As a young boy from Odessa, Texas, Jason Tippy grew up hunting, fishing, camping and enjoying the outdoors. “My dad gave me my very first knife when I was eight; it was a survival knife with the compass on the back end, a fishing line and a little saw,” recalls the custom knifemaker. At age 10, he watched a cousin make a knife and was inspired to hammer his first one out of a nail. A seed was planted in his mind, although he wouldn’t jump into the world of knifemaking until he was 31.

He credits Dwayne Dushane, “maker of some of the most beautiful knives in the world,” as has having mentored him and passing down secrets of the trade. “I was referred to Dwayne, and he invited me to his shop in Andrews, Texas. He taught me the finer techniques and even set me up with my first grinder, which I still have today,” says Tippy, who established Tippy Customs in 2008. Creating artistic knives with excellent blades was his way of sharing his passion for the outdoors.

Tippy Custom knives have blades of various steels: carbon, stainless and Damascus, depending on their use, or the customer’s request. As Tippy explains it, “Field use knives are made of carbon steel because it’s tougher and can take more punishment. A lot of pocket knives are stainless. Damascus steel is used  to forge weld a pattern from two to four different alloys.”

The artisan maintains that it doesn’t matter what kind of steel you use if the heat treat — “the soul of the blade” — is not done right. “For example, he says, we changed our heat treat process to keep an edge longer on pocket knives because most people don’t sharpen those routinely.”

In making his handles, Tippy prefers exotic woods like desert ironwood, Koa, spalted pecan, purple heart, mammoth ivory and mammoth tooth. “Every so often someone will bring me some bog oak that is beautiful,” he adds. For a more modern look, he uses carbon fiber, titanium and G-10, a high-pressure fiberglass laminate.

His collection includes the “TC” ranch hands, skinners and folding knives, a more affordable line of production knives of the same quality and warranty as the special orders. Tippy’s custom work takes it to another level. His 10-inch filet knife, made of high carbon steel with a Micarta handle and titanium pins, is a streamlined design that looks too graceful to slice into a fish. He’s also designed custom tomahawk axes that are as artistic as they are functional. There have been a few knives (complete with pink handles) for female clients who enjoy the outdoors.  Recently he’s been working on a larger camp knife and production tomahawk. 

Most of Tippy’s designs begin with a sketch on his drawing pad. “I email my designs to a company that waterjets them out of steel then sends them back,” he says. “Then, I’ll grind and heat treat them. All customs are ground by hand; I can go from a 36 grit to 2,000 grit for a mirror-polish finish.”

This all takes place in a shop attached to his Breaux Bridge home, both built from cypress around 1902.  It’s a no-nonsense, get-down-to-work atmosphere with all the equipment he needs — and then some: a drill press, mill, lath, buffer, the 2-inch-by-72-inch belt grinder gifted to him by his mentor, various hand tools, a lopsided “T” hanging on the wall — a coffee mug perched on a stool. “Depending on what I have going on, sometimes I’ll start in the shop at 4 a.m. and sometimes I’ll stop at 4 a.m., working all day and night.”  

The process of making a knife involves a number of labor- and time-consuming steps. When Tippy is forging,  which he avoids during the hot summer months, temperatures can reach 1,900°. On average, it takes from 15 to 20 hours to make a knife. Currently, the waiting list for a Tippy Custom knife is three to four months (so order now for Christmas.)

Of the 500 to 600 knives Tippy estimates having made since the start of his career, he is most proud of two: his first slip-joint knife, made for his father, and a folding knife, with the official presidential seal, made for a client to gift to President Trump. “I put in 60 hours work in four days for that knife,” he recalls. “I was surprised one day when I saw a picture of Trump on social media in his office and the knife was laying on his desk.”

Tippy has shared his passion for knives through the Louisiana Custom Knife Show, an event that he and his wife, Lauren, first organized in 2019. Looking back on its growth he says, “The first year we had 14 vendors and this year we have 77, so far, attending the show that will be on Sept. 9, at the Lamar Dixon Expo Center in Gonzales.” 

Successful as Tippy has become as a knife maker, he appears most fulfilled when talking about his work as a licensed minister, a calling he answered as a young teen. “I preached my first sermon at 17, for five minutes, and it was a catastrophe,” he says smiling “but I felt it was what I was supposed to be doing.”

He came to Breaux Bridge in 2011 to preach for the pastor at The Breaux Bridge Pentecostals, part of the global United Pentecostal Church International. “Six months later we figured this is where we needed to be,” he adds.

Twenty-five years into it now, Tippy continues traveling to evangelize in the south, mostly Texas, Florida and Arkansas. He’s overseen funerals, married a couple (check out his men’s wedding bands among the merchandise on his website), taught a grief class and bible studies, and still preaches at the Breaux Bridge church every month or two. Wherever he goes, the message is consistent: “If we love people like God loves them, everything will work out just fine.” The knifemaker has his work cut out for him, but seems up for the challenge.