Carter Cutlery — Local services in Council

A very unexpected shopping experience, in the best way possible.

I happened to be coming through Council and while stopping for lunch I saw Carter Cutlery was open. I had done some basic research on Carter when they moved to Idaho and knew they made very high end handmade knives, but was otherwise fairly ignorant to their allure. Since all I knew of Carter Cutlery was that Murray Carter was world renowned in his craft, I’ll be brutally honest in saying that I had low expectations for my anticipated shopping experience, I.E. mostly a gallery of items that are not for sale, guarded by a bored shop attendant who didn’t really know much;

Luckily my assumptions couldn’t have been farther from the truth, and instead of a bored shop attendant, one of the Muteki Bladesmiths, Taylor Shields, came out from the shop and began showing both his extensive knowledge and the obvious passion for his craft.

I have never carried a fixed blade knife, so I had lots of questions, and honestly I wasn’t expecting to buy anything, but after talking with Taylor i was so fascinated by the knives that it felt wrong not to leave with one (or two).

As Taylor answered my questions, he took me to the back shop area, talked about their forging and shaping process, and went through different blade materials, grinds, shapes and size. My budget took me away from the stunning Master-Crafted Damascus blades (which are well worth their cost and which I hope to someday own) but when a dedicated craftsman is standing at the counter showing you beautiful knives that he has made himself, it is impossible not to be drawn in.

Ultimately I picked up two knives handmade by Taylor, a unique Signature for myself, and a Muteki Mini-Aviator for my wife. With the sale already made, Taylor’s dedication to his craft showed again when he carefully sharpened both of my knives, talking me through their world famous sharpening process as he did so.

I can think of no higher praise than to let the beauty of the knives speak for themselves, adding that any cost barriers are easy to leap when you consider that they are hand made in Idaho by a dedicated craftsman, be that Murray Carter or one of his dedicated Appreciates.

In Summary, thank you Taylor, both for your amazing knives, but also for making my overall in-store buying experience so memorable.

It’s too soon to give a proper review of the knives, but I have very high...

My grandfather recently gave me a KA-BAR combat knife that was given to him in 1945 by his aunt who apparently was one of the first female marines. This knife is very special to my grandfather and now I am the third generation owner of this knife. I decided that I would let the experts take care of it so I found Carter Cutlery right here in my home town and based on their website they seemed like they were the right people for the job. The blade of the knife was pretty heavily worn and uneven from sharpening with hand held whetstones over the past 80 years, and the tip of the blade had been broken off for many years. I just got my knife back today and I have to say that my expectations were exceeded, the craftsmanship is outstanding. The symmetry and geometry of the new edges and the new tip are outstanding. I've just been staring at the blade for the past 15 minutes admiring his work on it. I wanted to use this knife for camping chores and projects just like my Grandpa did when he was younger. On my initial sharpness test this thing sliced through a sheet of paper truer and cleaner than any pair of scissors I own. When I was out testing the knife on building a campfire it was splitting up kindling and carving tinder bundle shavings like nobody's business. Whatever you need done to a knife blade or whatever kind of knife you need to purchase I am confident that you will be satisfied here. The prices are great, the quality is amazing and everyone I encountered at carter cutlery were very kind and knowledgeable people. These are the kinds of business we need to celebrate in our local communities, I wish I had known they were here in Hillsboro before. I will definitely be returning for my future cutlery...

The Grinch stole my Christmas! Let me preface this by saying I really did (and still do) want one of these knives but boy, the owner...he is one arrogant fellow. Very long story, but essentially after a chat with one of the Bladesmiths on Facebook, I switched my order from a "Petty" to a "Boning", and although it hadn't left the building yet, Carter wanted 60usd as a "restocking fee". He pointed to the Policy on line. When I read it, it said it was to recoup shipping, and Credit Charges, and admin time. I said I am paying shipping, its not free US that he offers for me (I am in Canada), and it hasn't shipped yet. The credit thing, I was actually upgrading knives , so that didn't make sense. I think he was offended, Geesh! Admin time, sure makes sense. Don't mind paying a bit for that. Anyway I agreed to the 60 under duress. Then I got the paypal bill and it was 40 dollars too much. I asked to see the breakdown and whammo he sends me a not nice email telling me I am a terrible customer and he doesn't need...