Steve Shackleford, Author at BLADE Magazine

Enter KA-BAR’s Pumpkin Carving Contest

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October 15, 2013

Break out your favorite KA-BAR knife, grab a pumpkin and commence to carving—it’s time for KA-BAR’s third annual Pumpkin Carving Contest!

The winner will receive a free KA-BAR knife. The contest runs through Halloween, Oct. 31.

Using your favorite KA-BAR knife, carve a pumpkin and photograph the result. The photograph must also include the KA-BAR knife you used to do the carving. Upload the image to any of the KA-BAR social media channels—see below for a list of them—and you are officially entered.

Since you’ll need to upload the shot, you’ll need to use a digital camera. If you don’t have a digital camera, borrow one from a friend, or shoot a print and have a friend scan the image and upload it for you.

Be sure to follow all standard safety procedures when carving, including using a sharp knife—to ensure it’s sharp, touch the edge up beforehand—and when carving, cut AWAY from you and anyone else in the vicinity. You might even want to keep a box of bandages and other medicinal items on hand while you carve. You never can tell when you might get a bit klutzy (hey, it happens to all of us from time to time, right?).

If you have any questions about rules, eligibility, etc., contact [email protected]. They will be happy to help.

KA-BAR social media channels include https://www.facebook.com/KABARKNIVES and

https://twitter.com/KA_BAR

https://plus.google.com/u/0/108773739377759118633/posts

For the latest knives, knife news and more, keep it at www.blademag.com (www.blademag.com).

And happy trick or treating and Happy Halloween!

How To Reserve Your Hotel Room For the BLADE Show

BLADE Show

Steve Shackleford

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October 9, 2013

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How To Reserve Your Hotel Room For the BLADE Show

It’s that time of year again—when people start tearing their hair out trying to reserve their hotel rooms for the following year’s BLADE Show (www.bladeshow.com).

Of course, the fact people are already lining up for their lodging seven months before it starts is testimony to just how important the show has become worldwide. And, needless to say, we love it!

Slated for June 6-8, 2014, at the spacious Cobb Galleria Centre just outside Atlanta, the show is the world’s largest and assembles more exhibitors, knives, seminars and assorted cutlery events than any other. As such, all knife enthusiasts want to attend and the rush for hotel rooms starts earlier every year.

Many folks have been calling the show’s host hotel, the Renaissance Waverly, and the Sheraton located across the street from the Galleria, requesting hotel rooms with the the special BLADE Show (www.bladeshow.com) discounted rate—and they have been told by both hotels’ reservation officials that they cannot call the applicable hotels direct to reserve a room for the show.

Those hotel reservation officials are, of course, correct.

There are two ways to reserve a room for the show: either visit

https://aws.passkey.com/event/10704610/owner/2698962/home or call 855-547-8429. The website is now live and the phone number is for our special call center.

By the way, this is NOT a new hotel reservation system for the show. It’s the same format as it has been for the past three years. Again, do NOT contact the hotels direct to make reservations for the weekend of the world’s largest knife show.

For the latest knives, knife news and more, stay with www.blademag.com (www.blademag.com).

New BLADE Says Boo! on Newsstands Now!

Steve Shackleford

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October 8, 2013

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D.B. Fraley’s Torrent 5.0 “Grim Reaper” says boo to you on the cover of the latest BLADE® (www.blademag.com), on most newsstands TODAY!

Sporting extensive gold-inlay by engraver C.J. Cai in a fitting Halloween motif, the big flipper folder was five years in the planning and completion stages and its owner, Jon Ukman, is thrilled with the spooky result.

Elsewhere in the new BLADE (www.blademag.com):

•Discover which is best for you—a hunting knife that folds or is fixed—and why;

•See who our expert panel selects as the top 14 makers of the Golden Age of Modern Custom Knifemaking;

•Choose from a gaggle of top factory or custom slicing knives for that holiday turkey or ham;

•Learn whether the “Agent” by Jonathan Mcnees can pass the “steel-door-can-opening” test;

•Know a top traditional folder when you see it through “What To Look For in the Best Slip Joints”;

•Sample the top annual hammer-forged knives of the American Bladesmith Society as named at the 2013 BLADE Show (www.bladeshow.com) & Living Ready Expo;

•Read how collectors’ custom knives almost caused at least one divorce;

•Experience the week-long festivities of the Buck Collectors Club’s 25^th Anniversary Celebration in concert with Buck Knives;

•Follow the chops, cuts, slices and other blade-performance derring-do of the 11^th Annual BLADE Show (www.bladeshow.com) World Championship Cutting Competition;

•Learn what it takes to get started making tomahawks;

•Check out the latest knives, including the new bushcraft fixed-blade design for Colonial by Abe Elias, in “What’s New”;

•Absorb 3 keys to functional sheaths;

•Get the lowdown on makers Ron Appleton, Peter Rassenti, Ryan Lemaire, Patrick Randall, Rusty Waide and Robert Weinstock in “Knifemaker Showcase”;

•Also: see what the next knife show is nearest you; what to look for in the next issue; and much more, all in the January 2014 BLADE (www.blademag.com).

For the latest knives and knife news, stay glued to www.blademag.com.

Cutlery Hall Of Fame: Buster Warenski

Steve Shackleford

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October 2, 2013

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Any discussion of the greatest custom knifemakers of the modern era must include the late Buster Warenski, a member of the BLADE Magazine Cutlery Hall-Of-Fame.

While best known for his reproduction of the King Tut Dagger in the late 1980s, Warenski’s influence on custom knives, knifemakers and the Knifemakers’ Guild was immense and, in many ways, continues to this day. One of the early Guild voting members, he was considered among the best custom makers from the get-go. He excelled not only by the example of his workmanship but also by his leadership, serving on the Guild’s board of directors for a number of terms, including as president (1977-79).

The workmanship of his knives pretty much spoke for itself. He could make just about any fixed blade, folder or sword, and make it extremely well, though it is his art daggers for which he is most remembered. He taught himself how to engrave and although he may not have been the best engraver, the early examples of his engraving held up among other knives of the time.

But then it always seemed that Buster found a way to make his knives the best—and one way was marrying Julie, who learned how to engrave and became one of the best, lending her talents to Buster’s knives and making them even more fabulous. (Julie Warenski-Erickson continues to engrave today and is married to knifemaker Curt Erickson.)

Perhaps the greatest tribute to any knifemaker is one from one of his peers who also happens to be one of the world’s best makers—in this instance, Steve Johnson. As Steve noted, “Putting myself in even the same sentence as a ‘fellow knifemaker’ with Buster makes me uncomfortable. No one will ever attain the skill and ability as a knifemaker as this great man did.”

For the latest knives, knife news and much more, stay tuned to www.blademag.com.

Ballerina’s Knife Dance

Steve Shackleford

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October 1, 2013

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A remarkable video entitled “En Puntas” (“On Points”) featuring ballerina Amelie Segarra and her “knife dance” is on www.boredpanda.com—and it is worth a watch.

At just over three minutes in length, the video starts with a ballerina putting on her leg wraps and then a pair of ballerina slippers with “kitchen knife” blades at the toe ends. She proceeds to somehow gain her balance atop a grand piano and then “dance”—though it’s more like a drag and stick of the blade shoes into the surface of the top of the piano. It’s really very good and about how you might expect such a venture to unfold—the ballerina wobbling, gasping and shouting at times as she does her best to keep her balance. The knife blades appear to be real, as the scratched surface of the piano top would attest. In fact, the top of the piano appears to get quite marred/carved up in the process.

Segarra dances what is called the “en pointe” ballet technique, the classic style in which the ballerina dances on her toes. According to the accompanying copy on the site, Segarra’s performance is “a testament to the intense dedication and sometimes physical suffering required of ballet performers.” The knives look pretty sharp, too. Exactly who made them or what brand they are we have no idea. They get to the point, though.

To see the full video, visit http://www.boredpanda.com/ballerina-with-knife-shoes-performs-en-pointe-javier-pere

Props to BLADE® contributor Stephen Garger for turning us onto this video.

For the latest in knives, knife news and the sharpest stuff anywhere, stay tuned to www.blademag.com.

NYC Anti-Knife Ruling Has Disastrous Implications

Knife News Wire

Steve Shackleford

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September 27, 2013

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People falsely arrested or threatened with arrest cannot sue in a federal lawsuit against New York City and Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr., according to a Wednesday anti-knife ruling by a U.S. District Court Judge.

If not overturned, a Knife Rights (KR) news release reported, the anti-knife ruling could have wide-ranging effects on knife enthusiasts throughout the USA, including re-classifying legal knives as illegal “gravity knives” and/or “switchblades.”

Judge Katherine B. Forrest ruled plaintiffs falsely arrested or threatened with arrest over “common pocketknives” cannot sue in part because the case documents don’t specify which knives would be illegal under NYC’s interpretation of New York state law—this despite the fact NYC’s inability to specify legal and illegal knives on a consistent basis is the exact reason the case documents cannot specify which knives are legal and which knives are not!

For the purposes of the case in question, “common pocket knife” is a legal term that covers knives with locking blades and a bias towards closure, KR’s Doug Ritter noted. As such, the legal term does NOT include traditional pocketknives in trapper, whittler, stockman and other old-time patterns.

The ruling is in response to a suit brought on June 9, 2011, by Knife Rights, Inc., John Copeland, Pedro Perez, Native Leather, Ltd., and Knife Rights Foundation, Inc., against D.A. Vance and the city of New York. The plaintiffs allege that the defendants’ “application of New York Penal Law 265.01’s prohibition on the possession of switchblade knives and gravity knives to possessors of common folding knives makes 265.01 void for vagueness under the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.”

Meanwhile, as KR reported, thousands of citizens in NYC have been arrested on “illegal” knife charges. “In at least one instance of which we are aware,” a KR release stated, “the result of the bogus arrest was that the victim’s entire knife collection was confiscated from his home,” adding that gun owners have had their firearms confiscated based on bogus knife arrests, too.

For information on how to fight Forrest’s outlandish ruling, visit www.kniferights.org.

For the latest on knives and knife news, stay tuned to www.blademag.com (www.blademag.com).

Sharp Knowledge: 3 Knife Steel Basics

Steve Shackleford

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September 24, 2013

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One of the questions knife enthusiasts ask most is What is the best steel for a knife? Before you can answer such a question, you must first know exactly what it is you need in a knife.

1) Will you use the knife to cut meat, or paper, or rope, or plastic, or a little bit of everything? Much depends on what you will be using the knife for, and just about any knifemaker or knife manufacturer who knows his stuff will know which steel he has on hand will be best for your purposes.

how-to-make-knives-knifemaking-book — Learn more about selecting steel types and how to make knives in the third edition of “BLADE’s Guide to Making Knives.” The classic is back and better than ever!

2) The steel is just part of the equation. The blade’s geometry is also important. By blade geometry is meant how the blade is ground and tapered from the back (spine) to the edge. If too thick, it won’t slice or cut properly; if too thin, it may chip.

3) How is the steel heat treated? As BLADE Magazine Cutlery Hall-Of-Fame© member Wayne Goddard has written, “A knife of the very best steel may not perform any better than one made of an inferior type steel unless it is heat treated to bring out the full potential of the alloy content.” He also writes, “The reasons for a maker to turn out incorrectly heat-treated blades are too many to list. However, the most common is not having the correct heat-treating specifications from the steel maker.” If you find the maker does his own heat treating and does not go by the heat-treating specs provided by the steel maker, that’s an immediate red flag. In fact, many makers simply have professional heat treaters do their heat treating. Goddard is among them.

These are just three basic things to know about knife steels. There are many others.

Steve Shackleford

Enter KA-BAR’s Pumpkin Carving Contest

How To Reserve Your Hotel Room For the BLADE Show

New BLADE Says Boo! on Newsstands Now!

Cutlery Hall Of Fame: Buster Warenski

Ballerina’s Knife Dance

NYC Anti-Knife Ruling Has Disastrous Implications

Sharp Knowledge: 3 Knife Steel Basics

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