Thought I’d share an honest review of my experience with Mark Hill Custom Knives.
So picture this. You’re out stalking miles from no-where. You’ve taken one beast already on the evening, walking back to the car and you see another perfect cull animal.
Do you A. come back another day, B. Take the shot?
It’s one of those dilemmas that I think most stalkers face. A job to do vs. the extension of time based on the effort it would take with two trips back and forth dragging the carcass, especially at last light, no pickup, miles from larder… etc….
Easy to pull the trigger – it’s the rest that is the hardwork right!
Anyways…I decided to take the shot….
Now somewhere between the Grallock and the second trip, my favoured and trusty second hand custom knife went missing. I re-tracked my footsteps twice before finally giving up on the hunt.
****ed off……
I’ve always steered away from expensive knives, not because I didn’t see the value but because of this very reason.
After multiple Florescent Mora’s (more than capable and brilliant knives), I decided to take the leap and invest in a custom blade – something that I could potentially pass down to my Son.
So…reaching out to my stalking and SD friends a few names popped up, including Mark Hill.
Doing the usual research I reached out to Mark via his Facebook page to see what the options were and the cost of building a blade similar to the one I’d lost but with a few tweaks.
Being a bit of a geek and knowing what I want, I could imagine my detailed explanation and several hundred images detailing grip, blade length, detailing etc… would have been a bit overwhelming for some people…
But Mark was only too willing to help and advise on some more suitable alternatives to what I was asking for.
NOTE: I think its worth mentioning that a custom knife will never be a comparative price to an off the shelf blade, although obvious sometimes the cost of custom does make the eyes water, also in most cases there is a substantial wait.
With price and a rough date agreed I left him to it.
We kept in contact several times, usually me asking when I was likely to receive it or see some progress. I’m not impatient but like all investments you like to see a return at some point.
Several months later… I got a message to say it was getting started and with all going well it would be received within the following couple of weeks.
Over the following week I got regular updates and pictures of the progress.
Well…
Here it is….
I’m completely overwhelmed with how it feels and the quality of the work. The blade, handle and sheath all just as ordered and more. The photos really don't do it justice.
Worth the expense and wait. Absolutely.
In fact, my next purchase will be a filleting knife.
What you can’t see is that I had both my and my sons initials stencilled into the blade (done by Mark).
So picture this. You’re out stalking miles from no-where. You’ve taken one beast already on the evening, walking back to the car and you see another perfect cull animal.
Do you A. come back another day, B. Take the shot?
It’s one of those dilemmas that I think most stalkers face. A job to do vs. the extension of time based on the effort it would take with two trips back and forth dragging the carcass, especially at last light, no pickup, miles from larder… etc….
Easy to pull the trigger – it’s the rest that is the hardwork right!
Anyways…I decided to take the shot….
Now somewhere between the Grallock and the second trip, my favoured and trusty second hand custom knife went missing. I re-tracked my footsteps twice before finally giving up on the hunt.
****ed off……
I’ve always steered away from expensive knives, not because I didn’t see the value but because of this very reason.
After multiple Florescent Mora’s (more than capable and brilliant knives), I decided to take the leap and invest in a custom blade – something that I could potentially pass down to my Son.
So…reaching out to my stalking and SD friends a few names popped up, including Mark Hill.
Doing the usual research I reached out to Mark via his Facebook page to see what the options were and the cost of building a blade similar to the one I’d lost but with a few tweaks.
Being a bit of a geek and knowing what I want, I could imagine my detailed explanation and several hundred images detailing grip, blade length, detailing etc… would have been a bit overwhelming for some people…
But Mark was only too willing to help and advise on some more suitable alternatives to what I was asking for.
NOTE: I think its worth mentioning that a custom knife will never be a comparative price to an off the shelf blade, although obvious sometimes the cost of custom does make the eyes water, also in most cases there is a substantial wait.
With price and a rough date agreed I left him to it.
We kept in contact several times, usually me asking when I was likely to receive it or see some progress. I’m not impatient but like all investments you like to see a return at some point.
Several months later… I got a message to say it was getting started and with all going well it would be received within the following couple of weeks.
Over the following week I got regular updates and pictures of the progress.
Well…
Here it is….
I’m completely overwhelmed with how it feels and the quality of the work. The blade, handle and sheath all just as ordered and more. The photos really don't do it justice.
Worth the expense and wait. Absolutely.
In fact, my next purchase will be a filleting knife.
What you can’t see is that I had both my and my sons initials stencilled into the blade (done by Mark).
running back and forth.
