Matt,
I suppose “limbo” might be an appropriate term. Edge-Works began as a producer of Kydex knife sheaths primarily for commercial clients. Companies such as Ka-Bar, Camillus, SOG and so on … accounted for the majority of our work and in many ways still do. Holsters were a natural progression as all of us at EW are avid shooters. We found that Kydex not only made for a great knife sheath but it made an even better holster. Our holsters started out as Items that were just for us and our local clientele made up in large part by Marines from near by Camp LeJeune and Local Law Enforcement. Our holsters were originally all hand made one at a time. This process netted the finest holsters (in my opinion) however; we were quickly over run with more orders then we could deliver. We made several adjustments and “on the fly” fixes to adapt to the ever growing demand. However, demand always grew ahead of our ability to produce. “A good problem to have …” so one might think; (certainly preferable to the opposite) but demand for products that a company cannot deliver in pace with orders despite great effort eventually takes its toll. Resources get pulled from areas that are running smoothly and they likewise fall behind. After about a year of chasing my tail I decided to stop accepting orders for hand made items until such time as a complete line of top quality, premium, production Kydex holsters could be offered. For this reason I have deliberately keep the business low key this past year and currently will continue to do so. When we are ready to reliably handle the volume we will remerge as the holster / tactical gear company to contend with (we are almost there). I had hoped this year’s Shot Show would have been the launch of the new “Tactical Edge” line, however, more is needed before we unveil these products. Problems associated with this are being solved with the view toward the long haul (no more quick fixes or Band-Aid policies). Some of the building blocks along the way to our goals that we have in place now are; a New facility, more refinements and improvements in our process (the most efficient and technically advanced in the industry), CNC equipment, in house thermal plastic mold making capability, Digitizing equipment, CAD capability, Patens and paten pending on 1 new feature, 1 new series, and 1 new product category. Also, under review for paten is our production process. This process translates perfectly a premium, hand made, hand tuned, holster into a production mold. This mold imparts all the features and intricate surfaces of the hand made to the production with tolerances unlike any other in the industry. The idea here is to provide our customers the best of both “hand made quality and function” with production availability. This task has consumed me; but I enjoy it … and it is a good thing as I am hard at it 80-90 hours a week every week and have been for more then a year. Because of this I don’t post as much as I would like on TFL right now. When looking back I am pleased and sometimes amazed at the ground that we have covered and the look forward is always exciting, however, the hear and now is frequently frustrating. Thanks for asking … it’s nice to know that we have not been completely forgotten.
Scott Evans
Director of Operations
Edge-Works Manufacturing Company
[This message has been edited by Scott Evans (edited January 29, 2000).]