Design your own knife

The Knife Designer lets anyone design a knife right in the browser, then hand it to a real smith to build. It is the friendliest way onto the Work Pool: instead of describing a knife in a paragraph, you draw it.

Design it (no account needed to start)

  • Answer three quick questions (what it is for, how much upkeep you want, the budget feel) and the designer draws a complete, buildable knife in a second. This guided mode is fully public, no sign in required.
  • Prefer words? Switch to Describe it, type a sentence like "a 5 inch drop point hunter in twist damascus with a stag handle", and it turns your description into the same live drawing. Describing in words needs a free sign in.
  • Fine-tune anything in the editor: blade profile, length and height, grind, steel (pick a damascus pattern when you choose damascus), finish, tang, guard, and handle material. The drawing keeps up with every change.

It checks your work as you go

  • Build notes flag anything that would fight itself, a damascus with no pattern, a guard that will not sit right on a full tang, a fillet knife spine that is too stiff, before a smith ever sees it. Many notes offer a one tap fix.
  • An estimated finished weight, given as a range.
  • A plain materials list (steel, handle, guard, pins, sheath) so you know what goes into it.

Send it to a smith

When you are happy, send the design to the Work Pool. It becomes an open request with your drawing attached, and every smith on BladeOS can see exactly what you want and quote it. From there it works like any other request: you compare quotes and accept one. See The Work Pool.

For smiths

  • A design in the pool comes with the drawing and the full spec, so you are quoting something concrete.
  • Estimate materials from your inventory costs the design against your own stock (steel, handle, and hardware you have logged), line by line, to help you price the quote. It is an estimate only and never touches your stock counts.
  • Adjust and quote your version: open the design, make it yours (a different handle, a full flat grind), and your adjusted drawing rides along with your quote so the customer sees your take beside the price.
  • When your quote is accepted, a commission opens automatically in your pipeline with the design linked and the price filled in. Log materials to it from Financials, Inventory as you build, and the build's job costing shows your live margin.

Good to know

  • The Knife Designer is free for everyone, makers and customers alike.
  • The drawing is a simple working sketch of style, shape and materials, not a photo of the finished knife. It gives your smith a clear starting point, and the smith sets the final details.
  • The materials estimate uses your own logged inventory prices; it is a costing aid, not a quote to the customer.