Custom Division FAQ

The workshop’s limited tier sits between serial production and Sergey Shirogorov’s full customs and is confused with both. This page answers the questions buyers ask about it; the full custom FAQ covers the tier above, and the tier ladder has the full comparison.

Custom Division

What is the Custom Division?

The workshop’s limited tier: a serial design rebuilt with more finishing time and other materials, by the Custom Division team inside the workshop, on single-row roller bearings (SRRBS), in small numbered runs. The factory announced it on 23 April 2014 as a line of familiar models built with new solutions and technologies and carrying continuous individual numbering. The first pieces, the Hati 3D Seashell and F3 Custom Division variants, were shown at the Arsenal exhibition in Moscow on 24 to 27 April 2014.

Is a Custom Division knife a custom?

No. A Custom Division knife is a production design finished to a higher standard in a small numbered run. Sergey Shirogorov’s full customs are a separate tier above it: one-off or a handful, built by Sergey himself, on double- or multi-row rollers (DRRBS or MRRBS), with the duck foot pivot that appears on no other tier. A duck foot pivot on a Custom Division listing means the listing is wrong about one of the two. The full custom FAQ covers that tier.

Is a Sprint Run a Custom Division knife?

No. A Sprint Run is a small numbered batch of a new design, or of a production model in an unusual steel, with no catalog listing, usually about 30 pieces and as few as three for a material variant; a Custom Division run is the workshop’s numbered limited tier, with Custom Division markings inside the knife. Both run on single-row rollers, on all but a few early Custom Division pieces, so the bearings do not separate them; the markings and the certificate do. The two are confused constantly, partly because dealer listings have carried Quantum-family Sprint Runs under a Custom Division heading, and a listing that reads “Sprint Run Custom Division” is describing one knife with two labels. The Sprint Run register is where to check which it is.

Which designs are the Custom Division’s own?

Custom Division runs are serial designs rebuilt. The CDX, the model that marks the Division’s tenth year, was built on Sergey Shirogorov’s full custom F7, whose wider blade also fed the serial F3 NS. Beside them sit Custom Division lines built on serial platforms rather than in the serial catalog: the F5 on the F95, the Mini Quantum and MidiQ on the Quantum, and the Stellaris and Stellar-B on the Stellar. The F7 overview and From the early models to today place each.

What does CDX mean?

Custom Division, tenth anniversary: the X is the Roman numeral. The CDX 10th Anniversary, in S90V on SRRBS, was released at Blade Show Atlanta in June 2024 to mark the 2014 founding, 100 pieces sold by rolling lottery.

How many Custom Division pieces are in a run?

A Custom Division run is typically 50 to 100 pieces per variant, with some runs as small as 30. The 111 Ti Bronze CD, with a Damasteel blade, is a run of 50, and the F3-B CD is another. The dated releases with their documented counts are in the table on the tier ladder.

Which Custom Division pieces should I know?

The CDX 10th Anniversary; the Quantum CD (the Blue CD; S90V, SRRBS, 50 pieces); the MidiQ Custom Division of 2024 (MagnaCut, frame lock, SRRBS); the 111 Ti Bronze CD; the Custom Division Tool, the workshop’s titanium bit driver, in a numbered 2023 edition of 100; and the Mini Quantum CD, which won Best Investor/Collector Knife at Blade Show 2023. The dated releases are on the tier ladder.

How do I tell a genuine Custom Division piece?

Four checks. The bearings are loose cylindrical rollers rather than balls, in a single row per side on the great majority of pieces, with 17 per side on a Custom Division F95; a few early pieces, the Hati 3D Seashell and the F95 3D Silk among them, carry double-row rollers instead, so rollers in two rows on an early piece are not a fault while balls in a Custom Division pivot are. The markings are inside, on the scales and/or the backspacer, and the serial is on the box and the certificate. The bear head is paired with a CD mark, crisply etched. The pivot hardware is the standard slotted hardware, with the Captive Pivot System gear on recent pieces, never a duck foot. Photographs of the open pivot, the inside of the lock side, the box label and the certificate settle most questions; the authentication guide has the full per-tier checklist.

How are Custom Division knives sold?

Through the factory’s dealers in small allocations, by lottery for the most limited pieces, and at show releases. On the secondary market the CDX and the MidiQ Sprint Run cleared in a day or two when priced to market, the MidiQ Custom Division in up to a couple of weeks, and thin lines can take months; the venues are the dealer secondary pages, Arizona Custom Knives on consignment, BladeBinge and the collector boards. The official dealers and every other venue are on Where to buy and talk.

Do Custom Division pieces hold their value?

They follow a hype cycle rather than a retention rule: a release-window premium, compression over roughly one to two years, then a settle set by scarcity and steady demand. The CDX 10th Anniversary is the clean example: well below its June 2024 release-window prices by mid-2026. Buy them for the craftsmanship first. Buying, selling and value carries the reading and the price record the dated figures.

Can I take a Custom Division knife apart?

You can, and the warranty survives it: disassembly for maintenance does not void the factory warranty, though damage done in the process, third-party parts and modifications fall outside it alongside the warranty’s other exclusions. The caution is mechanical rather than legal. The rollers sit loose in the race and scatter when the scale lifts, and on a single-row system 1/16 turn of the pivot is a large change, so the preload wants more care than a ball bed and the pivot is best left at the factory setting. If you open one, lay the rollers out before anything rolls. The bearings and locks page has the procedure and the warranty page the policy.