Black Coffin Knives Redrum Pikal

Pikal knives are designed for use in a Reverse Grip Edge-In (RGEI) orientation. The modern variants were made popular by retired narcotics/SWAT law enforcement officer and tactical instructor Craig Douglas (a/k/a “SouthNarc”), the founder of ShivWorks, specifically with his Disciple design.

Custom knifemaker Trace Rinaldi made the original Disciples and I was actually on the waiting list but due to a computer crash that wiped out his order list and his eventual passing away, I never ended up receiving it. Years later, I did manage to get a ShivWorks Disciple trainer as well as a Spyderco folding Pikal. Still, my thirst for a fixed blade Pikal was not quenched and it was always in the back of my mind to get one.

Fast forward to 2026. During my research and preparation for the Toronto Knife Show, I came across Emily’s Casting Crafts and her incredible resin knife scales. I was immediately drawn to her take on the carpet from the movie The Shining!

This got my creative juices flowing! In particular, I thought of the famous “Redrum” that Danny drew on the hotel door, and that is “Murder” spelled backwards! Just like a Pikal is a “backwards” knife in the sense that the blade and handle are reversed to each other to facilitate the edge-in orientation. As you will see in the work in progress pics, everything about this knife is backwards including the sheath!

And don’t forget that I picked up a pin of the Twins at Taste of Little Italy, another sign!

Yes, my vision was coming together! I made a rough sketch using my ShivWorks trainer as a starting point.

And here I am presenting my idea to Emily at the Toronto Knife Show’s pre-show dinner!

We had a great discussion about potential ways to incorporate the Twins into my knife and with input from Nicolas (more on him in a second) the knifemaker on this project, we decided to use them as a bead on a lanyard so Emily cast my pin in resin!

BTW, notice my Dixxon Torrance shirt matching Jack’s

I chose Nicolas Bayley of Black Coffin Knives for this project for two main reasons: 1) he does a lot of movie and video game themed knives and 2) he knows how to SHARPEN! I can attest to those from personal experience as I have the knife he did based on the Metro 2033 videogame and it is incredibly light, fast, and SHARP! I presented my idea for Redrum to him at the Toronto Knife Show 2026!

And here is the first drawing of what Nicolas designed!

I liked his idea to add jimping and after some discussion we moved that to the butt end. We also made the blade a bit pointier, in keeping with the “ripping” type of cuts made with this design.

Compared to the Disciple, the handle on the Redrum is flatter, wider, and longer to accommodate my large hands. It also has more metal between the blade edge and handle (as the Disciple dug in the heel of my palm a bit) and features a blade choil, again to move the edge away from the handle.

Once aligned on the drawing, it was time to cut the blank!

You can see the jimping here. We decided to cut back on the scales a bit to leave the jimping exposed (a la “skull crusher” style).

Looks great in the Pikal grip!

Next, Nicolas lined up the scales so that the pins would go through the “dots” on the carpet pattern.

Next, the edge grind!

Oooo you can really see it starting to take shape now!

Comparing the original blank to the ground version

Next the scales were ground into shape but they will only be fitted and pinned after the Cerakote® is applied.

For the Cerakote®, we wanted to match the colour of the hotel door and Benelli® Sand seemed to be the closest. This colour was actually developed for Crye Precision’s Multi-Cam so in addition to the movie connection, it is also tied to two brands that I love!

Quick sand-blast before applying the Cerakote®

By now the Redrum stencil arrived. Note that not only is the word backwards, so are some of the letters and the print itself is upside down as well as on the opposite side of where you would normally place it. The reason for this placement is that I wanted to be able to see Redrum when holding the knife in the Pikal grip.

Here we go!

And the Cerakote®’d result!

With the handle scales installed

Now on to the sheath, which is again backwards and upside down! Normally I would carry a knife horizontally with handle forward for deployment into reverse grip. However, since the Pikal blade would end up against the TOP edge of the sheath in that orientation, I would for sure slice my, ahem “love handles” on the way out! As such, the safest orientation was upside down with the blade forward so that I could un-sheath into Pikal grip in one motion (i.e. without having to switch grips). BTW, I am so happy Nicolas used a low-profile Ulti-Clip!

Here is Nicolas demonstrating the draw

Next, we had to decide where to place the Twins on the sheath. While the top (errr bottom) of the sheath would have looked cool, it risked slowing down my draw or re-sheathing and of course potentially cutting the lanyard/bead on the way out.