Eighteen Zealots, serials 24 through 41. This round runs 440C.
The Zealot is the design Dean Shroka makes exclusively for us. He builds it in his garage in Alabama under the Severed Metal Works name, around a 2.5 inch drop point tanto on a 6 inch frame, with a fuller, aggressive jimping, and a Kydex sheath set up with an UltiClip.
Every knife in this drop is its own serial with its own finish and handle. Pick the one you want below. When a serial sells, that knife is gone.
Specifications
- Maker: Dean Shroka, Severed Metal Works
- Model: Zealot
- Serial Numbers: 24 through 41
- Blade Length: Roughly 2.5"
- Overall Length: Roughly 6"
- Blade Steel: 440C stainless
- Blade Style: Drop point tanto
- Blade Finish: Gunkote, color varies by serial
- Handle: Varies by serial, see options
- Weight: Roughly 4 oz
- Sheath: Kydex with UltiClip
- Features: Fuller, jimping, lanyard hole, rounded tang
- Country of Origin: Made in USA (Alabama)
440C Changes How You Carry It
Earlier Zealots ran 80CrV2, a high carbon steel that takes a fine edge and rusts if you ignore it. This batch is 440C, which is stainless.
That is a real difference day to day. A carbon blade wants wiping down and a film of oil after it gets wet. A 440C blade does not. If the Zealot is riding against your leg, living in a truck, or coming out in the rain, the stainless version is the one that forgives you.
440C has been a standard cutlery stainless for decades and it is still here for a reason. It takes a very fine edge, it comes back fast on a stone, and it holds off corrosion well. It gives up some edge retention against the modern powder steels, and on a 2.5 inch blade doing 2.5 inch blade work, that trade barely registers.
Gunkote, and Why Everything Is a Color
Dean sprays Gunkote rather than Cerakote, then cures it with heat. He made that call on purpose. Cerakote is expensive and slow, and that cost would land on you. Gunkote also tolerates a working garage where grinder dust is always in the air, which matters when the shop and the grinder share a room.
What it buys is color. Violent Pink, Clover Green, Satin Purple, Pale Gold, Black Chrome, Midnight Blue, Burnt Bronze, Battle Worn Silver. In his words, do not be boring.
Two Things He Told Us Were Coming
When we toured his shop, Dean mentioned a magenta he had not put in a drop yet, which he described as violently pink. Serial 29 is that knife.
He also said he wanted to get into splatter finishes. Serials 26 and 27 are the first two, the same red and black thrown in opposite directions, one over flat black and one over red.
Three Missing Piece Handles
Serials 25, 32, and 36 carry what Dean calls his Missing Piece handles, where wood is combined with resin and other material rather than cut from a single block.
25 is black walnut with GripX and resin. 32 is spalted red oak with blue dragon scale. 36 is black walnut with copper and gold flake resin. These three run above the rest of the batch, and each exists once.
Every Handle Is Filed by Hand
The grinder only takes off the bulk. After that Dean clamps the block in a vise and shapes every handle that leaves the shop with a hand file and sandpaper.
On a drop like this one, where eighteen knives carry eighteen different handles, that is eighteen separate sessions at the vise.
The Tanto and the Fuller
The drop point tanto puts a second edge at the front at an angle to the main one, which leaves a lot of steel behind the point. On a blade this short that is how you get a tip that takes work instead of bending.
The fuller is the groove running the length of the blade. It pulls weight out of the middle of the steel where the blade needs it least, and on a knife this small every fraction of an ounce shows up in the pocket.
Built to Carry
The Kydex sheath comes set up with an UltiClip, which holds without a belt. It clips over a waistband or a pocket edge, so a fixed blade carries about as easily as a folder. There is a lanyard hole at the butt if you want another way to draw it.
About Severed Metal Works
Dean is a part time maker with a full time job, working out of a converted garage. His first knife was a piece of rebar forged in a steel drum with a hair dryer feeding it air. He has no mill and presses his Kydex in a book press.
Every knife is serialized and he laser engraves his logo and the serial number himself as the last step before it goes in the box. The numbers run in sequence across every drop, so the number on your knife tells you where it sits in everything he has built.
Why This One Stands Out
Eighteen knives, eighteen combinations, and no two the same. The serial you pick is the only one of it.
We Toured the Shop
The Great American Knife Tour™ visited Severed Metal Works and did a full shop tour.
If you want to see the shop, the machines, and the people behind the work, it is worth a watch.
Watch here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxdt742dy1A
Proudly carrying American
