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SEPTEMBER 2021

Feeding frenzy of the BLADE Show. (Whetstone Studio image)

Javier Vogt’s Best Folder winner. (Whetstone Studio image) Stan Shaw’s pocketknives. (image by Carl Whitham, Sheffield)

The best production pieces make history at the BLADE Show.

Cutlery Hall-Of-Fame welcomes five stellar new members.

By BLADE ® staff

By Steve Shackleford

20 THE KNIFE JOEL BERRY CARRIES

56 LAST LITTLE MESTER OF SHEFFIELD

By Joel Berry

By Grace Horne

22 BACK HOME AGAIN

60 HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE?

By BLADE staff

By Ed Fowler

30 BLADE SHOW CUSTOM KINGS PART I

64 ALL ABOARD THE KNIFE TRAIN

Actually, he takes along two sharp cutters. See what they are.

BLADE Show’s return from a pandemic-forced hiatus was epic.

Check out the winners and why the judges picked them. By Steve Shackleford

The author remembers pioneer maker Stan Shaw as only she can.

The answer to the age-old knifemaking query is multi-faceted.

Factory companies debut their latest sharp stuff in Atlanta. By BLADE staff

38 20 YEARS AFTER

68 THE $7 KNIFE TEST

By Mike Haskew

By MSG Kim Breed

46 THWACK ATTACK!

82 THE END OF THE TRAIL

By Dexter Ewing

By BLADE staff

The atrocity that shocked the world can never be forgotten.

Four automatics are state-of-the-art in snap-to-it-tiveness.

[4 ]

Ever wonder how a Philippine village-shop-forged bolo cuts?

Friedly/Rudolph collaboration honors American Indian culture.

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HONORING THE FALLEN AND THEIR FAMILIES

The Boker Plus Karakurt. (Marty Stanﬁeld Photography image)

38 Custom knives in Keith Kaiser’s 9/11 project. (Eric Eggly/PointSeven image)

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A Letter from the Imels We are stunned, honored and humbled regarding our 2021 nomination and induction into the BLADE Magazine Cutlery Hall Of Fame®. We never expected to be recognized for the work we did during our 15 years of service for the prestigious organization of the Knifemakers’ Guild. We did not think of what we did as being extraordinary. We just saw the work before us that needed to be done and we did it, no matter how much effort was involved. We refer to the time we served on the board of directors as “the Guild’s Golden Years,” the 15 years when it experienced its greatest growth. As it grew, we dealt with some monumental issues, one of which was finding hotel ballrooms large enough for the annual Guild Shows. It is difficult to comprehend a time when there were no shows dedicated to knives. Today there is a proliferation of knife shows, possibly one or more every weekend somewhere in the USA and in other countries as well. It is safe to say that the Guild, founded in 1970 by 11 knifemakers, is responsible for that. Following the founding of the Guild, founding member/BLADE Magazine Cutlery Hall-Of-Fame® member Blackie Collins established the knife magazine known as the American Blade in 1973, which eventually became BLADE Magazine after Cutlery Hall-Of-Famers Bruce Voyles and Jim Parker bought it in 1981. The seeds for the ABS were sown after the 1976 Guild Show in Dallas when Guild member/Cutlery Hall-Of-Famer Bill Moran met with fellow bladesmiths Bill Bagwell and Don Hastings and outdoor writer/Cutlery

“WE WILL ENDEAVOR TO REFLECT A POSITIVE IMAGE OF THE CUTLERY HALL OF FAME.” —BEVERLY AND BILLY MACE IMEL Hall-Of-Famer B.R. Hughes. The first BLADE Show occurred in 1982 and major shows either had been established or were popping up in places like New York City, Anaheim and Solvang, California, and Eugene, Oregon, then Japan, Paris, Munich and Milan. States and countries formed their own knifemakers’ guilds. All this because Cutlery Hall-OfFamer A.G. Russell, who sold sharpening stones to knifemakers, secured a block of tables at the Sahara Gun Show in Las Vegas in February 1970 and invited knifemakers to join him there. The makers did not know of one another’s existence, but he had their names and addresses. In June of that year 11 makers met again at a gun show in Tulsa to form the Guild. A.G. was made honorary president. New members were added every year, reaching 491 by 1999, with another 100 applicants waiting for admittance. The Guild was producing its own 372-table show. Applicants had to wait for cancellations in order to meet the show display requirement for admittance. The question one might ask is, What if there had been no Guild? But the more important question to pose is, What if there had been no A.G. Russell? We find that mind-boggling. One man can make a difference and A.G. Russell certainly did! We are pleased that criteria for induc-

tion is not based solely on achievement and service but includes character, honesty and integrity as well. Just as we do with our business and as we did while representing the Guild, by our conduct and demeanor we will endeavor to reflect a positive image of the Cutlery Hall Of Fame, serving as ambassadors with dignity and integrity.

VISIT US ONLINE AT WWW.BLADEMAG.COM TO: • Sign up for our free newsletter. • Renew your magazine subscription. There’s a subscription link in the nav bar. • Comment on our site stories written by BLADE ® staff members and others.

SUBSCRIPTION SERVICES: Visit us on the web at www.blademag.com or call 877-485-6426. Outside USA: 760-407-2304.

request a media kit by writing to: BLADE, 5600 W. Grande Market Dr., Appleton, WI 54913.

LOOK FOR BLADE MAGAZINE ON:

BACK ISSUES FOR SALE: Subject to Availability. Call 920-471-4522.

Beverly and Billy Mace Imel, New Castle, Indiana Editor’s note: In joining Jim Sornberger, Jay Hendrickson and Joe Keeslar with formal induction into the Cutlery Hall Of Fame at this year’s BLADE Show, Beverly and Billy Mace Imel become the first husband-and-wife team ever to be inducted simultaneously into the Hall. Most fittingly, they join the Hall’s firstever husband-and-wife team, A.G. and Goldie Russell, who were each inducted separately—A.G. in 1988 and Goldie in 2014. For more on this year’s formal inductions, see page 52. For the latest knives, knife news, trends and more, visit blademag.com, BLADE®’s popular Instagram page @blade_magazine, and on Facebook and Twitter.

HOW TO REACH US!

BOOK SALES: Visit us at www.gundigeststore. com or call 920-471-4522.

LETTERS OR ARTICLE SUBMISSIONS: Steve Shackleford, Editor BLADE Magazine 5600 W. Grande Market Dr., Ste. 100 Appleton, WI 54913 or email steve@blademag.com.

ADVERTISING: Contact Lori McDaniel at 715-498-3768 or lori@gundigest.com, or

[6 ]

here are two main cover knives this time: the Fíon flipper folder by Princeton Wong and the Saturn by Fox Cutlery. The former won Best New Maker for Princeton in the custom knife judging competition at BLADE Show 2021; the latter is the BLADE Magazine 2021 Overall Knife Of The Year® and co-winner of the Imported Knife Of The Year®. The Saturn marks the third year in a row Fox has garnered Overall Knife Of The Year. For more on it and other winners of the Knife-Of-The-Year Awards, see the story on page 12. For more on the Fíon and other of the show’s custom knife winners, see page 30. The images of the Fíon and Fox are by Whetstone Studio. The image of the Fire Bowie by Shane Taylor at upper left is by Caleb Royer. For more on it, see page 22. The image of BLADE Show patrons at bottom is by Gabe Clendaniel. For more on it, see page 10.

For the latest knives, knife news, trends and more, visit blademag.com, BLADE®’s popular Instagram page @blade_magazine, and on Facebook and Twitter.

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THE WORLD’S #1 KNIFE PUBLICATION Vol. XLVII, No. 12, September 2021

Publishers Of

Editorial/Advertising Office: 5600 W. Grande Market Drive, Suite 100, Appleton, WI 54913 920.471.4522 • blademag.com steve@blademag.com

Caribou Media Group Publisher

JIM SCHLENDER Editor

STEVE SHACKLEFORD Managing Editor

LAURA PELTAKIAN Online Editor

ELWOOD SHELTON Sr. Art Director

GENE COO Art Director

NADIA SVERDLOVA Field Editors

MSG KIM BREED, ABE ELIAS, DEXTER EWING, ED FOWLER, MIKE HASKEW, B.R. HUGHES, LES ROBERTSON, JOE SZILASKI, RICHARD D. WHITE ADVERTISING SALES Associate Publisher

RYAN FARNER

760.809.8729 • ryan@recoilweb.com Senior Account Executive

ALEX OSTROWSKI

920.212.5677 • alex@gundigest.com Senior Account Executive

DAVID FIGG

813.418.1060 • dfigg@recoilweb.com Senior Account Executive LORI MCDANIEL 715.498.3768 • lori@gundigest.com Advertising Assistants

BROOKE CASTLE CHING CORNFORTH

GUN DIGEST MEDIA, LLC GM/Publisher

GLEN CASTLE Director of Finance

JENNIFER SEXSTONE Network Manager

JOHN SCHWARTZE E-Commerce Manager

BEN SOBIECK Newsstand Sales

NPS MEDIA GROUP rmurray@npsmediagroup.com

SUBSCRIPTIONS/CUSTOMER SERVICE U.S.: 877.485.6426 Canada & Foreign: 760.407.2304 Email: blade@pcspublink.com P.O. Box 460220, Escondido, CA 92046-0220

BLADE ® Magazine, (ISSN 1064-5853) is published monthly plus one extra issue in November, by Caribou Media Group, LLC dba Gun Digest Media LLC. Corporate headquarters is 5600 W. Grande Market Dr., Suite 100, Appleton, WI 54913. Periodicals postage paid at Appleton, WI 54913, and at additional mailing offices. Canadian Agreement No. 40665675. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to BLADE® Magazine, P.O. Box 460220, Escondido, CA 92046-0220. BLADE® and its logo are registered trademarks. Other names and logos referred to or displayed in editorial or advertising content may be trademarked or copyrighted. BLADE assumes no responsibility for unsolicited materials sent to it. Publisher and advertisers are not liable for typographical errors that may appear in prices or descriptions in advertisements. The possession, transportation and sale of certain types of knives is restricted or prohibited by federal, state and local laws. BLADE® and Caribou Media rely upon the fact that collectors, purveyors/dealers, exhibitors, advertisers and manufacturers are expected to know and comply with these regulations.

[8 ]

ll BLADE Shows have a different feel before, during and immediately following, but the 2021 rendition held in its 40th year had a distinctly different feel due, as you might guess, to the pandemic. Going two years without the BLADE Show (page 22) thanks to last year’s cancellation of the event figured to have a marked impact on how most everyone who attends the world’s most momentous knife event on a regular basis might react once there—just how marked was the question. Would people jump for joy once they saw those they hadn’t seen in two years, people they had no idea if they would ever see again due to the massive death toll the pandemic has exacted on the world? Would there be tears of joy, hearty laughter and other notable reactions after seeing and listening to old friends joking, smiling and otherwise being themselves again? There was, of course, all of that—but there was more. There was also a kind of collective relief, as if, yes, the BLADE Show actually was taking place, people were glad handing one another, gliding up and down the aisles, renewing old ac-

quaintances and making new ones, and, of course, drinking in the world’s finest factory, custom and other knives and all the accessories that accompany them. It was almost as if the BLADE Show had never skipped a beat, as if there had been no cancellation last year—almost. Even the occasional mask—and they were extremely occasional—did not seem to matter. But the fact that things were near back to normal, that the BLADE Show was indeed almost back to being its old self, is what grabbed me most. I almost felt guilty for not feeling more ecstatic, more thankful that we were all back—almost. Instead, I felt an enormous relief, a feeling that this was the way things were supposed to be. It wasn’t so much eminently satisfying as it was a simple need for things to be that way. And they were. And that’s what I guess I was most thankful for. I was also thankful for the little things that always make the BLADE Show so special. Three examples: •An older collector fell on the escalator the Friday of the show only to have several come to his aid. Despite three or four meat chunks taken out of his legs from the fall

and him still recovering from some recent heart trouble, he seemed totally unfazed. Instead, he simply wanted to sit down and rest before regrouping and entering the show hall. I saw him a few minutes later at Steven Rapp’s table talking and laughing away, as if nothing had ever happened. As Ed Fowler says, “Good times.” •While checking out Larry Oden’s Best in Show Buck Collectors Club display (page 22), acclaimed knifemaker Les George talked about how it was a Buck 119 6-inch fixed blade that first got him into knives. Les said he was too young back in the day for his dad to OK him buying a 119, but that didn’t mean Les couldn’t try and make a knife—though it took him “forever.” He explained how he cut a blade shape out of a piece of steel using a hacksaw. “I sawed and sawed—zuzz, zuzz, zuzz,” Les imitated the sound of the hacksaw. Two weeks later, he finally had his blade. “I was too young and stupid to quit,” he recalled. “Zuzz, zuzz, zuzz.” As Les walked away, he was till “zuzzing.” More good times. •Bill Ruple had a field day at the expense of his knifemaking buds in the South Texas Cartel. Bill rubbed it in continuously about how he was in the new Greatest Living Knifemakers book—aka THE BOOK—and they were not. While sitting with knifemaker Toby Hill at a bar near The Pit, out of the blue Bill pointed at the TV and blurted, “Hey, they’re talking about THE BOOK!” when, of course, they were not. Knifemaker Bubba Crouch even came to Bill one time and asked him if a price he was charging for one of his slip joints was too much, and Bill snorted in fake disdain, “Well, are you in THE BOOK?” Yep, good times were had by most all— and there’s no “almost” about that. For the latest knives, knife news, trends, and more, visit blademag.com, BLADE®’s popular Instagram page @blade_magazine, and on Facebook and Twitter.

Good times were had at the BLADE Show by most all, including, from left: Greg Clendaniel, Hezikiah “Zeke” Menacho of Work Tuff Gear Knife and Tools, and Peter Kohler of Dark Timber Customs. (Gabe Clendaniel image)

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[ FACTORY FINEST ]

BY BLADE ® STAFF

>> IMAGES BY WHETSTONE STUDIO UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED

The world’s top production pieces make history at the BLADE Show

BLADE Magazine T

2021 KNIVES OF THE YEAR

SATURN / FOX CUTLERY

KNIFE TO KNOW: In the accompanying image

are, from left, the Saturn FX-551 TICOP, FX-551 TI and FX-551 SX TIPVD BLADE LENGTH: 2.55” BLADE STEEL: Damascus, including three layers of C70 carbon steel and two layers of copper for the TICOP version, satin-finished M390 for the TI version, and PVD-coated M390 for the TIPVD version ROCKWELL HARDNESS: 58 HRC (C70) and 59-61 HRC (M390) BLADE GRIND: Flat HANDLE MATERIAL: PVD coated titanium (the TI version has three stripes where the coating is sanded away, leaving the clean titanium color) POCKET CLIP: PVD coated titanium FITTINGS: Pink anodized titanium screws, standoff and button (TICOP), polished titanium screws, standoff and button (TI), and PVD-coated titanium screws, standoff and button (TIPVD)

he BLADE Magazine Knife-OfThe-Year® Awards celebrated a return to center stage after the twoyear wait caused by the worldwide pandemic with a bumper crop of outstanding knives and individual honors at BLADE Show 2021 June 4-6 at the Cobb Galleria Centre in Atlanta. Fox Cutlery won Overall Knife Of The Year for the third year in a row, this time with the Saturn, and tied for the Imported Knife Of The Year, also with the Saturn.

2021

OVERALL KNIFE OF THE YEAR®

IMPORTED KNIFE OF THE YEAR®

LOCK: Radius lock CLOSED LENGTH: 4.05” COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: Italy KNIFE TO KNOW: In addition to winning Overall

Knife Of The Year, the Saturn finished in a tie with the Spartan Blades Astor for Imported Knife Of The Year MSRPs: $949 (TICOP), $495 (TI) and $495 (TIPVD) AVAILABLE: Late winter

2021 MOST INNOVATIVE IMPORTED DESIGN

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D-DUT / MASERIN

BLADE LENGTH: 2.362” BLADE STEEL: AISI 440C stainless ROCKWELL HARDNESS: 58 HRC BLADE GRIND: Flat HANDLE MATERIAL: Anodized aluminum LOCK: Linerlock SHEATH: Nylon CLOSED LENGTH: 3.385” COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: Italy MSRP: $98.40 AVAILABLE: NOW

Maserin won two awards—Most Innovative Imported Design and Collaboration—for the D-Dut and Solar, respectively. Rounding out the international winners is We Knife for the Elementum. American knife companies broke through for seven awards. Case won American-Made Knife Of The Year for the Marilla; Spartan Blades tied with Fox for Imported Knife Of The Year with the Astor; V Nives copped Most Innovative American Design for the Metal-Tech; Heretic Knives won its first-ever Manufacturing Quality Award, an honor that recognizes the winner’s entire line of knives; Pro-Tech captured yet another

Collector/Investor Knife Of The Year, in this instance for the Malibu; Benchmade returned to the winner’s circle with the 15500-1 Meatcrafter, the Kitchen Knife Of The Year; and Ulticlip won its inaugural Accessory Of The Year for the Ultilink. BLADE Magazine Cutlery Hall-OfFame® member Bruce Voyles was presented with the Publisher’s Award, and long-time mom-and-pop retail knife store Willey Knives copped the Industry Achievement Award. With the exception of the Publisher’s and Industry Achievement Awards, the Knife-Of-The-Year Awards were voted on by a super panel of industry knife au-

thorities assembled by the BLADE® Magazine staff. The Publisher’s and Industry Achievement Awards were determined by the BLADE staff. For the contact information for the knives in the story, see “Where To Get ’Em” on page 45. For the latest knives, knife news, trends, and more, visit blademag.com, BLADE®’s popular Instagram page @blade_magazine, and on Facebook and Twitter.

2021 IMPORTED KNIFE OF THE YEAR®

2021 AMERICAN-MADE KNIFE OF THE YEAR®

2021

ASTOR / SPARTAN BLADES

DESIGNER: Les George BLADE LENGTH: 3.5” BLADE STEEL: CTS-XHP stainless ROCKWELL HARDNESS: 58-60 HRC BLADE THICKNESS: .12” BLADE PATTERN: Drop point BLADE GRIND: Flat BLADE FINISH: Tumbled HANDLE: Choice of one-layer carbon

fiber/G-10 composite (shown) or green G-10 LOCK: Linerlock WEIGHT: 5.12 ozs. CLOSED LENGTH: 4.75” COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: Taiwan KNIFE TO KNOW: The knife is Spartan’s first folder collaboration with Les George and part of the company’s Bronze Grade Line, which means it is engineered by Spartan and manufactured in Taiwan; the Astor finished in a tie with the Fox Saturn for Imported Knife Of The Year MSRP: $135-$145 AVAILABLE: NOW

MOST INNOVATIVE AMERICAN DESIGN

MARILLA / CASE

KNIFE TYPE: Everyday carry flipper folder BLADE LENGTH: 3.4” BLADE STEEL: CPM S35VN stainless BLADE FINISH: Stonewashed satin BLADE PATTERN: Drop point HANDLE INLAY: Textured G-10 HANDLE FRAME: Anodized aluminum

with spine gimping POCKET CLIP: Yes LOCK: Framelock OPENING MECHANISM: Flipper PIVOT: Ball bearing WEIGHT: 3.6 ozs. CLOSED LENGTH: 4.75” COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: USA MSRP: $164.99 AVAILABLE: NOW

METAL-TECH / V NIVES

BLADE LENGTH: 3” BLADE STEEL: 440C stainless ROCKWELL HARDNESS: 58-60 HRC BLADE GRIND: No grinding; the blade is

metal injection molded (MIM) with a convex bevel HANDLE MATERIAL: Titanium POCKET CLIP: Blade tip up, ambidextrous OPENING MECHANISM: Flipper SPECIAL FEATURES: Since the knife is MIM, there is no laser cutting, double disking, grinding, etc. CLOSED LENGTH: 4” COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: USA MSRP: $99.95 AVAILABLE: January 2022

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[ FACTORY FINEST ]

2021 KITCHEN KNIFE OF THE YEAR®

2021

BEST BUY OF THE YEAR

KNIFE COLLABORATION OF THE YEAR®

2021 MANUFACTURING QUALITY AWARD

ELEMENTUM / WE KNIFE

BLADE LENGTH: 2.96” BLADE MATERIAL OPTIONS: D2 tool

steel, CPM S35VN stainless or damascus ROCKWELL HARDNESS: A range of 5861 HRC (depends on which of the three steels is indicated) BLADE GRIND: Hollow HANDLE MATERIAL OPTIONS: G-10, carbon fiber overlay on G-10, Micarta®, wood, copper or brass POCKET CLIP: Blade tip up, right-hand carry LOCK: Linerlock CLOSED LENGTH: 4.03” POUCH: Black nylon KNIFE TO KNOW: Pivot ball bearings enhance snappy flipping action; stylish linerlock and polished blade and handle corners COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: China MSRP: $59-$105 (depends on materials) AVAILABLE: NOW

[ 14 ]

MEDUSA / HERETIC KNIVES

MODEL NAME: Medusa KNIFE TO KNOW: The Manufacturing

Quality Award is for the company’s entire line of knives, not the Medusa itself; the Medusa is shown here to reflect the high quality of the Heretic line BLADE LENGTH: 3” BLADE STEEL: Bronzed-ball-bearing Vegas Forge damascus ROCKWELL HARDNESS: 56-58 HRC BLADE GRIND: 5” hollow HANDLE MATERIAL: Desert ironwood inlay POCKET CLIP: Titanium anodized bronze FITTINGS: Titanium backstrap anodized bronze, desert ironwood inlaid button OPENING MECHANISM: Coil-spring auto CLOSED LENGTH: 4.625” SPECIAL FEATURES: Custom magnetic latch box with nylon zipper pouch and handsigned certificate; bronzed screws COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: USA MSRP: $1,850 AVAILABLE: NOW

[ FACTORY FINEST ] ULTILINK / ULTICLIP

DESIGN: A rapid attachment, modular linking system that

allows for swift mounting, removal and remounting of MOLLE gear, sheaths, mag carriers and other items LOCK: Offers 12 angles of attachment for horizontal, vertical and diagonal carry; for quick removal, relocation and reattachment of your gear MATERIALS: Composite and stainless steel KNIFE TO KNOW: The accompanying image shows the Ultilink installed/in use on a knife and pack COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: USA MSRP: $23.99 AVAILABLE: NOW

2021 INVESTOR/COLLECTOR KNIFE OF THE YEAR®

MALIBU / PRO-TECH KNIVES

BLADE LENGTH: 3.25” BLADE STEEL: Chad Nichols mosaic

Mind Meld damascus ROCKWELL HARDNESS: 60 HRC BLADE GRIND: Flat BLADE PATTERN: Wharncliffe HANDLE MATERIAL: Mirror-polished

6Al4V titanium POCKET CLIP & BACKSPACER: 6Al4V titanium LOCK: Button lock OPENING MECHANISM: Flipper; blade

runs on bearings CLOSED LENGTH: 4.25” SPECIAL FEATURES: Extensively

engraved by Bruce Shaw in his deluxe leafy scroll with 18k gold, including the clip; presentation-grade black-lip mother-of-pearl inlays with matching inlay push button; custom wooden box with laser engraved lid/ certificate with all information MSRP: $12,000 AVAILABLE: NOW

2021 ACCESSORY OF THE YEAR

[ FACTORY FINEST ]

BRUCE VOYLES: BLADE MAGAZINE 2021 PUBLISHER’S AWARD here would be no BLADE Show if not for BLADE Magazine Cutlery Hall-Of-Fame® member Bruce Voyles. Hence, on this, the show’s 40th year, it seemed only natural to honor the man who was so instrumental in its being the most important annual event in the modern history of knives. It was Bruce and Cutlery Hall-OfFamer Jim Parker, then owners of BLADE® Magazine, who organized the first BLADE Show in 1982. Since there was no internet or social media back then, pre-show interest had to be generated by print advertising, mostly in BLADE, and by word of mouth. Nonetheless, held across the Ohio River from Cincinnati at the Drawbridge Motor Inn in Fort Mitchell, Kentucky, the event drew 7,000 attendees—by the standards of the day a huge amount of folks for one knife show. Bruce and Jim were visionary marketers of knives and venues in which to market them. They knew that to make the BLADE Show succeed, they had to make it the focal point of all things knives. One thing that set the BLADE Show apart even back then was it gathered all segments of the cutlery industry—factory, custom, antique, military, knife collections, etc.—under one roof. While the concept had been tried before, it had never continued in an annual fashion the way the BLADE Show was about to do it. Another way to make the show unique was to establish honors that would be the factory knife industry’s equivalent of the movie industry’s Academy Awards. The BLADE Magazine Knife-The-Year® Awards were the result, and they remain the most coveted factory knife honors to this day. Bruce and Jim also devised a way to memorialize the pioneers of the cutlery

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Bruce Voyles

industry: the BLADE Magazine Cutlery Hall Of Fame (page 52), with the latest members enshrined each year at the BLADE Show. Created for the 1983 event, it remains the industry standard. Jim and Bruce continued to grow the show, moving it to Knoxville, Tennessee, in 1984. In only its third year, with over 30 booths and almost 500 tables, it was vying for the title of the world’s largest knife show—if it wasn’t already. Bruce bought out Jim’s interest in both BLADE and the BLADE Show in 1986, and moved the show to today’s Renaissance Atlanta Waverly in 1992. Bruce sold the show and the magazine to Krause Publications in 1994, and the event moved to the adjoining Cobb Galleria Centre in 1997, eventually evolving into the monster it is today (page 22) under the ownership of Caribou Media Group LLC. Jim passed away in 2004 but Bruce remains active in the knife industry as an auctioneer, show coordinator and author, among others. Through it all, he remains the original face of the BLADE Show—and winner of the BLADE Magazine 2021 Publisher’s Award.

he backbone of any industry that depends on retail sales is built by those who sell the industry’s products, and when it comes to selling knives and accessories for the knife industry, few have done it as long or as well as the folks at Willey Knives. Founded by Gerald Willey in 1970 in a room attached to his garage in rural Greenwood, Delaware, Willey Knives has evolved into one of the most successful independent mom-and-pop cutlery stores. It is a family business, with Gerald’s wife, Sylvia*, daughter, Geri Elliot, and son, Matt, each contributing to the operation. In 1975, the Willeys built a house, and Gerald designed the basement to serve as a new store. It has been home of Willey Knives ever since. Gerald and family have spent the past half-century building relationships throughout the knife industry with such companies as Buck, CRKT, Case, Spyderco, Victorinox and many more. Inventory includes sporting and other knives, scissors, kitchen gadgets, knife blocks, cutting boards, sharpening supplies, flashlights, etc. Sylvia helps with accounts receivable and payable. Geri manages the store, does most of the purchasing and delivers knives and accessories to the store’s restaurant clients. Matt runs the shop’s sharpening

WILLEY KNIVES: BLADE

MAGAZINE 2021 INDUSTRY ACHIEVEMENT AWARD

at times, but it is also nice to be able to walk into a store and handle the knives you are interested in, and also know that someone is able to talk to you about the different steels and mechanisms.” The original plan was to present Willey Knives the Industry Achievement Award at BLADE Show 2020 on the store’s 50th anniversary. However, that plan was scrapped when the 2020 show was canceled. Better one year late than never, though! Congratulations to the entire Willey family on an honor much deserved, no matter how long delayed. *Editor’s note: At press time BLADE® learned that Sylvia Willey passed away on June 9 after a long illness. We extend our deepest sympathies to the Willey family for their loss and our wishes that Mrs. Willey rest in peace.

Gerald Willey

ALL NEW

SIG K320

MANUFACTURED BY

HOGUEKNIVES.COM // 1.800.438.4747 P.O. BOX, 91360 HENDERSON, NV 89009 USA

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I thought it was interesting that the last two knives I bought were polar opposites of each other. The Al Mar Knives Quicksilver Ultralight Flipper sports a 5-inch D2 blade and weighs 3.7 ounces. The Nitecore NTK Titanium Folding Scalpel Keychain Knife uses a #11 replaceable scalpel blade and weighs a whopping .0169 ounce! I’ve looked at a lot of different keychain knives and this definitely fits my needs the best. I also like the fact that the replacement blades are just six cents each. Beats the heck out of sharpening!” Joel Berry, Houston, Texas I carry a Spyderco Native 5 in the dark blue FRN handle. The CPM S110V stainless steel blade holds a heck of an edge and the blue is a nice change from the ubiquitous—like that word?—black.” Samuel T. Smithers Jr., a letter via e-mail

I carry my Utica Bear Eater I on a regular basis. I love the curves— symmetrical handle, recurve blade and such. There’s not a straight line on this cutter. It’s a user.” Johnny Mason, a letter via e-mail

Tell us what knife you carry. Add a little history or an anecdote. Try to include a photograph—if digital, at least 600 KB but no larger than 2 MB—of you with your knife. We will publish your comments in an upcoming “The Knife I Carry.” Your name will then be entered in a drawing to win a free, high-quality, name-brand knife. The drawing will ® be November 15. Mail to: BLADE , 5600 W. Grande Market Dr., Ste. 100, Appleton, WI 54913, or e-mail steve@blademag.com. If you send your entry by e-mail, please include your physical mailing address in case you win the knife.

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2021

[ SHOW TIME! ]

BY BLADE® STAFF

Shane Taylor’s 17.5-inch Fire Bowie in a three-bar mosaic damascus blade that includes a central piece of ﬁre mosaic damascus caught the eye of those visiting his table. (Caleb Royer image) Demko Knives introduced the Ad-20.5 Shark-Lock and its new patented Shark-Lock. (Demko image)

BLADE Show patrons turned out in force and were there to buy knives. (Whetstone Studio image)

[ 22 ]

BLADE Show’s return from a pandemic-forced hiatus was several cuts above he signature line of the song “Back Home Again” by John Denver is, “Hey, it’s good to be back home again.” While no one would ever mistake knifemaker Luke Swenson in his long, wavy Eric the Red beard for Denver, the card-carrying member of the South Texas Cartel seemed to capture the sentiments of many when he observed the same of BLADE Show 2021 June 3-5 at the Cobb Galleria Centre in Atlanta. “It was so nice to be back ‘home’ again,” noted the winner of the show’s first-ever Tony Bose Best Slip Joint Award (page 30). “The people there were excited to be back, too, and that got all the knifemakers fired up.” “It was great seeing other makers and friends after a two-year absence,” echoed knifemaker Charles Gedraitis. “Just being able to talk about knives in person was great. Many had spent their time in quarantine continuing to build knives and improve their work, which was apparent in the quality of the knives at the show.” “The knife industry, like all other manufacturing markets, has been greatly impacted by COVID and I think we have all been in our own foxhole of sorts,” Shane Adams of ESEE Knives observed. “It was great to come out of isolation and get the sense of a return to the old normal—and be done with the ‘new normal’ we’ve been hearing about for the last 14 months.” Following the two-year wait for the BLADE Show after last year’s event was canceled due to the pandemic, patrons were primed and ready to prowl the aisles of their favorite show to buy knives—and buy knives they did, in some cases in mass quantities. Gedraitis brought 14 knives and sold them all by Friday afternoon. He credited his success to a lot of self-promotion and the show story on the BLADE Instagram page featuring many of his posts. Other makers reported similar success. Swenson sold the 10 knives he brought, and both Mauricio Daletzky and Erik McCright sold the nine knives each of them had for display. David R. Davis brought 27 knives and sold them all—to one collector! Many factory knife exhibitors did well,

Smiling faces were the order of the day, including those of Steven and Liz Koster. (Whetstone Studio image)

“I HAVE TO SAY THAT THIS WAS THE SINGLE BEST BLADE SHOW FOR US.”—CURTIS IOVITO

Travis Wuertz treats BLADE University students to the ﬁner art of blade grinding in The Courtyard under the BLADE U. tent.

[ 23 ]

[ SHOW TIME! ]

Some claim knifemaker Les George “ain’t right.” We prefer to think of him as an excitable boy. The cause of his delight? A serial no. 1 (inset) Combat Smatchet Bill Harsey hand ground back in the day for BLADE Magazine Cutlery Hall-Of-Fame® member Col. Rex Applegate. (Les George images)

too. “We brought a lot of knives and sold most of them,” wrote Matt Cammenga of White River Knife & Tool. Curtis Iovito of Spartan Blades, who met a promising designer and engineer at the show he plans on working with in the future, was extremely pleased with his booth sales. “We brought double the knives we normally bring and were almost sold out of folders on the first day,” he exclaimed. “I have to say that this was the single best BLADE Show for us.” Like Gedraitis, Iovito also credited BLADE’s stronger social media presence for the outstanding turnout. “I know seeing the efforts coming from BLADE social media made me want to tag the show more in our social media,” he wrote, “and I did.” Though pre-show ticket sales outpaced those of the last show in 2019, no one really knew for sure how the proceedings would be received beforehand. For one thing, travel bans were still in place

“IT WAS GREAT TO COME OUT OF ISOLATION AND GET THE SENSE OF A RETURN TO THE OLD NORMAL.” —SHANE ADAMS

Blade HQ conducted the 5th Annual Battle for Bali Champion under the BLADE University tent, with Joff Durr/@ihatejoff (right) taking ﬁrst place. From left: Lawrence Ho of BRS, Jackson Wood/@dubmoblade (third place) and Jared Gill/@clockworkslips (second place).

for Europe, South Africa, Australia, Brazil, Japan and others, so the many great makers and knife buyers from those areas could not attend. And while attendance may have been down a hair—despite that, show officials estimate 20,000 people streamed through the doors all three days—those who attended seemed tickled pink to be there. What’s more important, many of them were there to buy. “The show was good but definitely had a different feel,” Gedraitis opined. “There were no international buyers or makers, which changed the show feel as well,” Iovito agreed. “It did have a different vibe to it without some of our international folks there. We always love meeting the folks

[ 24 ]

Collection display winners were, from left: Gene Merritt, Judges Award; Larry Oden, Best in Show; Tim Lindsey Judges Award; and Sarah Lindsey, Youth Award.

from Italy, Germany and Taiwan.” That being said, the lack of internationals did not deter buying—at least for Spartan. “We sold more knives on day one than we did the whole of the last BLADE Show,” Curtis noted. “We have seen a lot of growth over the last year and it was also reflected at the show.”

NEW STUFF The cavalcade of new knives, accessories, knifemaking supplies and equipment and much more on display was staggering. There were also two significant changes for this year’s event—both revolving around the BLADE Magazine Awards Presentation on Saturday night. In the past the event recognized the BLADE Magazine Knife-Of-The-Year® Awards (page 12) and the new inductees into the BLADE Magazine Cutlery Hall Of Fame®, required tickets and was held

[ 26 ]

Michael Janich (middle, behind booth) and Joyce Laituri (in red, also behind booth) help serve Spyderco fans at the company booth on show Saturday.

[ SHOW TIME! ] Sarah Lindsey won her first-ever BLADE Show Youth Award for “Buck Custom Character Knives Incredible!’

NEXT YEAR BLADE Show 2022 will return to the Cobb Galleria Centre June 3-5. Since chances seem good the travel bans due to the pandemic will be lifted by then, the international cutlery community should return, so exhibitor tables and booths and hotel rooms in general will be at a premium. As a result, if you’re coming, plan now for what is shaping up to be “Back

Home Again: The Sequel.” For the contact information for the knives in the story, see “Where To Get ’Em” on page 45. For the latest knives, knife news, trends, and more, visit blademag.com, BLADE®’s popular Instagram page @blade_magazine, and on Facebook and Twitter.

Lin Rhea has his hands full during his BLADE University class, “How To Make The X-Rhea Knife.”

in a ballroom. In 2019 the ceremony was moved to the open area of the mezzanine level of the show’s host hotel, the Renaissance Waverly, in an attempt to open it up to more attendees. Tickets were still required. This year the presentation was moved to The Pit, the sunken lounge on the hotel’s first floor, with no tickets required. Plus, it was expanded to include the winners from the BLADE Show custom knife judging competition (page 30). From all reports the change met with the general approval of many, with the winners being roundly cheered and heartily congratulated by friends, family and others in and around The Pit. As for the Cutlery Hall Of Fame ceremony (page 52), it was moved to a ballroom the Saturday morning of the show, with tickets required. It seemed to go off largely without a hitch as well. The free seminars—including the 5th Annual Battle for Bali Champion sponsored by Blade HQ, the BladeSports International cutting demo and more—and BLADE University classes especially reported excellent attendance. Meanwhile, the show honored its best knife displays with four awards. Larry Oden took home Best of Show for “Buck Factory Production Knives of the 1960s.” Judges awards went to Gene Merritt for “In The Beginning: Buck Yellowhorse Knives” and Tim Lindsey for “Vern Taylor Founder of the Buck Collectors Club.” Last but not least,

[ 28 ]

Jason Knight (left) kept ‘em smiling during his BLADE University class, “Why Would You Forge?”

Old blade buds David Mirabile (left, with one of his custom katanas) and Matt Diskin (right) hold court at the Diskin USA booth.

[ SHOW AWARDS ]

BY STEVE SHACKLEFORD

Check out the winners and why they won

he winning knives in the custom knife judging competition of the 40th BLADE Show are a sharp and shiny lot, and the judges who selected them came away duly impressed. Trying an approach new for this year, we recorded the judges’ comments on why the winners won. The thinking was such information would be invaluable not only for BLADE® readers but for knifemakers in general. We think you will agree. New for 2021 was the Tony Bose Best Slip Joint Award, named in honor of the great BLADE Magazine Cutlery HallOf-Fame® maker who passed away in November 2020. In keeping with Tony’s search for excellence, the BLADE Show

[ 30 ]

picked four outstanding judges of knifemaking talent—ABS master smiths Harvey Dean, Mike Quesenberry and Jim Rodebaugh, and long-time custom knife purveyor Les Robertson—to rate the show’s best of the best. Following are the winners and the judges’ rationale for picking them.

7 of THE BEST ABS master smith Josh Fisher won Best Fighter for a symmetrical fixed blade in mosaic damascus and desert ironwood. Harvey and Mike praised the knife for

Best Fighter went to Josh Fisher (inset) for his fixed blade in an 8-inch blade of a mosaic damascus of 1084 carbon and 15N20 nickel alloy steels, with matching fittings. Grind: flat. Overall length: 13 inches. The maker’s price for a similar knife: $1,750.

its fundamental yet accurate design and the execution of same. “If you look at the shoulder grinds, they’re each where they’re supposed to be,” Harvey began. “Most of the time I don’t like the guard lower on the bottom or the top, but on this particular knife it works just fine.” Viewing the knife from the handle butt to the blade tip, he said both the bottom and top of the guard match up perfectly with the tip. “Everything is in line,” he noted, “and the knife feels right in either hand.” Mike commented on the knife’s near absence of flaws. “There’s not a lot of fluff on this knife,” he observed. “It’s a fighter and there’s nowhere to hide mistakes.” Agreed Harvey, “If there’s something wrong, you can see it immediately.” To a man, the judges found little if anything amiss on the Best Fighter winner. Like Fisher, Javier Vogt returned to the winner’s circle, with the friendly Argentine earning the Best Folder Award for the Guard Release Automatic Dao. Mike was effusive in his praise. “I don’t recall ever seeing anything like this in this style before,” he said. “What I think is really cool is the way he’s done his handleto-blade ratio.” Jim had one word for it: proportionate. “Yes,” Mike agreed, “it’s a beautifully proportioned knife.” In addition to the knife’s flawlessly smooth action, Mike and Jim were impressed by the special features and surface feel. “It has little accents all over, little textures—there’s a texture here and a different texture there—it has shine, it has satin, filework, it’s a beautiful piece,” Mike opined. Rodebaugh even praised the texture of the heavily etched blade. Princeton Wong won Best New Maker honors for his Fíon flipper folder, the knife at top on the cover (page 7). “He utilized difficult materials to work with,” Les said. “You’ve got zirconium and Black Timascus™, and he’s inlaid the Black Timascus into the pivot area. One of the best things I like about it is, you lift one end of the handle up and it’s got a corkscrew, which, given today how many people are into drinking wine, is a neat feature. It’s slender, light and smooth opening.” Quipped observer Phil Gibbs of A.G. Russell Knives, “I call it the tactical sommelier.” Mauricio Daletzky’s Creole presentation piece won Best Art Knife. Harvey

[ 31 ]

[ SHOW AWARDS ]

“ANOTHER THING I LOOK FOR IS TO SEE ANY MARKS RUNNING LONG WAYS WHERE THE BLADES HIT THE INSIDE OF THE SPRINGS.” —HARVEY DEAN

said it is reminiscent of the knives of the outstanding 19th-century bowie maker Samuel Bell. The fluted handle impressed Jim and Mike in particular. “It has a straight, regular flute, then a beaded flute,” Jim observed. Added Mike, “It’s like a backwards flute. I don’t know how else to describe it.” Concluded Jim, “It’s super hard to do. It’s like a stepped flute, almost.” The silver wire inlay astonished the two judges as well. “Smokin’” was Mike’s description. Interjected Jim, “This wire inlay is superb. The way he flowed it in from the fluting into the handle is textbook and the way it should be. That’s how I learned to do it from Tim Hancock.” The sheath also came in for plaudits. “He had to mill it out of a solid piece,” Jim observed. “To set up the billet to do it correctly, just to do that is another part of the process to make that sheath.” Added Harvey, “It’s just cool that he took the time to do all that.”

Best Art Knife is the Creole presentation piece by Mauricio Daletzky (inset). The 6.4-inch blade is a ladder-pattern damascus of 1070 carbon and 15N20 nickel alloy steels. The handle is ebony, silver and feather-pattern damascus. Overall length: 12.2 inches. The maker’s price for a similar knife: $3,800.

Ilya Alekseyev (inset) won Best Sword for The Heretic. The blade is forged in an elaborate mosaic damascus pattern employing panels, twisted bars and a wrapped edge. Materials include reﬁned meteorite and U16, 15N20 and 80CrV steels. The handle is a wood core with a wire wrap of brass and silver wire. The handle’s ﬁne silver sleeve is executed in a chasing and repousse technique, and is inlaid with 24k gold and rubies. Overall length: 47 inches. The maker’s price for a similar sword: $25,000.

[ 32 ]

17th-CENTURY AURA The Heretic, Ilya Alekseyev’s Best Sword winner, had the judges agog over the damascus. According to the maker, “the blade is executed in a mosaic damascus pattern employing panels, twisted bars and a wrapped edge. The overall technique is borrowed from 17th-century damascus barrel makers.” “There are so many different patterns, there’s mosaics, there’s W’s with mosaics,

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[ SHOW AWARDS ]

“THE LOCKUP IS WHERE IT SHOULD BE—NOT TOO EARLY, NOT TOO LATE.”—LES ROBERTSON

I don’t know how many different bars he has in this,” Mike said. “Do you see all the different billets he has in this? I see more as I continue to look at it.” “It looks period. Who’s making swords like that today?” Jim waxed rhetorical. “At first I thought it’s just too gawdy and it’s going to be too heavy, but it’s not.” Concluded Harvey, “And it feels good, too. It’s just incredible work.” Brian Brown celebrated his first-ever BLADE Show as a table exhibitor by taking home Best Tactical Folder for his Mini Warthog in CTS-XHP stainless blade steel, and a titanium handle with DinoHide carving and an “Oil Slick Zirconium” pocket clip. Les was duly impressed and said the knife rang all the right chimes. “It’s got a nice texture, a titanium frame, and a thumb ramp or gimping,” he delineated. “I like the opener. It’s easy to get your thumb into and the knife is easy to open with one hand. It’s got a nice clip and fits in your pocket well. The lockup is where it should be—not too early, not too late. It’s a nice knife.” Capturing the first-ever Tony Bose Best Slip Joint Award was Luke Swenson with his sowbelly split-back whittler. The award had to be especially sweet for

[ 34 ]

Princeton Wong (inset) won Best New Maker for his Fíon ﬂipper folder (page 7). The 3.28-inch blade is Damacore Hugin steel. Backspacer: zirconium. Pivot collar and rear overlay: Black Timascus™. The corkscrew springs from a tension bar cut into the titanium liners, and the lever-bolster is cut from a single piece to wrap around it like an integral frame. Closed length: 4.6 inches. The maker’s price for a similar knife: $3,200.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- S E P T E M B E R 2 0 2 1

“DO YOU SEE ALL THE DIFFERENT BILLETS HE HAS IN THIS? I SEE MORE AS I CONTINUE TO LOOK AT IT.”—MIKE QUESENBERRY Luke as his mentor, Bill Ruple, was also entered in the competition. “When I look at a slip joint, I look at the back of it to see if there are any gaps” in the backsprings, Harvey said. “This one does have a little gap but that’s because it’s a split-spring whittler and you’re going to have a gap there, there’s no way to keep from it. The action on it is tight enough but not overtight; it’s not hard to open; it closes good; it ‘walks and talks’; and all the blades are shaped properly. “The other thing is, when you put slip joints together, you’ve got to make sure the blades clear each other [when opening and closing], and he’s done all that properly, too. And when you look down inside the knife, it’s very nice and finished, and all of his half stops work well. Another thing I look for is to see any marks running long ways where the blades hit the inside of the springs. If you really look, you’ll see a lot of folders with that in them. That’s a bad deal. Luke hit it all right.” Next time, in the conclusion: The balance of the BLADE Show custom knife winners: Best Bowie, Most Innovative Design, Best Damascus, Best Fixed Blade, Best of the Rest, Best Utility Hunter, Best Kitchen Knife and Best of Show. For the contact information for the knifemakers in the story, see “Where To Get ’Em” on page 45. For the latest knives, knife news, trends, and more, visit blademag.com, BLADE®’s popular Instagram page @blade_magazine, and on Facebook and Twitter.

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[ 9/11 ]

BY MIKE HASKEW BLADE® FIELD EDITOR

20 Years After

The atrocity that shocked the world continues to transform it—and knives, too

t began as an ordinary Tuesday. It ended with the world changed forever. The atrocity of the terrorist attacks at 8:45 a.m. EDT on Sept. 11, 2001, will never be forgotten. Now, 20 years after planes crashed into the World Trade Center in New York, the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., and a field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, retrospect brings not only memories of sadness and profound loss, but also acknowledgment of the heroism of 9-11 and the humanity that emerged. A measure of that humanity took the form of custom knives made from the twisted and scarred steel of the World Trade Center (WTC) buildings—forged once in the conflagration of that terrible day and then again in tribute to lives lost, and for the benefit of those who miss them and live on. Ladder Company 131 (L131) and Engine Company 279 (E279) of the New York City Fire Department (FDNY) were housed in the Red Hook section of Brooklyn on 9-11. Keith Kaiser was a member of L131. Moved later to enlist the support of several custom makers to produce knives with blades made from WTC steel, Keith remembers the horrific day vividly.

The knives in Keith Kaiser’s 9/11 memorial project, from top: a skeletonized folder by Pat and Wes Crawford; an Allen Elishewitz folder; a Gil Hibben dagger with scrimshaw handle; a Bob Dozier damascus folder; a Bob Terzuola CQB ﬁxed blade; a damascus folder by Mel Pardue; and a Jerry Fisk damascus Sendero. (Eric Eggly/PointSeven image)

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“KEITH PRESENTED THE IDEA TO US AND OFFERED TO SUPPLY A PIECE OF STEEL FROM THE WRECKAGE OF THE FALLEN TOWERS TO EACH KNIFEMAKER.”— BOB TERZUOLA

Keith Kaiser (right) was in Ladder Company 131 of the New York City Fire Department that reported to the World Trade Center on 9/11. In 2003 he enlisted several leading makers to produce knives with blades made from WTC steel. Those makers, with the exception of Mel Pardue, from left are: Bob Terzuola, Bob Dozier, Allen Elishewitz, Gil Hibben, and Pat and Wes Crawford. (Eric Eggly/PointSeven image)

“Oddly enough, my getting injured probably saved my life because I was not able to dig in the pile subsequently,” he said. “I was looking for something to occupy my mind and time, and one of the men lost from my company, Christian Regenhard, was a knife collector. I thought I would try to get my hands on some steel and get knives made out of it for charity and to

“Because of the proximity to lower Manhattan, both companies started to gear up,” he recalled. “As we were approaching the tunnel into lower Manhattan, we saw the second plane hit the south tower. The engine company went into the buildings first, and the ladder company soon followed. L131 was in the lobby of the hotel on the ground floor of the south tower when it fell. We breached a wall and got out a group of civilians before we realized what was going on. The engine company was never found.” Five members of E279 were killed, and the FDNY lost 343 firefighters in all. Since then, according to Kaiser, nearly as many have died from 9-11-related cancer and other illnesses. His older brother, Wayne Kaiser, an electrician who worked to restore communications in the wake of the terrorist attack, recently died of illness due to extended exposure to toxic dust and debris. Keith was seriously injured on 9-11. Right: Members of Ladder Company 131 (L131) and Engine Company 279 (E279) of the New York City Fire Department (FDNY) gather outside their firehouse in Red Hook, Brooklyn. Five members of E279 were killed and the FDNY lost 343 firefighters in all during the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Since then, according to Keith Kaiser (arrow), nearly as many have died from 9-11 related cancer and other illnesses. S E P T E M B E R 2 0 2 1 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- B L A D E

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[ 9/11 ]

“L131 WAS IN THE LOBBY OF THE HOTEL ON THE GROUND FLOOR OF THE SOUTH TOWER WHEN IT FELL.”—KEITH KAISER

Murray Carter holds the last two knives he made of WTC steel as part of a special fundraising project that included FDNY343 (fdny343.org) and Building Homes For Heroes (buildinghomesforheroes.org). (Murray Carter image)

keep me involved.” Early efforts to get the project started were difficult, but Kaiser persisted. Eventually, he contacted several of the biggest names in custom knives and secured

their commitment to contribute to a benefit for the New York Firefighters Burn Center Foundation. Bob Terzuola, Bob Dozier, Jerry Fisk, Pat and Wes Crawford, Allen Elishewitz, and BLADE Magazine Cutlery Hall-Of-Fame® members Gil Hibben and Mel Pardue made one knife each with blades incorporating steel from the fallen twin towers (page 90, August 2003 BLADE®). “It was planned with the help of Christian’s father, who was a New York City police detective,” Terzuola said. “Seven knifemakers, including myself, volunteered their time and materials. Keith presented the idea to us and offered to supply a piece of steel from the wreckage of the fallen towers to each knifemaker, from which they could make a knife of their choosing.” The knives included signature works: a Dozier damascus folder; an Elishewitz folder; a CQB from Terzuola; a Hibben dagger with scrimshaw handle; a skel-

etonized folder from the Crawfords; a damascus folder from Pardue; and a damascus stag Sendero hunter from Fisk. The task brought the added challenge of making the Trade Center steel usable for knife blades. “It was low carbon structural steel,” Dozier related, “and I asked Daryl Meier to make damascus for me. At the first show after 9-11, Keith brought some steel to me and wanted me to make a knife with it. I wouldn’t take it. A friend of mine who was a state police investigator here in Arkansas said to leave it alone because it was evidence. Then about a month later, a big cardboard box came in the mail and there was the steel. I cut it into pieces and Daryl made some ladderpattern damascus.”

Ryan Johnson was just starting up his RMJ Tactical when 9-11 shook the world. The U.S. military was looking for something that would punch through body armor and the RMJ Eagle Talon hawk, featured on the cover of the March 2002 BLADE® (inset), ﬁlled the bill. RMJ Tactical took off and is one of today’s leading hawk makers with such models as the Shrike (left).

[ 40 ]

[ COLLECTING CUSTOMS ] Once the knives were gathered, they became tangible remembrances. “They were placed in a beautiful cocobolo box with a beveled glass top that was etched with the World Trade Center,” Terzuola commented. “The idea then was to put them up for auction for the benefit of the burn center. Keith sent them around to various museums prior to the auction, and after several years they almost became permanent exhibits in some places.” Keith reached out again to Terzuola, who helped arrange an auction, and the set sold in June 2020 with the proceeds benefiting the hospital. “Keith sent me the knives, and I cleaned them up and got hold of Rock Island Auction in Illinois, one of the top auction houses for knives and firearms,” Bob states. “They did a beautiful two-page spread in their catalog and after the auction sent a check directly to the burn center.”

FIRE and STEEL Like so many others, the atrocity of 9-11 touched custom knifemaker Murray Carter significantly. He was asked to partner with FDNY343, an organization of retired New York firefighters dedicated to keeping the memory of those lost on 9-11 alive, and Building Homes for Heroes, a charitable enterprise that provides homes for those injured while serving their country and in the 9-11 attacks. Carter has produced several kitchen and outdoor knives, each incorporating a laminate of Trade Center steel with a 1084 carbon steel core (page 12, October 2019 BLADE®). The motivation to produce the knives was strong, and Murray notes that the components of fire, water and stone were present both in the 9-11 incidents and the making of the knives. He reasons that fire enabled the forge, water quenched the blades and stone honed them into tools. Conversely, fire brought the towers down, water hampered rescue efforts, and lives were lost in the crush of stone. “So, the same elements are here in the knives, and they bless people daily,” Murray explained. “When iron is red hot, that’s how we get steel, and some of the victims were burned, the elements fused in a chemical trade. The depth of the fusion was dependent on time and it was brief. So, I didn’t want to do much grinding in order to leave these elements in the surface of the steel.”

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[ 9/11 ] The seven knives from Keith Kaiser’s 9/11 memorial project were placed in a beautiful cocobolo box with a beveled glass top etched with the World Trade Center. (Eric Eggly/PointSeven images)

One of Carter’s kitchen knives was auctioned for $10,500 and the proceeds were given directly to Homes for Heroes. He calls the effort, concluded in the spring and autumn of 2017, an honor and one of the most humbling tasks of his long knifemaking career.

LIGHTNING SPIKES Ryan Johnson was just starting up his Chattanooga, Tennessee-based RMJ Tactical when 9-11 shook the world. He had always been interested in tomahawks, and was making pipe and spike hawks before that desperate day. Then, things changed quickly. “I had made a spike hawk and a gentleman saw one of them on my website,” Ryan remembered. “He was with Air Force security forces and said, ‘We’ve got some guys securing air strips, and we’re looking for something that will punch through body armor.’ He said my Frenchand-Indian-War-style hawk looked perfect for the job.” The first shipment of five spike hawks had just gone out before 9-11. “The same guy called me up and he was already in the Gulf,” Ryan said. “He said to get busy making these things because they would be big.” Like lightning, the demand for hawks soared—not only with the catalyst of 9-11, but also with the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that followed. “I received a call from a gentleman working as an at-

[ 42 ]

Here are the beginning (bottom level), middle (mid-level bar of steel) and end products (top level) Murray Carter used to forge weld World Trade Center iron into a usable blade with a 1084 core. The blade is water-quenched for maximum sharpness and edge retention, and the blade surface still retains the soul-infused character of the WTC steel. (Murray Carter image)

The three-layer blade of a Carter Cutlery chef’s knife is forged from WTC steel and 1084 carbon steel for the core. The ironwood handle has a brass bolster. Above the knife is a portion of the raw material from which the blade was forged. (Murray Carter image)

[ COLLECTING CUSTOMS ] taché to Donald Rumsfeld [Secretary of Defense] and made him a hawk. He sent me a picture back of him in his office at the Pentagon with a letter that said when the planes hit the towers, all the brass in the Pentagon were out in the hallway in front of his office passing that hawk around. A few moments later, a plane hit the Pentagon. Just before that happened, an admiral had walked by and said, ‘This war will be fought by hawks at the ends of the hands of soldiers.’” A short time later, a story on Ryan’s hawks appeared in the Chattanooga newspaper and was picked up by the Associated Press, ultimately appearing in countless media outlets. “The article was on making hawks for the military,” Johnson recalled, “and before long Green Beret units were getting in touch with me and asking why they weren’t getting

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A twisted piece of steel salvaged from the World Trade Center after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. (image courtesy of Bob Terzuola) S E P T E M B E R 2 0 2 1 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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[ 9/11 ] hawks. When you look back at the early days of the wars, Task Force Dagger included the first 300 special forces and others into Afghanistan. We had hawks going in with them.” Orders kept coming, and civilian deliveries were postponed to fill the demand from the military as RMJ Tactical got started. Twenty-five Eagle Talon hawks went to Marines in the town of Najaf, Iraq, just before the battle for control of the city of Fallujah. “I got a phone call concerning those 25 hawks,” commented Ryan, “and it was from the wife of a Marine officer. She said there was a plane leaving that night with room aboard for the shipment if we could get it ready. I called my friend Richard Carmack and knew his kids might have the time to help wrap the handles if I could provide the pizza and a movie. Now, Richard makes sure things run right here, his son Jonathan is our production manager and I’m still working in design.”

THIN BLUE LINE The atrocity of 9-11 and the lengthy conflicts that emanated from it continue to echo through the lives of every American. Remembrance is tinged with vigilance and the pledge to never forget the sacrifices of those lost. Though nothing is for sure at this time, there may yet be other knives produced with the venerated World Trade Center steel. Terzuola still has a small amount of the steel but probably not enough for another knife blade. He is considering a knife with Trade Center steel bolsters and G.L. Hansen Micarta® that includes a thin blue line in its composition. Proceeds from the sale of such a knife would go to benefit a law enforcement officers relief fund. For the contact information for the knifemakers in the story, see “Where To Get ’Em” on page 45. For the latest knives, knife news, trends, and more, visit blademag.com, BLADE®’s popular Instagram page @blade_magazine, and on Facebook and Twitter.

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WHERE TO GET ’EM KNIVES OF THE YEAR P. 12 Benchmade USA, attn.: Matt Glass, Dept. BL9, 300 Beavercreek Rd., Oregon City, OR 97045 503.655.6004 or 800-800-7427 www.benchmade.com, info@benchmade.com; Case, attn: F. Feightner, Dept. BL9, 50 Owens Way, Bradford, PA 16701 800-523-6350 CR@caseknives.com, Fox Cutlery, attn.: Massimo Centazzo, Dept. BL9, Oreste Frati SRL, Via La Mola, 4, 33085 Maniago (PN), Italy 39-0427-730376 foxcutlery.com, fkmdknives.com and/or duecignicutlery.it; Heretic Knives, Dept. BL9, Palm Bay, FL 772-918-4065 Anthony@hereticknives.com, hereticknives. com; Maserin, c/o Coltellerie Maserin SNC, attn.: Claudia Maserin, Dept. BL9, Via Dei Fabbri n.19, 33085 Maniago (PN)—Italy, Tel. 39 062771335 claudia@maserin.com, maserin.com, facebook. com/coltelleriemaserin; Pro-Tech Knives, attn: D. Wattenberg, Dept. BL9, 17115 Alburtis Ave., Artesia, CA 90701-2616 562-860-0678 protechknives.com, service@protechknives.com; Spartan Blades, attn: C. Iovito, Dept. BL9, 625 S.E. Service Rd., Southern Pines, NC 28387 910757-0035, contact@spartanblades.com, www.spartanbladesusa.com; Ulticlip, https://ulticlip. com/; V Nives, attn.: M. Vellekamp, Dept. BL9, 9918 162nd St., Ct. E., Ste. 4, Puyallup, WA 98375 303-263-2468 https://vnives.com, info@vnives.com mvellekamp@gmail.com; We Knife, attn.: Angel or Joe, Dept. BL9, Yangdong, Yangjiang, Guangdong, 529500, China 86 662 6624678 weknife.com, sales@weknife.com

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BACK HOME AGAIN P. 22 Demko Knives, demkoknives.com; Steve Koster, 16261 Gentry Ln, Huntington Beach, CA 92647 Contact: 714-907-7250, kosterknives@verizon.net kosterhandforgedknives.com, kosterhandforgedknives.com; David Mirabile, Dept. BL9, PO BOX 20417, Juneau, AK 99802 Contact: 907-321-1103, dmirabile02@gmail. com, mirabileknives.com; Shane Taylor, Dept. BL9, 42 Broken Bow Ln, Miles City, MT 59301 Contact: 406-234-7175, shane@ taylorknives.com, taylorknives.com

CUSTOM KINGS P. 30 Ilya Alekseyev, Instagram @slavicsmith; Brian Brown, brianbrownknives.com; Mauricio Davetzky, mauriciodaletzky.com.ar; Josh Fisher, Dept. BL9, 8419 CR 3615, Murchison, TX 75778 Contact: 903-203-2130, ﬁsherknives@aol.com, jnﬁsherknives.com; Luke Swenson, Dept. BL9, 1667 Brushy Creek Dr., Lakehills, TX 78063 Contact: 210-722- 3227, luke@swensonknives.com, swensonknives.com; Javier Vogt, vogtknives.blogspot.com; Princeton Wong, princecustoms. com

9/11 P. 38 Murray Carter, Dept. BL9, 2038 N.E. Aloclek Dr. #225, Hillsboro, OR 97124 Contact: 503-4661331, murray@ cartercutlery.com, cartercutlery.com; Pat and West Crawford, Dept. BL9, 205 N. Center, West Memphis, AR 72301 Contact: 870-732-2452, patcrawford1@ earthlink.com, ccrawfordknives.com; Bob Dozier, Dept. BL9, PO Box 1941, Springdale, AR 72765 dozierknives. com; Allen Elishewitz, Dept. BL9, 1659 W State Highway 46, Suite 115 #610, New Braunfels, TX 78132 Contact: 830- 885-3099, allen@elishewitzknives.com, elishewitzknives.com; Jerry Fisk, Dept. BL9, 10095 Hwy 278 W, Nashville, AR 71852 Contact: 870-845-4456, jerry@jerryﬁsk. com, jerryﬁsk.com; Gil Hibben, Dept. BL9, PO Box 13, LaGrange, KY 40031 Contact: 502-2221397, (fax) 502-222-2676, gil@ hibbenknives.com hibbenknives.com; RMJ Tactical, Dept. BL9, attn: Ryan Johnson, 3100 N. Hawthorne St., Chattanooga, TN 37406 866-779-6922 423-7564300 contact@rmjtactical.com, www.rmjtactical.com; Mel Pardue, Dept. BL9, 4461 Jerkins Rd., Repton, AL 36475 Contact: 251-248-2686, mpardue@frontiernet. net, pardueknives.com; Bob Terzuola, https://www.terzuola.net/terzuola-custom-knives

THWACK ATTACK! P. 46 Boker USA, attn: N. Nevins, Dept. BL9, 1550 Balsam St., Lakewood, CO 80214 800-835-6433 fax 303-586-6022 sales@bokerusa.com, www.bokerusa.com; Heretic Knives, Dept. BL9, Palm Bay, FL 772-918-4065 Anthony@hereticknives.com; Microtech, attn.: A.L. Marﬁone, Dept. BL9, 15A National Ave., Fletcher, NC 28732 828-684-4355 fax 828-684-4354 microtechknives.com, marketing@microtechknives.com; Pro-Tech Knives, attn: D. Wattenberg, Dept. BL9, 17115 Alburtis Ave., Artesia, CA 90701-2616 562-860-0678 protechknives.com, service@protechknives.com

FACTORY DEBUTS P. 64 A.G. Russell Knves, attn: Debbie Myers, Dept. BL9, 2900 S. 26th St., Rogers, AR 72758 479 6310055 debbiem@agrussell.com www.agrussell.com; Browning, attn: R. Nielsen, Dept. BL9, One Browning Place, Morgan, UT 84050 801-876-2711 fax 801-876-3331 www.browning.com, craigwilson@browning.com; Condor Tool & Knife, attn: R. Jones, Dept. BL9, 9924 Universal Blvd. #224-106, Orlando, FL 32819 407-458-9396 fax 407-458-9397 rtj@att.net, condortk. com; CRKT, attn: M. May, Dept. BL9, 18348 SW 126th Place, Tualatin, OR 97062 800-891-3100 info@crkt.com, www.crkt.com; Emerson Knives, Inc., attn: E. Emerson, Dept. BL9, 1234 West 254th, Harbor City, CA 90710 310-539-5633 www.emersonknives.com, info@emersonknives. com; ESEE Knives, attn: B. Bramlett, Dept. BL9, P.O. Box 99, Gallant, AL 35972 256.613.0372 info@eseeknives.com, www.eseeknives.com; Halfbreed Blades, attn: Lili Ma, Dept. BL9, 244 Dorcas St., South Melbourne 3205 VIC, Australia +61 423 266 355 lili@halfbreedblades.com. au, halfbreedblades.com.au, Instagram: halfbreedblades; Medford Knife & Tool, attn.: Greg Medford, 17464 N. 25th Ave., Dept. BL9, Phoenix, AZ 85027 623-249-4506 medfordknife.com, medfordcustomerservice@medfordknife.com; Reate Knives, vanessa@reateknives.com; Spartan Blades, attn: C. Iovito, Dept. BL9, 625 S.E. Service Rd., Southern Pines, NC 28387 910757-0035, contact@spartanblades.com, www.spartanbladesusa.com; White River Knife & Tool, attn: Matt Cammenga, Dept. BL9, 130 Mason Dr., Coopersville, MI 49404 616-997-0026 matt@thewhiteriver.com, www.whiteriverknives.com; Wicked Edge Precision Knife Sharpeners, attn.: C. Allison, Dept. BL9, 1591 Pacheco St., Bldg. 2, Santa Fe, NM 87505 877-616-9911 wickededgeusa.com; Winkler Knives, attn: Daniel Winkler, Dept. BL9, POB 2166, Blowing Rock, NC 28605 828-295-9156 danielwinkler@bellsouth.net, www.winklerknives.com

For the latest knives, knife news, trends, and more, visit blademag.com, BLADE®’s popular Instagram page @blade_magazine, and on Facebook and Twitter.

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[ AUTOMATICS ]

BY DEXTER EWING BLADE® FIELD EDITOR

>> IMAGES BY MART Y STANFIELD, MART Y STANFIELD PHOTOGRAPHY

“WHEN YOU FIRE THE BLADE, IT HITS HARD!”—THE AUTHOR [ 46 ]

Thwack Attack! Two out-the-side and two OTF autos are state-of-the-art in snap-to-it-tiveness here’s something irresistible about pressing the button of an automatic folder and having the blade spring out with a resounding “THWACK!” as it locks open. Autos come in two basic styles: the traditional side—or radial—openers and out the fronts (OTFs). There’s a great selection of both in today’s factory market. The majority center around the tactical trend in which the spring-powered opening action enjoys viability in highstress situations where you need instantaneous blade deployment with little effort in action and thinking. When it comes to tactical autos, ProTech is a leader in the field. Its designs are highly refined and manufactured with the utmost attention to detail. The Tactical Response folder series is a company best seller, the TR-3 being one of the mostsought-after designs. Eight inches open, it is a great working knife featuring an ergonomic handle of T6-6061 aluminum paired with a drop-point blade of 154CM stainless steel. While the company manu-

factures different variations of the TR-3, the most eye catching is the TR-3 X1 Operator Series model. Something you will notice first is the knife is sterile—in other words, there are no markings denoting brand, blade steel or country of origin. It is all black, including the clip and hardware. Topping it off, the lock button is inlaid with a tiny vial of tritium, allowing the button to “light up” in total darkness. The handle has ProTech’s fish-scale machining pattern to aid in grip retention and cool looks. The clip is mounted toward the handle butt to carry the closed folder blade tip up and as low in a pocket as possible. The TR-3 is how you properly execute an all-black-finished knife. The modified drop-point blade tackles a variety of tasks with ease. American-made 154CM is an industry standard for heavy-use knives, holds a decent edge, and is not as difficult to resharpen as CPM high performance steels. The handle shape is very appealing with its two large finger recesses to help index your grip, and the slightly tapered

The Microtech Scarab II’s drop-point blade accommodates most cutting tasks with gusto.

The black blade of the Pro Tech TR-3 X1 Operator Series is scratch resistant and provides an additional level of corrosion protection, as well as low glare.

The Karakurt from Boker Plus serves as a great choice for an EDC auto and is ready to tackle everyday cutting chores.

[ 47 ]

[ AUTOMATICS ] profile rests in your hand comfortably with no hot spots. Blade action is very snappy. Pro-Tech officials like strong springs in their autos, so have a firm hold on the handle before you deploy the blade. The manufacturer’s suggested retail price (MSRP): $320. The knife is made in Pro Tech’s Placentia, California, factory.

ARACHNO-AUTO Danish knifemaker Jesper Voxnaes is one of the hottest knife designers going, and Boker Plus has tapped him for several designs, the Karakurt auto being one of them. Starting with a modified clip-point blade a hair over 3 inches, the material of choice is 154CM stainless steel. The flat grind allows the edge to be thin and exert a great bite, much like the knife’s namesake. (Karakurt is the Eurasian equivalent of the black widow spider.) The handle is T6-6061 aluminum. A large finger recess permits easy indexing of your grip, and the handle curves accommodate the rest of your fingers nicely for nonslip purchase. A deep-carry pocket clip totes the closed Karakurt blade tip up and low in the pocket for maximum concealment. Action wise, the knife is very quick. Press the firing button and the

Though not an ideal choice for a rescue knife, the Heretic Hydra cleaves through seat-belt material easily.

blade opens instantaneously. The overall design isn’t really tactical, though it does share some tactical traits. The Karakurt is designed more for everyday carry, and is excellent at opening mail, packages, breaking down cardboard boxes, stripping electrical wire, cutting corrugated plastic, etc. It carries very well, the slim profile allowing it to blend right into the pocket and have a lightweight

footprint. It carries just as easily in casual dress as formal. The blade is available in a stonewash finish or black PVD coat. With an MSRP of $199.99, the Karakurt is priced very competitively to other knives of its class. It is made in the USA by Hogue Knives.

FILLS the SLOT OTFs fall under one of two categoThe test autos offer a variety of pocket clips, from left: Pro Tech TR-3 X1 Operator Series and its standard clip; Microtech Scarab II in a heavy-duty wide design; Heretic Hydra and its “H”-shaped clip with four mounting screws; and the Boker Plus Karakurt sporting a fold-over deep-carry design.

[ 48 ]

[ AUTOMATICS ]

The Microtech Scarab II is the latest auto Microtech manufactures and the largest of the test group. This formidable-sized OTF is ready to tackle the toughest cutting jobs you may have and does so with aplomb.

ries. One is single action, where the blade deploys automatically and you must pull out the charging bar to retract it. A double-action OTF has automatic deployment and retraction of the blade, all by respectively pushing and pulling a slide button on the handle spine. The latter is the most popular, as most every OTF manufacturer makes one. The Heretic Knives Hydra is a single-action OTF. It offers a choice of 3.6-inch drop-point or tanto pattern blades in CPM S35VN stainless steel. Handles are aluminum alloy machined with traction notches in strategic locations. The pocket clip is a distinctive “H”-shaped fold-over deepcarry design, and uses four screws as opposed to the standard two. It is anchored to the handle ultra-securely. The firing button incorporates an unusual safety. It’s a teardrop-shaped cover that pivots downward to allow button access. When released, it covers the firing button to prevent accidental blade deployment. Very ingenious! The bad thing about single-action OTFs is that retracting it requires using both hands: one to hold the handle and press the firing button to unlock the blade, the other to pull back on the charging bar until the blade is fully retracted and locked closed. (Pull a paracord lanyard tied to the charging bar or grab the

All black and stealthy, the Pro Tech TR-3 X1 Operator Series folder gets the job done with little fuss and effort.

The ﬂat grind of the Boker Plus Karakurt blade helps give it a nice bite. The Karakurt is made in the USA for Boker by Hogue Knives.

The Heretic Hydra has a hollow-ground tanto blade that helps allow it to have a very sharp edge to tackle a smorgasbord of cutting tasks. The machined-in scallops on the blade spine are for aesthetics only.

[ 49 ]

[ AUTOMATICS ]

bokerusa.com

Left: The ﬁsh-scale-type milling on the handle of the Pro-Tech TR-3 provides hand traction. The knife features a sterile blade (no markings) and a tritiuminlaid push button that “lights up” to help you ﬁnd the knife in the dark.

end of the bar and pull.) The Hydra is well made, and the ergonomic handle is comfortable and offers multiple-grip positioning. Most OTFs have a boxy profile and maybe two grip positions at most, depending on the size. Admittedly, I am not a fan of the humongous clip but it does a great job at holding the knife to the pocket, and is a deep carry design that positions the Hydra low in the pocket. When you fire the blade, it hits hard! Out of the box the blade was plenty sharp and the hollow-ground tanto offered great slicing ability. Heretic provides the knife in multiple handle colors and two blade finishes—we received the black-coated blade with a nice handle anodized blue (MSRP: $435). Single-action OTFs are probably better suited for occasional use since the two-handed blade retraction can get cumbersome, especially if you have the use of only one hand at the time. Double-action OTF’s are what you need for more frequent use. However, if you collect OTF autos, you need a single action in your collection. In this case, the Hydra is a perfect choice to fill the slot.

BIG DADDY Easily the largest OTF in the Microtech line, the double-action Scarab II is a nice handful. The base steel of choice for the 3.9-inch drop-point blade is M390 stainless, though Microtech also uses other high-end steels depending on what’s on hand in quantity. The 5.25-inch handle is T6-6061 aluminum for light weight and strength. Inlays of textured rubber tape

The Heretic Hydra’s charging bar appears here in the extended position. The knife is a single-action OTF and the blade retracts into the handle by pulling out the bar. It also has a safety (inset) by the ﬁring button to guard against inadvertent opening of the blade.

FREE CATALOG are integrated to enhance grip in most all conditions. A hefty push moves the textured actuation button forward to deploy the blade and a backward pull retracts it. The robust push is also a safety feature to avoid inadvertent blade actuation. The action is very quick given the blade’s size and thickness. Microtech added three fullers—two in the standard style on the blade’s side, as well as one on the blade spine. They look pretty cool but don’t add to performance. A few mini fullers are close to the blade’s base, where they are partially visible when the blade is deployed. Given the knife’s size, it works quite well, and blade deployment is very easy even if you’re wearing work gloves. If you wear gloves frequently, this is the OTF for you. The handle is blocky and therefore fits the hand well with or without gloves. The Scarab II is adept at handling bigger cutting tasks, and has excellent slicing capabilities given the blade’s length. It could easily be used as a food prep knife, as it does great in the kitchen. The flatground blade sails through a variety of media and is easy to resharpen. M390 holds an excellent edge and, unlike S30V, is relatively simple to resharpen. Carry is a snap thanks to the heavyduty steel pocket clip. It’s secured to the handle butt with a special conical glass breaker screw that has an inlaid steel ball bearing for transmitting impact energy to the glass. If you’re looking for an EDC-able Microtech OTF, the Scarab II may not be your choice due to its larger size. You’ll need to look at the company’s smaller Ultratech series instead. However, for tactical or extended-period hard use, the Scarab II fits the bill perfectly. The MSRP is $551, making it one of the most expensive production OTFs—but it’s worth it!

A complete catalog of knives, including Damascus and collectible knives, tactical and work knives, and much more!

bokerusa.com/catalogs 1-800-835-6433

For the contact information for the knives in the story, see “Where To Get ’Em” on page 45. For the latest knives, knife news, trends, and more, visit blademag.com, BLADE®’s popular Instagram page @blade_magazine, and on Facebook and Twitter.

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[ SHRINE OF SHARP ]

BY STEVE SHACKLEFORD

s B.R.’ Ambassadors BLADE Magazine Cutlery Hall-Of-Fame® welcomes ﬁve new members

Hughes and asked him to do my induction speech. You can see why. I asked him to give his best $20 speech,” Joe deadpanned to laughter from the 60-or-so gathering of the inductees’ families and friends. “I think I’m going to have to give him a few dollars to make up for that.” In his baritone voice and measured manner, B.R. outlined Joe’s early history as a United States Marine Corps veteran of the Vietnam War, marriage to Suzanne, making knives and also fine muzzleloading rifles, and getting his

From left: Jim Sornberger, Joe Keeslar and Jay Hendrickson minutes after being inducted into the BLADE Magazine Cutlery Hall Of Fame®.

LADE Magazine Cutlery HallOf-Fame® member B.R. Hughes set a most appropriate tone for the Hall’s 2021 inductions early Saturday morning of the BLADE Show in the Kennesaw Room of the Renaissance Waverly Hotel. “Over the years I’ve noticed one thing about the man and lady selected for the Cutlery Hall Of Fame,” said one of the co-founders of the American Bladesmith Society in his speech inducting Joe Keeslar. “They are not so interested in themselves so much as they are others.”

[ 52 ]

In addition to Keeslar, B.R.’s words apply equally well to the four other new inductees: Beverly and Billy Mace Imel, Jay Hendrickson and Jim Sornberger. Speaking of Keeslar, along with Sornberger, Joe was voted into the Hall last year. However, since the pandemic canceled BLADE Show 2020, it also postponed their formal inductions until this year—none of which dulled Keeslar’s appreciation for B.R.’s speechifying ability. “[BLADE® editor] Steve Shackleford contacted me last spring and told me I would be inducted into the Hall Of Fame … The first thing I did was call Mr.

Billy Mace and Beverly Imel are the only husbandand-wife team ever to be inducted into the BLADE Magazine Cutlery Hall Of Fame® simultaneously.

college degree. In 1989 Joe earned his ABS master smith rating and it was also about that time Suzanne, who, in her job as a professor at Murray State University, started taking her students to France in the summer to enhance their French language skills. “Naturally, Joe had to build a shop over there so he could make knives, and he taught many Frenchmen how to make knives,” B.R. noted. “He also was asked to demonstrate at the Thiers Knife Show, the second largest knife show in France. This practice continued for years. He’s been a wonderful ambassador in preserving the art of bladesmithing.” Joe went on to become chairman of the ABS, serving in the position longer than all but two others, ABS master smiths Bill Moran and Jim Batson, both members of the Cutlery Hall Of Fame. He’s taught knifemaking at the William

“SOMETIMES WHEN SHE GETS TIRED SHE EVEN LETS ME MOW THE LAWN.”—JAY HENDRICKSON F. Moran School of Bladesmithing, Haywood College, hammer-ins in Alabama, Arkansas, North Carolina and Ohio, played a lead role in the rapidly expanding ABS youth program, and taught classes for the first four years of BLADE University. He also authored two how-to books: Handles and Guards and Forging and Finishing the Brut de Forge Knife. Joe thanked three people in particular: Suzanne, their son, Kurt, and B.R. “Suzanne and Kurt have given me so much over the years in terms of support,” he began, “but the thing they gave me most, they gave me time. Time is a special commodity. You can’t put it in a box or on a shelf and come back in a

Jay Hendrickson

week and retrieve it. The time is gone. You have to use it when it’s available to you. They gave me time to be me, to do what I wanted to do, in this case the knives and some with the guns, too.” He also credited B.R. for 30 years of friendship. “I trusted his judgment on the things that came up when I served on the ABS board of directors,” Joe said. “He was there as my mentor and savior, he was helping me decide on the things I needed to be involved in, understanding how the ABS works, what our goals are and all the things I needed to know.”

JIM SORNBERGER

Joe Keeslar

THEY GAVE ME TIME.”—JOE KEESLAR

[ 53 ]

[ SHRINE OF SHARP ] the speech inducting Sornberger and outlined Jim’s pre-knife career, which was pretty impressive in its own right. “Guns, knives and tools were the things that molded Jim,” Onion began. “His grandfather gave him a Rudy Ruana knife when Jim joined the Boy Scouts, and his uncle in Redding, California, owned a gun shop with a large knife display. It was there Jim met Harry Morseth in the mid-fifties.” Sornberger joined the Army in 1963 and became an advisor in Southeast Asia, moving around Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Laos and other countries. After his discharge he joined law enforcement and shortly thereafter became a deputy with the Santa Clara sheriff ’s office. From there he became an agent

for a federally funded narcotics task force for several California counties, and later worked as a narcotics intelligence officer for military and other agencies in and out of the state. Following a work-related injury, Jim focused on one of his lifelong loves— making jewelry—while recovering. One of the places that sold his jewelry asked him to make knives. He became a regular attendee and table holder at the San Jose gun show, where he met such storied knifemakers as D.E. Henry, Dave Pitt, Ron Richards and Bob Holt. They and others started a knife show—the Bay Area Knife Collectors Association Show—for which Jim wrote the bylaws. “BAKCA,” as it was known, enjoyed what Onion called “30 years of great shows and wonderful memories.” Jim joined the Knifemakers’ Guild in 1976 and served on the board of directors, including a stint as vice president. By the late ’70s he’d won several awards for his knives, including his San Francisco-style dress bowies. In 1981 the industry was having quality control issues with 154CM stainless steel, so Bob Holt and Jim started H&S Supply and sold ATS34 stainless in large quantities, as Onion noted, “essentially introducing it to the entire knife industry.” Jim gave thanks to his two grandfathers for the time they spent with him and serving as his role models. “It’s really nice to be rewarded for something you’ve done a good part of your life and still enjoy doing—and I’m not quitting,” the 75-years-young Sornberger reassured the audience. “I’ve still got plenty of years left, I think.” Indeed, for the man Onion called an encyclopedia of the history of the custom knife world, who continues to write for KNIFE Magazine and other outlets, and who travels worldwide, the best may yet still be to come.

BEVERLY AND BILLY MACE IMEL

Jim Sornberger

[ 54 ]

Beverly and Billy Mace Imel served as secretary/treasurer on the Guild board of directors for 15 years and were rocks in terms of doing the behind-the-scenes work that was so important to the running of the organization. In fact, when Billy first started making knives in the early 1970s, Beverly did all the book-

keeping for Billy’s knifemaking operation and has ever since, the two celebrating their 61st wedding anniversary June 11. Notably, they are the first married couple to be inducted simultaneously into the Hall. (Cutlery Hall-Of-Famers, Mr. and Mrs. A.G. and Goldie Russell, were inducted separately.) A tool-and-die maker by trade, Billy was inspired to make knives in 1972 before going on a hunt. He saw a Ted Dowell integral hunter and decided it would be a good knife for the trip, but it cost $100—too much for him to pay for a knife at the time. One thing led to another and Billy tried his hand at making knives, and soon discovered how much work it took to make a good one. Someone saw them and asked Billy how much he wanted for one. “Bill said he never thought about that but he wasn’t charging a hundred because that damn sure isn’t enough, so he said two hundred,” Jim Sornberger winked in his speech inducting the Imels. Billy joined the Guild in 1973 and the Imels eventually exhibited at shows in Japan, Europe and elsewhere, basically doing everything together. In the process, Billy became one of the world’s best knifemakers. “In the mid ’70s there were several people I was really fascinated with who did a really good job on their knives, the fit, the finish, the detail and the sharp lines,” Sornberger recalled. “And Billy was No. 1 on my list.” A longtime member of the NRA, Billy also made knives for the speakers at the association’s annual convention, including one each for Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush. In 1984 the Imels were elected Guild secretary/treasurer and Beverly in particular changed forever how the position would be viewed. “She was unbelievable,” Sornberger stressed. “This was in the day before portable phones and you didn’t have a stenographer to take notes, but no matter what we asked her during business meetings—How much did it cost? How many tables did we have? Who made a motion at this meeting?— Beverly had the answer. She’d just tell ya’, boom, who made the motion and who seconded it, and how she got all that stuff I’ll never know. She was the backbone of the Guild for 15 years.” Regrettably, the Imels were unable to

[ SHRINE OF SHARP ]

“THEY ARE NOT SO INTERESTED IN THEMSELVES SO MUCH AS THEY ARE OTHERS.” —B.R. HUGHES attend the ceremony but sent a heartfelt written thank you instead. Read it in its entirety on page 6.

JAY HENDRICKSON As inductor Johnny Perry noted, when Jay Hendrickson started making knives in Frederick, Maryland, in 1972, it wasn’t long before he learned there was another bladesmith in the neighborhood who just so happened to be the best in the world at it—Bill Moran. Jay met Moran, visited Bill’s shop now and again, and, through practice and dedication, became a bladesmith and joined the ABS. Jay earned his ABS journeyman smith stamp in 1986—the same year being elected to the ABS board of directors—and his master smith stamp in 1989. Around that time, he was instrumental in establishing the William F. Moran School of Bladesmithing and also taught bladesmithing there, writing and illustrating the manuals used in some of the courses. He was elected ABS chairman in 1991, succeeding the only chairman the ABS had ever known—Mr. Moran. In all, Jay served on the ABS board of directors from 1986-2018. He and his wife, Nancy, helped develop and coordinate the Bill Moran Hammer-In in 2003 in Frederick and kept it running for two more years before Mr. Moran’s passing in 2006. Jay was co-chairman of the All-ForgedBlade Expo in Reno from 2003-07 and was instrumental in forming the William F. Moran Jr. Museum and Foundation in Frederick in 2006. He was president of it for 10 years, and today remains on its board of directors. The museum includes a number of Moran’s top knives, “a dressed-up version” of Moran’s knife shop and much more. “All the effort Jay has put into the museum and foundation is immeasurable,” Johnny noted. “It re-

B.R. Hughes holds a Joe Keeslar knife at BLADE University in 2014.

quired years and years of responsibility, but Jay bore it well and got the job done.” The inductee gave special thanks to his wife, Nancy. “I wanted to thank her for all her help over the years, taking care of all the details, all the flight reservations, all the laundry, all the packing of suitcases. Sometimes when she gets tired she even lets me mow the lawn,” he said to audience laughter. Jay went on to relate the story of when he was a kid shopping at a sporting goods store with his dad, who told the young Hendrickson to go pick something out for his birthday. Jay went to the magazine rack in the back of the store and saw the Gun Digest Book of Knives. “I’d been making some knives, nothing big, but I’d been making them since I was a kid, and I looked at the book and it looked interesting,” he recalled. “And I looked down at the bottom and I see the names B.R. Hughes and Jack Lewis. Well, I didn’t know who these characters

were but it didn’t matter, so I thumbed through it real quick and said this is a deal!” Jay’s dad bought the book and Jay read it and told himself, “I can do this.” Looking at B.R. seated in the room, Jay remarked, “B.R., you helped me out a lot with that book and little did I know that one day I would get to meet you, serve on the ABS board with you, and over the years you would help me quite a lot with my knifemaking. “I remember when B.R. got inducted into the Cutlery Hall Of Fame and he said something like he didn’t think he was worthy of this but he wasn’t going to give it back. Touché—the same with me.” For the latest knives, knife news, trends, and more, visit blademag.com, BLADE®’s popular Instagram page @blade_magazine, and on Facebook and Twitter.

[ 55 ]

ometime in the early 1990s, a journalist—to the chagrin of the handful of other knifemakers also still working in Sheffield, England—described Stan Shaw as “The Last Little Mester,” and the title stuck until Stan’s passing in February. Stan made many fancy pocketknives but “Little Mester” was never simply a title that denoted mastership of

a craft skill. Historically, workers in the Sheffield cutlery industry were notoriously independent. As the industry moved from craft-based to industrialization, nearly all cutlers were on piece-work and would rent space in the workshop—a yard of bench or a “trough” for grinding. Work came from other workers,

and each worker did a very specific task on the knife before it was passed to the next worker. The process was efficient because of the hyper-specialization of all of the workers in the chain. There was a complicated, ever-changing network of subcontracting, renting, supplying and rivalries, but no one learned all the processes to make a knife—there was no con-

A sampling of Stan Shaw’s pocketknives with richly ﬁleworked blade spines and backsprings. Look close and you can see the Maltese crosses for which Stan was so well known. (image by Carl Whitham, Sheffield)

“STAN WAS NOT A ‘LITTLE MESTER.’ HE WAS A MASTER.” —THE AUTHOR [ 56 ]

“I STARTED ON THE MONDAY AT AN APPRENTICE’S WAGE OF 10 SHILLINGS A WEEK.” —STAN SHAW cept of sole-authorship. In her thesis, Sally-Ann Taylor* states that the “differing opinions regarding the status of the little mester reflected the actual diversity in his possible position and role. Some felt that the title implied that his enterprise should involve him in a certain number of commercial risks and liabilities. Sometimes he was an actual workman himself, obtaining orders from larger factors, merchants or manufacturers, and then employing a few men to help him … sometimes even these workers would employ others beneath them, but usually only members of their own family—particularly women and children.” Hence, little mesters were small-scale flexible employers, recruiting workers to supplement their own labor as required. In 1844, a commentator on the cutlery trades stated that “there are several modes of conducting the manufacture,

but the factory system is not one of them ... there is no large building, under a central authority, in which a piece of steel goes in one door and comes out at another converted into knives, scissors and razors. Nearly all the items of cutlery made at Sheffield travel about the town several times before they are finished.”**

HE KNEW at 14 Stan didn’t come from a cutlery background. He was born in 1926 in a small village outside Sheffield, and, after seeing a market stall of knives, decided at 14 that that was what he wanted to do. By chance, he walked into the prestigious company, Ibberson, and spoke to the owner, Billy Ibberson. Pointing to a showcase displaying the firm’s best pocketknives, Stan said he’d like to learn how to make such knives. As Stan recalled, “Billy then fetched up one of the cutlers, Ted Osbourne—a little

Stan Shaw as he appeared in the early 1990s. (Geoffrey Tweedale image) Below: As Stan moved through Ibberson and other companies over the years, he actively approached other workers to learn their processes as well as his own. It was this breadth of training that made him unique and was vital to him in later life. (image by Carl Whitham, Sheffield)

[ 57 ]

[ STEEL SALUTE ]

STAN SHAW: 1926-2021

tan Shaw, whose career of making classic pocketknives spanned almost 80 years, passed in late February at the age of 94. He started work for W.G. Ibberson in Sheffield, the old knifemaking capital of England, in 1941. Apprenticed to Fred and Ted Osborne, men Stan described as the two best cutlers in Sheffield, he eventually succeeded them in 1954 as the company’s top maker of pocketknives. Though the Sheffield knife industry was in rapid decline, he continued making knives, renting an old workshop in 1983 and becoming an independent cutler. As an independent he did it all in the making of his pocketknives, and he did it all quite well. As he said in “Stan Shaw: Little Mester of Sheffield” in the May 1994 BLADE: “I have to do everything now because there are no forgers, grinders, scissor-makers and so on left. My earlier experience with Ibberson’s has proved invaluable in that respect. All my knives are hafted, ground and assembled by me. It’s harder work but the satisfaction is greater. Scissors, ﬁles, punches, shields, shackles, handles, scales, bolsters—the list is endless— but each part is made by me on these wheels and dollies with only hacksaws, ﬁles and a few other traditional tools, such as my parser. The only job I don’t do is the occasional engraving I have done on the bolsters.” His knives are testaments to the classic exhibition pieces, many with a host of blades and other tools and implements. In 2003 he became an honorary freeman of the Company Cutlers and in 2017 was awarded the British Empire Medal. As late as 2019, into his 90s, he continued to clock in bright and early in the mornings to make pocketknives at Kelham Island Museum. In the interim he served as a mentor to many makers, including award-winner Grace Horne, among others.—by BLADE® staff

[ 58 ]

“I SHOULD HAVE TAKEN YOU ON THEN, LASS, YOU’D JUST ABOUT BE USEFUL TO ME NOW!”—STAN SHAW bloke about 5 feet or so tall—and asked, ‘Will you have him?” He said, ‘Yes.’ And I started on the Monday at an apprentice’s wage of 10 shillings a week.” When Stan joined the firm, the old patterns of working had long gone; “little mesters” and “factors” had morphed into the more familiar patterns of factory

Grace Horne Below: In addition to pocketknives, the author is also well known for her award-winning custom scissors made in the original knifemaking center of the United Kingdom—Sheffield, England. (Eric Eggly/PointSeven image)

[ STEEL SALUTE ] working, with all the workers employed by the company and paid a wage. He was one of the last apprentices to be taken on and his curiosity about the entire process of making folding pocketknives was insatiable. As he moved through Ibberson and other companies over the years, he actively approached other workers to learn their processes as well as his own. It was this breadth of training that made him unique and was vital to him in later life.

THEIR PATHS CROSS By the beginning of the 1980s, the contraction of the Sheffield cutlery industry was such that there were no more companies left to employ him, so he set up his own workshop in Garden Street. It was there, 10 years later, that our paths crossed. I had made a set of three folding knives for a college project and hadn’t been able to find anyone still making traditional Sheffield slip joints to ask for advice. A couple of years later, I heard Stan being interviewed on the radio and realized

that I still desperately wanted to learn to make knives. I packed up my workshop in London and moved to Sheffield to persuade him, in person, to take me on as his apprentice. He welcomed me into his workshop but said that he was nearly 70 and too old for an apprentice. Instead, he offered me his bucket of old handforged blades and springs, told me to select a handful and “go and figure it out yourself because it’s not that hard.” He would always be there to help if I got stuck. A few years ago, when I was gently teasing him about still having a 10year waiting list for his knives, he said, “I should have taken you on then, lass, you’d just about be useful to me now!” So, for all the times our paths crossed, for all the gentle encouragement and for completely changing my life’s path when I was 23 years old, thank you, Stan. Stan was not a “little mester.” He was a master and was proud that he could make his knives from start to finish, a concept that would be completely alien to Sheffield knifemakers a hundred years ago.

Editor’s note: An award-winning knifemaker from Sheffield, England, the author currently makes traditional folders. For more information contact her at Dept. BL9, The Old Public Convenience, 469 Fulwood Rd., Sheffield, United Kingdom, S10 30A gracehorne@hotmail.co, gracehorn. co.uk. Also: Steven and Kylie Cocker, Instagram @steven_cocker_sheffield; Michael May www.michaelmayknives.com; and/or Michael and Ashley Harrison plus apprentice at A Wrights & Sons www.penknivesand-scissors.co.uk. *Tradition and Change: The Sheffield Cutlery Trades 1870-1914; Sally-Ann Taylor **The Penny Magazine Supplement, April 1844, p.168; Thomas Allen For the latest knives, knife news, trends, and more, visit blademag.com, BLADE®’s popular Instagram page @blade_magazine, and on Facebook and Twitter.

]

[ 60 ]

BY ED FOWLER BLADE ® FIELD EDITOR

etching, polishing, fitting and silver soldering a pierced guard or bolster; developing a handle that fits the hand we are making it for; and final finish on the whole knife usually takes us between 40 to 50 hours of all hands-on time. This is the easy part. Many knifemakers spend their whole lives developing the skills that will satisfy them when they make that last knife. The development of these skills is both satisfying and absolutely frustrating. Any task or skill is so much easier when you have someone to show you how. The few weeks I spent with Bill Moran saved

John C. Fremont, explorer, military officer and politician

HEPK EXCALIBUR Bill commented that if you wanted to make a living making knives, one way was to develop an art knife. Thanks to my lifetime experiences and present environment, a high-endurance performance knife (HEPK) is the only one I need. When I think of a working knife, the ordeal of survival for the John C. Fremont expedition in the winter of 1849 in the snowbound San Juan Mountains comes to mind. While most of the men on the team died of starvation, some survived by digging a frozen otter out of the ice for a meal, then skinning and cutting meat from frozen horses and mules. Most did not survive! For me the HEPK Excalibur must be able to pass tests that could support survival conditions that the members of the Fremont expedition faced. A simple 90-degree flex is not enough. Some blades can achieve the 90-degree flex but do so with little force required. Many have tested factory or their own knives that flexed to 90 degrees while being hand clamped in a vise and with only hand pressure. How much force is required is a very valuable source of information. To continue the thought, BLADE®

MAKE a LOT Some will be satisfied simply finishing a blade blank from an international company producing a very simple two- or three-piece knife with a blade of unknown steel. There is nothing wrong with this level of knife and if the maker believes in his work and never makes another knife, he has achieved his Excalibur. Others will be more than pleased to buy finished blade blanks and simply attach handles to them. Today, blade blanks and finished knives can be achieved through many wholesalers who sell knives from offshore for low prices that enable makers to simply finish what needs finishing and sell them, sometimes for big bucks. Most who purchase these knives will never know the difference. You can even buy a fake “antique” Henry Schively bowie that fools some knowledgeable collectors, but is a copy of an 1800s English bowie that retails for less than $50. One maker who was in high demand told me he could make eight knives a day and easily sell them for $300 apiece. I asked him how he could do it. His response was that most of the time he simply sat on his fanny reading the

[ 61 ]

[ KNIFE TALK ]

“HIS EXCALIBUR WAS MAKING MONEY AND HE DEFINITELY ACHIEVED IT.”—THE AUTHOR

Chris Amos shapes a sheath in the author’s shop. (Fowler image)

newspaper and watching some hourly help shine them up; all he had to do was establish a market and a paid author wrote a great article providing a strong demand. He had no idea how well they cut or how strong the blades were, and no one asked. His Excalibur was making money and he definitely achieved it.

one for $5,000, took it apart and could not put it back together. Ray had mastered the skills of the high-tech machinist and designed some great folders that I do not feel have been matched. There are many venues of the knife

ULTIMATE ART KNIFE Others will seek their personal ultimate art knife such as Cutlery Hall-Of-Famer Buster Warenski’s King Tut Dagger that took him years of time and carefully learned skills to develop. According to his friend, Cutlery Hall-Of-Famer D’ Holder, Buster knew many failures as he worked with materials that few could help him understand. He had to learn it on his own and stuck with it and achieved what for him and many others in his venue was truly the Excalibur of the art knife. Ray Appleton made—and now his son, Ron, makes—folders that are highly developed. One maker decided he would copy one of Ray’s knives, bought

BLADE® ﬁeld editor Joe Szilaski

FAVORITES While at the BLADE Show (page 22) this year I visited the A.G. Russell Knives booth and Debbie Meyers handed me a copy of the company brochure, Cutting Edge. It contains a lot of older knives, many that I cherished when the makers were making them. In those days, many knives made me smile and I feel performance is included. Most of the knives are in mint condition and this saddens me, for they look like they were made to be used. I am tempted to buy a few and test them, but feel it is best to let them shine as they are. We each have our favorites and they appeal to us individually for various reasons. I don’t know who judges knives at the shows, but I have the feeling that today the art knife is king and many people will never truly need a knife. I sincerely hope they are not disappointed. Thanks for sharing time with me about knives. If you have any comments or questions, don’t be bashful; email them to BLADE editor Steve Shackleford at steve@blademag.com or to me. Yours truly, Ed Fowler eafwb@wyoming.com or edfowlerhighperformanceknives.com For the latest knives, knife news, trends, and more, visit blademag.com, BLADE®’s popular Instagram page @ blade_magazine, and on Facebook and Twitter.

A slip joint unlike any other

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All Aboard th BLADE Show fans check out the latest in factory sharp stuff in Atlanta For the contact information for the knives in the story, see “Where To Get ’Em” on page 45. The Microtech booth was a reﬂection of BLADE Show knife customer activity in microcosm.

For the latest knives, knife news, trends, and more, visit blademag.com, BLADE®’s popular Instagram page @blade_magazine, and on Facebook and Twitter.

2. A.G. RUSSELL KNIVES MOSQUITO HAWK

KNIFE TYPE: Everyday-carry folder BLADE LENGTH: 2.75” BLADE STEEL: 8Cr13MoV stainless ROCKWELL HARDNESS: 57-59

HRC BLADE GRIND: Flat BLADE FINISH: Black titanium coated BLADE OPENER: Thumb stud PIVOT: Bronze washers HANDLE MATERIAL: Carbon fiber POCKET CLIP & LINERS:

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[ 64 ]

4. WINKLER KNIVES CXC DAGGER BLADE LENGTH: 5.25” BLADE MATERIAL: 80CrV2 carbon

steel ROCKWELL HARDNESS: 60 HRC BLADE GRIND: Flat dagger HANDLE MATERIAL: Sculpted red-

5. CONDOR SIGRUN KNIFE

and-black G-10 or black G-10 with red-fleck rubber insert (shown) OVERALL LENGTH: 10.25” SHEATH: Lined Boltaron KNIFE TO KNOW: A percentage of each sale goes to the Coast X Coast Foundation, which honors fallen U.S. Special Operations forces personnel (https://coastxcoast.org/); the first 100 of each handle option is serial numbered COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: USA MSRP: $480 AVAILABLE: Order now; delivery threeto-five months

pommel, stainless steel rivets; lifetime warranty COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: El Salvador MSRP: $94.98 AVAILABLE: NOW

KNIFE TYPE: Fixed blade DESIGNER: Joe Flowers BLADE LENGTH: 5.63” BLADE MATERIAL: 1075 spring steel ROCKWELL HARDNESS: 55 HRC HANDLE MATERIAL: Micarta® OVERALL LENGTH: 10.31” SHEATH: Multi-position Kydex design KNIFE TO KNOW: Steel-smashing

6. REATE KNIVES GTR

BLADE LENGTH: 3.66” BLADE STEEL: Bohler M390 stainless ROCKWELL HARDNESS: 61 HRC BLADE GRIND: Hollow BLADE OPENER: Flipper and/or hole HANDLE MATERIAL: 6Al4V titanium POCKET CLIP: Single position HANDLE INSERT: Carbon fiber LOCK: Linerlock CLOSED LENGTH: 4.92” CARRY: Reate Knives pouch and box COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: China MSRP: $450 AVAILABLE: 2022

[ 65 ]

[ SHOW DEBUTS ]

“THREE LOCKING BLADES: DROP POINT, GUT HOOK, AND BONE SAW.” 4

2. SPARTAN BLADES SPARTAN-HARSEY FOLDER 3.25 1. BROWNING PRIMAL KODIAK

BLADE LENGTH: 3.75” BLADE STEEL: 8Cr13MoV stainless BLADE OPENER: Nail nick HANDLE MATERIAL: Polymer with

rubber overmold LOCK: Lockback POUCH: Nylon belt design KNIFE TO KNOW: Three locking blades: drop point, gut hook, and bone saw COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: Offshore MSRP: $44.99 AVAILABLE: NOW

[ 66 ]

BLADE LENGTH: 3.25” BLADE STEEL: Chad Nichols damascus

(also available in CPM S45VN stainless) ROCKWELL HARDNESS: 59-61 HRC BLADE GRIND: Flat/saber HANDLE, POCKET CLIP & HARDWARE: Titanium LOCK: Framelock SPECIAL FEATURES: Pivot stops

blade from over traveling; double-deep cryogenically treated blade CLOSED LENGTH: 4” COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: USA MSRP: $395 AVAILABLE: NOW

3. MEDFORD KNIFE & TOOL M-48

BLADE LENGTH: 3.9” BLADE STEEL: CPM S35VN stainless ROCKWELL HARDNESS: 58-61 HRC BLADE GRIND: Magnus Edged™ BLADE PATTERN: Drop point HANDLE MATERIAL: Hybrid

aluminum, titanium spring POCKET CLIP: Deep pocket spring, reversible BLADE OPENER: Flipper LOCK: Framelock CLOSED LENGTH: 4.6” SPECIAL FEATURES: Pivot bearings COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: USA MSRP: $500 AVAILABLE: NOW

[ SHOW DEBUTS ]

7. WICKED EDGE GO-TO PRECISION SHARPENER WE60 SERIES SHARPENER TYPE: Angle guided ABRASIVE: Diamond coated GRITS: 100#-600# (additional grits

available) WEIGHT: 4-to-5 lbs. DIMENSIONS: 11”W x 3.25”D x 4.5”H COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: USA MSRP: $199-$699 (case sold

separately) AVAILABLE: Late 2021 or early 2022

4. ESEE KNIVES IZULA S35VN

KNIFE TYPE: Fixed blade BLADE LENGTH: 2.63” BLADE STEEL: CPM S35VN stainless ROCKWELL HARDNESS: 60 HRC BLADE GRIND: Full flat SHEATH: Molded design with clip plate OVERALL LENGTH: 6.25” KNIFE TO KNOW: Lifetime warranty COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: USA MSRP: $122 AVAILABLE: NOW

5. CRKT PROVOKE COMPACT

BLADE LENGTH: 2.26” BLADE MATERIAL: D2 tool steel ROCKWELL HARDNESS: HRC 59-61 BLADE GRIND: Chisel HANDLE MATERIAL: Aluminum POCKET CLIP: Zero profile design OPENING MECHANISM: Kinematic

technology LOCK: Lever lock CLOSED LENGTH: 4.54” COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: Taiwan MSRP: $150 AVAILABLE: NOW

6. EMERSON KNIVES, INC. BL-40

BLADE LENGTH: 3.6” BLADE STEEL: 154CM stainless ROCKWELL HARDNESS: 57-59 HRC BLADE GEOMETRY: V grind HANDLE MATERIAL: G-10 epoxy/

glass laminate POCKET CLIP: Standard design LOCK: Linerlock CLOSED LENGTH: 4.9” COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: USA MSRP: To be determined AVAILABLE: Fall

[ 67 ]

[ SPEC SHEET ]

BY MSG KIM BREED 5TH SPECIAL FORCES (RETIRED)

The forged blade has a smooth distal taper, starting around 3/16-inch thick down to 0 inches at the tip. The knife sports hidden-tang construction.

received a bolo made in the Philippines from my friend Mike Key as a gift a couple of years ago. He went on a three-day search for good bolos made from carbon steel, not the souvenir type. He was successful in his quest. I ran a triangle file down the edge and it skated off, an indication the blade is hardened steel for sure. The forged blade has a smooth distal taper, starting around 3/16-inch thick down to 0 inches at the tip. The knife sports hidden-tang construction. The wood for the sheath and handle are from a local shop in the Philippines. Of course, a blade must cut no matter where it’s made.

TEST MENU Up first: the paper slice. Despite a coarse edge, the bolo still managed to give clean slices in 20-pound bond paper. Normally, a bigger blade is cum-

[ 68 ]

the plastic foam. I held the pool noodle suspended in air with one hand and sliced it. The knife is very controllable and the handle is indexed perfectly. Next up: chopping into a hard cardboard tube with the noodle inserted to prevent wall collapse. It worked on the first two chops, but then I hit too close to the previous pair of chops and the tube crushed under the force of the blows. Still, the blade made it halfway through the tube. When you have trees encroaching on your property, you have to take steps to keep your yard clear. One such branch had scraped me for the last time while I was mowing the lawn. Its 2.5-inch diameter was a breeze for the bolo. Five whacks and the branch was down. I dragged it away from the fence to whack

spec chart

PHILIPPINE BOLO

MAKER: Unknown BLADE LENGTH: 141⁄8” BLADE MATERIAL: Hardened carbon

steel HANDLE: Hand-carved wood HANDLE DESIGN: Dropped at butt COLLAR: Aluminum conduit KNIFE TO KNOW: Blade has a forged

distal taper; handle butt flared to enhance purchase WEIGHT: 12 ozs. OVERALL LENGTH: 20” SHEATH: Wood with handcarved details SHEATH WEIGHT: 3 ozs. PURCHASE PRICE: $7

Five whacks and the 2.5-inch-diameter branch was down.

S E P T E M B E R 2 0 2 1 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[ SPEC SHEET ]

“ONE CHOP PER BRANCH AND IT WAS IN PIECES QUICKLY.” —THE AUTHOR

The wood for the sheath and handle are from a local wood shop in the Philippines. The sheath includes some unusual native carving (inset).

it into smaller pieces. This is what the bolo was designed to do. One chop per branch and it was in pieces quickly. Just a wrist snap carried the blade halfway through a 1.5-inch-diameter branch. The bolo is a very fast chopper. A note on the wooden sheath: It’s flat on one side for resting against your body and slightly rounded on the other. The maker even added some hand carved detail into the wood. Excellent workmanship! A big thank you goes out to Mike Key for finding this gem of a bolo for me.

pin in the handle for a mechanical connection.

FINAL RESULTS The bolo is a very balanced working model. You can use it all day without wearing your hand or arm out. It exhibits great workmanship in the forging and the woodwork! For the latest knives, knife news, trends, and more, visit blademag.com, BLADE®’s popular Instagram page @blade_magazine, and on Facebook and Twitter.

CHANGES On a blade this long, I would like to see a

The author ran a triangle ﬁle down the edge and it skated off, an indication the blade is hardened steel. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- S E P T E M B E R 2 0 2 1

[

The bolo was very aggressive on the plastic foam. The author held the pool noodle suspended in air with one hand and sliced it. He indicated the knife is very controllable and the handle is indexed perfectly.

HAWKINS KNIFE MAKING SUPPLIES The author chopped into a hard cardboard tube with the noodle inserted to prevent wall collapse. It worked on the ﬁrst two chops but then he hit too close to the previous pair of chops and the tube crushed under the force of the blows. Still, the blade made it halfway through the tube.

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The bolo is a very fast chopper.

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BY BLADE ® STAFF

Note: Events with an asterisk (*) have knives and knife accessories as the main/sole focus. Events with two asterisks (**) are knifemaking seminars or symposiums, cutting competitions, auctions, or other knife-related events.

AUGUST AUG. 7-8 CROSSVILLE, TN Cumberland County Knife & Gun Show, Cumberland County Community Complex, gkshow.org/ show-information.*

Show West, Long Beach Convention Center. For show updates visit bladeshowwest. com and for exhibitor information e-mail bladewest@bladeshow.com (see page 68).*

AUG. 7-8 SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA Sydney Knife Show, Rosehill Gardens Grand Pavilion, 0401590672, info@knifeartassociation. com, knifeartassociation.com/sydney-knifeshow//, knifeartassociation.com.*

OCT. 16 MIDDLETON, MD The 6th All Forged Knife Show and Auction, Historic W.F. Moran Shop and Forge. Call Charlie Wolf 301-471-2879 or Nancy Hendrickson 301-305-8385 or visit billmoranmuseum. com.* **

NEW DATES! AUG. 13-14 LITTLE ROCK, AR Arkansas Custom Knife Show, Statehouse Convention Center. Visit artknife.com for more information.*

OCT. 22 GARDEN GROVE, CA The CCKS Friday Night Blade Affair, Embassy Suites Anaheim South. Contact 888-4732661 r1promotions.com.*

AUG. 13-14 DALTON, GA Dalton Georgia Knife Roadshow, North Georgia trade and Convention Center. Call 423-238-6753 or email jbrucevoyles.com.*

OCT. 23 GREENBRIER, AR Arkansas Knife Expo, Herschel Hall. Call 501-4721258, rick.sidebottom@gmail.com or visit arkansasknifeexpo.com.* **

AUG. 14 MERIDIAN, ID Idaho Knife Association 2021 Traditional & Tactical Knife Show, Courtyard Marriott. For more information contact idahoknife@gmail.com and/ or visit ika.idahoknife.com.**

OCT. 23-24 GARDEN GROVE, CA California Custom Knife Show, Embassy Suites Anaheim South. Contact 888-473-2661 r1promotions.com.*

AUG. 27-29 TROY, OH The ABS MidAmerica Bladesmithing Symposium, Miami County Fairgrounds. Call Cindy 419-8320400 americanbladesmith.com.** AUG. 28-29 ST. LOUIS, MO Gateway Area Knife Club Cutlery Fair, Sheet Metal Workers Hall. E-mail Steve Markus at Smarkus@ gakc.org or call him at 314-795-4262.*

SEPTEMBER SEPT. 2-4 LAS VEGAS, NV The 12th Annual Gathering of the Usual Suspect Network, Trader’s Cove, Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino. Visit usngathering.com.* SEPT. 11 GENTRY, AR Central States Hammer-In, Tired Iron of the Ozarks. Contact Allen 479-530-6439 newberry@newberryknives.com.* SEPT. 24-26 CLYDE, NC The ABS Great Smoky Mountain Hammer-In. Call Ken Hall 828-627-2135 or visit americanbladesmith. com.** SEPT. 25 NASHVILLE, TN Arts in Metal Premier Art Knife Exhibition, 21c Museum Hotel, Fifty-Fifty Productions. Contact 417866-6688 artinmetalshow.com.*

OCTOBER OCT. 8-9 LONG BEACH, CA The BLADE

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OCT 23-24 EASTON, PA Lehigh Valley Knife Show, Charles Chrin Community Center of Palmer Township. Call 267-7144441 or visit paknifeshows.com.* OCT. 30 LAS VEGAS, NV Art Knife Invitational, M Hotel Casino Resort and Spa in Las Vegas. Email info@artknifeinvitational. com and/or visit aki.show.*

NOVEMBER NOV. 5-7 PIGEON FORGE, TN Spirit of Steel Pigeon Forge Knife Show, Evergreen Smoky Mountain Convention Center. Call 423-238-6753 or visit jbrucevoyles.com.* NOV. 13-14 TULSA, OK Wanenmacher’s Tulsa Arms Show, Tulsa Fairgrounds. Contact mail@tulsaarmsshow.com, 918-492-0401 mail@tulsaarmsshow.com, tulsaarmsshow. com, gunshowtrader.com/gun-shows/wanenmachers-tulsa-arms-show/. NOV. 19-20 NASHVILLE, TN The New York Custom Knife Show goes to Nashville, Sheraton Grand Nashville Downtown. For more information visit fiftyfiftyproductions.net.*

DECEMBER DEC. 11 EUGENE OR Oregon Knife Collectors Mini Show, Wheeler Pavilion at the Lane Events Center. Call 541-484-5564 or visit oregonknifeclub.org.*

2022 MARCH MARCH 18-19 FORT WORTH, TX International Custom Cutlery Exposition (ICCE), Fort Worth Convention Center. Contact icce@ bladeshow.com or icceshow.com.*

MAY MAY 14 BOISE, ID Nordic Knives Invitational Knife Show. For more information visit nordicknives.com.*

JUNE JUNE 3-5 ATLANTA, GA The 41st Annual BLADE Show, Cobb Galleria Centre, I-285 & US 41, one exit off I-75 across from the Cumberland Mall, adjacent to the Renaissance Waverly Hotel. World’s largest show of handmade, factory and antique knives. A combined total of nearly 1,000 exhibitor tables and booths. Join the world’s greatest national and international knifemakers, cutlery manufacturers, collectors, collections and knife lovers. Site of the BLADE Magazine 2022 Knife Of-The-Year® Awards for factory knives, the BLADE Show Custom Knife Judging Competition, the BLADE Magazine Cutlery Hall-Of-Fame© inductions and much more. Host to BLADE University, the annual ABS meeting and more. Seminars include the BLADE Show World Championship Cutting Competitions, how to use knives, how to make them, etc. Contact BLADE®, c/o Alicia Newton blade@bladeshow.com.* ** **Editor’s note: Due to possible last-minute cancellations, if you plan to attend any of the shows listed, please contact them for more information. To ensure timely publication of your knife show in the “Show Calendar,” BLADE® requests that you e-mail all pertinent information concerning your show in written form—dates, locations, etc.—at least three months before the show takes place to BLADE c/o Lori McDaniel at lori@gundigest.com and/or Steve Shackleford at steve@blademag.com. BLADE depends on the shows themselves for prompt and accurate information. For the latest knives, knife news, trends, and more, visit blademag.com, BLADE®’s popular Instagram page @blade_magazine, and on Facebook and Twitter.

NEW LOCATION Long Beach, California October 8-9, 2021 BLADE Show West is BACK for 2021! Hosted by BLADE Magazine, this premier event brings knifemakers, factory manufacturers and suppliers together at the Long Beach Convention Center for the ultimate West Coast knife experience.

Get your knife fix here! + More than 200 custom and factory exhibitors + Return of the Chef Knife Cutting Competition + Meet top makers at the West Coast Pit + West Coast Flipping Championship + Free knifemaking seminars and demos + Dozens of raffles and giveaways

Exhibitor, lodging & ticket info:

bladeshowwest.com

Long Beach Convention Center 300 East Ocean Boulevard Long Beach, CA 90802

Connect with us at #bladeshow

Interested in exhibiting? Email us at bladewest@bladeshow.com

Blade Shoppe

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For Advertising Information contact: Lori McDaniel, Advertising Sales lori@gundigest.com 715.498.3768 Advertising Deadlines: August issue - May 21

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*We are not afﬁliated with the “R.W. Loveless Knives” logos and products being made after Bob’s death or any late period knives.

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L.T. Wright Handcrafted Knives www.ltwrightknives.com info@ltwrightknives.com LATAMA Cutlery www.latama.com pick@latama.com Spring Steel-Oil-Newsletter Lee's Cutlery www.leescutlery.com beeneJL43@earthlink.net Martin Butler Engraver martsart81@gmail.com One-Of-A-Kind Engraver Mike Murphy Michigan Custom Knives www.michigancustomknives.com mlds@tm.net Purveyor of Custom Knives New Graham Knives www.newgraham.com mdye@newgraham.com

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LORI MCDANIEL:715-498-3768

• lori@gundigest.com

ADVERTISERS’ INDEX A Arizona Ironwood.................................. 63 Artisan Cutlery/CJRB ............................ 19 B Blade Magazine ..................................... 73 Blade Magazine ..................................... 75 BladeGallery .......................................... 27 Blue Ridge Knives ................................. 44 Boker USA............................................. 50 Boker USA............................................. 51 Bradford Knives .................................... 45 Britton, Tim ........................................... 41 Buckeye Engraving-Steel Stamps ........ 63 C CAS Iberia ............................................. 63 Chris Reeve Knives ................................. 5 Columbia River Knife and Tool ............. 51 D Damasteel AB........................................ 33 Davidson, Edmund ............................... 74

E Evenheat Kiln, Inc. ................................ 71 F Fallkniven............................................... 33 G Giant Mouse Knives ................................ 8 H Halfbreed Blades Australia Pty Ltd. ...... 83 Hawkins Knifemaking Supplies ............ 71 Hogue Knives ........................................ 18 J Jantz Supply.......................................... 11 Jantz Supply.......................................... 17 John Denton Loveless Knives .............. 74 K KA-BAR Knives ..................................... 84 Kayne Custom Hardware Inc................ 37 Knife & Gun Finishing Supplies............ 36 Knives Plus ........................................... 81 Krudo Knives......................................... 74

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M Masecraft Supply Co ............................ 37 Maserin Cutlery..................................... 35 Medford Knife & Tool ........................... 21 MGE Wholesale..................................... 29 Moen Tooling ........................................ 74 N NC Tool Company ................................. 51 Niagara Specialty Metals ...................... 43 Nichols Damascus Inc .......................... 81 Nordic Knives ........................................ 36 O Olamic Cutlery......................................... 8 Oreste Frati SRL.................................... 15 P Pro-Tech Knives, LLC .................... 35 PVK.COM ..........................................3 Q QSP Knife .............................................. 59

R Randall Made Knives ............................ 71 Recon 1 ................................................. 62 S Smoky Mountain Knife Works ............... 7 Spartan Blades ...................................... 71 Spyderco, Inc .......................................... 5 T TFS Knives ............................................ 74 TOPS Knives ........................................... 9 Tormach, LLC........................................ 25 True North Knives ................................. 43 Tru-Grit .................................................. 81 V VZ Grips ................................................ 69 W W.R. Case & Sons Cutlery, Co. .............. 2 White River Knife & Tool Inc ................ 81 White, Gordon....................................... 74

The advertisers’ index is provided as a reader service. Occasional last-minute changes may result in ads appearing on pages other than those listed here. The publisher assumes no liability for omissions or errors.

Lori McDaniel Advertising Sales 715-498-3768 lori@gundigest.com

Issue Date

Ad Deadline

November 2021 December 2021

August 11, 2021 September 7, 2021

spec chart

KNIFE NAME: Fool’s Dagger BLADE LENGTH: 7.5” BLADE STEEL: Damascus

forged by Devin Thomas HANDLE: Interior mammoth ivory BOLSTER: Damascus OVERALL LENGTH: 13” KNIFE TO KNOW: The name Fool’s Dagger comes from the pyrite, aka fool’s gold, sphere in the pommel MAKER’S LIST PRICE FOR A SIMILAR KNIFE:

$2,500 MAKER:

Richard Dawes, Dept. BL9, 1013 Cypress Dr., Rolla, MO 65401 573-308-3101 dawesr@mst. edu (SharpByCoop image)

spec chart KNIFE NAME: Persian Bowie BLADE LENGTH: 13” BLADE STEEL: Ladder-pattern

KNIFE NAME: Art Deco Egyptian Revival KNIFE TYPE: Fixed dagger BLADE LENGTH: 10” BLADE STEEL: Mosaic damascus

forged by Dave Lisch HANDLE MATERIAL: Stainless steel HANDLE FRAME: Bronze BOLSTER: Bronze with damascus accents ENGRAVING: Inlaid in fine gold, platinum and copper by Ray Cover. Ray created the multi-piece head studies on the sides of the guard in rose gold, yellow gold and zirconium OVERALL LENGTH: 11” MAKER’S REMARKS: “I’ve had the vision of an Art Deco dagger for several years. There was much discussion with Ray, and after hearing my idea for the Egyptian head studies, he formulated the plan on how to make them. Eventually, I just told him to do whatever he wanted. We’ve always worked well that way. This knife represents some of the most complex work we’ve done together.” MAKER’S PRICE FOR A SIMLAR KNIFE: $18,000 MAKER: David Broadwell, Dept. BL9, 2011 Wenonah Ave.,

Wichita Falls, TX 76309 940-782-4442 david@broadwellstudios.com (SharpByCoop image)

damascus BLADE PATTERN:

Upswept

recurve HANDLE MATERIAL:

Tasmanian

blackwood FITTINGS: Silver OVERALL LENGTH: 19” KNIFE TO KNOW: Includes a dropped handle design with pins and a modified “S” guard MAKER: Brian Sellers, Dept. BL9, 616 Virginia Dr., Dothan, AL 36301 334-7981680 cb_sellers@yahoo.com (Whetstone Studio image)

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- S E P T E M B E R 2 0 2 1

spec chart KNIFE NAME: Omega KNIFE TYPE: Dress tactical folder BLADE LENGTH: 3.5” BLADE MATERIAL: Mike Norris damascus HANDLE MATERIAL: Titanium HANDLE FRAME: Titanium BOLSTER: Zirconium CLOSED LENGTH: 5” MAKER’S REMARK: “This is a broke-back

Omega, with a semi-exposed spacer and twopart scales on each side of the handle.” MAKER’S PRICE FOR A SIMILAR KNIFE: $2,500-$3,000 (minus the fancy

spacer) MAKER: Ian Pickarski, CMF Metalworks,

Dept. BL9, 531 Park Ave., Harleysville, PA 19438 267-880-7073 cmfmetalworks@ gmail.com (SharpByCoop image)

spec chart KNIFE NAME: Uncle Mike Skinner BLADE LENGTH: 3.5” BLADE STEEL: Damascus in the

Flamethrower pattern HANDLE: Mammoth tooth ivory BOLSTER: 416 stainless steel OVERALL LENGTH: 8.5” MAKER’S PRICE FOR A SIMILAR KNIFE: $950 KNIFE TO KNOW: The maker earned

his ABS journeyman smith stamp at this year’s BLADE Show MAKER: Brett Noake, Dept. BL9, 1822

Katlyn Ln., Spring, TX 77386 832-5733061 brett.noake@gmail.com (SharpByCoop image)

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760 East Francis Street, Unit N (909) 923-4116 Ontario, California 91761 trugritinc@gmail.com ABRASIVE BELTS, BLOCKS, DISCS, PADS, ROLLS, STONES & WHEELS ∙ ADHESIVES ∙ BLADE BLANKS ∙ BUFFERS ∙ BUFFING WHEELS ∙ CARBON FIBER ∙ COMPOUNDS ∙ DAMASCUS ∙ ETCHING SUPPLIES ∙ KILNS ∙ GRINDERS ∙ HANDLE MATERIALS ∙ HARDWARE ∙ HEAT TREATING PRODUCTS & SERVICES ∙ KNIFE CASES ∙ KYDEX ∙ LINERS ∙ MACHINES & ACCESSORIES ∙ MOSAIC PINS ∙ PARTS ∙ SAFETY PRODUCTS ∙ SCOTCH-BRITE ∙ SHARPENING SUPPLIES ∙ SHEETS ∙ STEELS ∙ TITANIUM & MUCH MORE M TM

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We are a stocking dealer of most major knife brands since 1987.

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BY BLADE® STAFF

he End of The Trail by Dennis Friedly is a theme piece dealing with the separate battles that American Indians and the Plains bison fought for survival in 19th-century America. The famous sculpture of the same name by James Earle Fraser is reproduced in 24k gold inlay engraving by Gil Rudolph on one bolster and an American bison on the other. The look and even of the texture of the distinctive ancient bark ivory slabs resemble that of a bison. Meanwhile, Rudolph’s spectacular 24k-gold and raised gold work engravings are configured to represent various symbols of American Indian culture, including all over the guard, pommel and spines of the handle and blade.

For more information, contact Dennis Friedly, Dept. BL9, 12 Cottontail Ln. E, Cody, WY 82414 307-527-6811 friedlyknives@hotmail. com, friedlyknives.com. For the latest knives, knife news, trends, and more, visit blademag.com, BLADE®’s popular Instagram page @blade_magazine, and on Facebook and Twitter.

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