If you follow just about any prominent YouTuber, you’ve seen the Maker Knife. Essentially, it’s a sliding and locking mechanism that allows you to carry a box blade on your person with minimum impact on your pocket’s weight or capacity. A couple of years ago, an Italian named Giacomo Di Muro jump started the idea on KickStarter and the thing just went gangbusters. I was an early supporter of the project and got my first Maker Knife something like two years ago?
In any case, my first Maker Knife was a thing of beauty. It slid open and closed well and locked positively in both positions with no drama to speak of. The experience was pleasurable enough that it opened me up to the idea of carrying a box blade rather than a traditional pocket knife every day. The idea that I no longer had to sharpen a blade (just replace the damned thing) was enough to make me a convert.
But sadly, my first maker knife turned up missing. To do this day, I don’t know what happened to it… but, I was relieved to see that Giaco had ramped up production and was selling them on his website. I ordered four. It took just less than 6 months for me to get them. Technical issues with anodizing and growing pains with Chinese mass production were the culprits. I took it like a man.
The first two, I gave away to pals, one I put in my shop apron, and the last was to be my EDC. The problem came when tuning the mechanism and the lock. I could get them to open and close fine enough, but not lock. Then I could get them to lock securely, but opening/closing action became too stiff. To investigate, I opened up the two Maker Knives I had left.
One of them was so poorly machined that the “blade carrier” appeared to be warped. There was no saving it, so I looked to return it. After a few weeks of dealing with Giaco support, I gave up and threw it into a drawer. Giaco is new to production as well as customer service – this was a gamble on my end and I was aware of this when I placed my order and I’m still okay with it. One of those things…
I moved on to my last knife to see if I could get it workable and for the most part, I have… It opens fine. Closes fine… and the lock works well enough that it rarely opens or closes when I don’t want it too. It did take some massaging though and this was mostly due to poor tolerances in the machining. Still, it doesn’t feel like my early production example. It’s not as smooth and it’s not as reliable.
The thing is though – the design of the product is so smart and so good that I am willing to see past the inconsistencies and use the knife as my every day carry. It’s not made all that well, but I still love the damned thing. I don’t know that I can say that about any other product I’ve ever bought.
But there ya go… Those are my thoughts on the Maker Knife after a couple of years of use and a whole lot of studying. It’s flawed, but brilliant.
You can get yours here.
