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Steve Shackleford

Give It Up for Pocketknives

The simple pockeknife still holds its own after all these years.

Whether a four-figure custom slip joint, an inexpensive factory keychain knife or what you, if it’s a knife that carries in a pocket, it is a pocketknife. Pocketknives have a colorful heritage, one that not only represents some of the best cutting tools mankind has ever produced but at times has been on the right side of history as well.

Some of the first known folding knife designs date to the Roman era, if not earlier. However, the fact many Romans wore togas or tunics—most if not all of which were pocketless—precluded most of them from carrying pocketknives. If not, Brutus and his co-conspirators likely would’ve used pocketknives instead of the daggers they employed to dispatch Julius Caesar. Daggers suffered centuries of bans afterward and continue to be targeted by misguided anti-knifers to this day. If pocketknives could talk, the feeling here is they would probably thank the pocketless togas and/or tunics.

Fast forward to Sheffield, England, where the Masters of the London Cutlers Guild listed members as early as the 16th century. The pocketknives made in Sheffield for centuries remain some of the most remarkable specimens ever. Meanwhile, a number of the Sheffield makers came to America in the 19th century. Their influence helped jump start the U.S. pocketknife industry in the 1800s and aided in revolutionizing it in the 20th century. From the barlow to the stockman and scores of other patterns, many Americans carried pocketknives daily for almost every chore under the sun. That tradition was passed down from generation to generation and became an American institution.

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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)

The most famous of Americans carried pocketknives, including presidents such as George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. Acting icon John Wayne used pocketknives in some of his movie roles, including as Jacob McCandles in Big Jake and Capt. Nathan Brittles in She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, to name but two. Even Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts had pocketknives made expressly for them, with the latter holding the distinction of being among the first if not the first sporting knives designed expressly for the feminine gender.

Closer to home, the argument can be made there would be no BLADE Show without pocketknives, as the two men who created the show—BLADE Magazine Cutlery Hall-Of-Fame® members Bruce Voyles and Jim Parker—parlayed their love of traditional pocketknives into long cutlery careers that helped make knife collecting something worth doing. Jim, Bruce and others were among many in the South who celebrated the early trading of pocketknives on the courthouse steps of local communities, and eventually helped capture the imagination of knife enthusiasts everywhere.

Pocketknives are not just a British/American phenomenon but a worldwide one. The navaja of Spain, the Opinel of France, German models of many stripes, and perhaps the most famous pocketknife of all, the Swiss Army knife (SAK) of Switzerland, are but four examples.

Two of the leading knife genres of the past half century, tactical folders and EDCs, owe much of their appeal to being pocketknives. In fact, pocketknives have provided the platform for the introduction of some of the most influential advancements in cutlery, including assorted opening and locking mechanisms, hi-tech materials and knifemaking methods, and much more.

Give it up for pocketknives. Without them, cutlery would be nowhere near—in fact, about half—the vibrant worldwide industry it is today.

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2024 BLADE Show Texas Preview

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Everything at BLADE Show Texas just keeps getting bigger

More exhibitors—a whopping 100 more, north of 400 in all, plus an additional 28,000 square feet of space over last year—displaying the finest knives, knife accessories and all that cuts promise to make the burgeoning BLADE Show Texas the best rendition yet.

Mike Quesenberry takedown dogbone bowie
Mike Quesenberry takedown dogbone bowie features a 10-inch blade of a Turkish twist damascus and an ancient walrus ivory handle with 18k-gold buttons and escutcheon plates. (SharpByCoop knife image)

Set for Feb. 23-24 at the Fort Worth Convention Center in Fort Worth, Texas, the show will host exhibitors from around the world, including those from Australia, Brazil, China, Italy, Russia, Sweden and elsewhere. Exhibitors will include top American custom knifemakers, ABS master smiths, returning winners of BLADE Show Texas ’23 custom knife judging awards and BLADE Magazine Cutlery Hall-Of-Fame® members, and some of the world’s leading factory knife companies, including many current and past winners of BLADE Magazine Knife-Of-The-Year® Awards and returning winners of BLADE Show Texas ’23 factory knife judging honors.

BLADE Show Texas will be the first of three BLADE Show sponsored events for 2024, the other two being the grandaddy of them all, the 43rd Annual BLADE Show June 7-9 at the Cobb Galleria Centre in Atlanta, and BLADE Show West 2024 at the Salt Palace Convention Center Oct. 4-5 in Salt Lake City, Utah.

bLADE SHOW TEXAS

But first things first in Fort Worth, where knife enthusiasts will enjoy the complete gamut of custom and factory knives and accessories, including art, utility, bowies, EDC, slip joints, automatics, balisongs, kukris, daggers, tactical, tomahawks, swords, sharpeners and more, from low end to high end, stock removal to forged, fixed blade to folder. And if the exhibiting makers don’t have what you’re looking for, the exhibiting custom knife purveyors and factory retailers probably will—and if they don’t, they can put you in touch with someone who does.

For knife hobbyists and novice and veteran makers alike, the show’s diverse selection of knifemaking supplies and suppliers will have the materials, tools and equipment you need to make the knife of your dreams. From the latest steels, handle materials, hardware, sheath materials to most every knife part extant, the show’s suppliers should have it.

BLADE SHOW TEXAS AWARDS

TOPS Camp Creek Fire Edition
TOPS Knives will display its extensive array of outdoor knives, including the Camp Creek Fire Edition in CPM S35VN stainless steel and a comfortably contoured handle of red/black G-10. Country of origin: USA. MSRP: $280.

There will be some changes in both the show’s custom and factory knife judging.

The change in the custom segment is small with the simple addition of a Best of the Rest category to provide an avenue for tomahawks, swords, innovative designs and other “specialty pieces” to win an award. Best of the Rest joins the existing stable of custom awards that also includes Best Art, Best Bowie, Best Damascus, Best EDC, Best Fighter, Best Folding Knife, Best Hunting Knife, Best Kitchen Knife, Best Slip Joint, Best M.A.C.K. (Machine Assisted Custom Knife) and Best in Show.

Josh Fisher, Karis Fisher, and John Horrigan.
Returning to defend their custom knife award winning titles from last year’s show will be ABS master smiths (from left, with awards in parentheses): Josh Fisher (Best Bowie), Karis Fisher (Best Hunting Knife and Best Fighter), and John Horrigan (Best Damascus).

The shakeup in the factory categories includes eliminating Best Tactical and adding Best American Made, Best Imported and Best of the Rest. The addition of the former two addresses the top knives made both domestically and offshore, while the latter does the same for the factory segment that it does for the custom one.

The custom and factory knife judging is reserved exclusively for show exhibitors, all of whom received packets with complete details on category descriptions, judging rules and more prior to checking into the show.

Final Cut

BLADE Show Texas seems to be growing exponentially, as are the show’s exhibitors and fans. Go exponential your own self and join the party in February!

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2024 Knife Buying Trends: Collectors Tighten Up Their Wallets

After smashing years in the post-pandemic, knife buying has somewhat cooled for the time being.

While the outward signs of the pandemic—masks, shutdowns, etc.—that ravaged the world in the earlier part of the decade are largely gone now, the economic impacts remain. That includes in the world of knives.

Factory knife sales rolled right along in the first couple of years or so of the pandemic, due partly to the federal government stimulus checks and extended unemployment benefits offered to many Americans. The checks and benefits eventually stopped but healthy knife sales continued unabated throughout much of the factory knife industry into mid-2022. That’s when one company experiencing record sales the first six months saw consumer spending “suddenly jerk to a halt in the second half” of the year.

“Dealers had loaded up with knives going into the summer because they expected the Covid spending wave to continue and were left holding a ton of inventory that’s been moving very slow ever since,” wrote the company’s spokesperson. Consequently, he noted, his company’s sales were down about 30 percent in 2023.

However, again according to the company spokesperson, as important a role as the end of the flow of the “free” government money to Americans would seem to have played in the knife sales downturn, it “was small potatoes” in comparison to two larger factors—a poor economy and a lack of consumer discretionary funds in general.

“Confidence is down, so people are being conservative with their discretionary spending,” he noted. “Second, not everyone has discretionary funds, so while the cost of pretty much everything continues to rise, income growth is stagnant for people who were already underpaid.”

Another company spokesperson who stated his company’s sales were down about 8 percent in 2023 cited another cause.

“There is also pent-up demand to go out to restaurants and clubs since the pandemic. People are spending money on experiences [instead of on knives],” he opined. “I see this as temporary and will subside as they realize hamburgers cost $18 and service stinks.”

Even though TOPS Knives’ sales were up 15 percent at BLADE Show West ’23 over the previous year’s show, company general manager Craig Powell indicated he still noticed a sign of conservative knife buying at this year’s show in Salt Lake City.

“We are seeing people tighten their belts and being a little more frugal than in years past,” he observed after the show. Rather than the belt-tightening being reflected in the prices paid for individual knives, Craig wrote, “We saw people that otherwise would have purchased two or three knives buy just the one.”

It should be noted that not every company BLADE® contacted experienced sales drops in ’23. For instance, Condor Tool & Knife reported sales were even compared to ’22, while Coast reported a solid increase of 12 percent in ’23. Officials of both companies indicated they would not be raising prices in ’24, though the aforementioned companies that suffered sales drops in ’23 will be.

“We have a few products going up in price in 2024,” one company spokesperson wrote, “somewhere between 3 and 5 percent, mostly to cover our increased costs in labor and fuel.” Another company spokesperson stated his company would be implementing a 5 percent increase across the board for similar reasons. “We’re hearing that other brands are raising their prices much more than that, so we’re doing everything we can to keep our knives as affordable as possible for consumers without reducing quality,” he observed.

It should be noted here that the companies cited in this story represent a small segment of the industry. Moreover, we at BLADE believe in the ebb and flow of knife sales as outlined by Chris Quinn of GP Knives, and that most of the players in the knife industry who experienced down years won’t be down for long.

Nonetheless, perhaps more than ever, BLADE urges you to monitor the prices charged for knives in 2024. Today’s knives are of higher production quality and materials than their predecessors but, as always, it’s up to you to ensure that you get the best knife with the best bang for your buck.

Check Out Our Buyer’s Guides:

2024 Knife Trends: Watchwords For The Coming Year

Chris Quinn of GP Knives is familiar with the ebb and flow of trends and styles in the knife industry and advises to approach the ’24 market with an appreciation of that ongoing phenomenon.

“The knife industry is quite the rollercoaster,” he related, “and what could be popular in the future is anybody’s guess and depends on a lot of things, but mostly the economy at the time. We are a disposable income industry. Over the past year, as inflation and interest rates continued to rise, our industry has had a noticeable slowdown. That said, items that continue to sell well are either hard to get, limited production and exclusive, or a good deal. I don’t see that changing anytime soon.”

Economical & Political Tides

Considering the economic influences and the fact that knife prices naturally rise in step with costs related to materials, production time, scarcity and maker branding, then keeping a keen eye on value is a watchword for the new year.

“2024 is an election year,” Quinn commented. “They are always tricky to navigate. Who’s next in office has a direct effect on the shooting and cutlery industries.”

With this influence, he looks forward to a couple of developing style aspects in the next year.

“The more fidgety the better,” he smiled. “A large percentage of knives aren’t used for more than fidget toys these days, or at least they need to function that way to impress the end user. Popular fidgety locks like Demko’s Shark Lock or WE Knife/CIVIVI’s SuperLock or Pro-Tech’s button lock are all the rage. The smoother and faster the opening and closing a folder can be the better. Traditional folders are hanging in there, but EDC is king. Also, the automatic category continues to grow as we see more and more states loosening their laws on ownership and carry.”

Summarizing, Quinn related, “I don’t have much in the way of predicting styles of knives and don’t see longstanding industry leaders lowering their prices soon, but I do see smaller makers getting more competitive to take the space the giants have abandoned.”

Check Out Our Buyer’s Guides:

In Memoriam Of Grant Hawk: 1941-2023

The award-winning knifemaker and designer passed at 82 after a life filled with adventure and craftsmanship.

Award-winning knifemaker and knife designer Grant Hawk of Hawk Knives passed away peacefully at his Idaho City, Idaho, residence on November 8. He was 82.

Born in Boise, Idaho, on Feb. 15, 1941, to Woodrow Allen “Kelly” Stroud and Dortha Bunce, Grant’s life was a remarkable journey of adventure, resilience and creativity. His early years were spent as a cowboy in Boise, where his connection with the outdoors and love for craftsmanship began. The 1960s saw Grant moving to California to make camper trailers, but he quickly became entangled in the revolutionary spirit of the era, leading to a brush with the law. This encounter prompted a pivotal decision in his life: to adopt a new identity and retreat to the Idaho mountains.

In his seclusion, living in a teepee, Grant’s interest in gold prospecting blossomed. This pursuit marked his gradual reintegration into society and laid the groundwork for his future endeavors. It was during this period of reflection and growth that he discovered his true calling in knifemaking.

Alongside his son, Gavin, Grant embarked on a remarkable journey in the world of craftsmanship. Together they forged a path in knifemaking, combining adventurous spirit with Grant’s innate skill and creativity. Their collaboration led to the creation of distinctive and innovative knife designs, earning acclaim in the knifemaking community.

His final accomplishment was completing his autobiography, which he delivered to the printer just two days before his passing. On the night of his death, he was in good spirits and feeling well, but unexpectedly fell ill and passed away gracefully within 15 minutes.

Grant’s life was a tapestry of diverse experiences, from cowboy to gold prospector, and finally to a revered knifemaker. His legacy lives on through his son Gavin and their shared creations, which continue to inspire and captivate knife enthusiasts around the world.

Grant’s story is a testament to the power of resilience, adaptation and the pursuit of passion. His memory will be cherished by his family, friends, and all who knew him as a man who carved his path, much like the knives he so skillfully crafted.

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Hawaii Continues Balisong Battle In Courts

Knife Rights reported on September 22 that Hawaii had petitioned the Ninth Circuit Court for a rehearing en banc in an attempt to overturn a recent 3-0 panel decision that ruled the state’s balisong ban unconstitutional under the Second Amendment.

The panel decision in favor of the appellants in Teter v. Lopez was a big win for Second Amendment (2A) supporters. However, the decision would be rendered moot if the Ninth Circuit grants Hawaii’s petition for the en banc rehearing and then the state is somehow able to have the decision overturned.

Among other unconstitutional assertions, Hawaii’s petition claims that only weapons “commonly used for self-defense” are 2A protected. As Knife Rights (KR) points out, such a claim was refuted by the U.S. Supreme Court decision in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association, Inc. v. Bruen, which established that arms usable for “any lawful purpose” are 2A protected and not just those used “commonly for self-defense.”

Hawaii’s petition includes the dishonest claim, “If left undisturbed, the panel’s analysis will govern challenges involving many highly dangerous weapons that States quite reasonably seek to regulate or ban: assault weapons, high-capacity magazines, and more.”

The state’s insinuation that a balisong is “a highly dangerous weapon” is ludicrous and unsupported by the facts. Where are all the instances and facts and figures of balisongs being highly dangerous? I’ve watched 13-year-olds-and-up flip balisongs for the past seven years at Blade HQ’s Battle for Bali-Champion at the BLADE Show, not to mention the West Coast Flipping Championships conducted by Squid Industries at BLADE Show West, and I’ve yet to see any “highly dangerous weapon” activity in any of them. Besides, if such contests were full of activity involving “highly dangerous weapons”—especially when youngsters are actively involved—not only would show officials cancel them but the venues hosting the shows would forbid them as well, something none of them have done.

BLADE Show's first balisong competition
BLADE Show 2017 hosted its first-ever balling competition coordinated by Blade HQ.

Adding to the absurdity of the state’s petition is its not-so-veiled attempt to include balisongs in the ambiguous world of “assault weapons.” “Assault weapon” is one of those anti-2A boogeyman catchall terms that has never been adequately defined for legal or legislative purposes by anyone or anything at any time—in large part because millions of items, from human fists to automobiles, are used as assault weapons. As a result, any law-abiding judge should reject any petition containing the term “assault weapon” as legally null and void due to its use of indefinable, overly inclusive language.

At press time, KR indicated the next step was for the petition to be circulated to all active Ninth Circuit judges and any senior judge who chose to participate. As KR noted, it was likely that the appellants would be required to respond to the petition about why the court should not rehear the case, though the judges could just vote on it instead. “Odds are that sooner or later the court will vote to rehear the case,” KR noted on its website, kniferights.org, “but we’ll see.”

If you live in Hawaii, contact your state officials and tell them to pull all the strings they can to uphold the panel’s decision asserting that the bali ban is unconstitutional. Meanwhile, stay tuned to KR’s website for updates.
Considering the left-leaning history of the Ninth Circuit Court, this decision has huge precedent-setting implications.

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Spectacles In Steel: A Look At Definitive Damascus Patterns

Modern makers’ takes on this age-old steel art.

When BLADE Magazine Cutlery Hall-Of-Fame® member Bill Moran reintroduced knives with damascus blades at the 1973 Knifemakers’ Guild Show, little did he know how much damascus would evolve, redefine itself, expand into new media, and no telling what other recreations and rebirthings it has experienced in the half-century since that fateful weekend in the Muehlebach Hotel in downtown Kansas City.

On this page are some of today’s reincarnations of the material in its various forms, methods, materials and more. What’s staggering to consider is there are so many more variations—not only now but also to come. It is a phenomenon that is truly unique to the custom knife industry and should be celebrated and promoted whenever possible.

David Lisch Templars Mosaic

David Lisch’s dagger
David Lisch’s spectacular art dagger features a 12-inch blade of his Templars Mosaic Damascus, a blackwood handle with gold wire wrap and a guard of pure iron covered in melted gold. Overall length: 17.75 inches. The knife comes with a stand that includes an embellished templars’ cross and one carved in the base as well. (SharpByCoop knife images)

Sporting a pattern ABS master smith David Lisch christened Templars Mosaic, the blade for his dagger is one he forged from 15N20 nickel-alloy and 1080 carbon steels and etched in ferric chloride.

“I was aiming for a bold, bright pattern that had a cross-like shape but wanted it to be a bit organic,” he wrote. The Templars’ cross also is represented on the guard and the finial, and there is one on the stand that holds the knife as well. “All these parts are pure iron covered in melted gold,” he noted. The dagger also has a domed gold spacer between the guard and Dragon Thunder damascus spacer that the fluted-blackwood-with-gold-wire-inlay handle butts up against.

“I made this dagger out of the love I have for creating art with no concern about how long it took or how much money I would make from it,” David stressed. “I did the handle twice and I did the big finial twice. I sold the piece for $10,000 and will not be making another one like this. You can be sure that the love I have for creating will take me to a new dagger, sword or bowie knife that tries to fill the void in me that can only be filled by creating art.”

Jeremy Yelle Jellyroll Mosaic Turkish Twist

jellyroll mosaic Turkish twist pattern damascus
The steels for the jellyroll mosaic Turkish twist pattern damascus of the collaborative bowie by Jeremy Yelle (right) and Alex Houle (left) is forged from 1080 carbon and 15N20 nickel-alloy steels. Blade and overall lengths: 10.25 and 15.5 inches. Their list price for a similar knife: $2,600. (Jocelyn Frasier knife image edit)

The blade damascus of ABS journeyman smith Jeremy Yelle’s and SBK Cutlery’s stag bowie is a positively electric jellyroll mosaic Turkish twist pattern Jeremy forged in a collaboration with his friend Alex Houle of SBK. Alex forged the collaborative damascus into a blade and Jeremy made the handle.

“We began by welding a billet of alternate layers,” Jeremy wrote of the forging process. The pair drew the billet into a bar and jelly rolled it. “Then we squared it up and welded a four-way incorporating some 1-inch-square 1080,” he continued. They welded the billet, drew it out to ¾-inch square, cut and twisted it, and made a Turkish-twist stack that Alex forged into a blade. “You can also see the ‘fish mouth*’ weld Alex did so the edge bar and the spine meet properly,” Jeremy wrote. “He did a wonderful job making the blade.” Jeremy showed Alex how to work with stag and they finished the parts. Alex revealed the beautiful pattern via a two-step etching process using a solution of ferric chloride and finishing the etch with a coffee-darkening soak and hot wax finish.

Zane Dvorak Multi-Bar

multi-bar damascus
The 4.25-inch blade of Zane Dvorak’s hunter is a multi-bar damascus of 1084 carbon and 15N20 nickel-alloy steels. Overall length: 9.25 inches. His price for a similar knife: $2,400. (SharpByCoop image)

The blade of Zane Dvorak’s hunter is a multi-bar damascus of 1084 carbon and 15N20 nickel-alloy steels. Zane forged the blade/tang of four twisted bars of a twisted-bar pattern, and forged welded the guards and bolsters on with the same pattern. He bird’s mouthed the blade tip and rewelded it back together to create flowing outer bars. For etchant he used Gator Piss Acid from Baker Forge & Tool.

Bird’s mouthing is a process done on multi-bar, mosaic or other types of damascus patterns. According to Zane, it involves cutting a triangle out of the end of the rectangular parent bar—the shape of which somewhat resembles a bird’s mouth—then bringing the steel of the edge and spine back together to form the point of the blade. By doing so the blade exhibits a better consistency and overall flow of the pattern.

Andrew Blomfield Alternate Pattern

mosaic damascus Andrew Blomfield’s sub-hilt fighter
The mosaic damascus for Andrew Blomfield’s sub-hilt fighter is a combo of two separate billets welded in an alternate pattern. Blade and overall lengths: 9.5 and 14.5 inches. Blade grind: flat. Andrew’s price for a similar knife: $3,000. (SharpByCoop image)

The material mid-blade of Andrew Blomfield’s sub-hilt fighter is a combination of two separate billets of mosaic damascus welded in an alternate pattern. The edge is a straight feather pattern forge welded around the edge. The blade is a combination of pieces from three separate billets. The steels are 1084 carbon and 15N20 nickel alloy etched with ferric chloride.

The integral sub-hilt is 1020 low-carbon steel hot salt blued to a deep black finish. The handle is desert ironwood. The knife is of a full takedown construction.

Frank Edwards Palm Leaf Mosaic Pattern

 Palm Leaf mosaic damascus by Frank Edwards i
The Palm Leaf mosaic damascus by Frank Edwards is an interweaving river system of straight lines. The handle inlay is black-lip mother-of-pearl. Blade and closed lengths: 3 and 4.25 inches. His price for a similar knife: $1,900. (SharpByCoop knife image)

The multi-bar damascus of Frank Edwards’s folding dagger blade is in a Palm Leaf mosaic pattern. Starting with a billet of straight lines, he reduced it all into a square and then biased the squares, four-waying the billet into a 1.5-inch square.

As Frank explained his recipe, “Forge weld another billet of straight lines, keeping them straight as possible to .5 inch by 1.5 inches. Add that to the previous billet and forge weld and reduce to a 1×1-inch square. Then four-way it again. This will give you the frame around the palm leaves. Keep repeating that until you achieve the size of pattern for the knife you’re building.

“The key to getting good mosaics is a slower reduction [of the steel]. We have presses and power hammers that help but they can move too much metal too fast, which will destroy a mosaic in a hurry. The slower reduction allows the billet to stay uniform throughout the length of the bar.” 
To expose the pattern he etched the blade with a four-to-one mixture of water/ferric chloride in 10-minute cycles, using 2,000-grit sandpaper between cycles.

Jackson Rumble Stunning Pattern

unnamed damascus pattern
The 8-inch blade of an integral chef’s knife by Jackson Rumble boasts a mesmerizing and at press time unnamed damascus pattern forged from 1084 carbon and 15N20 nickel-alloy steels. The handle is African blackwood. Overall length: 13 inches. The maker’s price for a similar knife would start at $2,500. (SharpByCoop knife image)

The technique for the stunning pattern on newly named ABS master smith Jackson Rumble’s chef’s knife is what he calls a “pretty standard process” of four-way welding and re-square cycles. Not bad for “pretty standard,” eh (page 28, top left)? The initial stack has large sections of both light and dark steels interspersed through the alternating layers, and Jackson added extra-light steel to the billet in the later stages of the forging process.

“Finally, I used the Filicietti Flip method to transfer the pattern to the face of the billet,” he wrote. “For the etching process I used ferric chloride followed by coffee.”
OK, Jackson, so what’s the “Filicietti Flip method”?

“I’ve heard the Filicietti Flip called other names like the Ferry Flip, or just tile welding,” he explained. “Basically, after you’ve finished building the pattern in the end grain of the billet, you take it to a bandsaw and cut slices off the end at a 35-degree angle. This makes a bunch of pieces in the shape of parallelograms or tiles. The tiles can then be rotated and forge welded back together to form a new billet. Instead of having the pattern showing on the end of the billet, the pattern will repeat itself along the face of the billet.”

We’re glad we asked.

*Also called fish lips, fish mouth is when the tip of the billet begins to curl up on either side during rough forging to resemble a fish’s mouth or lips, thus the name. It is an easy fix for knowledgeable bladesmiths such as Alex Houle.

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