About KHDaily Knives

I am Kyle Daily, the maker and founder of KHDaily Knives. What started as a fascination with knives, the craftsmanship, and love of engineering has morphed into a career making knives and knifemaking tools. I have always believed in trying to create things that will last and many of my knives I know will be passed down and the stories of the knives will be also.

The early years

I have been using knives for as long as I can remember. As a kid, I was always helping my mom and dad in the kitchen, helping my uncle fillet fish, or finding small jobs to have an excuse to use my knives.  When I was young I almost always had a knife in my pocket and may have forgotten to take it out once or twice before going to school! Those early experiences taught me the importance of good tools and the satisfaction of knowing how to use them well.

College

I went to college for Mechanical Engineering Technology at Purdue University and was always interested in manufacturing and metallurgy. While I was there, I got really interested in a wide variety of knives and started buying more unique, expensive knives.  During summers and winter breaks I worked at a machine shop that was in my hometown as well.  Working there, I learned how to make many different things and expanded some of the skills I still use today.

Post College

My first job out of college was the same machine shop I worked at in college. I always enjoyed being able to stand back and look at what I made at the end of the day. When I got married and moved to Chicago in 2010, I started working at an engineering job where I am able to work with my hands, but not as much as I was accustomed.

While there, one of my coworkers introduced me to bladeforums.com and told me about Fiddleback Forge. Andy, the owner, was an electrical engineer who started making knives.  He did many different forum posts on how he made knives and things he did that helped me learn what to do.  I was hooked!  I had been looking for something I could make without a lot of specialized equipment, and decided this was it.

Soon after, my wife and I went to the Blade Magazine Knife Show in Atlanta, GA in 2012. I was able to meet many of the knife makers that I had been following on the Internet, who were extremely nice and told me some of their tricks of the trade.  One of the guys, Dan Eastland (an apprentice of Andy Roy at the time), invited me to come and see the shop and some of the things they did to make knives firsthand.  This was extremely helpful, and I decided right then I wanted to start learning the processes to make my own knives.

With my wife’s support, I started saving up money and buying the necessary equipment. My first purchase was a drill press, then a small band saw that I found on clearance at Ace Hardware. Next, I built a grinder in a box from polar bear forge, table saw, and so on. I made my first knife and gave it to my wife for Christmas in 2014.  Since then I have been pursing different knife patterns and designs.

The Knife Perspective Podcast

I am also the co-host, alongside Dan Eastland of Dogwood Custom Knives for the Knife Perspective Podcast. We started the podcast in 2019. On the show we talk with makers, designers, collectors, industry influencers from every corner of the knife world. We share things going on in our lives as well as answer listener questions. One of the things I like most about the show is how we dive into our guests lives and find out more about them than their usual elevator pitch info.

Full Time Knifemaker

In August of 2021, I was laid off from my engineering job when the company moved operations to Texas. Courtney and I decided that we wanted to take a leap of faith and give knifemaking a try full time. Since then, I have built KHDaily Knives into both a knife brand and a tool making shop. It has been a humbling a rewarding experience to see others using my tools to help make extraordinary creations.

Knifemakers Guild

In 2022, I began pursuing voting member status in The Knifemakers Guild. Before Blade Show in Atlanta, I showed my knives to 4 voting members and they signed my application to start the process. I was so nervous showing my knives to the technical review board, but they granted me Probationary Status in the guild. At the Blade Show in Atlanta in 2023, I showed four new knives to the technical review board and was granted my Voting Status in the guild.  Being part of the Knifemakers Guild has been an incredible experience; sharing knowledge, getting constructive feedback from the best makers in the world, and helping to contribute to a community that has supported me from the beginning.

Influencers and Gratitude

I would definitely not be where I am today without the guidance and encouragement of so many people along the way. My wife Courtney, my parents Jeaney and Steven, Knifemakers (Andy Roy, Clarence DeYoung, Dan Eastland, Dan Peters, Dylan Fletcher, Todd Hunt, and Matt Christensen), Knife Designer Ethan Becker, and my friend Erich Mann.  There are some many over the last years, these were some of the people that made the biggest impact on my early knifemaking.