How the collaborations work

The complete list of the knives the workshop has built to other people’s designs, from the Nura of 2010 to the Pike of 2026, with the release mechanics and a paragraph on each designer. The Sinkevich projects and the Overkill series have their own pages for the model-by-model detail.

The workshop has built other people’s designs since August 2010, when Dmitry Sinkevich’s Nura went out in a run of ten. The record now holds thirty-four collaboration models on twenty-three lines, by nine designers. The register below is the whole set in release order; the sections after it separate a design collaboration from the other kinds of limited knife, explain how a run reaches a buyer, and introduce the designers.

The register

Every collaboration model in order, dated by the factory’s announcement of each run; the Russian Lochsa, announced in May 2021, is dated by its November 2024 release. Each model links to its record page, which carries the specifications, the configurations and the factory photographs.

Three things the register does not show. The prototypes that ran alongside several of the runs and the configuration splits within a run are on the record pages. The Sinkevich Touch sets are show editions of the workshop’s own designs rather than collaborations, and sit on the Touch sets page.

Three kinds of limited knife

A design collaboration is an outside designer’s shape built by the workshop. The designer supplies a model that already exists as a custom or a production knife, Sergey Shirogorov reworks it, and the result carries a new name, usually “Russian” plus the original. Dmitry Sinkevich, RJ Martin, Tom Mayo, John Barker, Brad Southard, Lee Williams, Scott Cook and Charles Marlowe have all worked this way, and Chris Reeve is the design collaborator on the Hati CGG (the UniHati). The factory calls these joint projects.

A special or show edition is the workshop’s own design in a themed finish. The Elements series on the 111 and the F3 (Terrus, Aerum, Ignis, Aquatic), the Sinkevich Touch sets sold at the California Custom Knife Show and the dealer exclusives, with the dealer’s finish, all belong here. Each is a serial-tier model with a particular finish, hardware color or inlay and a run of its own. The Touch sets are on the Touch sets page and the show pieces on the anniversary editions page.

A finish-artist edition is a production frame handed to an independent artist for a themed surface treatment. Rip Knives (Danny Yard) has done the “Machine” colorways: a Green Machine on the Quantum, NeOn and F95, a Blue Machine on the Quantum and F95, and a Purple Machine on the Quantum, in batches as small as ten pieces. Ti2 Design has etched paisley, “Pixelated” and “Technagon” patterns on the F95, NeOn and Quantum. Todd Begg’s “TBT” pieces, Alexey Konygin’s “Cybonic Plague”, Avian Knives’ “Avian’s Mark”, WR Bladeworks’ “Hydronian”, Mad Russian’s custom-art F95s, Sharknivco’s NeOn “Avocado”, CMF MetalWorks’ CM-F 95 and Igor Oleinikov’s “Solar System” follow the same pattern. The John Barker Quantum “Dragon” belongs here too: Barker’s anodized titanium inlays sit on a serial Quantum Ursus, so it is a finish edition, not a design collaboration like his Hokkaido. These editions sell by lottery through the US distributor in small batches, and they price as dealer editions on the tier ladder: the frame under the finish is a production model, but the finisher premium and lottery distribution set them apart from base production, while the outside artist finishes the frame rather than designing it, which separates them from the design collaborations.

How a collaboration is released

A design collaboration is announced on the factory news feed, often well before the knives exist, with the partner, the base model, the run size and the entry rules. The early Western projects were sold as a closed series, on three rules:

Runs of 200 were the norm from the Russian Dr. Death CF of 2016 through the Hokkaido of 2018; runs of 300, split 150 and 150, appear from the 110 Kickstop of February 2020, with runs of 100 and 200 alongside. The Russian Overkill of 2021 went out at 200 by lottery, the Russian Lochsa at 100 split between lotteries in Russia and North America, and the Strips at 150, 300 and 200.

Larger runs are split into configurations, written into the serial numbers. The 110 Kickstop’s 300 pieces came as three colors of 100: Sapphire Blue at 1 to 100, Amber Brown at 101 to 200 and Anchor Grey at 201 to 300. The Soft Overkill repeated the pattern with canvas Micarta at 1 to 100, black at 101 to 200 and maroon at 201 to 300, released through three lotteries, the first for the canvas configuration on 21 May 2022, the rest announced afterward. The Bio split 300 into Light and Dark at 150 each, and the Pike numbers 1 to 300 across white, blue and red.

Every piece is numbered and ships with the factory certificate. Where the two logos sit varies by run: on the blade flats, the workshop’s on one side and the designer’s on the other, on the Russian Overkill, the Hokkaido, the Bio and the Skinny Strip; on the presentation scale on the Russian Dr. Death of 2015; on a titanium inlay in the presentation scale on the Arctic Dr. Death, whose damascus would hide them. The Flippin’ Tanto blade is sterile. The Russian Overkill certificate is signed by both RJ Martin and Sergey Shirogorov. Collaborations with Western makers run on SRRBS rollers, the Sinkevich projects on MRBS from the Koordinal on (the earlier ones on washers, and the CannaBis True of 2013 on washers as well), and the Lochsa on a bushing with bronze washers. None uses a tab lock, and the three Strips are liner locks. In the United States the runs are distributed through Recon1, the workshop’s distributor, which runs the US lotteries.

The designers

Dmitry Sinkevich

The Belarusian designer from Minsk has been the workshop’s partner since the Nura of 2010, longer than anyone else, and the factory numbers the joint projects. Every model, with its specifications, run and configurations, is on The Sinkevich projects; the CannaBis configurations are on the CannaBis page.

Tom Mayo

The first Western maker the workshop built for. The Russian Dr. Death of 2015, 100 pieces in full titanium, carries his hole pattern on both scales and the clip; the Dr. Death CF of 2016 added a carbon fiber presentation scale and a Vanax 37 blade, 200 pieces; the Arctic Dr. Death of 2019 paired a Bjorkman’s Twist Damasteel blade with a silver Alutex scale, 100 pieces.

Brad Southard

The Russian Flippin’ Tanto of March 2017, 200 pieces, was the workshop’s first tanto blade and the second Western project. The clip screw doubles as a body screw, so only the pivot shows on the presentation side.

John Barker

The Russian Hokkaido of October 2018, 200 pieces, kept the large tanto-bladed folder of his original, with bronze anodized scales and a bronze backspacer with five notches. His Quantum “Dragon” is a finish edition on a serial Quantum Ursus, not a second collaboration.

Lee Williams

Williams contributed the Kickstop to the 110 Kickstop of February 2020: a flipper tab on its own pivot that folds into the handle once the blade is open, on a reworked early 110. The lockbar relief has his five longitudinal cuts, and the 300 pieces are numbered by color.

RJ Martin

The Overkill series ran from the Russian Overkill of January 2021, 200 pieces on Martin’s custom Overkill, through the Soft Overkill of May 2022 and the Molten Overkill of August 2023, the first collaboration in MagnaCut, to the Denim Overkill of December 2023 and the Arctic Overkill of March 2024, which closed the series. The Arctic Overkill’s Alutex scale follows the Arctic Dr. Death. The RQ36 of February 2023, 100 pieces named for his Q36, sits beside them. The five Overkills have their own page, the Overkill family.

Scott Cook

The Russian Lochsa was announced in May 2021 and released by lottery in November 2024 in a run of 100. It is the workshop’s first integral, the handle machined from one piece of titanium with no handle screw and no backspacer, with a flipper where Cook’s original uses a thumb stud.

Chris Reeve

Reeve’s projects with the workshop run on two tiers. The UniHati, the Unique Graphic F95 with Chris Reeve, is a Custom Division run that reached the US dealers in 2021, with the UniHatiOn and the UniQuantum as its NeOn-platform and Quantum-platform siblings. The Hati CGG is the collaboration edition on the Hati. CGG stands for Computer Generated Graphic, a titanium inlay on the 3D machined Alutex presentation scale, done by Chris Reeve Knives, on a MagnaCut blade; a blue Alutex version went out by lottery in September 2025.

Charles Marlowe

The RKMP of November 2025, 150 pieces on his KMP22, won Knife Collaboration of the Year at Blade Show Atlanta in 2025. The RKMP Bronze of January 2026 repeated the run in bronze anodizing, and the Molten KMP and Stormy KMP of June 2026 added CarboTi inlays at 100 pieces each.

Nasgul Workshop

The one entry for an outside shop rather than an outside designer sits apart from the register above. Vadim Shaykhitdinov’s Nasgul Workshop customized finished Flipper 95s in three numbered projects from 2014: the Golf, ten pieces; the Gorynich, thirty; and the Flag, seventy. The Gorynich, announced in October 2014 and named for the dragon of Slavic folklore, carries three-dimensional dragon scales milled into blue anodized titanium, over an Elmax blade and a frame lock, at about 147 g, with both logos inside the scales. The shop also made the Shirogorov/Nasgul bead in the bead register.

Where the facts live

The register links each model to its record page, where the specifications, run sizes, configurations and dated releases live: the Overkill record, Russian Dr. Death record, Russian Hokkaido record, Russian Flippin’ Tanto record, 110 Kickstop record, Russian Lochsa record, KMP record and Hati CGG record among them. Prices are on the price record, and how a collaboration differs from a serial or Custom Division knife for a buyer is on Choosing a Shirogorov and the tier ladder.