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The second OEM project available from Mr. Isham was the Abstruse in full Carbon Fiber or Titanium with an inset liner lock, the Abstruse featured a front flipper and met with mixed success. The highly stylized blade and handle featured a love it or leave it decision with little middle ground, this would see the pushing of the boundaries in design to prepare for the third never released project. This design did see a resurgence later in his career as people caught on more to his style and interest grew in his OEM projects.
"The abstract yet simple front flipper with a hint of absurdism"
-Elijah Isham
April 2018
April 2018
A very early instagram teaser for the Abstruse seen here, it begins to take shape. Heavy blade forward with classic Isham scoops in the handle with the constant throw back style nail nick.
May 2018
May 2018
Technical specs for the future knife, evolving into a more realistic form with measurments and details for manufacturing
May 2018
May 2018
A full render with hardware and proportions (Getting ready to hand off for prototyping)
July 2018
July 2018
Early prototypes arrive for Isham to inspect
may 2019
may 2019
Dealer drop info for the titanium variant.
may 2019
may 2019
Dealer drop info for the Carbon Fiber variant.
may 2019
may 2019
Side by side picture from a instagram repost by BladeHQ.
may 2019
may 2019
This model very much showed Elijahs forward thinking design style combined with classic ideas, he loved the Nail nicks on older Bob Lum customs and incorporated that into this front flipper as a nod to similar ones seen on for example the Chinese Folder design from Lum.
A front or Top flipper, the Abstruse was similar in size to the Blackstar while pushing the boundaries of ergonomics and blade to handle ratio.
Elijahs OEM work would come in this black box with his logo in silver foil on the top and sides, he chose one of his drawings to wrap around the box lid.
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