convexed zero ground tip, full crowned handle

Mosaic Tube Fixtures, Translucent G11 scales, Kydex Sheath

MSRP 275$ in S110V 

Celestion

3.5 inch ATS-34 Deep V Hollow ground blade, full crowned spine and handle

Mosaic Tube Fixtures with OD green G10 scales, Kydex Sheath

 MSRP 175$ in 154CM, 225$ in S110V

Luna-Song

4 inch S110V or 154CM blade, Compound ground with crowned spine

Jeweled titanium liners with G10 scales

 MSRP 375$ in 154CM, 475$ in S110V

My knives are 100% handmade in Apex NC, sole authorship except for the heat treat which is done by a local machine shop.  You will be able to order any of these models come Christmas of 2011.  They mark a dramatic shift in the way I'll be doing business from now on.  That leads me to my second large annoucement.

As of Nov. 2011 I am discontinueing customization services until the spring, instead focusing on getting my custom knives perfected.  The customizing job has made me extremely unhappy, stressed out, irritable and frankly I'm just tired of it and it's no longer fun for me.  It's extremely difficult to keep any kind of reasonable schedule while I'm in school, and I don't like keeping customers waiting.  Being a one man army has its downsides, I just don't have the time to do custom knives and pimp jobs, and I'd rather focus on creating the best custom knives that I can.  From time to time I may release a customized knife from my personal stash, but as of right now I just don't have the time to keep up with so many things at once.  

I will also be keeping my Youtube Channel a little more up to date.  If you are not subscribed to my Youtube Channel, PRSPl4yer, please do so.  I do give aways and contests for subscribers as well as offer discounts for Channel regulars.  In addition to showcase videos, I also have reviews and creative videos.  Here's a taste of what I've been up to lately:

Introducing the Will Moon Custom Alien Autopsy fixed blade

Most folks know me for my modifications of factory knives, but I also make custom knives too.  This is a particularly cool one called the Alien Autopsy.  It has my custom crop circle handles that are unique to me, and I have to say, they are wicked awesome.  

The blade itself is made of .2 inch thick 5160 on the prototype, but future versions will be in other steels as yet to be determined.  On this one I chose to V hollow grind the blade with a "Hinderer" style slicer grind.  The result is a knife that cuts and slices like no other even though it's of pretty beefy stock.

The really cool part about this knife, however, is the way the handle glow.  Using proprietary techniques, I create a layered G10 material that has glow in the dark "Crop Circles" that shine through the handle scales.  They are bright enough to be seen in daylight and take only a little sunshine to get them started.  

The best part of the way my handles are put together is they're totally non toxic, food safe and will last hundreds if not thousands of times longer than other maker's glow material because the glow in the dark material is not directly exposed to the outside and is fully incased in G10.  My glow handles are also stronger than acrylics like Moonglow because they're fiber reenforced.  

Here you can see the handles glowing in broad daylight, albeit in a shady corner of my room.  The handle scales are also removable on this particular model in case you need to maintain the knife.  

It pitch darkness the scales look really cool.  They glow so bright that you can use the handle as a makeshift lantern if need be, but the real purpose of the glow is so that you can locate the knife in the dark.

Overall I'm really happy to begin to offer this wicked cool design.  They're 100% handmade from the profiling to the grinding of the bevels and will come with a handmade Kydex sheath.  My MSRP on these is 250$

New Knife Completion: Lone Wolf T2 in OD Green G10

I recently fixed up a used Lone Wolf T2 in my shop and wanted to share some photographs with my Blog.  This was a pretty involved project.  For those unfamiliar with the Bill Harsey T2, it's a now discontinued Lone Wolf knife from the Pre-Benchmade Era.  The original scales were made of a plastic nylon molded material and the pocket clip was mounted tip down.  Additionally, the finish of the blade was a plain bead blast, one of my least favorite and one of the most non-rugged finishes on the market.

For this T2, I decided the original bead blast finish on the blade had to go.  After pulling the blade off the knife, I used scotch-brite pads to hand rub a satin finish on the blade.  The horizontal striations are quite fetching I have to admit.

Naturally, I had to build some scales.  Lets be honest, nylon scales suck, they're plasticy, don't feel right... just not high quality.  I built  a set of custom G10 scales out of some OD material I had left over from a run of my custom knives.  I think the results were pretty good.

In this photo you'll notice two large holes near the pivot and three smaller ones towards the base of the scales.  The original pocket clip can still be mounted for tip down carry using the two large holes near the pivot, but I decided a standard three hole pocket clip would be better and I prefer to carry my knives tip up.  

The pivot area was tricky on this build.  I had to hand carve out a small recess for the pivot to sink into.  It's one of my least favorite things to do, but it came out pretty well.  

Overall I'm pretty happy with how the knife came out.  I think it looks a heck of a lot better than the standard nylon handled T2's, and functionally it's better now that I've mounted the pocket clip in the correct position.