The Arctos namesake covers all brown bears living in North America and Eurasia. All brown bears can interbreed, so they are effectively the same species, but like human races and tribes, they have different characteristics depending on their environment. The knife I will call “Arctos” will therefore be a more generic knife with less specificity in its design. It will be a utilitarian and therefore “Omnivorous”
The current thought as I write this placeholding product description, is that I’ll be making a 12″ blade with a drop point, variable pitch flat grind, machined titanium or PVD coated hardened steel guard, and hidden tang with titanium or hardened steel pommel. Handle material can be any composite material including wood, and may even be molded over the tang with a resin infusion process if I end up making the whole knife an integral hilt and pommel design (which is what I would prefer)
The important thing to note about the design is that it will be made with manufacturability in mind in addition to all the other things that make a knife the best and most comfortable cutting tool it can be. When the concept begins to take form, it will likely require several iterations of wooden models, hand made steel prototypes, and a lot of cut testing before it actually goes into production. I want this knife to be a new best seller and something that will really put Omnivore BladeWorks back on the radar for those who appreciate a big knife.
The theme of the Ursus series will stay the same as I move forward into a more mid-tech way of getting knives put together, but I guarantee that as I let technology and organizational improvements take over my shop, quality and performance of my products will improve. I’m excited to spend some time figuring out the next generation of all the Ursus series knives, and hope that when the time comes, you’ll be ready to put them to work.