Joe Kertzman

The National Ornamental Metal Museum announces a solo exhibition of knifemaker, sculptor and artist Virgil England’s work to run from June 8 to Sept. 2, 2012. England has dedicated his exhibition to Daryl Meier and Bob and Jenny Willis.

England, who lives in Anchorage, Alaska, is a visionary in several respects. As a talented artisan and smith he creates unique knives and edged weapons which, at the same time, are perfectly interwoven with figurative allusions and details. All his works are part of the environment of a fantastic place, which he calls “Het Lands,” at sometime in the universe where an archaic civilization is confronted with the apparition of the “Seth Daemon.” But also actual antique eras inspired him to these fantastic ideas and to exactly these pieces of work. In 2004, he designed the “Empire Sword,” a series of Yatagan swords with reference to the powerful ancient Iranian kingdom of the Achaemenidic kings Cyrus and Darius, approximately 2,600 years ago. Since the 1970s, England worked as a knifemaker and started to increase his interest in intricate, multipartite projects of art. However, he never abandoned the knife blade.

F+W Media, Inc./BLADE® Magazine announced today the acquisition of Knifeforums.com, a premier online community for knife, firearms and outdoors enthusiasts. The acquisition complements the company’s current firearms, knives and outdoors communities, adding actively engaged enthusiasts who connect through Knifeforums.com’s highly trafficked web forums to its industry leading brands, including BLADE magazine, shopblade.com and the BLADE Show.

With this acquisition, F+W Media announces Jim Nowka, founder of Knifeforums.com, will join the company as associate publisher focused on developing content, engaging conversation, and building audience in the area of survival and disaster preparedness. Online forums, education, e-books and print books, as well as seminars at the BLADE Show & International Cutlery Fair, are in development now, led by Nowka together with the F+W Media team.

“Knifeforums.com has been a leading online resource for everyone who makes and appreciates great knives for nearly 15 years. It’s exciting to invite our Blade Magazine customers to their communities, and vice versa,” said David Blansfield, President, F+W Media. “And having Jim Nowka on the F+W team is a ‘win-win’ for everyone, for us and our customers. We’re excited to be working together to offer up new and improved products and services to people who are keenly interested in not just knives and firearms but disaster readiness as well.”

“Partnering Knifeforums with Blade magazine will benefit both parties,” said Nowka. “Knifeforums will now have access to the editorial resources of the BLADE and Gun Digest brands, while the editors can engage directly with our forums’ communities. This coming-together will help us provide the information resources current and future customers need. Expanding our interests further into survival and disaster preparedness will be a big-plus too.” Nowka is formerly an advisor to the Combined Forces Special Operations Component Command (CFSOCC-A) and is recognized as an expert in scenario planning and disaster readiness.

The Firearms, Knives, and Outdoors Communities at F+W includes: BLADE Magazine; the Blade Show & International Cutlery Fair, held every June in Atlanta, GA; Gun Digest magazine; Tactical Gear Magazine; Gun Digest Books; and ecommerce stores GunDigestStore.com and ShopBlade.com. Knifeforums.com brings a broad range of topics to the community – outdoor cooking, kitchen cutlery, survival and disaster preparedness. For more than 35 years, Deer & Deer Hunting Magazine has provided serious whitetail hunters with practical and comprehensive information about deer and deer behavior to make them better hunters. The popularity of the magazine led to the launch of two television programs – Deer & Deer Hunting TV (now in its 7th season on Versus) and the newest release Land of Whitetail (appearing on The Pursuit Network).