Why Volke?

Our Design Philosophy

Purpose

Our design philosophy begins with purpose - what will the tool be asked to do? Are we processing game or wood?  Will this be for heavy or light use?  Will sharpening be an option in the field, or do we require extreme edge retention? What about the environment, what level of corrosion resistance is required?  Is this for salt water use?  These are just a few of the considerations that drive everything from steel selection to edge geometry. This forms the foundation of the blade.  A mistake at the level of profile and edge geometry is unfixable through handle materials or contouring.

Ergonomics

Our core design in hand, we now move to ergonomics. If you've every picked up a knife and it just felt wrong, you've experienced bad ergonomics.  A good knife should work well in the intented purpose, but it should feel good as well.  Fitting to the task, hot spot free, and to every extent possible, merge with your hand and feel as one. Of course, not every blade fits every hand, but if you find a Volke that fits you well, it's very likely the other models will be a natural fit as well.

Aesthetics

We believe tools should be functional first, but once addressed, they should be beautiful. This may be the most subtle and difficult to measure of our design principles, but it's as real as the day is long. We take great care to make a product that looks as good as it performs and when you pick one up, and hold it under varying light, you'll feel the emotion of a piece or art even if you can't articulate exactly why. We don't ship ugly knives.

American Made

We're an American company focused on helping to play a small role in bringing manufacturing back to the US.  This is a big challenge for knife makers as prices overseas are dramatically less than in the states for every part of the process - which is why you see so many makers offshoring. While it provides low cost knives to buyers, it ends up weakening our nation in the long run as we increase our reliance on the rest of the world through a loss of manufacturing expertise.

Low cost foreign made knives have always been a part of the knife industry and always will be.  In fact, we don't believe customers should be asked to pay more just because something is American made. To the contrary, it is incumbent upon US companies like ours to provide a product that is better than the alternatives - anything less is a handout.  Our goal is to make the best knives at any price and to price them as competitively as we can. This is our promise.