Tag Archives: Koss Workshop

This gorgeous Copper and Carbon Steel Dagger is a Masterclass in Minimalism

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As a self-proclaimed EDC aficionado, there’s a certain joy to writing about knives, but there’s an even bigger joy to actually see them be built. If you fancy the latter, look no further than Koss, a YouTuber who’s dedicated his life to building some of the most eclectic knives and recording the entire process for people to see and appreciate. At the end, the knife gets listed on their Etsy store, almost as a reward for the viewers, giving them the opportunity to own one of the artist’s unique works. Each knife is made just once, as Koss creates and uploads the video, creating a sense of preciousness around the knife itself.

Designer: Koss Workshop

This particular beauty is perhaps one of Koss’ most minimal designs ever. It starts off as a simple hollow rectangular copper pipe and a carbon steel billet, which Koss expertly transforms into a beautiful dagger + sheath that focuses on visual purity.

Most knives try to channel an aggressive aesthetic, given the fact that they’re weapons designed to harm and intimidate. The Copper Dagger isn’t that, it’s more of a gentleman’s letter-opener that also serves as an enemy-opener too… which explains why it looks as minimal as it does. The knife eschews any unnecessary detail, relying simply on showcasing its materials. There’s no pocket-clip, no jimping, not even as much as a textured grip. Just a beautiful dagger-point blade with a fuller groove running along the center to provide stiffness and character.

A closer look at the carbon-steel blade and the fuller groove running from tip to grip.

Building the knife is a process that borders on sheer artistry too. Koss starts with a rather rusty-looking billet of steel, which he cuts, machines, sands, and hardens into the blade of the dagger. The dagger’s dimensions are machined to absolute precision, designed to fit snugly into the copper pipe he sourced too. Once ready, Koss soft-hammered the pipe over the dagger, ensuring a tight, glue-less and screwless fit. The full-tang blade then got a bit of sanding done on the back, revealing both the metals with a neat bevel detail.

Sadly, the Copper Dagger didn’t last too long on Koss’ Etsy store. Priced at $420, the dagger saw an immediate buyer who snagged this minimalist beauty. However, if you’ve got the tools and the energy, the YouTube video above should serve as a how-to guide if you want to build your own EDC knife too!

The post This gorgeous Copper and Carbon Steel Dagger is a Masterclass in Minimalism first appeared on Yanko Design.

Exquisite hand-crafted EDC knife comes with a retractable blade and an all-metal design

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What’s really remarkable about Koss Workshop’s designs are that they’re devoid of any CAD work, fancy automated machinery, or any smoke and mirrors. Every single thing he makes in his US-based workshop relies on standard billets of metal, mostly hand-drawn stencils, and regular cutting, forging, and polishing equipment. Everything Koss does is manual, from cutting or forming the individual billets, to finishing the knives, polishing the blade, and assembling/shipping the end result. More so, he documents everything on his YouTube channel, so you can appreciate the craftsmanship that goes into each individual object he then sells on Etsy.

For the Shift Folder Knife, Koss decided to make a knife with a retracting blade that moves up and down a rail built into the handle. There’s a clever snapping mechanism there too that causes the blade to fix in its closed or open position. Everything is made in-house from a combination of titanium and brass for the handle, and W1-7 high carbon steel for the blade.

Designer: Koss Workshop

It all starts with the blade – a double-edged drop-point cutting edge that Koss cuts and grinds from a sheet of carbon steel. Known for holding its edge better than regular steel, this metal works really well for its particular use case. Koss carves a linear notch into the center (which will support the blade’s sliding mechanism, before grinding down both the edges to give the blade its immaculate sharpness that can cut both ways.

The handle, on the other hand, uses a combination of titanium (for its stiffness), and brass (for its unique color and ability to patina). Sandwiched between the titanium and brass halves, however, is a cleverly machined steel sheet that comes with a notch just like the one on the blade. However, the notch has two steps in it – one at the front and one at the end. This allows the blade to ‘snap’ into open and closed positions, giving you a convenient single-handed experience without any hassles or complicated parts. The mechanism provides enough resistance that you can use the blade without it sliding back into its handle.

To assemble the entire thing, Koss just puts the pieces together and then fastens them with a set of hex screws. The screws sit flush against the handle’s surface thanks to the fact that Koss added a countersunk crater in all of them, and to operate the Shift Folder Knife, a broad brass knob sits on the handle, providing a fair bit of contrast against the titanium sheet behind it.

Koss’ knives don’t come cheap. This one sold for $220 on Etsy – but then again, each knife is handmade and Koss doesn’t make more than one unit of any design, making each one unique. It’s a business model that works for him, given that almost every single knife he adds to his Etsy store gets sold out within just hours!

The post Exquisite hand-crafted EDC knife comes with a retractable blade and an all-metal design first appeared on Yanko Design.

Inspired by the butterfly knife, this ‘Brass Butterfly Comb’ is just an incredibly slick Everyday Carry

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I bet the Butterfly Comb would be an incredibly cool cultural artifact of the late 80s.

If looks could kill, the Butterfly Brass Comb would be as lethal as a butterfly knife. Designed and built from scratch by the genius known by his internet moniker ‘Koss Workshop‘, the Butterfly Brass Comb comes meticulously machined from a solid piece of brass, sandwiched between the two-part handle made from acid-finished copper complete with an incredibly satisfying magnetic closure system.

The video above shows Koss in action, as he builds out the comb from scratch. Starting with just raw materials, Koss gets to work, creating the profiles for the comb’s various parts and sticking them onto the solid metal pieces that then go through a laborious cutting, sanding, and polishing process. The brass comb itself is painstakingly built with Koss manually cutting out each tooth, before sanding the edges to round them out. The handle, on the other hand, starts as two pieces of hollow copper pipes that get cut, polished, and etched in an acid that takes away their rose-gold sheen, giving the handles a distressed grungy look that pairs wonderfully with the brass comb inside. To finish it off, Koss also adds magnets inside the handle, causing them to click open and shut for an incredibly satisfying tactile experience.

The almost-11-minute video ends with Koss demonstrating how the comb opens, flicking the handles inward and outward like a pro. The Butterfly Brass Comb exists only as a solitary unit that Koss sold on his Etsy store to a willing buyer who snapped it up for $850. I guess that person REALLY likes combs…

Designer: Koss Workshop

The post Inspired by the butterfly knife, this ‘Brass Butterfly Comb’ is just an incredibly slick Everyday Carry first appeared on Yanko Design.

This beautiful handmade katana-style knife is an absolute masterclass in minimalism

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Designed to fit into a hollow piece of square-shaped metal tubing, Koss Workshop’s ‘Square Tube Knife’ borders on sheer perfection, with every aspect of its design being minimal on detail yet maximal on expression.

Even though it’s styled like a katana, the Square Tube Knife isn’t as long as one. In fact, it measures 223mm when sheathed, or just less than 9 inches. The knife itself is crafted from W1-7 high carbon steel (you can see the entire fabricating process in the video above) and sits within aluminum tubing that’s been finished too to remove any sharp edges. The aluminum outer casing forms both the handle and the sheath of the knife, resulting in a two-part design that seamlessly becomes one singular monolithic form when closed. Whether you’re staring at the knife’s deceptively simple design or Koss’ meticulously documented video, you can’t help but appreciate the sheer beauty that is the Square Tube Knife.

We’ve been in awe of Koss Workshop’s custom knives for quite a while now. Earlier last year Koss introduced us to this absolutely stunning folding knife that used a unique never-before-seen folding mechanism with a two-part splitting handle. Along with selling his creations on his Etsy store, Koss has even amassed an audience of keen followers on his YouTube, where he periodically drops videos capturing his entire knife-making process. With the Square Tube Knife, the 8-minute video focuses mainly on how Koss builds the blade from a solid billet of W1-7 High Carbon Steel, and glues it into the off-the-shelf aluminum tubing.

The knife exists as just a single unit, and with a price tag of $840, it doesn’t come cheap either. It did, however, get sold immediately to a satisfied buyer just prior to Christmas.

Designer: Koss Workshop

The post This beautiful handmade katana-style knife is an absolute masterclass in minimalism first appeared on Yanko Design.

This titanium katana with a chainsaw blade is exactly the kind of bonkers idea Quentin Tarantino would have

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Put this chainsaw katana in the hands of Uma Thurman and the Kill Bill franchise would get cut down to just a 10-minute short film.

Seriously though, a katana with a chainsaw built into the edge of its blade sounds a little like overkill… although it’s purely for aesthetic purposes. Designed and built by Koss Workshop, the Titanium Chainsaw Katana is a purely decorative piece, designed to be hung on walls and admired for its craftsmanship and (slightly sadistic) beauty rather than used as a handheld WMD.

The video at the top of the article documents Koss’ entire process as he builds this justifiably bonkers sword from scratch (with timestamps generously factored in too). The katana’s blade comes from three sheets of metal sandwiched together – two 3mm titanium sheets on the outside, and a brass sheet in the middle. Koss then affixes a chainsaw chain on the cutting edge of the blade, drilling holes in the titanium and riveting the entire setup in place. I doubt the chainsaw actually cuts anything (you’d need to swing the sword at whiplash-inducing speeds to actually slice through stuff), although it does the one job it’s meant to pretty well – look intimidating.

The rest of the sword’s made from metal too, including the guard and grip. The grip comes with exposed screws that hold the tang of the blade within the handle, adding to its raw aesthetic. I’m guessing you could unscrew it for maintenance purposes too.

Once fabricated, Koss put up this batshit-crazy sword up for sale on his Etsy page, where it was promptly picked up by an eager customer – probably a Tarantino fan… and now a person of interest on FBI’s watchlist.

Designer: Koss Workshop

I’ve never seen anything quite like how this unique pocket-knife opens and closes

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You’ve got sliding blades, switchblades, even complicated blades triggered by linkages, but what Koss Workshop’s latest creation does is quite unique. The knife, literally titled ‘Weird Folding Knife’, sports a split handle design and a couple of linkages that allow the blade to slide in and out. The blade comes with a slot too, that keeps it aligned as you open and close the knife… and it’s entirely made from scratch using scrap metal and a fully-equipped metal workshop.

The Weird Folding Knife practically changes its entire silhouette as it opens and closes. The two-part handle separates to make way for the blade when closed and joins together seamlessly turning into a grip when the blade’s open. Made more as a hobby-piece than an actual knife meant for daily use, the Weird Folding Knife doesn’t come with a locking mechanism. Rather, it exists as a one-off proof-of-concept of how a knife’s handle could split apart to accommodate its blade. You can just see the GIF for yourself below.

The Weird Folding Knife comes with a two-part polished-brass handle and an 80mm W1-7 High Carbon Steel blade. When open, the entire knife measures 203mm, and when closed, is about the same length as the blade. What’s also rather clever about how the knife closes is that it manages to conceal the blade’s cutting edge between the two-part handles, making it safer.

Koss’ work of art, unfortunately, is only one of its kind, and got snapped up pretty much instantaneously by a passionate customer the minute it hit the Etsy store. However, the knifesmith’s pretty meticulously documented the entire knife-building process on his YouTube channel. View the entire process behind making the Weird Folding Knife in the video above. The video’s rather generously time-stamped too, so you can conveniently skip to the parts you find more interesting!

Designer: Koss Workshop