Joe Watson, custom knifemaker and design consultant, joins Bob "The Knife Junkie" DeMarco on Episode 573 of The Knife Junkie Podcast (https://theknifejunkie.com/573).

Watson offers a variety of high performance, handmade knives from kitchen to outdoors to duty use. He also creates historically inspired knives and art pieces and improves them with modern construction methods and more logical design.

Watson still fabricates, cuts, grinds, shapes, dresses and polishes knives one at a time, like he did when he made his first knife in high school.

Whether working with the latest hi-tech materials or with rare, unique natural and antique components, Joe enjoys the process. His tactical and outdoor knives were made, tested and vetted for years before ever being sold and does not believe in using customers as guinea pigs.

Joe joined the US Army at the peak of the War on Terror and when he could, modified knives, and made kydex holsters and sheaths. He trained remotely overseas with a member of Rhodesian SAS and learned how to do more with less in situations where knife performance was of great consequence.

Upon leaving the military he would work in private sector security and trained in BJJ, boxing, Muay Thai, Filipino and Indonesian martial arts. 

Joe developed a sense of what features made the most effective tactical knives, guardless blades without choils and sheaths that allow a full hand grip performed the best in organic medium testing.

Initially his goal was to make functional tools without a thought to fit and finish, but after learning from knife makers like Johnny Stout, John Young, Harvey Dean and John Horrigan, he was inspired to refine his work further.

Find Joe Watson online at www.watson-knives.com, as well as on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/joewatsonusa and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/joewatsonusa. 

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