We were lucky to catch up with Ed Desch recently and have shared our conversation below.

Ed, appreciate you joining us today. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?

In 1990 I bought a knife that caught my eye. It was a Western hunting knife that is one of my favorite styles. As a tool and die maker, I had been cutting steel since the early 80’s and felt I could make knife like this. In 1990 I started small, making knives for family and friends, and had such positive responses and eventually requests to make more challenging designs. Through the years it was a sideline and then the Internet made it easier to reach more people. Having a son as a web designer made marketing a whole lot easier. I started doing local shows and consigned my knives to a local fly fishing shop. Working on consignment meant I never met the people who purchased my knives, and that made me want to handle the sales myself. I retired in 2020 and have since enjoyed meeting custom knife collectors, hunters, and chefs.
Their requests have inspired me into different ideas and styles and my wife and I enjoy having them come to our home in the mountains outside of Bozeman, MT and our guest book is filled with traveler’ signatures from as far away as Russia, Hungary, Spain, and coast to coast USA.

Ed, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I work with people to design their own knives. It was by special requests that I started making chef’s knives. I have made a custom knife for a one handed person that is a combo knife/fork. I have made a sword for a Sunday school teacher who wanted to get the “point’ across that “The word of God is sharper than any two-edged sword.” Knife handles made with trophy elk antlers was a special request from a man’s children in remembrance of their father. Special handle material requests are mammoth ivory, musk ox, bighorn sheep, bison, and gemsbok.

How did you build your audience on social media?

Social media is a constant learning experience. Having two children in IT has it’s plusses. The first son started my web page, the second son has consulted with the Instagram and Facebook platforms. A long time customer received the knife I made him and he asked if he could post a picture on Instagram with the help of his daughter. And that brought up the question, “Should I be on Instagram?” And the rest is history as Instagram has become my main avenue for sales. The job of posting on Instagram in itself is full time job with my IT consultants recommending posting daily which is a difficult assignment.

We’d love to hear about how you met your business partner.

I married her. She’s my bookkeeper and she’s been embezzling from me for years.

Contact Info:

• Website: deschknives.com
• Instagram: deschknives
• Facebook: Desch Knives