James: Can you give me a little background as to how you became interested in making knives? I mean it’s far from your everyday 9 to 5.

Rich: I started making knives around 12 years ago. I had studied Filipino Martial arts as well as other martial arts that had blade use. The Filipino arts, whether stick, empty hand, or knife are all based on knife technique. So the old interest I had as a kid of cool pocket knives, whittling, etc was rekindled with Kali practice. From a street perspective, it made sense to get more comfortable with edged weapons.

    A few years later I find myself (at that time) the main seller of knives at a well known Sporting Goods store. They hired me based on my knowledge of knives, makers, and companies. While working there I'd fondle the more expensive custom made knives by renowned makers from all over the world. As a former illustrator I could appreciate the skill and the lines behind making a good knife. So I thought "I could do this too". Soon after I started buying hand tools like files. I'd get raw steel not suitable for knives an file away. Then I bought some cheap make shift equipment and started to figure out grinding. After a while i got the hang of it for the most part. Since then I just try and improve.

James: What form of Martial Arts were you practicing. What drew you to that/those styles?

Rich: I studied Pekiti Tersia Kali, some Jeet Kune Do as well as alittle grappling and something called Chu Fen Do which is alot like Jeet Kune Do in that its a style of styles with all the fancy stuff tossed aside for the more street and combat oriented.

    Nowadays I don't study anything in particular except my own concepts and some borrowed from my previously mentioned systems. I just beat the heavy bag, work the blades and sticks as well. I also shoot like once a month when I'm lucky.

    My dad was always into knives, guns, etc so I probably got it from him. I was in the Boy Scouts when I was like 11 so we could carry camping knives(back then), axes, etc and any number of outdoor cutting tools. That sorta stuck with me and manifested itself again around 19 or 20 yrs old.

    From that age I just got more and more into it. Working, etc brought in some money which made me gravitate toward better uality, higher priced weapons.

    The way I see it is, knives, guns, martial arts, etc and their like all fall under the Second Amendment of our Constitution. We have the Right to bear arms and/or defend ourselves withe the tools that we decide are appropriate. It's very important in a "free society" or as free as can be anyway, that all citizens have choice.

James: I can imagine it takes a certain kind of personality or character makeup to do this kind of work. How would you describe yourself?

Rich: I guess people consider me a character of sorts.Not sure, I never asked. I think I'm a reasonable, intelligent person who tries to be balanced but has moments where I lose focus on my balance. I have views some might consider way out and some might not. I definitely am not a good order taker.

James: As a kid my Dad was really into weaponry. He took me along to a few knife shows. I met a lot of interesting characters back then. Can you describe a typical customer or is this what you would call a very non typical kind of thing?

Rich: There are definitely typical customers and non typical customers. The customer base is varied mostly, not completely but mostly by these categories in my experience:

1. Average guy collectors. Just guys like you and I who always found these things interesting, useful an beautiful.

2. Law Enforcement, Military, Rescue and private security personnel. People who operate in hostile conditions need quality gear they can depend on.

3. High end collectors. Usually celebrities, TV personalities, doctors, lawyers, wall street cats, finance, corporate types, etc. People who can more easily afford high end gear for their own outdoor activities or as conversation pieces or just functional art.

Martial Artists. Whether students or instructors, they usually prefer quality tools to practice and/or defend themselves with if need be.

James: What goes into making a real quality design? The nuts and bolts of it for lack of better words.

Rich: Its probably never the same twice when you make a design. It can just com to you or you can sit down with pencil and paper and get to work on something that you know will be comfortable to use, like an extension of your hand. Something that will endure. For me ergonomics are most important. Good ergo s means the user will wield the knife better with less chance of accidents. Better ergo s mean naturally that fatigue is minimized. Sometimes you make a knife for specific style of martial art or technique because some people are better at things than others or in certain areas of their style. One you draw it out to be as exact in specs as possible, you cut it, then grind the bevels, then the flats. Then heat treat it, then grind it all over again to a near finish. Handles are made the same way. Draw, cut, drill holes where marked, etc. Its a long process too get it all right and get used to resisting the power of the grinder.

James: How long does it take you to custom make a knife from start to finish?

Rich: Its a different length of time every time, not sure really. The problem is heat treating. Even if I rough ground 50 blades in a day, it would take two days to heat treat them all. Then have to re grind them. Then handles. It could take days. The good thing is that in the interest of efficiency and economy, you do one or two parts of the work for many knives in one day. The next day is for the next step in all those knives and so on and so forth. Sometimes you screw up a little and while it can be fixed, it could take another 5 hours to fix it and perfect it.

Rich: At the time I started only one other maker had made any karambits I'd ever saw.

To my knowledge he'd only had a handful and I'd only seen one of them at that time. One day at work I was speaking with a friend from Malaysia which is one of the countries the Karambit comes from. He was a knife collector and I said "ya know what would be great? something no one else makes? A karambit!"

I started drawing that night. So the first 3 or 4 knives I made were all karambits. Since then I branched out. I found a lot of potential in ancient styles that could use updating for modern self protection.

James: What would you say sets you apart from the others. What makes you stand out?

Rich: What sets me apart? My over all style. I make very functional art. They are great using knives but dressed up just a little bit in my mildly industrial style of finishing. From what I can tell I was the first to engine turn(jewel) and entire fixed blade. Now others are doing it. When people started milling grooves and designs into their blades, I was grinding the patterns instead. The Kris (Keris) and the Karambit in particular are what I'm known for. I would put my designs up against anyones regarding real, practical and tactical use. All my knives have some sort of guard.

Derespina Knives Website

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