Kyle Daily: Maker. Machinist. Mentor.
By H. Clay Aalders
If knifemakers can be broken down into archetypes, such as “the Outdoorsman,” “the Veteran,” “the Artist,” etc., then Chicago-area knifemaker Kyle Daily falls somewhere in “the Engineer” and “the Machinist” camps, but he defies such easy pigeon-holing. Growing up in Columbus, Indiana, Kyle was a shot putter, football player, and a standout wrestler, a sport which saw him compete on an international level and even get to spend time at the USA Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs. This is slightly ironic since Kyle began wrestling as a way to stay in shape for football.
His dad was a shop teacher, and there are family photos of Kyle following him around with a Stanley tape measure clipped to his diaper. There were always scrap materials for projects lying around, and Kyle tells of ruining more than one nice piece of wood by driving too many nails into it. As Kyle grew, his dad’s shop class evolved into a more modern industrial technology curriculum, which to a degree mirrored Kyle’s development into an engineer and metalworker. “The precision part of my brain was drawn to the ultra-tight tolerances one finds in metalworking,” he said.
Kyle’s grandfather, Joseph Hager Daily, had a good deal of influence on him as well. “Grandpa Joe owned a small trucking company, JH Daily Trucking, which was plastered on the door to his trucks. Calling my company “KH Daily Knives” gives me a connection to him, and it felt right to honor him in this way.”
It was in high school where Kyle’s engineering and metalworking journeys began. He had a teacher who had run the Apprentice CAD Drafting program at Cummins, the famous diesel engine manufacturer, and was the first to teach Kyle mechanical drawing. “He taught me the basics of reading blueprints and how to ensure that my drawings contained the necessary, detailed, information for the machinists.”
After high school Kyle attended Purdue University, where he majored in Mechanical Engineering Technology. “The Mechanical Engineering Technology Department at Purdue is a little different in that it emphasizes practical, hands-on engineering.” For example, the students would do a weld themselves, break it, and perform their own failure analysis, thereby getting a fuller picture of what is happening from both practical and theoretical perspectives.
While he was in college he began working for a custom machine shop which did a lot of work for Cummins. The company owner had been a Director at Cummins, and helped him take his education and apply it to the real world.
It was during this period, when he was still living in Indiana, that Kyle met the woman who would come to be his wife, Courtney. Courtney is a schoolteacher, and as their relationship progressed, Kyle switched jobs and moved to Chicago in 2010.
Becoming a knifemaker was not an overnight journey, however. While he always appreciated a good factory knife, he was not familiar with custom knives until, at a friend’s suggestion, he started perusing BladeForums. “Andy Roy was extremely active on BladeForums at this time, and he was my first exposure to the world of custom knives.” Kyle met Dan Eastland at Blade Show in 2012, and Dan invited Kyle to swing by Andy’s shop, where he was an apprentice at the time, on the way back from the show. He decided to try his hand at making a knife.
He leaned on makers like Andy, Dan, and Todd Hunt, as well as forums and YouTube to learn the craft. But it took him several years to finish his first one. “I wanted to finish that knife so it could be a Christmas present for Courtney, but she ended up having to wait until January.”
Kyle is primarily a stock removal maker, though he has begun to dip a toe into the world of the forged blade. While he does make more general-use and bushcraft fixed blades, Kyle’s output is biased towards his kitchen knives. They are known for their balance and technical precision, recently garnering “Best Chef’s Knife” honors at June’s Blade Show. He favors CPM154 and MagnaCut steels, devising a system of aluminum cooling plates to counter the latter’s tendency to warp when ground long and thin. “As for handle materials, bias-cut Westinghouse canvas Micarta is my favorite, followed close behind by curly and burl woods.”
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5 from the Grinder: Kyle Daily (KHDaily Knives)
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