Note: This, like everything on my website, is my opinion. If you disagree, post in the comments below. I never edit them, though I do on occasion not post them (such as ones that offer Russian mail order brides). If you have a lot to say, I'd be happy to publish what you write in response as a post itself.

Second Note: I don’t own any knives with Moku Ti because it is gauche, tacky trash. There are no pictures for this reason.

I am, as you might know, not a huge fan of embellishments on gear. Those hideous skull pocket clips are not my thing. Giant lanyard beads, no, folks, those aren't sculpture—they are ugly. And MokuTi, Timascus, and ZircuTi, well they are the worst offenders of the bunch--an "exotic" touch for people that do not understand what "exotic" means or a flash of "artistic expression" for people that love to point out how hard it is to define "art". These are the same people that think that art being hard to define and relativism being popular in the Academy gives them license to say every human expression, no matter how hideous, is art.

MokuTi (which will stand in for its brothers in crapulence: Timascus and ZircuTi for this article) is ugly. It is not a scarce resource (in fact, it is man made). It is not emblematic of skill, though getting it to express colors correctly might be. It will, like mega-overbuilt folder trend, instantly date your knife. 10 years from now when a piece of from the late 2010s appears at a knife show, with its Jem and the Holograms color scheme, and 1/4" blade that can't cut pizza dough, people will look knowingly at it, chuckle and move on.

To be clear a lot of popular materials could included here: lightning strike carbon fiber with its pre-pokey handles, "flame" treated titanium, and others. The problem here is that people think these are attractive, people think these things are scarce, and people mistakenly believe they are indicative of skill. In many ways, I see these materials used as a crutch, a way for a maker to double the price of a knife without doubling the time investment into making it.

Let’s clear the ground first. Most materials in non-art knives are insignificantly varied in price compared to the cost of labor. M390 is more expensive than 440C, but the difference is not that big compared to how much a custom maker’s time is worth. Similarly, Moku Ti and titanium are very different in price, but not so great as to overwhelm the time value of money for the maker’s work. The most expensive thing about a custom knife is the maker’s labor by a huge margin. Then the cost of materials.

Now in art knives that is not necessarily true. There are materials like gold, palladium, and rare non-man made materials that are exceptionally expensive. I once spoke with an art knive collector that showed off a handle made of a mineral first discovered in remote Siberia in 1978. That initial cache of the mineral, to this day, remains the only amount humans have found. That is rare. As a result the material was exceedingly expensive and used in tiny amounts. That was an instance in which the material really was a major component of cost.

But Moku Ti is all man made. They may take a bit more to make than other materials, but there is no shortage. If it were profitable for big companies to make more, they could crank the stuff out by the truckload.

My problem isn’t necessarily one of scarcity, though that point does tend to undercut the esteem placed on these materials. My issue is that they are used as a crutch. Here is a very specific example—my Small Shamwari has one of the most interesting and innovative clips in the knife business. Its design is clever, useful, and highly functional. It is a reason to buy a custom knife—it works better than production alternatives. But, for many makers, a clip is an afterthought. They make one, usually a sculpted Ti clip because that is the trend, and then to make it “unique” or “pop” they make it out of Moku Ti. To me that is design laziness. I would much rather have the interesting and innovative clip that Gareth made than a regular clip hewn from Moku Ti.

This addiction or dependence on flashy, hot materials has truly stifled custom knife design right now. Instead of very focused, time tested designs or true innovation, we are treated to one piece of knife candy after another. Gimme a gorgeous Krein TK3 with its wonderful handle and exquisite grind or my Small Shamwari with its clever clip over a pile of Moku Ti anyday. Think about this—when was the last time that you marveled at a new feature or innovative design on a custom knife instead of its “lines” or its materials? Custom knives are entering a baroque period of design and the result is a bunch of loud, boring knives. I’d take a clean mirror polish over a San Mai blade anyday. One shows skill and the other shows an ability to buy expensive steel on Alpha Knife Supply.

There is a chance, however, that I am totally wrong. It might be that like with baseball and Pokemon cards we are entering a new stage of knife design where the holo-foil version is all that matters. It might be that custom knives are going to be JUST collectibles instead of tools. If that is the case, well, I am not that interested in custom knives going forward. The holo-foil trend in cards is an easy way to create artificial scarcity to drive up demand and maybe if the knife hobby is just a variant of gotta catch ‘em all, Moku Ti does serve a purpose.

And so it comes down to this—I hate Moku Ti and if that is the direction the custom knife world is headed, I am not that interested.