Knifemaker Interviews: Jason Burgin

How did you get into Knifemaking?
My father gave me my first Swiss Army Knife as a kid and since then I was amazed at the quality and functionality of such a small package. Since then I was always searching for the perfect knife; a goal I will never realise, I think.

One day in 1992 I thought "I will have to make my own knife..."
I picked up the yellow pages and searched for knifemaking/knife kits and anything else that might help me find my goal.
It was here I found a small ad "Keith Fludder, custom knifemaker"
I rang him and said “can I come and buy a kit knife from you?”
The next day was the start of my journey as a knifemaker.

A lot of newer Knifemakers have the advantage of the wealth of information provided by online forums & tutorials to help them get started. Did you have it so easy?
I was so keen to make knives - it just seemed natural to start grinding and shaping something, but it was only with the benefit of Keith’s experience, his guidance, resources and friendship that I was going in the right direction. These early days were paved with far more pitfalls than now, but I still managed to save money for equipment and scavenge steel for blades and find suppliers of woods and other materials that are just a tap of the keyboard away nowadays.

What's your design process? Sketch, Cad, or do you just get straight to work? Where do you source your inspiration for your designs?
for a stock removal knife, I will draw a profile on a piece of steel, I will keep changing the shapes and curves until I feel it looks right, then I start cutting the profile and make the shapes flow together as I grind the profile on the linisher.
For folding knives, I will start with a size and style in mind and choose the materials suitable for that type, then I develop the shapes as I configure the geometry of the locking mechanism and go from there.

Do your knives say anything about where you're from?
I try to demonstrate an un-bounded freedom that the canvas of steel can allow but still retain total useability; kind of a form meets function approach.

What's your preferred style of knife to make?
I like to make small liner lock folders and small pocket-able fixed blades, quite often hollow grind but also flat grinds.

How long typically, will a knife take for you to build?
Small fixed blades take me 6-12 hrs.
Folders take 25-40 hrs but I am a hobby knifemaker so time is very hard to judge.

What's your favourite material/s to use in your handles and blades? Preferred finishes?
I really like using stainless damascus for blades.
Mokume and carbon fibre for folder handles, stag horn and burl woods for fixed blades.

Have you had any strange requests for knife/kit design?
I've been asked to make a bowler hat with a sharp rim, À la James Bond style, which I declined.

What's the greatest challenge you've had in Knifemaking? Any regrets?
Every step of the way there are new challenges and higher goals to reach for. Sometimes I have to temper my enthusiasm with the reality of time, cost and space restraints. I wish my job was more closely related to metalwork/machining.

Do you make anything aside from knives?
I make small carved skull beads from mokume, damascus and other materials and small jewellery/art trinkets and miniature oddities from scrap materials.

Where do you see your Knifemaking going in the next few years?
Make more folders and streamline the process. I would like to do a large scale, high end, damascus fantasy piece.

What knife do you carry?
I have my 2" keychain linerlock with damasteel and carbon fibre made by myself about 6 yrs ago and my latest folder, a 4 1/4" linerlock with damasteel twist blade, carbon fibre scales and titanium liners.



Photos courtesy of Jason Burgin

12 Questions for Aussie Knifemakers

I've been fortunate in my knifemaking, in that I've been able to learn a lot of things from online forums that would have taken longer had I been sourcing the information from written material. The advantage with reading "How to" posts is that if you have a question, you can ask the author directly, and you get a lot of varying opinions and perspective rather than the input of one, or several people.
Don't get me wrong, I love printed text and I'm never going to be satisfied with my collection of books, but it's nice being able to have a search engine at your disposal when you want to find out if there's a better way of something you're stuck on.

Over a series of posts, I'm going to be interviewing some of the knifemakers that frequent Laventrix Knife Forum see how other makers approach the craft.

Some of the knifemakers I'll be interviewing have been doing it for some time, and others are (like myself) fairly new to things, so it should provide an interesting dynamic.

A Different Kind of Knife...

...and even a spoon. It's a little late to be making this post considering I made these fiddleback redgum butter knifes and a jam spoon for Mothers' Day, but I forgot to take a photo at the time and keep forgetting to take my camera when I see Mum. Until now.



Forgive the B&W photo. I've since learned that using a red and white checkered tablecloth as a background leads to very red, overexposed images.

What Makes a Knife a Knife?

As you (the reader of this blog) may be aware, I have been following The Suburban Bushwacker for some time now and recently made him a knife to review. Well this isn't a link to the review (that's to come later) but I'd like to share this informative article he's written on buying the right knife.


If you have a general love of the outdoors, and/or bushcraft I'd also recommend having a look through his other posts. In fact, have a read even if you're not into bushcraft and spent your days in a darkened room surfing the net.. it might help.

Photo Credit: Todd Hill - Primitive Point

Knives by Dave Myhill

I met Dave Myhill about 7 years ago when I was at the home of my best friend (Dave's daughter, L) having a bit of a catch up, and he dropped over for a visit.
At the time, Dave was a little apprehensive about the boys his daughter spent time with, and had the misconception that this young lad sipping tea with his only female heir must be her boyfriend, or at least a potential candidate - so he offered to take me hunting, and said he'd even give me a 3 day head start.

Dave also took the time to explain that he could lodge a knife, bullet, or arrow in me from 30 yards with very little difficulty on his part.

We had a few chance encounters shortly after that (helping L move house, the occasional shared meal, birthdays, etc.) and we gradually began to warm to each other. On several occasions I even made the trip to Dave's place on the Mornington Peninsula with L to help out with some yard work.

A few short years later Dave and I really started developing a friendship. He'd tell me at great length about knives and damascus steel and I was fortunate enough to spend some time with him in the shed getting a crash course in forge-welding.

Sadly, Dave passed away at the beginning of last year after a lengthy battle with cancer. This was pretty hard to take considering Dave had become very much like a second father to me.
I'm not sure if this is the right choice of words but maybe the one good thing to come from this was that it prompted me to start making knives on my own. At some point in the future I hope to start my first forged knife and give the finished product to L as a tribute to her father's dedication to the craft of knifemaking.

While recently attending the knife show I ran into a friend of a friend and she introduced me to her partner A, who happens to be a knife collector.
We got to talking and it turns out A rarely missed an opportunity to wander past Dave's stand at shows past and usually walked away with one of his knives.

He offered to let me come over and look at his collection, and was kind enough to donate some of Dave's unfinished blanks, agreeing that as payment I would put a handle on one of them for his partner.


I've decided that I'll finish the large trade blade and keep that for myself, but the large dagger will be redesigned into a tanto style blade for an old friend and the smaller utility knife will be finished and one day be given to my godson - who happens to be one of Dave's grandchildren.