TiNives originated in 1997 and was producing 5-7oz knives that featured a blend of balance, precision & innovation. Our first product, which we called Zero Play Knife was introduced at the Blade Show in Atlanta, GA in 1998. While most folding knives feature about 20 parts, ours has more than 100 parts. In addition, our first knife featured more than half a dozen innovations that the industry had never seen before.

TiNives knives were complex to design & machine. It takes more than 900,000 lines of code to produce one of our knives. The button mechanism & pivot is extraordinarily smooth, pivoting on 84 ceramic balls that have a tolerance of .0005 or better.  The nature of ceramic is that it burnishes & polishes, so that the knife gets smoother over time, without any surface removal.

We started the company using titanium handles machined in 3D, then put a texture on the 3D sculpted surface with some 370,000 lines of NC code.

At the 1998 blade show I met up with Larry Chew to discuss all the fuss over his mechanism & our mechanism. We decided it was a different execution with the same results. We decided to do a project together and we made 500 double action knives. We continued to work together on improving our design & mechanisms.

I decided to take a break and return to treasure hunting. I started a new project and returned 18 years later. While sitting around recouping from my venture I ran across Larry Chew’s phone number. Not knowing if the number would work, I called Larry, and he answered the phone. Recognizing his voice, I said Hey Larry this is Scott Self, and Larry replied this can’t be Scott Self he died. On the 2003 blade forum people were asking about TiNives and someone wrote & said he died and that is why TiNives closed. The truth is I just went on a treasure hunt.

Two days later I called Larry & said let’s combine forces and build a new company and we started TiNives Original, LLC & Larry Chew Customs. So here we are 20 years later in a 15,000 square foot building with the latest CNC, new grinding methods & everything else a knife maker can dream of.

So here we are with a goal of bringing new excitement to the knife world with knives and mechanisms that the world has not seen yet, so look forward to TiNives Original, Larry Chew Customs and Larry Chew & Scott Self collaborations