The following is not an interview, but, the result of personal research and interpretation.
As a reward for surviving shoulder surgery and as enticement to be a good boy and follow the Doctor’s orders for healing up and returning to full function, I decided to try and join the increasingly difficult Helvie Knife club!
I heard about these mythic blades on a few of the carving sites I inhabit. They are currently made by a husband and wife team part-time (3 days a week). This couple, Rich and Holli Smithson purchased Helvie Knife LLC from it’s original owner/creator Ken Helvie in July of 2004. Rich a full-time mechanic had been working with Ken since 1993 and as such is a fitting heir to the Helvie legacy.
The finished knives look fantastic in photos, colorful handles in a surprising number of shapes/styles matched to several different blade sizes and types.
As this is a part-time job for the Smithson’s and these are entirely handmade start to finish, there are only so many that they can produce, but, this was not a huge concern. Then the pandemic hit and droves of people discovered they had unexpected free time on their hands and needed to find more solitary means to occupy/pass the time. In many ways I too was one of these, to be completely truthful, I had started to dabble more seriously in whittling towards the end of the previous years (2019) camping season. Demand for Helvie Knives seemed to rapidly strip the available stock and the ability for the Smithson’s to fill orders in a reasonable time. “Drastic” measures were required!
Rather then simply taking every order that came in the Smithson’s determined the numbers of knives they could comfortably produce in 30-60 days, split them across the various styles and put them on their website for purchase on an advertised date (about every 2 months).
Now, I do not blame them in anyway for this! I fully understand how anything, no matter how passionate you are about it, can become a burden if you have to spend every free moment doing it!
This does however, create a bit of a “feeding frenzy”, and a bit of frustration for the consumer, I know this from experience. When the date and time arrives (May 1st at 3pm in this case) and the gates to the site open seemingly hundreds of would be Helvie owners scramble to get the blade and handle style of their dreams. The site does not show quintities available (note, these are NOT physically available, but, will be made over the next 60 days) and as you do not have a confirmed order until it is paid for, it can be pretty frustrating to load your cart with a single selection and have it “out of stock” by the time you finish the payment details. I entered the site the moment it came back online (they shut it down to enter the inventory), I had already prepared and knew the exact blade/handle I wanted, I even had a few alternate handle styles prepared (the blade style was nonnegotiable). I quickly made my selection, entered the payment (used Apple Pay, so, minimal data entry) hit buy and…payment denied, Out of Stock. Removed selection from cart and back to the site for an alternate handle. Already gone…next option…gone…now it’s “well that handle looks okay…”, success!!! All available stocked seemed to have been sold out in about 15 minutes…
I now have a promissory note for one: Helvie Medium Detail Sweep Knife with a John Overby handle. I enjoy Mr. Overby’s work, but, have no idea if his style of handle will fit me, it does look promising! I look forward to receiving my new knife sometime in the next couple months! I will share my experiences once it arrives.