We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Ross and Brock Hardisty a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Ross and Brock, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Alright, so you had your idea and then what happened? Can you walk us through the story of how you went from just an idea to executing on the idea

While there is a long and nuanced history of how the idea came about, the challenge was always going to be executing the idea. We knew at the beginning that we wanted to manufacture a high-end carry knife that competed with the best products on the market, using the best materials known to modern engineers. We had a simple philosophy, that Ross spoke aloud often – the difference between those who have great ideas, and those who have great products, is just simply doing it. Each day would have to be dedicated to the furtherance of the goal, and the challenges would be considerable and continuous, but we would persist no matter what until our goal was achieved. The design of the product began several years before manufacturing began, and went through several iterations, enduring many boom-bust cycles of creativity. Like a writer trying to articulate a perfect story, sometimes the inspiration just wasn’t there, but we would revise the design continuously until that feeling of it being “not quite there” went away. We would discuss, sketch, tweak, alter, and even start over numerous times until we sat back and said “that’s it.” This process continued on and off for nearly 3 years before prototyping began. With a polished design in hand, it was time to begin planning out the execution. Ross worked during this time running a small orthopedic instrument manufacturing company, overseeing a team of around 9 others. It was summer of 2021, and like many small businesses, economic shifts had put the small manufacturing company on shaky ground, with demand swinging violently downward due to hospitals shifting focus away from the types of surgeries that demanded their core products. We had a small group of talented machinists and engineers, and an idea to revitalize our business with a high quality product that could help diversify us away from the fading demand of our medical instruments. More importantly, at a time when global competition and inflation were taking an unprecedented toll on our business, we had a belief that American manufacturing still held value in today’s market. We knew that it was time to take our shot, and make the investment into prototypes of our custom knife. Ross had the design complete, and brothers Brock and Ross had started to form a business plan to bring the product to market. At this point, the third key individual was brought into the plan. Chris Nicholson, the manufacturing engineer at the company Ross was running. Chris would work closely with Ross to develop a process to go from design to prototype, designing the fixtures, CNC programs, special processes, and equipment required to machine each and every component of our custom knife in-house. In total, 14 pieces (6 screws, 1 clip, 2 handle halves, a blade, a lock button, and 3 spacers) would need to be made, and 4 components (3 bearings and a spring) purchased, to assemble a single knife. At first, it was nights and weekends, utilizing the CNC equipment that was normally used to manufacture precision medical equipment. We had the determination and the machine time, but we would have to be efficient with our expenditures, as this idea was materializing in a time of extreme hardship for the medical company. There was little in the way of financial incentive to persist during this next year, but rather a stubborn determination to continue doing, until our idea was no longer just an idea. One evening in particular sticks in Ross’s mind from these early days of manufacturing. It was the second day in a row that Ross and Chris had worked all day at the shop in service of the medical business, then worked until after midnight on the knife prototypes. Chris was running the very first blades off of a machine, while Ross refined the process by which the knife handles were custom anodized in-house. That night, Ross achieved what became affectionately known internally as “11 o’clock blue”, due not only to it’s brilliant dark blue-purple hues, but also because it was first synthesized at 11:00pm. This was later re-named “electric blue”, as the former would have made no sense outside of the context of this story. By May of 2022, after 2 rounds of prototypes, we had a knife that we believed to be market ready, but one final step in the plan remained. We manufactured 10 ‘market-ready’ prototypes, with the intent of distributing them to a few enthusiasts for invaluable customer feedback. While we believed in our product and design, we knew that there would always be things that an experienced user could identify as needing improvement that we, as the designers, could be blind to. As expected, our prototype testers provided us with some key suggestions to make small but considerable improvements to the final design, and within a few months, we were ready to reveal the product to the public. In early August of 2022, the website that Brock had been developing for the big launch was made live, and a singular Reddit post was made showing a few pictures of our first knife under the banner of Chapman Lake Knives. We held our collective breaths, anxiously awaiting the feedback from the internet. The post and website went live just after midnight, and within the hour Brock texted Ross saying “we got our first order!” Though we were still nobody, relatively speaking, this was our watershed moment. Our idea was a product, and we had our first customer. As far as we were concerned, we had made it.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

Chapman Lake Knives was founded by Ross and Brock Hardisty in 2022 with the goal of manufacturing the finest custom knives on the market at the best possible price. The business is built on a few key tenets: 1) Utilize all-American engineering, manufacturing and materials, 2) Never compromise quality for cost savings, and 3) If it can be done better, do it better. Ross is a mechanical engineer from Purdue University who began his career doing tribological testing and design for the Aerospace industry, and later transitioned to design of orthopedic instruments. Ross is also a passionate knife enthusiast, and loves to blend his engineering background with his artistic interests to create beautiful and functional products. Chapman Lake Knives provided Ross the opportunity to fulfill a lifelong vision of creating a product where the best materials on earth could be used for every single component. This stems from his engineering background and training, where products in the aerospace industry are continuously pushing the boundaries of material science and product longevity. Ross holds this no-compromise design philosophy deeply – one which is diametrically opposed to that of ‘planned obsolescence’, which seems to permeate the market of nearly every product in existence. Chapman Lake Knives believes that the customer should be able to choose a product that is designed for absolute maximum performance and longevity, should that be what they are looking for. We believe that a product should be priced based on its cost to manufacture and its quality, not on the prestige of the brand selling it. With this philosophy, we believe we provide the best knives on the market at the best possible price.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

At every knife show that we’ve displayed at, the most common thing we hear from individuals who handle our product in person is “you’re not charging enough for this knife”. That’s what we want to hear. We believe the best way to build a reputation is to build an exceptional product. There should be nothing that someone can pinpoint in your design as a cost-cutting measure, and corner cut, or a compromise. More importantly, we believe that these things can be done in tandem with fair pricing to the consumer, such that the manufacturer and the customer can both be pleased with every transaction they make together.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

Going from idea to product is challenging in ways that are hard to anticipate, and even harder to articulate. Everyone has ideas. Some people even have great ideas. But, almost everyone lets their ideas remain such forever, and perhaps often for good reason. When you tell someone “I’m going to try and execute my idea”, they do the only logical thing when confronted with such a claim, which is to project their doubts, founded or otherwise, onto you. Perhaps they won’t come right out and say it, but you’ll hear the doubt in their voices. Your friends, your family, strangers you meet at social gatherings – they’ll be anything but encouraging, because they’ll think they’re steering you away from inevitable failure. They’ll word it in ways that seem like they’re trying to be helpful, or trying to protect you, but you’ll hear what they mean. Their tones will convey that there’s no reason to believe a nobody can compete and create a product that differentiates itself in an endless sea of products already on the market. If you want to bring your ideas to life, you’ll have to first learn to believe in the idea, and more importantly, believe in your own resolve. At some point, you’ll have to be able to look the people who doubt you in the eye and tell them “I’m going to do it better”. And you’re going to have to mean it. And then, you’re going to have to do it, all the while enduring the doubt of everyone around you. You’ll learn that resilience isn’t something you need on occasion, it’s something that you’ll have to practice every moment of every single day of your journey.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.clknives.com
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