Ferrum Forge x Gavko Spinner 2017 — Faceted Milled Titanium, Multi-Anodized Blue, CPM 20CV

Ferrum Forge x Gavko Spinner in Faceted Milled Titanium

The Ferrum Forge x Gavko Spinner colloboration is a titanium frame lock folder built in San Diego, California in 2017. The blade is CPM 20CV at 61 HRC in a uniform stonewash. The handle carries the Facets milling pattern, multi-anodized blue with bronze highlights and bronze hardware. It runs 7.875 inches open at 4.58 ounces. Condition is excellent, with no wear and no blemishes.

The Spinner is named for the spinner shark, and the shape follows from that. Michal Gavac’s design language runs to streamlined bodies and predatory lines, and the Spinner is one of his best known.

This is a collaboration rather than a solo custom. Two makers, two disciplines. Our guide on how to choose a custom knife covers what that division of labor buys you.

Two Makers: Gavko Knives and Ferrum Forge

Michal Gavac is a self-taught knifemaker, originally from Slovakia and now working in Florida. He came into knives as a collector first, then started building his own. He began with high-performance fixed blades and choppers before finding his calling in folders.

His beginnings were modest. Gavac started out in a Brooklyn workshop around fifteen years ago. He now works mainly in titanium frame locks, hand-built in small batches, with a global following behind models like the Mako and the Great White.

Ferrum Forge Knife Works brought the manufacturing. Elliott Williamson’s shop in San Diego is known for precision engineering and for features that appear across its whole catalog, including the replaceable lockbar insert. The Spinner pairs Gavac’s shapes with Ferrum Forge’s tolerances.

This is their third collaboration, after the highly limited Z-FiNit custom and the Mako entry-level flippers. See the rest of our folding knives from shops working at this level.

Williamson’s Additions to Gavac’s Design

Elliott Williamson’s take on the Spinner added a large finger choil to the blade. That gives you a forward pinch grip for fine, dexterous cutting, which a streamlined shark profile does not offer on its own.

He also added two thumb ramps to the spine. The point of two rather than one is that the knife stays comfortable wherever you choose to hold it, whether you are choked up on the choil or back on the handle.

Those additions are why the Spinner reads as a collaboration rather than a Gavko knife made by someone else. The silhouette is Gavac’s. The ergonomics are Williamson’s.

Ferrum Forge x Gavko Spinner Mechanics

The blade rides on caged ceramic thrust bearings. Alongside them sits the Hoback Rolling Detent, a system that lets the owner tune how much pressure it takes to break the detent and start the blade moving.

That is unusual. On most folders the detent is set at the factory and you live with it. Here it is adjustable to preference, which matters more on a flipper than almost any other component.

The lock is a titanium frame lock with a replaceable hardened steel lockbar insert. The insert takes the wear instead of the titanium, and it carries an internal overtravel arrestor so the lockbar cannot be bent past its intended travel. Ferrum Forge fit one to every knife they build.

The blade opens on a flipper tab or on the machined slot through the blade. Many owners find the slot works best with the middle finger, and with the thumb it works lower down toward the tip. Compare it against our other titanium frame lock flippers in CPM 20CV.

Facets Milling and the Multi-Anodized Finish

Facets is the milling pattern on this handle. The titanium is cut into angular planes that meet along raised ridges, and the anodizing follows those ridges so the blue reads as lines running across the frame.

Anodized color on titanium is not paint. Current ground through the metal builds a transparent oxide layer, and the color is light interfering as it reflects off that layer. Multi-anodizing means more than one voltage was used, which is how the blue and the bronze appear on the same part.

The hardware is bronze anodized to match the highlights, and the pocket clip is 3D sculpted titanium set for tip-up carry. The backspacer is solid titanium standoffs.

Condition and What’s Included with This Ferrum Forge Gavko Spinner

Condition is excellent. There is no wear and there are no blemishes, and the anodizing on the raised ridges is intact. That matters, because the ridges are where carry wear appears first. Our published grading standards let you check this description against what arrives.

It came out of a collection rather than direct from either maker. The full delivery package is here: the original zippered pouch, the anodized metal tag reading Gavko, FFKW, Spinner, 2017, Made in California, and the Ferrum Forge card signed by both Michal Gavac and Elliott Williamson.

Two signatures on one card is the part worth keeping. Read how we handle provenance on collaboration pieces.

• Ferrum Forge and Gavko Spinner folding knife
• Original zippered knife pouch
• Metal Certificate of Authenticity tag
• Ferrum Forge Knife Works card, signed by Michal Gavac and Elliott Williamson

Ferrum Forge Gavko Spinner Specifications

The model, both makers, the year and the country of origin are taken from the metal tag that ships with the knife.

• Overall length, open: 7.875 in
• Blade length: 3.50 in
• Cutting edge: 3.125 in
• Closed length: 4.375 in
• Blade thickness: 0.180 in
• Blade material: CPM 20CV
• Hardness: 61 HRC
• Blade finish: Uniform stonewash
• Lock type: Titanium frame lock with replaceable hardened steel lockbar insert and overtravel arrestor
• Action: Manual
• Deployment: Flipper tab and blade slot
• Detent: Hoback Rolling Detent, adjustable
• Pivot: Caged ceramic thrust bearings
• Handle material: 6Al4V Grade 5 titanium
• Handle pattern: Facets 3D milled
• Handle finish: Multi-anodized blue with bronze highlights
• Backspacer: Solid titanium standoffs
• Pocket clip: 3D sculpted titanium, tip-up carry
• Weight: 4.58 oz
• Year made: 2017
• Country of origin: San Diego, California, USA
• Condition: Excellent, no wear or blemishes
• SKU: 00211-FFG-SPINNER-FACETS-20CV-2017

This piece is preowned and came from a private collection. Browse our other preowned knives.

Video Description: 2017 Dream Team Collab

The Ferrum Forge Gavko Spinner is a preowned custom folding knife in excellent condition. The blade is CPM 20CV at 61 HRC in a uniform stonewash, 3.50 inches long with 3.125 inches of cutting edge. It carries a large finger choil and two thumb ramps. Ferrum Forge built it in San Diego, California in 2017.

The handle is 6Al4V titanium in the Facets milling pattern, multi-anodized blue with bronze highlights and bronze hardware. The lock is a titanium frame lock with a replaceable steel lockbar insert. It runs on caged ceramic bearings with an adjustable Hoback Rolling Detent. Overall length is 7.875 inches open and 4.375 inches closed, at 4.58 ounces. It ships with the pouch, metal tag and a card signed by both makers.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the Hoback Rolling Detent and why does it matter?

The detent is the ball and pocket that hold a folding blade closed. How hard you have to push to break it determines whether a flipper fires cleanly or stalls halfway. On nearly every folder that pressure is set at the factory.

The Hoback Rolling Detent makes it adjustable, so the owner can tune the break-away pressure to his own preference. On a flipper that is the single component with the most effect on how the knife feels, and having it under your control rather than the factory’s is unusual at any price.

Why does the lockbar have a steel insert?

Titanium is comparatively soft, and a titanium lockbar rubbing against a hardened steel blade tang wears over time and can stick. A hardened steel insert takes that contact instead, so the wear happens to a replaceable part rather than the frame.

This one also carries an internal overtravel arrestor, which stops the lockbar being bent further than it was designed to travel. That is the most common way an owner damages a frame lock. Ferrum Forge fit an insert to every knife they build, and it is replaceable if the blade ever develops play.

Who did what on this collaboration?

Michal Gavac supplied the design. The Spinner is one of his best known patterns, named for the spinner shark, with the streamlined body and predatory profile his work is recognized for.

Elliott Williamson refined it for production at Ferrum Forge and added the ergonomics: a large finger choil for a forward pinch grip, and two thumb ramps so the knife stays comfortable wherever you hold it. Ferrum Forge then built it in San Diego. Both men signed the card that came with this knife.

Will the anodizing wear, and where?

Anodized color on titanium is an oxide layer grown into the metal, not a coating on top of it, so there is nothing to flake or peel. It can be abraded away by hard contact, and it only comes back by re-anodizing.

On a milled handle like Facets, the raised ridges meet your pocket and your hand first, so that is where wear shows earliest. This one is excellent, with the ridges intact.

Does the complete package matter on a Ferrum Forge Gavko Spinner?

More than usual, because of the signatures and the age of this mint condition piece. The metal tag records the model, both makers, the year and the state it was built in. The card is signed by Michal Gavac and Elliott Williamson together.

A collaboration knife separated from the card that documents both makers loses the thing that made it a collaboration on paper. All three pieces are present here.

Does We Buy Knife Collections actively support the broader knife enthusiast community?

Yes. Based in Jacksonville, Florida, We Buy Knife Collections is a curator and purveyor of fine custom made folding and fixed-blade knives. We are dedicated to the high-end custom knife community and we support knife rights advocacy.

Following our commitment upgrade in April 2026, we are proud to hold an AKTI Premier Membership, supporting the American Knife & Tool Institute’s vital advocacy and lobbying for knife owners, makers, and the future of the industry.

Buy This Ferrum Forge Gavko Spinner

We inspect every knife in hand and photograph it ourselves. This is the first Ferrum Forge and Gavko piece we have carried. Talk to us about selling your collection, or browse the rest of our latest arrivals.