Some makers fall into knifemaking later in life. Samuel Riner basically grew up in it. His father worked in handle materials, making and selling Micarta slabs to other knifemakers, which meant Riner was surrounded by the craft from the start. By age 14, he had already made his first knife from O1 steel — a blade he still keeps around today, partly as a reminder of how far he’s come.
That early start shows in the way Riner talks about his work. He’s refreshingly honest about the grind: he estimates he made around 50 knives before he produced one he was truly happy with. “Everything takes more time than you imagine,” he says, and you get the sense that patience is baked into every step of his process.
Now based in Tennessee, Riner turns out handmade bushcraft and EDC fixed blades from a shop filled with tools he and his father built themselves. The loyalty he’s earned speaks for itself — most of his customers come back for more, and one collector has reportedly bought over 60 pieces, handing them out as gifts.
What sets Riner’s process apart:
In-house Micarta production — Riner sources fabric locally and presses it into 14×14 slabs himself, giving every handle a unique texture and color story.
Custom-built shop equipment — from the forge press to the grinder and rolling mill, much of his tooling is homemade, shaped by years of hands-on problem solving.
The penny test — before any model goes up for sale, Riner batons through a penny and checks whether the edge can still slice paper. He’s destroyed roughly $50 in change validating his work.
Real-world torture testing — feather sticks, nail chopping, batoning, and hours of hard use come before a design ever reaches a customer.
KnivesShipFree partnership — Riner is working with KSF to broaden his reach and develop a production line that reflects his handmade standards.
There’s a stubborn, old-school integrity to the way Riner builds knives. In an era where boutique makers often outsource materials and marketing, he’s still making his own scales, building his own tools, and proving every design the hard way. That approach won’t scale to mass production — and that’s exactly the point.
The bottom line: Samuel Riner is a young maker with an old soul, and his knives reflect that. With a growing catalog of custom EDC and bushcraft fixed blades, a direct line to collectors through KnivesShipFree, and ambitions to return to full-time making, he’s one of the more interesting independent voices in the custom knife world right now.