Jay Fisher - World Class Knifemaker
Quality Without Compromise
Maker's Mark:
New to the website? Start Here
"Daqar" Dagger
Jay Fisher - World Class KnifemakerQuality Without Compromise |
Maker's Mark: |
New to the website? Start Here |
"Daqar" Dagger |
Factory knives are common, accessible, and cheap to buy. So everyone can have access to them. I compare many of these discussions about factory knives to boys laying out their glassy marbles in the sun, evaluating them, admiring their appearance, and discounting or diminishing the marbles of other boys. Like marbles, among factory knives, there aren't enough features or quality to make any clear distinction of performance or value. And since most of these knives will only encounter some stubborn tape on a shipping box, it doesn't really matter which factory knife you choose.
For professionals, though, men and women that actually use a tactical knife in the field of combat, rescue, searches, or defense, there are options. These professionals will sooner or later educate themselves, and realize that an inferior tool can be a crippling sore, rather than a useful, reliable adjunct. It is to those pros that I write, so you can benefit from the hundreds of professionals that went before you, and helped me solidify my tradecraft of making fine custom tactical knives. Please think hard about the knife you want to carry into combat, the knife you are going to trust your life, your squad's life, your victim's life to.
--From the Tactical, Combat, and Military Knives page, "What's wrong with factory knives sold for combat?"
| Welcome! Quick Facts: | The best individual knife maker's site you will find on the Internet! What this website is about and how to use it |
| First year of this site on the Internet: | 1996: 21 years on the web |
| Number of active pages on this website: | 592 pages, packed with pictures and great information |
| Number of pictures and images on this website: | Now over 15,000 photos! (includes thumbnails and restricted pages) |
| August 2017's most visited pages on this site: | Knife Patterns, Knife Anatomy, Knives for Sale, Wood Knife Handles, Blades, Tactical Knives for Sale, Knife Grip Styles and Hand Sizing, 440C Love/Hate, Featured Knives, Counterterrorism Knives, Prices for my Knives, All Tactical, Military, and Combat Knives, Knife Sheaths, Heat Treating and Cryogenic Processing of Knife Blade Steels, Folding Knives, Knife Handles |
| My first knife made in: | 1979 (38 years experience) |
| Full time professional knifemaker since: | 1988 (full time for 29 years) This is my my real job! |
| Newest 3000th term: | "ends-of-the-earth best performing blade steel" Things are much different on the ends... |
| Most interesting thing you probably do not know about me: | I have a piece in the Tower of London |
| Another interesting thing you probably do not know about me: | I make more real gemstone handled knives than any other single knifemaker in the world |
| Important point of sole authorship: | Every knife on this website that has only my maker's mark is made completely by me: blade, handle, sheath, stand, case, and embellishment. |
| Most Important Fact: | I am committed to making completely and clearly the best knives in the world. More |
| Critical Service: | I offer Professional Knife Consultation, in a wide variety of fields and topics. |
| Significant Data: | The detailed knife definitions section on my Knife Anatomy Page now has 318 specific terms! |
Tom Clancy is a name that many recognize. Tom was a friend and patron of mine, a great guy who was extremely well-versed in military history and process, and one of the greatest authors who ever lived. While the younger generation may recognize his name in the gaming and simulator field, his mastery of words, ideas, and literature was the absolute pinnacle of his genre. He wrote about many of the world's cold war and post-cold war military hardware, and I was hugely honored to have my work in his home, in his library, and as the inspiration for charitable causes. It is because of Tom that I have a piece in the Tower of London, perhaps the finest weapons museum in the world. In 1994, this is what he wrote about me and my work:
"You know, I never believed in decorous weapons until I met Jay Fisher. Where does one draw the line between a fighting knife and a work of art?
Jay Fisher is a throwback to the age when craftsmen were *all* artists, not mere producers of products, when every item that went out the door had a story and a purpose all its own, and when you went to a craftsman not because of what you wanted but because of who he was.
Jay is a guy who knows how to use the modern to serve the past. We really do make better steel today than we did a hundred years ago - the idea of cutting an ancient Samurai sword in two with a modern American knife does have its attractions - and the blend of old and new in his work is totally seamless. A knight Templar would not have hesitated a moment to take Fisher's steel on his Holy Quest. In fact, he would have thought the technological edge a gift from an especially attentive God.
I suppose that says it all. Jay Fisher is one of a kind, a man who knows the riddle of steel, and that the difference between a good weapon and a bad one is the combination of how you make it and to whom you give it."
--Tom Clancy
"Jay Fisher is the best modern knife maker around, pursuing an ancient tradition but beautifully perfecting the craft by selecting the finest man-made and natural materials. Jay Fisher makes every type of edged steel weapon, fitting the blade to it’s purpose. The world’s elite clandestine rescue and tactical squads seek his weapons. Their lives depend on Jay Fisher Custom Knives- the best quality knives in the world."
--Bernardo M. Perez
Deputy Assistant Director - Ret.
FBI Laboratory
Washington, D.C.
Named "The Best Living Knife Maker" in the 2007 Best of the West Sourcebook by True West Publications
"Many fine knifemakers exist in the world. Some Excel at making weapons, others at creating art. At his Enchanted Spirits Studio in Clovis, New Mexico, Jay Fisher does both. In the blade business since 1988, Fisher makes knives, many featuring gemstone handles, for collectors, museums and people who really know how to use 'em (101st Airborne, Special Forces, USAF Pararescue)."
--from the 2007 Best of the West magazine
