Ahh, so you have met Saheed then. He makes it himself, 100%. In Chicago. And his blades don't shatter when you try the 2x4 strike test, either.
He's a gun show legend around here, yet he still has repeat customers. And they vote, too.
RR
about 15 yrs ago I bot a folding knife off internet
liked it so much I bot a few more and sold them.
soon I realised that I could sell alot of them.
I prolly ordered a cpl thousand $ worth and they sold like hot cakes.
most were very decent knives. (for the price)
I sat at the hwy with a sign that read "knives"
lotsa customers, but almost everyone said "do you make any?"
I said "no I never tried"
and then I tried.
lotsa youtubes and knife forums later, folks were buying MY knives.
about this time, the gov was cracking down on my 'over the border' orders, and I lost a lotta shipments. ($$)
I started making a lot more knives.
I did not use any of the fancy uppity materials.
local mats were used.
old sawmill blades became my steel source.
folks would bring me steel and fancy (local) woods.
bird'seye maple, yellow birch burl etc
I would sit at the hwy for 3 hrs each day on weekends.
If I sat there during the week, the town would call the cops and demand a permit.($200)
there were a very few days where I never sold anything, but usually $2-300 for a 3 hr day.
but some days much more.
youtube taught me leatherwork and I used very thick leather for the sheaths.
I saw a knife handle made with epoxy, so I put a partridge feather inside the epoxy
That was a great seller.
one day a native woman stopped me and asked if I could put a nickel inside.
told her I would try.
on top of the feather was a 1954 silver nickel.
she gave me 2 nickels and said one for me and 1 for her
on one side was the indian head
the other had the buffalo.
cpl yrs back my health stopped me from doing it anymore,
but folks will still come up to me and say "you're that knife guy"
at some point, I bot a knife grinder ($2500) and learned to put a decent edge on them.
now it sits gathering dust.
