An early shaded render of the Blackstar. It is hard to explain just how important this model was to Elijah and how many things would stem from this knife. 

Elijah printed out paper forms of the Blackstar to test size, he had always wanted to do 2 versions of this design. First the small then the large follow up, sadly we would never see this. 

The closed profile of his designs were equally important as the full open look of the knife, the overall esthetic performance of these designs is still unmatched.

Elijah would post teaser shots on Instagram regularly to get people excited about what was to come. He enjoyed the mystery of all things but especially new models. 

Parts for the initial Blackstar prototypes, you can see the double detent bars. This was a brilliantly simple and effective mechanism. The Blackstar had existed long before Elijah ever showed it on Instagram but its classic lines would capture everyone's imagination.

Elijah also enjoyed making images for his knife models, seen here is an early example for the Blackstar release. This would also work perfectly as a pre Christmas drop. This would begin the hyper focused rise of Elijah's popularity, the Blackstar would again set a blaze the interest in his designs and unique approach to all things knife industry.