Over the past 20 years, few have been as visible in the growing custom knives market like our founder, owner, and president, Michael A. Donato.
Michael first fell in love with the fine arts while backpacking through Europe and Africa shortly after college, visiting a number of world-class museums throughout the two continents. Intrigued, Michael quickly became a member of both the Guggenheim and Metropolitan Museum of Art upon his return to New York, and dove into research with the hope of breaking into the complex world of fine art collection.
After a fateful meeting with fellow art collector Richard Mattei in 2000, Michael was introduced to the world of handcrafted custom knives and quickly realized he was hooked. Inspired, Michael would unveil his own booth (featuring 40 knives) the following year, at the world premier custom knife convention, The Blade Show in Atlanta.
Since then, Michael has attended countless knife shows, meeting with makers, collectors, and retailers all over the world. In 2004, Blade Magazine featured an article on KnifePurveyor’s revolutionary business model and approach to selling custom knives including Michael’s three-pronged system for identifying premier custom knives. He’s since appeared as an expert source in a number of industry publications, and served as a judge at numerous knife shows.
While having over two decades in the industry under his belt, Michael’s passion and philosophy manages to remain refreshingly consistent: he views each knife he sells as an individual work of art, more of a steel canvass with which an artist can express his talents than mere tool. Indeed, the meticulous craftsmanship and design of today’s knives can often surpass even the finest watches, jewelry and pens available on the market today. Michael’s discerning eye for quality ensures only the finest quality pieces are listed for sale on KnifePurveyor.
Though now established as an industry leader, Michael continues to be inspired by the collector community, continuing to share his insights and knowledge to any knife collectors build, appraise, and sell these magnificent pieces of art.