Oregon Shooter

Custom Pikal Knife by Mark Goldsworthy

Posted: December 04, 2008 | Last Updated: June 06, 2009

Style and function best describe this piece of artwork. 

I first came across Mark’s work on
http://www.warriortalk.com when I saw him starting to share his handy work with steel.

Mark was just beginning to share his new talents as a blade smith and was putting up so many nice knives showing such a variety of styles that many people started asking him for a website where they could see them all.

I was surprised to find he didn’t have a website to share them on and volunteered to make him one so that I could see more of his great work.

He eventually took me up on the offer and the initial site was created (a refurbished look is coming soon) for him.

This knife is my first and only from Mark and was a gift from him for helping with the website, and while we have never met, I consider Mark a friend and one of the best “tactical defensive knife” makers out there.

I instantly fell for his traditional cord wrapped blades but could not bring myself to buy one because I knew they would be “safe queens.”

For me, packing a fixed blade longer than 7” OAL was just out of the question and many traditional Japanese designs start at a 7” blade length alone and end up near 10-12” OAL.

My personal fixed blade knife style is the simple Pikal method that SouthNarc of www.shivworks.com teaches.  This works best with a small blade and requires the inward edge to be sharpened with a neutral handle on the blade.

Mark was more than willing to step up and provide designs for this style of knife fighting at the request of Pikal followers on www.totalprotectioninteractive.com and created some nice blades with pure utility in their lines as seen on the website.

Being drawn by the cord wrap design and wanting a Pikal fighter, I finally asked Mark to help me design something and this “Pikal Spike” is the outcome.

With a blade length of 3-1/2” and grip of the same, the 3/16” steel is well suited for my needs as strictly a fighter.

I’ve been wearing it EDC now for about 3 months and cannot find anything about it that I dislike.  The size is perfect, the wrap fills the hand and is epoxy soaked so it does not move around.

The weight feels balanced and heavy for its size.  It just feels solid in the hand.

If you have a design you have been kicking around but did not know where to get it made, Mark is the guy to talk to!

His website is: www.goldsworthyknives.com

Thanks Mark for a great gift!

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