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I’ve never made the perfect knife. - Mike Tapley
By Griffin Pritchard, Tallassee Tribune Managing Editor
I
t takes a steady hand to do what
Mike Tapley does for a living. A slip
at any time during the process and
he could be giving out high-threes
instead of high-fives.
“I’ve been very blessed to be able to do
what I enjoy, safely and for as long as I’ve
done it,” said Tapley. “This is something
that’s grown from a hobby into a passion.
If I’m not in the woods bowhunting, I’m
in the shop making knives.”
Tapley is the owner and manufacturer
of Taproot Knives, located on Antioch
Road near Wetumpka.
“I don’t make kit knives; every one I make
is from scratch,” said Tapley. “That’s the
only way to make true, custom knives.”
He’s been honing his craft for the last 40
years, since he was a kid. And the number of knives produced from Taproot’s
two-room workshop number in the thousands and have been sold to customers
from nearly every state.
“I make everything. From hunting knives
to kitchen knives to knives for self
defense,” said Tapley. “I even made
one that started out as cheeseknife, but
it ended up being such a disaster that I
called the person (who ordered it) and
told them that it wasn’t going to work.”
Tapley grew up in Tallassee and was
given the nickname Taproot by his
friends. He began working with knives in
1973. “My daddy befriended a guy who
34 | BLAZE | WINTER 2013
Two elements are central in knife-making, according to Tapley: The oven and
the grinder. “I use annealed steel and
do all my work before putting it into
an oven,” said Tapley, explaining the
annealing process makes the metal more
Unfortunately, Tapley has to point to a workable. “When you heat-treat steel, it
picture of that knife, because he lost it hardens and you can’t drill your holes or
years ago. “It’s stuck in a tree somewhere do anything to it.”
in Texas, from where I used it to skin
a deer,” said Tapley. “It makes me sick While creating a knife does involve a
lot of feel, there has to be a vision of
every time I think about it.”
the finished product in mind. “I made
But making that knife sparked a passion this belt knife for when I go hunting in a
in Tapley. “At that time, I didn’t have tree stand,” said Tapley. “I always tie up,
the money to buy the equipment you but If I ever fell out of the stand, I didn’t
need,” said Tapley. “The first few knives want to just dangle up there and hang to
I made were all hand-filed. In 1980, I had death. I made this so I’d have it with me
sold enough and saved enough to start to be able to cut the rope.”
buying the equipment.”
And it’s also proof that in terms of knives,
He was really leading a double life dur- size doesn’t matter. “As small as it is, that
ing this point. By day, he owned a thing will clean anything you want to
public relations and marketing firm in clean,” said Tapley. “It’s wicked sharp.”
Montgomery. By night, he was a dealer
in hand-fashioned cutlery. “I would sand The one advantage custom knives have
and do everything I could physically over mass produced knives can be
do here and then send the knives off to found in the blade itself. “The ability to
be heat-treated,” said Tapley. “I’d mark hold an edge is the life of the knife,” said
what kind of steel it was and to what Tapley. “People will look at a knife and
Rockwell Hardness level (a measure of will handle one and say ‘Oh its so pretty
or it feels so good.’ But that true life can
the steel’s strength) I wanted.
be found in the knifes ability to hold an
“The problem with that though, is some- edge and to stay sharp.”
times I’d get the knives back and they’d
That’s where the ovens come in.
be warped, and you can’t use those.”
He later sold his share of the company to After sawing and sanding, the knives get
his partner and retired from the PR busi- wrapped in a foil pouch and placed in
ness. He’s been busy making knives ever an oven to cook for 30 minutes at 1,950
degrees.
since.
had just moved here, to Maxwell (Air
Force Base),” said Tapley. “He was into
making knives. In 1973, he walked me
through making my first knife. I did all
the work on that knife.”
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