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Kyle Chumchal Signs on with Microtech

October 29, 2019

Kyle Chumchal of KC Knives has joined the engineering team at Microtech. Chumchal has already worked on one new release and talked to us about what he’s learned so far.

Chumchal kicked off his career at Microtech with the Exocet money clip automatic. “Tony [Marfione, Microtech Founder] had the idea to make a money clip OTF knife that was Cali legal. Something that was small and compact but useful and handy,” Chumchal says. The idea was a challenge for him to get done before Blade Show, and also a major learning experience: “Before this I had never even seen the interior of an OTF before.”

But he managed to pull it off, creating one of the smallest knives to ever release from Microtech. The Exocet’s dagger blade measures 1.98 inches long and is made from CTS 204P steel; a sliding button opens and retracts the blade into the flat, square aluminum handle. The clip is wide and flat as is appropriate for the money clip designation, and the entire Exocet package weighs 3 oz. on the nose. “[It] is such a cool little knife because once you put it in your pocket you almost forget it’s there,” Chumchal adds. “It’s also a little OTF so it’s got a fidget factor to it.” 

“Microtech has always been one of my all time favorite knife companies, before I even got into knife designing in fact,” Chumchal continues. From late 2017 Chumchal was working with Elite Outfitting Solutions in New York. “I had a great time working in New York with EOS for a while but I decided New York wasn’t really for me,” says Chumchal. “I wanted a change of pace and to see what my options were.”

When we first talked to Chumchal in 2016, he was designing knives on the side while working a traditional job. Now that he’s going pro in the knife world he says he’s learned a few things. “When I first got into this I had no such knowledge of machining capabilities, so a lot of my old designs had features that would either be impossible to manufacture or it would take a crazy machine to be able to make it happen.”

Chumchal told us to keep an eye out for more Microtech knives with his touch on them. “There are others that have yet to be discussed or seen. Soon! Microtech has made all sorts of products over the past so I’m sure there will be some other things that I get to put my spin on.”

Knife in Featured Image: Microtech Exocet [IMAGE CREDIT: Josh Deutsch]

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