Iowa River Knifeworks

01/22/2025

I think it must have been kitchen slicer month. A few of my recent completions.

12/17/2024

These two sexy slicers left the shop this morning to two super cool guys from Texas who just happened to to be in the area.

They said they are in CR to host a work party at a large company and needed a couple knifes to slice up over 250lbs of Ribeye for a feed. Now I’ve never seen 250lbs of Ribeye but it’s now on my bucket list.

12/08/2024

A couple more of December’s finished blades that the shop.

12/05/2024

It’s been awhile since I posted some completed blades, I figured I would share.

If you are in the market for an excellent custom blade, reach out.

11/11/2024

I’m sitting here this morning planning out today’s projects and trying to clear a few lines off my “need to get done” list and one of my projects is replenishing my handle supply.

These pieces of wood are from a big downed elm tree that had a 3ft Burl growing out the side of it that I processed.

There is a whole lot of work involved in processing wood for handles.

First is actually finding the wood with the grain and figure that makes it special.

Most wood, if left untreated will warp and either shrink or expand over time which is no good for knife handles, so I use a process called Stabilizing.

Stabilizing is a process that includes drying the wood down to 0% moisture with the use of an oven. Once the wood is at 0%, it gets submerged into a special heat activated very thin resin and put into a Vacuum Chamber to remove all the air. This process can take up to a week.

Once all the air is removed, it gets taken from the vacuum chamber and left to soak for atleast another week, the resin will soak throughout the entire piece of wood. Then it goes back into the oven to bake for a few more hours to activate the hardening of the resin and set it.

Quite the long drawn out process but it’s about the only way to ensure your handles stay warp free.

The photo shows a few pieces, some of them natural and some dyed different colors, that just came out of the process and are finally ready to be sliced up for use.

Thanks for looking.

09/27/2024

I just sent these 4 custom blades out last night to my local chapter of Whitetails Unlimited to be used as auction items at their annual banquet in Keystone on 28 September.

I’m really starting to fall in love with the gut hook and after a few prototypes, I think I nailed it. I’ll be making a handful more next week so if you are interested, get your orders in now.

09/20/2024

This beast of a machete is sporting some cool Leopard wood handles. It’s a custom order that was challenging and super rewarding.

09/20/2024

I sent this 11.5” beauty out yesterday to an organization called Delta Waterfowl for one of their local chapter banquet and fundraising events.

Iowa River Knifeworks is a Veteran owned and operated custom knife shop located in Belle Plaine Iowa

09/01/2024

This beast of a blade went out to a MC club, who have been great customers. Appreciate the business. Sporting some custom Kydex that I had designed with their club emblem.

09/01/2024

A custom 12” fillet knife for a local Flathead guy.

09/01/2024

I have been getting lazy with posting on here lately, so here are a few of some fillet blades I have knocked out recently.