Harvey King Knives

I've got a couple custom knives that frankly have some of the best craftsmanship you'll ever run across. They were made by Harvey King, of Harvey King Knives. When I purchased them, he lived in Eskridge, KS. He now lives in Alta Vista, KS. If you ever go to the Chisholm Trail Antique Gun Association's biannual gun shows in Wichita, you will generally find Harvey there with a pretty decent selection of his wares. By the way, those shows are the biggest and the best of the gun shows offered in Wichita and they are located at the Kansas Coliseum.

At any rate, this was the first knife I bought from Harvey - who not only is an artist in knives, but a heck of a nice guy as well. I haven't seen him in several years, but he's always remembered me. The thing that struck me was how perfect these are - I've seen some pretty rough looking knives for sale in the same price range at gunshows in the past.


My good camera is in my truck and I'm stuck with the elderly "first gen" pichertaker, but you go to war with the equipment you have. I did set it for max resolution, so click for bigger. This one is a good gut knife - I've done one deer and it still doesn't need sharpening. This picture came out pretty well and you can see the laser etched King logo on the ricasso. The wood is plasticized with a burl pattern. Harvey uses a red liner between his handle scales and the tang, and also along the hilt. The rivets are flush and polished smooth - they cannot be felt at all. This is a Model 2 - as can be seen on the handmade sheath. On the opposite side of the ricasso is the serial number - in this case 00-018 - the eighteenth knife Harvey made in 2000. For the life of me, I couldn't get a decent picture of that side - but I was doing this inside with varying levels of light and I'm a photography noob.


This one is his Small Game Knife with a hilt - if you look on his webpage you'll see he offers it without a hilt as well. This one has bone scales, and the serial number is 04-001, which means it was the first knife he made in 2004. Again, he has the red liner beneath the scales and hilt, the seamless feel to all the joints and rivets, and the handmade sheath.

Both knives are extremely comfortable to hold and use, plus they keep an edge very well. You can get these knives in different configurations and handle materials. These are multigenerational family heirlooms - too bad I don't have any heirs. I'm sure that someone will be enjoying these tools elevated to an art form long after I'm gone.