Williams, Adam

I grew up in St. Louis, Missouri, spending much of my time fishing and hunting along the Gasconade River and the Lake of the Ozarks. Even as a little kid, I was fascinated by blades. When I was three, my parents let me carry around a screwdriver — the closest thing I could find to a knife. Later, it was fingernail files, anything that even resembled a blade. That passion never left me. I’ve been a lifelong knife collector, inspired by legendary makers like Randall Made Knives. At 24 years old, life took an unexpected and incredible turn. Living in Tampa, Florida at the time, I drove to Randall Made Knives in Orlando to have one of my knives cleaned — and on a whim, I asked if they were hiring. To my shock, they said yes, if I could start within two weeks. I rode my motorcycle back home, asked my wife if she wanted to move to Orlando, and without hesitation, she said, “Let’s do it.” I showed up for my first day at Randall, expecting to sweep floors. Instead, they handed me a piece of steel stamped Randall Made Orlando, Florida and told me to start grinding. I couldn’t believe it. I was being trained to make knives at the Mecca of handmade hunting knives. I worked there for years, learning from some of the best craftsmen in the world. Today, I make knives with the goal of achieving the same, or even better, quality as the master smiths I’ve admired for years — William Scagel, Randall Made Knives, Jerry Fisk, Don Hanson, Murray Carter, Josh Smith, Ed Fowler, Ron Lake, Micheal Walker, and so many others. I work with both carbon and stainless steels. I hand-forge my carbon blades and do all my own heat-treating using a digitally controlled kiln to achieve exact scientific specifications, aiming for an average Rockwell hardness of 61. I love working with premium materials: stag, exotic stabilized woods, horns — the rarer and more beautiful, the better. I also handcraft all my leather sheaths, stitching every line by hand.