Merchant does not cut corners with his knife collection

SEELEY LAKE - Seeley Lake Farmers Market merchant Owen Tyler of Potomac has had a passion for knifemaking for around three decades. He began making them as a hobby after a man had given him a Centennial knife for fixing his car in the mid-1970s. 

"I got to looking at it and it's not even straight," he said. "It was a $100 knife. I thought, 'Well, I can make a knife better than that.'"

He uses 440C stainless steel for the blades and antlers or desert ironwood for the handles. Some of them are epoxied while others are riveted. He said his more popular products tend to be the shorter blades.

Tyler has been a merchant at the market for 11 years. He said he uses the money from his knife sales to pay for his dogs and buy hay for his horses. The Seeley Lake Market is the main place he sells his knives but he also takes personal orders.

"I've sold probably as many at home as I have [here]," he said.

In addition to his knives, he also sells bird feeder benches.

To order a custom knife from Tyler call 406-244-2552.