Zedteq Hunting Knives

Darren Englebretsen, New Zealand

About

My introduction to making knives began in 1979 at age 15, when I couldn't find a good, relatively affordable hunting knife at my local sports shop. Being of a practical nature I decided to make one out of an old file, and thus began a lifelong hobby. That first knife has been lost, but the second one I made in 1980 from an old car leaf spring is shown at left. The spring was heated red hot, hammered flat, cooled slowly to anneal, then shaped entirely by hand using hacksaw, drawfiling, sandpaper and a hand drill, followed by hardening and tempering.

After some years spent earning a BSc (Hons I) in Chemistry I worked in industry for three years. After further study resulting in a Chemistry PhD I worked for six years overseas . During this time knifemaking was put on hold. I returned to New Zealand in 1999 and, while working full time as a research chemist, began to pursue my hobby more seriously , buying a heat treating furnace and building several large linishers (belt sanders) and other machinery. With the linisher built I spent much time learning how to hollow grind by hand, mirror-imaging the grind on each side of the blade by eye (photo right).

More recently I have built a belt sander-based surface grinder (photo left) and rebuilt/modified a vertical shaft cup wheel surface grinder. These items allow much faster preparation of the steel prior to blade grinding, as well as giving a more consistent finish when removing black oxide scale after heat treatment.

After finishing a chemistry research contract in 2006 I worked for a while in Manawatu Hunting and Fishing, getting in the process a good feel for customer's requirements in a knife. As might be expected these boil down to edge holding, ease of sharpening and useful design, which I aim to provide in my knives.

I am a moderately active hunter, so have developed my designs based on my and others' field experiences. While many of my designs are more or less "standard" others are a little less common, such as my personal full tang, micarta handled hunting knife shown below. I hope that you will find something in my range that fulfils your needs.