Olamic Emphasizes Artistry with Hand Carved Series

Olamic is pushing the boundaries of their creativity even further with the Hand Carved Series. The line showcases the talents of professional carver Andrey Kolesnikov, and Olamic plans to raise the artistry on display to new heights in the future.

California-based Olamic proudly continues to develop its original premise of originality. The outfit already offers an unrivaled array of options for their knives, but the Hand Carved series opens the door for a whole new set of variations. “Ever since we started we knew that to maintain our style we’d need to do a lot of things by hand,” says Olamic Co-Founder Eugene Solomonik. “It’s the only way to uphold our ‘Never the Same’ mantra.” They enlisted professional carver Andrey Kolesnikov, who was already turning heads with his textured, three-dimensional work in carved titanium. “Things like carving are the ultimate handwork that can go into a knife. So naturally we wanted to push the limit here and were lucky enough to connect with Andrey,” Solomonik tells us.

Kolesnikov’s painstaking work, which can take up to a week in some cases to complete, renders extremely detailed, textured, three dimensional images onto the titanium handles of Olamic’s stable of models. Kolesnikov and Olamic  have already come up with more than a dozen different themed sets of hand carved knives. The inspirations range from ancient history to modern comic books, from famous artwork to  global holidays. These carvings can then be accentuated by another unique process: the application of GunKote. Similar to Cerakote but more durable, this allows for much brighter and wider-ranging colors than anodizing. “This is super unique and nobody else is doing this,” notes Solomonik. He also tells us that those colors won’t lose any of their pop over time either.

Gunkote makes the colors on these Batman knives pop

Manufacturing technology continues to advance and open up doors for makers of all sizes. In recent years we’ve seen increased use of laser engraving, in which a high-powered C02 beam creates impressive, textured design work on handles. Solomonik saw this trend comingand knew Olamic wanted to do something to differentiate itself. Solomonik believes that bringing on a single, talented master artisan like Kolesnikov and giving him the freedom to express his creativity will set Olamic apart in the field of knife embellishment. “Doing it by hand means they’re all unique, and the designs are never repeated,” Solomonik explains. “Each one is signed by the artist. It’s like owning the original of a painting instead of a print.”

Carved Wayfarer 247

The Hand Carved series will continue to grow. More themes are on the horizon. “The world is full of ideas, subjects, history, and art, and so much of it is significant. All it takes is a concept for one knife and it can become a series based on that,” Solomonik says. Additionally, Olamic wants to bring in additional handwork processes for the line. The company has already experimented with inlays of other materials, like bronze, to create lower-cost options in the Hand Carved series. More elaborate materials will flesh out the other end of the price spectrum, and are set to include detail work with materials like gold and silver wire. “The process is still called inlaying,” Solomonik confirms. “You see it on very fine knives, but with more dimension, texture, and purpose instead of just decoration.”

Knife in Featured image: Olamic Hand Carved Series Rainmaker [Photo by SharpByCoop]