Project 365 - Day 2

Warlock Limited Edition

Titanium framelock with ivory inlays engine turning and anodizing (2006)

Project 365 - Day 1

Happy New Year to all!

We wish you much happiness, good health and success. It is a great time to reflect on last year's accomplishments and lessons; and to thank our customers and readers for their continued support. We are very grateful!

Let's get on the way of this new challenge: 1 photo a day for a whole year!

As we start 2013 let's see what is on the bench?

A few Spatha Bolster-Lock in the making.

Project 365 - This is a test!

Day 0 - Test

Mini Tank Flipper - The blade is made from Takefu laminated stainless steel with VG10 core, the knife has Mokume bolsters (Chad Nichols) and sculpted ironwood scales (October 2012)

Are you ready? We start on Tuesday!

Project 365 - What would you like to see?

Last week we announced the 365 project we have for 2013 and have started working on what we want to show you. Obviously 365 is a lot of photos so we will have to dig deep to find interesting material but it is a challenge!

This is what we are planning so far:

• What is on the bench?
• Work in progress - close up of knifemaking operation
• Machines & tools
• Materials & supplies
• Just finished knives
• Older and more recent creations
• Pens and their making
• Watches and their making
• Collaborations with knifemakers and designers
• Collaborations with manufacturers
• Shows and other related adventures
• In the press

We will probably come up with more ideas as we go but we thought we would ask you as well:

Is there something you have always wanted to see? Any other ideas?

Use the comment section to share your ideas. Thanks!

Project 365

This is a guest post by my wife Valerie.

"Greetings everyone! As you may or may not know I am the one who takes care of keeping up with our website, the blog, photographing knives etc...
I was recently inspired by my friend Suzanne and her 365 project involving a skeleton named Sam!
(Check it out here)
A 365 project is a whole year of taking and publishing one daily photo. It can be anything one wants to feature so I thought it would be a great opportunity to showcase Elishewitz Custom Creations, the knives, the watches, the pens, the shop, the shows and anything else we may be up to. I am planning to show day to day activities but also dig out old photos of early models, interesting pieces Allen has created over the years and more.

I am planning to kick this off on January 1st so keep an eye on the blog!"

New instructional videos

This summer Chris Crawford came to spend a few days in the shop and film 3 new instructional videos. They are now available for sale on Chris' website: Order your DVDs here

The new topics are:

Liner lock designs



Fixed blade making



Knife embellishments

Summer to Thanksgiving recap

I took some time off after Blade to recharge my batteries, work on machines that needed repairs and start refurbishing an Aciera F3 I received in July. That machine is a Swiss made mill considered amongst the finest ever made. The advantage of this machine is the ability to do many different operations in one mill. You can slot, drill, mill vertically, mill horizontally, tilt the table, tilt the head... it is very flexible.

We had not taken a real vacation in several years so we had a nice beach vacation in Aruba with some great friends and had a blast! The beaches were amazing, the snorkeling was great and we trekked all over the island on ATVs to visit the wilder side of it.

Feeling truly refreshed I got back in the shop and worked on some fixed blades I had been wanting to make for a while. Even though I rarely do nowadays, I still enjoy making them.

I also attended several shows: The Gathering (G4) in Las Vegas on Labor Day weekend, the SICAC in Paris in September and the NYCKS in Jersey City in November. For these shows I made knives playing with textures, carvings on the handles and bolsters and new blade materials. I started using a new steel from Takefu in Japan, it has stainless steel layers with a VG10 core. VG10 is similar to BG42, it is a high grade stainless steel. I had been wanting to use since I first saw it in Japan 15 years ago. I have several kitchen knives made with this steel that we use everyday at the house and I can attest of its edge holding ability.

I am now winding down the year, finishing some knives to offer for sale on time for the holidays and taking a little time to relax and go to the range.