About Me

My name is Johnathan Shaw, and I am the face behind TSK. I started making knives in the spring of 2020 when I was 14, after my family returned to Canada after living overseas for several years. I had been drawing and designing knives for about 6 months before I started actually cutting steel, and when I finally made a knife, my passion took off. I started in a little shed, hacksawing and filing knives. My first four ish knives were built that way. I eventually upgraded to a $100 1x30 grinder, and finally built a 2x72" from scratch. These tool upgrades allowed me to boost what I could make, and my focus shifted from fixed blades to folders.  Folders became my passion; in my opinion they allow for the most creative expression, and have the most little details. 

During my journey making knives, there were two big influences that without them, I would not have made anything like I did. Firstly is Seth of Cosmo Knives. I reached out to Seth in the summer of 2020 to ask for advice on heat treating a blade. He offered I could exchange a day's labour for heat treating my blank. That was the start of me working for him in his shop for the summer of 2020, and well into the school year. Commuting by bike and ferry to get to his shop and build knives. During slack times I would use his equipment (and expertise and patience) for my own blades, and this allowed me to do much more than I would've been able to alone. Without Seth's help and generosity, I would not have become the knifemaker I am today.  Secondly, my highschool supported my knifemaking passion, and allowed me to bend the rules a smidge and work on knives in the metal shop. Machining, heat treating, sand blasting, many things I would not have had access to by myself. In grade 10, the shop teacher and I started a program to have students make their own knives in class under my tutelage, and that stayed in place every year until I graduated.