Saturday Night Knife Porn – Kingdom Armory

Kingdom Armory is a small custom knife company run by David M. Rydbom in Ashland, Oregon – you may recognize his name from some of the TAD knives. David designs and handcrafts some beautiful blades. He keeps an order book (currently closed) and has several dealers (Arizona Custom Knives, Monkey Edge, Ft. Henry Custom Knives, etc.) . According to David, “each are extremely capable cutting tools and will serve the end user for a lifetime”. [sic]. David uses either Crucible’s S30V steel or Chad Nichols stainless damascus, heat treated by Paul Bros. Interestingly, Rydbom feels the sub-hilts and guards of some styles get in the way and affect the way he holds the knife. To address this he designs his knives to be tapered to be wider closer to the waist of the knife. He does this so the user's hand is less likely to slip towards the blade. He also adds ‘aggressive’ texture onto the scales. The result is a sturdy grip on finely built custom knife with heft. Check them out.

Of the his fixed blades, the Blackthorn and Savesacre are among the most popular. Between those two, the Savesacre is the larger. It has a length of 10” and a cutting edge of 4.5”, making a great size for a general purpose fixed blade. The Blackthorn has “a more pronounced drop in the nose” (his description) with a length of 9.25” and a cutting edge of 3.5”. It was designed more for for field use (skinning, processing game, etc.). Kingdom Armory has also released a smaller fixed blade, the Grailing, specifically for CCW purposes. Though it is smaller than the others, it retains many of the larger blades' characteristics. The Grailing was created with heavy handle sculpting, an offset blade/handle orientation and a thick stock construction. It has an overall length of 6.75” and a cutting edge of 3.25”; the profile is thin(ner) and “locks in tight when held a reverse grip”.

You can check out what Kingdom Armory has in stock or order custom from their website.