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Custom Knives by Alan Davis

Thought I would start a blog here to showcase the work of my favorite knifemaker. I stumbled across Alan Davis, a knifemaker from Boerne, Texas, in late 2012. I was blown away by his knife designs. Even more astounding was the fact that they were virtually all one of a kind creations. Alan didn't just make one or two patterns and then just outfit them with different materials. Each and every one was pretty much different. While he did have a few designs that people seemed to like and ask for, even those were made a little differently to make them unique. Alan works with all types of handle and blade material ... but does prefer Damascus blades. I currently own 67 of his knives (mainly his linerlock folders, do have a few frame locks, slip joints and fixed blades) and jokingly told Alan that I would love to have owned 100 of his knives before I die. Wasn't sure that would happen (while I sell many of his knives, I have been known to give a some away to close friends, so that they understand why I keep praising Alan's work!) ... but, that milestone was reached on April 19th, 2021, when I hit that 100 goal. He is the only maker who I would have no problem asking to make a knife for me and leaving everything (material/design) up to him ... and be confident that I would be thrilled with the results! I have done this twice .... and thrilled both times!

To start things off, here is one of my favorites that I picked up in 2014 (though I have so many I love, that picking favorites is a very difficult task!). It is a beautiful linerlock folder with amber Sambar stag scales and M3 composite bolsters. The blade measures 3.375" and is made from Damascus by Zoe Crist (in his Blackhawk pattern). Pocket clip is also Zoe's Damascus. Backspacer and liners are nuggetized and anodized a sort of plum color. All in all, a beautiful knife that feels super nice in the hand and is not too large or heavy to carry around clipped to your pocket all day. Hope you like it.

Stay tuned ....

Tags: Alan, David, Knives

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Comment by Jan Carter on July 9, 2016 at 11:57: Dennis,

I never knew about this type of birch and ism't it fantastic! It may be a genetic defect but it produces a natural beauty! Mr Davis did a spectacular job of marrying that wood to this particular Alabama Damascus. Thank you for sharing, this knife is stunning!

Comment by Dennis Hibar on July 9, 2016 at 5:38: (This knife has been gifted.)

I was going to wait until next week to post another Davis ... but I am a creature of routine, so thought Saturday's would be a better day to establish this particular task! Today I'm going to showcase one of my nice Davis folders featuring wood scales.

What you see here is some beautiful Masur birch. Masur is not really a type of birch, as these scales most likely came from silver birch. Masur birch refers to the unique grain pattern, which is caused in some birch species by a genetic defect causing bark and/or knots to grow into the tree instead of out of it. This creates a beautiful grain (IMO). Here, Alan combined the scales with a 3.5" Alabama Damascus blade which has a pattern that totally complements the grain pattern in the wood. Love this knife. Here are more pictures:

Comment by Dennis Hibar on July 6, 2016 at 16:03: I keep a rag handy when looking at any of my Davis knives!!!! I think I'll post a new one each week. Next will be a nice wood handled one for you!