Taskmaster

When I was a kid, my dad was a taskmaster. He'd give me a list. Pull the weeds from the sidewalk. Clean out the planter. Weed around the flowers. Go through the scrap pipe, cut out the copper, put it in a pile. Then go around back and keep going. You had to pay attention. You had to remember what you were told. And you had to get it done.

That's where the name came from.

The knife came from something just as practical. I saw one of my guys carrying one of my fixed blades in a homemade sheath in his pocket. I looked at it and thought, that's pretty cool. I've made big, heavy-use fixed blades for years, but I liked the idea of making a smaller, all-around utility knife that could ride in your pocket.

I've said this for years: when it actually comes time to use your knife, most people would rather have a fixed blade. The compromise has always been carrying one. Most people don't want to walk around all day with a fixed blade and sheath hanging off their hip. You want something subtle. Something that stays out of the way. Something you can carry in normal clothes, grab when you need it, and put away when you're done.

That became the Taskmaster.

It's a compact, full-tang fixed blade designed to ride in your pocket. The sheath clips in place and the knife sits down inside your pocket with very little showing. When you need it, you pull it out almost like you would a pocket knife. Except there's nothing to open. Grab it. Pull it. Use it. Put it back.

The sheath matters just as much as the knife. Everybody is doing plastic these days. I wanted leather. The Taskmaster sheath is top-grain cowhide with a deep welt, stitched construction, and a clip sewn into it. The clip has a spur on the back that helps keep it planted in your pocket, and I made the sheath so you can carry it right-handed, left-handed, inside the pocket, on the belt, or inside the waistband depending on how you want to run it.

For the first Taskmaster, I went with Cro-Van — basically 1095 with some extra chromium. The steel is made in Germany, sourced through KA-BAR. It's the nicest 1095 I've ever seen. There are all kinds of high-end powdered stainless steels out there, and maybe I'll make the Taskmaster in some of those later. But that wasn't what I wanted this knife to be about.

When I'm away from home — hunting, shooting, traveling — I travel light. I don't bring every tool I own. And the same thing applies to sharpening. Some modern steels, once you really dull them, need a specialty system to get them back. I don't want that in a practical field knife. If I'm miles from home, I'm not carrying a giant sharpening system. But I can carry a stone. And with a steel like this, I can get my knife sharp again and get back to what I'm doing.

A working knife is eventually going to hit something you didn't mean to hit. The only thing worse than accidentally dulling your knife is not being able to sharpen it again. For real knife users, the sheath matters. Size matters. Geometry matters. Sharpenability matters. That's what this knife is built around.

I don't care if you ride a horse for your living. I don't care if you ride a truck for your living. I don't care if you ride a pipe wrench for your living. Whatever you're slinging in your life, if you do manly stuff, it's a fantastic knife to complement your day.

It is absolutely no-frills. Super practical. That's the Taskmaster — a lightweight, tight-to-the-body fixed blade built for people who actually have things to do.