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Elijah Isham Cuts Loose with Massive Fixed Blade

June 6, 2019

Prolific maker Elijah Isham is back at with WE Knife Co. for the Horse Crippler. The new fixed blade is a limited edition take on the bowie from the knife world’s preeminent surrealist.

In terms of raw specs, the Horse Crippler lives up to its name with a 10 inch bowie blade with an exaggerated, dramatic swedge that runs along about half of the cutting edge length. If you follow Isham’s other work the blade shape itself should look familiar, even if it is much larger here. “I used the exact same bowie profile as on the Blackstar, just scaled up,” he notes. Originally, the knife was smaller, but once Isham settled on the name (taken from episode 34 of The Knifenuts Podcast) he knew he had to scale things up. “It inspired me to scale the blade length up from 8″ to 10″ and rework the handle,” he tells us. The prototype Horse Crippler is made from D2 but the final release will be in S35VN.

The extra-long swedge is a clear Isham touch, and he also imprinted his singular style on the handle. He conjured up a multi-faceted look made from a carbon fiber segment attached to a titanium bolster and integral guard. These materials are put together around a fully-functioning, full tang frame. Isham will be bringing a leather sheath for the prototypes that will be on display at Blade Show this weekend. “I had my friend Wyatt at Hybris design do a 3D print of the knife so I could have a custom leather sheath made by Freddy Ramos in time for Blade.”

There’s no doubt that Isham is mostly known, these days, for his folding knife designs like the Eschaton and Frank Herbert-aware Arrakis. But when he first came onto the scene Isham cut his teeth with fixed blade knives. “I actually did nothing but fixed blades when I started designing knives back in 2012, so I just went back to that headspace to try and implement the “then and now” of my style in one design,” he explains.

Isham and WE Knife Co. managed to create the Horse Crippler prototypes quickly, and a limited production run is scheduled for later on this year. But the knife was never intended to be available on an ongoing basis. “It was very much a passion project for myself just to see what I could do. With the limited availability I would imagine these will be collector pieces definitely.”

If you’re in the market for a more affordable fixed blade from Isham, there is one on its way underneath the Civivi label. Stay tuned for more Blade Show coverage of that and other releases from Civivi and other knife companies starting tomorrow!

Knife in Featured Image: WE Knife Co. Horse Crippler

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