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Our Story
Read About LynchNW
LynchNW's story began like many other small businesses do - an idea, and not much else. My first nice knife - a Spyderco PM2 - led down the rabbit trail of wanting to âmake it my ownâ by modifying it in some way. The family budget was too tight to spend much money on anything extravagant, so I decided a simple titanium clip was what my knife couldnât live without. But even those were more than I could justify spending - at that time, $40 (what they cost from a maker called STR) was out of my reach. That hard realization led me to wonder - could I possibly figure out how to get a titanium clip made? If I could find someone to make them for me so I could try to sell them, I could use that money to fund my âknife habitâ. I came up with a design, and sent out the drawing to 60 machine shops, some local, most not. I got back 59 âNo Quotesâ.
But a Washington-state based shop threw me a bone, and graciously agreed to produce the initial run - 100 clips, if I remember correctly. I used up our family savings to pay for them, and posted the clips on BladeForums to see if anyone might possibly be interested. To my amazement (and everlasting gratitude to the good people on that site, some of whom are still customers), the clips sold. When I came back to the machine shop for the second batch, they let me know that the manufacturing process was much more difficult than they had anticipated, and so the cost of the next run would need to jump up significantly. Since I didnât have the additional funds to make that happen, it left me with a single option - try to figure out how to make them myself.
After heaps of trial and error and more trial and more error, learning and failing and scrapping and trying again, hunched over a workbench in the dirt-floor basement of our old farmhouse, the process slowly evolved. Following what seemed like an eternity of making bad parts, I had the first small batch of good ones. I suppose at this point I had what could be loosely called a âbusinessâ - making, finishing, and shipping titanium clips from my rural home. Like everyone else with a side hustle, I was working a full time job and spending my evenings and weekends making and shipping and trying to figure it out. Time passed - 3 or 4 years I guess - and it finally got to the point that I was having a hard time carving out enough hours to get parts out the door. After a lot of prayer and sleepless nights, I took the terrifying step of quitting my âReal Jobâ - our familyâs sole source of income - and moving into a small 300 square foot space for rent in my hometown of Rockford, Washington. To say the building was rundown would not be doing it justice - the wood floor had holes in it that you could fall through, there wasnât any insulation or heat, and the bathroom had no walls. But it was a âreal shopâ!
I worked there a couple years, and during that time added the first of the LynchNW crew. That was scary, let me tell you. I wasnât sure I could support my own family, let alone anyone else. Thomas, then Kaden, then Taden, then Daisy. Adding talented, competent people to offset my shortcomings made all the difference in that first stretch. But that 300 square foot space filled up quick!
A couple years later, we moved into a larger, 3,000 sq ft space in Spokane Valley, Washington, which is our current location. The floor is concrete, the heat works, and the bathroom has walls and a locking door. We picked up a new 4-axis CNC mill and a water jet, along with other tools and equipment. We manufacture our components with âcontinuous improvementâ in mind - the idea being to build the best parts we can while always searching for a better way to make them. At last count, weâve made and sold somewhere nearing 200,000 ti clips, along with other parts and gear. We succeed sometimes and fail sometimes (hopefully more of the former than the latter), but the goal is always this: to make things people want to use. The machines and the space and all the processes weâve developed are important, but the key is the crew. I canât take credit for much, but I do take pride that I was aware enough to realize that having people around who are better and smarter and more talented than me is essential to making what we do work. We couldnât do what we do without the team - Thomas, Kaden, Taden, Daisy, Riley, Justin, Moriah, Max, Anakin, Andrew, Kyle, Rick, Ethan, and Josiah. Thanks to everyone who has supported what we do.
Please come visit if youâre ever in Eastern Washington.
The LynchNW Philosophy
Iâm sincerely grateful when someone spends their hard-earned cash on something we make. It is no small thing, and I appreciate each and every purchase.All products are designed, sourced, and made in America. The reason for this is two-fold. Philosophically, we are grateful and proud to live in the USA. Practically, it's important to us to be able to oversee and control every aspect of what goes out the door, and we can best do that by having each and every part made here in the Pacific Northwest.
Many of the parts we make and sell are designed to be replacement parts for brands such as Spyderco, Benchmade, ProTech, Chris Reeve, Emerson, and Zero Tolerance, among others. Calling them 'replacement parts' instead of 'upgraded parts' is intentional. These companies make excellent products, and the parts of their knives that our parts replace are no exception. OEM Spyderco clips, as an example, are uniformly excellent, both in fit & finish and design. Because of that, I do not consider LynchNW parts to be upgrades. They are, simply put, alternatives; it is our goal to make them to the standard of quality of the parts they replace. Our objective is to strive to make something that honors the part it replaces, should a user be interested in something different for their knife. Our focus is to design each part with minute attention to detail, make each one to the highest quality possible, provide the maximum level of customer support we are able, and sell the parts for the best price we can.
Each part is QC'd multiple times before leaving the shop, and we take pride in sending out the best product we are capable of making. However, these are handmade parts, so each one will not be 100% identical to the one before it, and since weâre human beings, we make mistakes. Should you as the user find the fit & finish, performance, or design to be lacking, please reach out so we can make it right, whether that is a replacement or a full refund.
All parts are Guaranteed for Life. They are designed to be used, and things that are used are susceptible to wear and damage. Should a part fail, or should you be unhappy with it for any reason, please contact us and we will replace it, or refund you in full.
If you have any feedback or questions, a specific request, or an idea for a new part, please reach out here. We do our best to answer emails by the next day; emails received on weekends may not receive a reply until the following Monday.
Thank you again,
Casey
The LynchNW Team
Our goal is to consistently exceed the quality and customer service expectations of our valued customers. Employing great people goes along with making quality products in the USA. We are dedicated to providing rewarding and enjoyable careers to our talented and high performance team at LynchNW.
