Craftsman a cut above the rest:
City man carving out a name with custom knives.

By Richard Beales
Expositor Staff / Brantford

   Randy Doucette is on the cutting edge of international success.
   Less than a year after opening R. Doucette Custom Knives out of a garage in the backyard of his Memorial Drive home, the 32-year-old master craftsman Is embarking on a major marketing push. He’s close to establishing his own web site and has started to advertise in Blade magazine, the bible of handmade knife aficionados in North America.
   Even without marketing, however, there is a steady demand for Doucette’s handiwork. his knives, which he creates from raw stainless steel in his own designs, start at $200 and can go up to several thousand.
   Though Doucette’s business is new, he’s been contemplating it since well before his days as a student at North Park Collegiate.
   ”I always had an interest in knives when I was young,” he says. “I would gather up money to buy pocket knives.”
   It remained just a collector’s passion until after he had completed machining and tool and die training at St. Clair College in Windsor in 1998 and had started an apprenticeship with J&W Automated Tooling in Ayr.
   He was happy enough doing the apprenticeship, he says, “but my passion was always knives.”
   He would daydream about making them, he confesses, “to fill my time when it was kind of boring.”
   So he began working on knives at J&W on his lunch time, using the machines with his boss’ blessing.
   ”I just had to buy the steel and then I could use the equipment, the welders and what not,” he says.
   Much to wife Jackie’s dismay, he’d also bring his passion home with him on weekends. Her initial reluctance is long gone, however. She’s now one of his biggest fans, enthusiastically helping him promote his masterpieces at trade shows and competitions.
   Doucette says he gathered together some of his fist attempts in October 2002 and took them to the Canadian Knifemakers Guild show in Toronto.
    “I fared really well there,” he says. “I had great reception for my knives and a lot of people interested in buying some.”
   So he made some more prototypes, showed them to Enterprise Brant last February, and secured the loan that allowed him to leave J&W for a late June startup.
   ”Now this is my full-time occupation.”
   With a wife and a 4 ½-month-old daughter, he has to make it work. And so far, it has. Doucette is steadily developing contacts, including a Toronto store called S&R knives that sells his creations.
   The craftsman is proud of the products created by his fine, tedious labour.
   ”They’re all one-of-a-kind,” he says, “hand-ground, hand-made, start to finish.”
   Since opening in June, he’s had nine of 10 custom orders, and has sold about nine of 10 other knives that he’s made from his own designs. At the moment, he has seven knives ready for sale, and eight others ready for polishing.
   ”In design, I’ve got another eight that I’m working on, to keep the batches in a decent number.”
   Given the amount of work that goes into each knife, orders need to be taken well in advance of delivery.
   “A waiting list could range from a minimum of three months up to six months,” he says.
That might seem like a long time, but “other established craftsmen have waiting lists of 10 years and don’t take any more business.”
   All of Doucette’s knives use a “high-carb ATS34” stainless steel in the making of their blades. Those blades are then cryogenically heat-treated in a “sub-300 degree liquid nitrogen quench” at a company called Allied Heat Treat in Brampton.
   ”That takes all the stress off,” Doucette explains, “and adds another level of toughness to the blade.”
   He tries to keep several stages of knifemaking on the go simultaneously.
   ”Right now, I have a batch of eight that I just got back from heat treat, and I’m working on getting the blades polished and the handles fitted,” he says.
   ”While one batch is in heat treat, it works out that I’ll start prepping the next batch – cutting out, profiling, grinding and file work. That’s something I do a lot of, file work.”
   ”And I sharpen them all by hand, freehand.”
   He also makes all the handles and sheaths, often using exotic materials.
    “This is ostrich leg,” he says, pointing to one sheath, “and that (a bag full of snake skin ready for application) is natural python.”
   The handles are fashioned from materials such as stabilized giraffe bone, presentation-grade ironwood and other exotic woods, carbon fiber, buffalo horn and ivory from walrus and elephant. All of his supplies are purchased from a knifemaking supply shop and none violate animal protection laws, he says.
    Doucette won an award at a handmade knife show, involving makers from throughout the province, at the Elgin historical Museum in August 2003.
   ”It was a maker’s choice award,” he says with pride. “All the makers vote on the ones they like best.”
   Next up is the Canadian Knifemakers Guild show April 17 and 18 in Toronto.
   ”I’ve already got my table booked.”
   Doucette plans to get even more sophisticated with his efforts, with fine points such as liner-lock folders and hand engraving coming up on future pieces.
   He’s already practicing with his professional engraving kit.
   ”If you get good at it,” Doucette says, daring to dream, “you’ll be well-known around the world.”

For ordering information please email info@randydoucetteknives.com.