Several years after the first batch was released, Lon Humphrey has brought back the Minigun custom fixed blade. With this knife, Humphrey delivers a more compact take on one of his most eye-catching designs.
“The Minigun was designed to be a companion to the Gunfighter Bowie,” Humphrey tells us, which explains the name. The Gunfighter Bowie was defined by its brash, beautiful trailing point clip blade, over eight inches in length with a wicked tip. The Minigun, by contrast, has a blade length of 5.2 inches – still plenty of edge for heavy work, but enough of a reduction to make this one a much easier overall carry at 7.4 oz.
Most crucially, the Minigun retains that unforgettable trailing point blade. Humphrey has been designing and making knives for many years, and comes up with his designs by feel, iterating on drawings until the knife feels finished; when we asked him to describe the advantages of this dramatic profile, Humphrey gave us a simple and emphatic answer: “It looks cool.” Works for us, and it will work for the user too, especially as it is hand forged out of Humphrey’s preferred steel, hardworking 52100.
The Minigun’s blade is based quite faithfully on its bigger brother’s, but the handle design is entirely its own. It’s stripped back, with less cuts and curves, a quiet, almost linear profile that allows the contoured scales to do most of the heavy lifting when it comes to ergonomics. On that subject, as usual Humphrey has created this batch with an opulent spread of different woods for the scales, including box elder burl and “storm maple,” scales fashioned from a tree knocked down during a storm on Humphrey’s own 60-acre Ohio property.
The Minigun is available now.
Knife in Featured Image: Lon Humphrey Minigun
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