Today I’m introducing my new newsletter segment: Q & Ansø (are you also hearing a jingle in your head? 🎶). Each month, I’ll pick one question from the community and give you my take. It can be about design, creativity, production, EDC – nothing’s off limits.

Q & Ansø

This month’s question is from Jason:

“Will you ever do a lefty version of the shop-made locking knives, specifically the Aros?”

This is a question I get on a semi-regular basis, so it’s a good one to kick things off.

Back in the day – before I introduced the Shop-Built line and before I bought my first CNC – I occasionally made left-handed folders. A true left-hand folder is essentially a perfect mirrored version of a regular one. Sounds simple, right?

Not for me. Making a custom left-handed folder meant inverting and remaking every single fixture I used. I worked in batches, preparing parts for several knives at a time, so stopping to “invert my brain” and avoid mistakes meant a left-handed knife would take 30–50% more time to make. The price? It stayed the same – I’ve never felt right charging more just because something is harder for me to produce. In total, I think I made about 30 left-handed customs.

When I moved into CNC production, you might think it would be easier – just mirror the CAD file, right? Well… yes and no. Not only would I have to redo every handmade fixture, I’d also need to remake most CNC fixtures and reprogram every single operation for that model. The same batch-production problems remain, and again, the price would have to be the same.

For the Shop-Built series, it’s still a big job. On a knife like the AROS, the only part unaffected by switching to a left-hand version would be the clip. Everything else changes – programs, fixtures, part storage (which would have to be doubled to avoid mixing left- and right-hand parts), and overall production flow. Right now, our CNCs are already a bottleneck, and keeping up with demand is a challenge.

That said – I can see us offering left-handed versions of models like the AROS and TOKO in the future. Exactly when depends on production capacity, but it’s not out of the question.

In the meantime, take a look at our newest knife in the lineup – the ARN. While it’s a non-locking folder and may not be for everyone, it’s truly ambidextrous. The clip can be reversed or removed entirely, and with no lock access needed, its parts are mirrored side-to-side.

So until the day we have the capacity for dedicated left-handed runs, the ARN might be your best bet.

Stay inspired,

Jens