If you can dream it up, he can build it. Custom knife designer Syd McKay has been making knives for more than 20 years. He creates to please and makes them to last so if you have an idea, he can turn it into a working tool.
McKay was just one of the many exhibitors on hand for Yorkton's annual Gun and Hobby Show held this year over the weekend.
Attracting visitors and exhibitors from across the western provinces, the event has much for people of many interests to enjoy.
McKay, whose home base is The Pas, Manitoba, has been making the trek to Yorkton to attend the event for more years than he can remember.
A big fan of the event, he says, "I sell a few knives, I meet lots of people, it's sort of visit..."
With him, McKay brings along a varied display of custom made knives. While they're on hand to sell, if there's a design you're interested in that isn't readily seen, he can take your concept and create it.
"I take the raw steel and shape it... treat it, put whatever type of handle you want..."
McKay searches Western Canada and the US for his materials. He then turns it into filleting knives, hunting knives, knives for the kitchen, and pretty much any other use a customer may have.
It's roughly a 15 hour process to create one unit, depending on the work involved. "About six and one half hours of that is heat treating. The steel has to be heated up and then cooled off... it also sits 24 hours in liquid nitrogen...," to cure the steel. McKay also custom carves the handle and even designs leather sheathes from scratch.
He estimates he makes and sells more than 100 knives a year. It's a hobby turned profession that he has not tired of yet. "If I get tired of it... I may as well go do something else because it would become a job and then I'd quit."
There is no design too complicated for McKay. "I had a guy in today who wanted a five and a half inch filleting knife for perch. That's not a problem, I can do that. Another guy wants a very long hunting knife with a narrow blade on it. I can be done."
He's gotten some unusual requests over the years. "One guy wanted, I think it's a Chris, it comes from Malaysia, it's got a curved blade on it. I made one of them, that's enough," he laughs. "All of the inside curves had to be sharpened. They're tough and then all of the outside curves had to be sharpened..."
He may have mastered the craft now but it was a learning process and one that didn't leave him entirely unscathed. "I have a few stitches," he smiles. So the last thing you do is sharpen them. I learned that fairly quickly... it's like playing with a razor blade..."
Sharp and durable, the knives McKay creates can stand the test of time. "I had a guy come to me last summer and he bought three knives for his grooms men as gifts. They went out fishing and he said those knives probably did over a hundred fish and they never needed sharpening..."
Yorkton's show is just one of a number that McKay attends regularly. It's a lot of work carting around and setting up displays but it's a pasion he says he just can't shake. "Every once in a while I think, boy that's a long drive but somebody usually comes along and wants to go for a ride... I just love it."
Anyone interested in learning more about McKay and his work can do so by visiting his business website (Opasquia Custom Knives) at: www.opasquiacustomknives.com. He can also be emailed at: [email protected].
