Keith Nix Knives, Black Mountain NC.
Keith Nix is a native NC Knife Maker in Black Mountain. We make Custom Kitchen Knives for home cooks or professional chefs, handmade knives, and custom chefs knives and outdoor knives right here in town. The Knife Shop and Black Mountain Knifeworks are located only a few minutes from Asheville (20 minutes), Marion (25 minutes), or Hendersonville (45 minutes from).
Professional Hand Sharpening Service, knife edge and tip repair also available. Get in Touch!
Custom Kitchen Knives, Hand Made Chefs Knives, Custom Hunting/Fishing Blades, Custom Sheaths Available, Knife Sharpening
How We Got Started
In 2015 or 2016 I acquired a lovely piece of Birdseye Maple and thought it would be fun to make a knife handle from it. I didn't have a suitable knife so I shopped around and found a company that sells drilled, profiled, and hardened blank knives. ''Add your handle and sharpen'', so to speak. I ordered a blade, and when it arrived I was amazed it passed this company's quality control process, if there even was one. The bevels were grossly off center to the centerline of the knife, the pin holes varied by over .010, the hardness was in the mid 50s HRc. It might have made a nice toy, but it wasn't a knife I wanted to carry.
And that $20 blade is what compelled me to embark on this ''hobby''. Being a machinist, I knew I could do better, and I set to studying the art and design, heat treating processes, knife steels, and handle materials. Many thousands of dollars in knife making equipment and machines later, and a bunch of badly ground blades, I actually started making and testing blades.
Favorite Part of the Business
This is a Family knife making business with outside support. I purchase the steel, design and make all the custom knives, choose or help you choose the handle material, heat treat, grind, polish, and sharpen your custom knife to very exacting specifications. Likewise, ALL sharpening jobs are performed by me, and all knife sharpening is finished by hand, at a fixed angle, with a progression of diamond stones.
My son Micah is now joining me in the shop 2-3 days a month, to assist with build and assembly of knives. My daughter Sarah has become my ''Marketing and Social Manager'', assisting with research, developing the newsletter, and posting the great pictures you see on social media.
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My friend Curtis Cooper also assists in the shop, and makes each custom sheath by hand, fitting every knife perfectly, assists in preparing blades for the heat treat oven, and helps with handle and blade finishing. My friends at Precision Graphics laser etch the logos on knives, embroider caps and apparel, and print T-shirts, forms, receipts, etc. My daughter Sarah Nix has provided some wonderful photos and videos. My friend Ortencia ''Tez'' Garcia has helped with web design and hopefully some future photography.
Customer Can Expect
I take great pains in getting the edge geometry right on your knife, whatever it will be used for.
The edge geometry of your new knife is to me the single most important part of a new knife. Camp knives require more robust blades and edges than chef's knives or veggie choppers like a nakiri. Kitchen knives should be thin, in my opinion. I believe mass producers make knives way thicker and heavier than they need to be in order to make them ''feel'' like they're high quality, and as a safeguard against warranty claims. I wonder why we associate weight with quality.
I get the heat treat right on your knife.
This is also a critical part of custom knife making. My ovens are digitally controlled and my heat treat protocols are proven, tested, retested, and repeatable. Many ''knife makers'' don't even own a hardness tester, and can only guess what they're selling you.
I don't mind adding extra steps to the heat treat protocol for a steel if I know it will benefit the end product for the long term.
Learn the basics of Heat Treating HERE, and why I use Liquid Nitrogen HERE!
A long description makes it sound like sorcery, but it boils down to a couple of simple rules:
1) Make the knife hard enough to do the job at hand through hundreds of uses. For me, that is almost always harder than 60HRc
2) Make the knife ductile enough to survive the job at hand, through hundreds of uses. This requires tempering at least twice
for the right time, at the right temperature.
3) Use heat treat protocols that ensure the finest grain size and carbides for the steel being used
4) Grind the bevels and sharpen the blade appropriately for its intended purpose! I have equipment, jigs, and fixtures that allow me to set bevel angles at very precise, fixed angles. Keith Nix Knives have no faceting, no ''wandering'' of the bevel angle, and every knife has a hand finished, diamond honed, leather stropped edge.
I have lots of unique, beautiful, exotic, locally salvaged, and responsibly sourced wood!
When people look at your knife, the vast majority will see the handle first. In fact it may be all they really look at. Check out some of the handle materials I offer HERE!
The Keith Nix Knives Handle design fits your hand.
Our beautiful ergonomic handles are designed by and unique to Keith Nix Knives. I chose this handle design that nestles into your hand, has a palm swell for grip, and offers ZERO square corners or edges to create ''hot spots'' in your hand with prolonged use. It isn't the easiest to produce, but it's comfortable and attractive!
I hand sharpen an extremely keen edge on your knife.
I've never seen any factory knife with an even, hand sharpened edge. They're machine ground, usually freehand, and usually very poorly. Whether you're purchasing a custom knife or using the professional sharpening service, your knife will receive a hand finished, 3000 grit, hair shaving, leather stropped edge. I provide Professional Knife Sharpening for well over 100 knives a month in addition to what we sell, and I'm good at it!
Competes On
Service • Convenience • Price • Selection • Expertise • Value
