Have a question about the William Henry multiverse? Email community@williamhenry.com and Matt will choose a couple to answer in this monthly forum...
Question: Where do you make your products?
We design and build virtually every WH piece, across all categories, in our studio in Oregon. We have three separate shops – one for knives and money clips, one for pens, and one for jewelry. While we work with outside partners on specific processes and techniques, in the end every piece is built and finished in the studio. In some cases, we make every single part, 100% internal. In other cases, we source certain parts to our design, with our materials, and add the handwork and fine craft that elevates each finished piece. Each WH piece has a minimum of 50, and up to 500, separate hand-craft steps that we execute in the studio. It takes a village, and the angels are in the details...
Question: What is your favorite material?
That’s a moving target. I love the PROCESS of designing cool stuff
and seeing that manifest thru a lot of hard work and dedication in our
system. So I love the PROCESS of finding
that next crazy cool material and figuring out if we can work with it, how we
work with it, and how to finish it to capture the imagination.
I love hand-forged metals, where no two pieces are ever the same. I love organic materials, current or fossil, that reveal the majesty of nature in unique pattern and color. The basics, like titanium and carbon fiber, are great as well but they are more predictable and hence a little less alluring. Great for performance and durability, but closer to a commodity. I love the stuff that is anti-commodity, that tells a distinct story, that separates us from other brands and gives our customers the chance to create their own truly personal style. Favorite material? With all we have found and continue to explore at WH, it changes every day...
