About

About Me - Scott Einsmann

I'm a dad and husband. I'm a bowhunter and competitive archer. I've spent the last five years as the Executive Gear Editor at Outdoor Life. I'm a rampant knife collector and a knife maker. 
I've hunted a variety of species throughout the country, but I love hunting whitetails, turkeys, squirrels, and upland birds near my home in Virginia. It was on an elk hunt of a lifetime that I first thought of designing and producing my own knives. After my ultralight replaceable-blade knife failed when I really needed it, I saw a need for an ultralight fixed blade. I've tested several scalpel fixed blades and small hunting knives over the years, but all of them left something to be desired in my opinion. 
So I started work on the Peace River. It's named after the territory in British Columbia where I brought a replaceable blade and wished I had a fixie. After months of small tweaks and getting feedback from serious hunters, I now have a design that I'm happy with. It's light, but capable. Its ergonomics reduce hand strain during butchering. Its sheath is customizable, and it's made of tough steel that takes a razor edge.
While designing the Peace River, I found I really enjoy designing knives. While playing with 2D CAD software, I came up with a design that quickly became a daily companion blade, the Mosquito Hawk. It's a small fixed blade that can flex into a wide variety of roles from field dressing to EDC. I had turkey hunting in mind when I designed this blade, and it's certainly excellent as a spring turkey woods tool, morel harvester, and turkey dismantler.
I'm not done designing by any means, and you'll see two more designs later this year.

How Woodsman Knives Are Made

My wife got me a gift certificate for a knife making class seven years ago, and that put me in Brent Stubblefield's shop, Join or Die Knives. I quickly joined his community shop and took every class he offered.
Seven years later, my knife-making mentor is now my partner in this venture. His team of knife makers heat-treats, grinds, and finishes every Woodsman Knife by hand. They do every step of the process in-house, except for waterjet cutting the blanks. The whole process is done here in central Virginia with the utmost care and attention to detail.
My day job is demanding, and I'm often traveling for gear tests. But I try to sneak away to my garage shop a few times a week to work on prototypes or cool knives. My motto for my shop time is "make cool stuff." Those cool blades are what I call my Garage Made knives, and you'll find them for sale on the site.

The Logo

I always wanted a bird dog growing up, and on a whim I found a Brittany for sale while I was in college. The people selling the puppy were just trying to get rid of it, and I stole it for $50. I didn't deserve the exceptional dog I got out of that deal. He was a loyal companion, a driven hunter, and later in life, a good friend to our newborn baby.
The Woodsman Knives logo is my Brittany, on point with wings on his back. It was originally a play on the words "bird dog." But it's taken on a new meaning now that Riley has passed.