Custom Kwaiken w/ USN Menuki

White, Caleb

"Like most knifemakers my love for knives started very young: I grew up in West Texas in an environment where knives were an everyday part of life, and in some cases essential to it. While I learned to respect them as tools, I always saw a deeper value in knives as pieces of art. My passion for blades was further fueled by movies, comic books, science fiction, medieval artwork and stories, and my inherent imagination as an artist. After high school I joined and served for 10 years in the United States Air Force, as a Security Forces Sergeant. It was in the Air Force that I met Brett Bennett, the man who would become my mentor and great friend. Brett began teaching me the art of making knives and I quickly developed a fire to make them full time. I completed my first knife in 2008 shortly after my discharge and have been working on perfecting my craft since then, while attending college and raising a family. My knife designs are heavily influenced by the culmination of my experiences as an artist, a veteran, a designer, and a day dreamer. The martial arts, particularly from Japan, also greatly inspire my knife designs. I prefer elegant simplicity in a blade, with a tight execution of fit, and a wide array of finishes; some knives to me look better with an organic or weathered appearance, while others call for a cleaner more mechanical finish. The closest classification I can come up with for my style is: classical-medieval-organic-science fiction-art-tactical! "