Dervish Knives Prima Fills a Gap in the Mid-Tech Market

John Gonzalez of Dervish Knives has just dropped the Prima, his latest fixed blade mid-tech. The Prima blends elements of different knife genres in a low-profile, compact package.

Gonzalez’s custom shop officially opened its doors in 2000, when he began to make a name for himself with big blades that made rugged cutters as well as compelling collectibles. He was on the forefront of the mid-tech scene too, beginning in 2010 and not really stopping since. But the Prima originated when a customer asked Gonzalez for something that, even across two decades, he hadn’t gotten around to. “A longtime customer asked me why I didn’t offer a hunting-utility knife. And I thought, ‘That’s a really good question,'” Gonzalez recalls. He began working on such a knife, which necessitated a lot of input from the customer among others. “I came up with the design after a lot of good feedback,” says Gonzalez. “It wasn’t made for the customer per se, but he definitely issued me the challenge!”

The result of this challenge was the Prima we see today. The drop point blade shape is a classic choice, flexible and intuitive in application; Gonzalez gave it a big forward choil for lots of control over the 2.75-inch cutting edge. Nitro-V blade steel is just as flexible as the blade and the knife is, of course, a full-tang piece. The customer who issued Gonzalez his challenge envisioned a knife with no scales, and that’s an option on the Prima; but Gonzalez is also offering it with a number of different-colored, letterboxed G-10 scales, as as well as a Camo Carbon flavor.

Back when the Prima was originally finished, Gonzalez saw potential for the design to excel as a mid-tech release. “I’ve seen a trend in the mid-tech scene, with more interest in fixed blades than before,” he says. “Customers have so many folder options but not as many for fixed blades.” So Gonzalez worked with his longtime OEM partner to creat this 250-piece batch, bringing the knife into reality for the very first time as a small-scale, custom inflected mid-tech. “Everything on these knives is made in the USA, right down to the hardware – and most of the work is done by just two guys,” Gonzalez points out.

He also tells us that, once this batch of Primas is gone, it will be the last we see of it for a while – five years or so at least, Gonzalez reckons. “I don’t usually go back and do another batch of a model. I’ve got so many design ideas and I like to keep things interesting.” On that note he’s currently planning on bringing out a run of the Navajo mid-tech folder, which he hasn’t done in ten years. “I’m really excited for the return of the Navajo. It was the very first mid-tech I did.”

Knife in Featured Image: Dervish Knives Prima

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