Joe Kertzman

An article on the lost art of knife sharpening in Spain rang true to this knife enthusiast, and I’m sure it will for you, too. In an article posted on BBC News Business and written by Tom Burridge of BBC News, Madrid, Burridge reports on two men, Rafael Antonio and Rafael Romero del Campo, who use motorbikes to take their knife-sharpening services to businesses in Madrid. 

The whirl of the petro-powered stone wheels can be heard in the early-morning hours. As Burridge writes, “A shrill, but tuneful whistle reverberated around the narrow streets of my neighbourhood in central Madrid. I peered from my balcony, and, in the distance, there he was. His name is Antonio, an elderly man, dressed in simple clothes, who grew up in a Spain that is far removed from the country we both live in today. And he is practicing a Spanish tradition that is slowly disappearing. Antonio is an afilador, which translates into English as a sharpener. He thinks he is one of only five left in the whole of Madrid.

Brandishing two of my best kitchen knives, which probably hadn’t been sharpened for going on 10 years, I ran down on to a silent, sleepy, Sunday morning street.”

Click here to read the rest of the article. Click here for more quality kitchen knives. Or get your own knife sharpener.

Just in time for the holidays comes THE EX Kitchen Knife Set—2nd Edition by Raffaele Iannello, available on eBay for $89.97. Color choices are blue, red, white, yellow, orange, black and silver, to match the decor, of course, of your ex’s kitchen, or your own kitchen as a reminder of why it’s yours and yours only now.

It’s the perfect gift for the voodoo princess or not-so-charming prince on your Christmas list.

Click here to see more.

Click here for more practical kitchen knives and tools.

Ok, so I’m curious if BladeMag.com readers and BLADE® Magazine subscribers have ever seen knives quite like young custom knifemaker Logan Pearce’s fixed blades fashioned from actual hand tools? Personally, I’ve seen knives made from files, car springs, railroad spikes, motorcycle chains and other steel bars and rods, but never from tools, and with parts of the tools still intact.

And I like the way Logan leaves the 3/4″ mark on the wrench and tire wrench, for instance, and half of the tool as a handle, and recognizable as an actual tool. I think it’s innovative and remarkable, so I’m posting it. But there’s that old saying that there is really nothing new in knives.

So, honestly, have you ever seen knives quite like this before? Click here for more traditional “multi-tools.”

On Saturday, December 7th, 2013, Emerson Knives, Inc., will hold a charity auction for “The Patriot Knife George Washington Collection,” with all proceeds donated to the Navy SEAL Foundation. The auction starts at 12 p.m. Pacific Standard Time. 

Ernest Emerson fashioned the handle of the George Washington Patriot knife using 250-year-old oak from a tree on Washington’s Union Farm property, a tree that was alive when Commander Washington led the Colonial Army to victory in the War for Independence. The knife comes with a copy of a surveyor’s map hand drawn by Washington himself, showing the very location of the tree on his property, along with a letter of provenance. And it has a custom-designed, die-cut copper gun metal coin inset into the handle featuring a striking profile of Washington as President of the United States.

The knife package to be auctioned also includes: a rare bottle of George Washington’s Whiskey distilled at the original Mount Vernon distillery using his recipe; a rare first-day-of-issue Washington Purple Heart stamp and artwork, postmarked at the Mount Vernon Post Office on its day of issue, May 30, 2003; an author-signed copy of George Washington: Gentleman Warrior by Stephen Brumwell; and a U.S. flag flown over the historic Washington Mount Vernon home, along with certificates of authentication.

Click here for more information. Click here to view the auction once it’s underway at noon December 7, 2013.