Owned and operated by Slovakian knifemaker Michal Gavac, Gavko specializes in titanium frame locks that are built to withstand the test of time. Before making knives, Gavac was (and still is) an avid collector. Michal moved to the United States 13 years ago, and started making knives in the storage room of his Brooklyn apartment building in 2010. Like many custom makers, his first knives were fixed blades, but Gavac eventually found a soft spot for frame locks—and an even softer spot for, of all things, sharks. When a friend told him one of his designs looked like a Mako shark, Gavac took the idea and ran with it. He’d just moved to Florida at the time and was a big fan of them anyways, so thus began a long line of custom knives like the Tiger, Hammerhead, Thresher, and of course, now the Nurse.