Steve Shackleford, Author at BLADE Magazine

The Gunny’s Back and The BLADE Show’s Got Him!

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April 17, 2013

The Gunny’s Back and The BLADE Show’s Got Him!

The BLADE Show (www.bladeshow.com) will host R. Lee “The Gunny” Ermey as he returns to sign autographs, pose for photos and chew the fat with show patrons at the SOG Specialty Knives & Tools booth show Saturday, June 1, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

The BLADE Show will be May 31-June 2 at the Cobb Galleria Centre in Atlanta, Georgia.

At press time, SOG was conducting a contest to win one of two pairs of tickets to dinner with SOG personnel and The Gunny the Saturday night of the BLADE Show. The contest was slated to run on the SOG Facebook page through May 22, with the winner chosen and confirmed on May 24. The Gunny also will be the keynote speaker at the Knife Rights banquet the Saturday morning of the BLADE Show.

It will be The Gunny’s second tour at the BLADE Show for SOG. The retired Marine, veteran motion picture and television actor, and all-around supporter of the U.S. military—especially the Marines—also appeared at the SOG booth during the 2011 BLADE Show to sign autographs and pictures and otherwise interact with BLADE Show patrons.

The Gunny’s credits include History Channel’s Lock N’ Load with R. Lee Ermey, Mail Call and his breakthrough role as Gunnery Sgt. Hartman in Full Metal Jacket. In addition to being a spokesperson for SOG, The Gunny also designed knives for the company: the Gunny Folder and Gunny Fixed Blade.

The Gunny enlisted in the Marines in 1961 and medically retired as a staff sergeant in 1971 for injuries incurred during his tours, which included 14 months active duty in the Vietnam War. He also served as a drill instructor.

For more on The Gunny’s BLADE Show appearance and the BLADE Show in general, subscribe to BLADE® www.shopblade.com/blade-magazine-one-year-subscription-us?icid=SHBLNCF2BL1SU-030613?lid=ssfbbl041713

BLADE Show Will Welcome “The Hammer”

Steve Shackleford

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April 10, 2013

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Larry “The Hammer” Harley, one of the stars of National Geographic’s hot new TV series, Lords of War, will exhibit his knives and conduct a seminar at the BLADE Show (www.bladeshow.com) May 31-June 2 at the Cobb Galleria Centre in Atlanta.

Meet The Hammer in person at his BLADE Show seminar 3 p.m. Saturday in Room 104 of the Cobb Galleria and ask him any and all questions concerning knives, swords, his TV show and more. And bring the kids, too. Larry’s presentation is suited for the entire family. He also will be exhibiting his knives in the BLADE Show hall at table 9Q .

Harley has long been known to knife enthusiasts as a fine knifemaker, an ABS journeyman smith and among the more colorful characters in the knife industry. It is small wonder that the National Geographic Channel picked him to be one of the stars of its Lords of War television series. On the show Larry appraises any and all knives, swords and edged weapons, and also helps test fire the antique and other guns appraised—and he almost always outshoots his Lords of War co-stars in the process.

The Hammer’s credits are many. In addition to making knives for many years, he has involved himself in the knife industry in a number of ways. He conducted knife hog hunts for several years and was among the first to win at the early ABS cutting

competitions. He is also extremely active in teaching bladesmithing to youngsters, including a heavy involvement in same with the ABS. He has conducted hammer-ins for both youths and adults at his shop in Bristol, Tennessee. His son Richard has been making knives for a number of years now and is quite good at it. Though The Hammer may come across as a good ol’ country boy—which he is—he is also highly educated and well-versed in a wide range of topics. Meet him at the BLADE Show. You will enjoy it.

For the latest in BLADE Show happenings and all the hottest knives, knife news and more, subscribe to BLADE® Magazine at www.shopblade.com/blade-magazine-one-year-subscription-us?icid=SHBLNCF2BL1SU-030613?lid=ssfbbl041013

Ernest Emerson Will Offer BLADE Show Seminar

Steve Shackleford

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April 3, 2013

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Ernest Emerson Will Offer BLADE Show Seminar

Ernest Emerson, one of the leading names in both custom and factory knives, will conduct another of his always popular seminars at the 2013 BLADE Show and Living Ready Expo at the Cobb Galleria Centre in Atlanta May 31-June 2.

Entitled “Fight Like A Madman,” the seminar will give you the tools to train “your most effective weapon” against violence: your mind. “Train the mind and the body will follow,” Mr. Emerson noted. “Confront evil with the tools to stop it dead in its tracks.”

A pioneer of tactical folders with such pieces as his world-famous CQC-6, Mr. Emerson has been conducting seminars at the BLADE Show (www.bladeshow.com) for many years now. He always delivers in terms of information any and all can use in their daily lives. An accomplished martial artist in addition to being a world-class knifemaker, Mr. Emerson has developed a self-defense regimen called Emerson Combat Systems that has been taught to police officers, military units and civilians. His knives and systems have been celebrated in magazines, books, television, on the Internet and just about every media form known.

Mr. Emerson’s BLADE Show seminars focus more on the mental approach to dealing with outside threats to you, your family, your friends and those around you. As the saying goes, before you do anything well you’ve got to get your mind right, and Mr. Emerson stresses the importance of that in his BLADE Show seminars.

Mr. Emerson will conduct his BLADE Show seminar in the usual place and time: Saturday, June 1, at 1 p.m. in Room 104 of the Cobb Galleria Centre. All BLADE Show ticket holders are admitted free of charge. However, seating is limited, so first come, first served.

For more on the BLADE Show, stay tuned to www.blademag.com and or subscribe to BLADE® Magazine at www.shopblade.com/blade-magazine-one-year-subscription-us?lid=ssfbbl040313

Carry-On Knife Ruling Needs Your Support

The BLADE Blogs

Steve Shackleford

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April 2, 2013

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Carry-On Knife Ruling Needs Your Support

The Transportation Security Administration’s recent ruling allowing small pocketknives and multi-tools on airliners is under fire from all anti-knife sides and needs your help.

According to Knife Rights, Massachusetts Rep. Ed Markey (D) and New York Rep. Michael G. Grimm (R) introduced the “No Knives Act” (HR 1093) that would stop the new TSA rules, freezing the permitted items list as it stands now. New York Sen. Charles Schumer (D) and Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R) introduced an amendment that would prohibit the TSA from allowing knives on planes.

According to the new TSA rules, small pocketknives and multi-tools would be allowed in carry-on beginning April 25. Such knives/multi-tools could not have blades over 2.36 inches long nor over a half-inch wide, could not have locking blades, and could not have “molded handles,” which apparently means finger-grooved or contoured handles and not all handles made via the molding process (though even that is not entirely clear as per the new rules).

The American Knife & Tool Institute, Victorinox Swiss Army and the Leatherman Tool Group were instrumental in getting TSA to adopt the change. According to reports, the new rules are very similar if not identical to the rules adopted earlier by the International Civil Aviation Organization, the international equivalent of the TSA.

A special story on the new TSA rules will appear in the July BLADE®, on most newsstands April 23. The June BLADE (www.shopblade.com/blade-magazine-one-year-subscription-us?lid=ssfbbl040213) is on most newsstands now.

Please contact your legislators and let them know you support the TSA ruling (for more on what’s legal and not legal to carry, visit www.tsa.gov).

For more information contact www.kniferights.org or www.akti.org.

Branton Will Throw Knives in BLADE Show Seminar

Steve Shackleford

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March 27, 2013

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Branton Will Throw Knives in BLADE Show Seminar

Long-time knifemaker and knife-thrower Bobby Branton will demonstrate how to throw knives at the 2013 BLADE Show May 31-June 2 at the Cobb Galleria Centre in Atlanta.

As he has done at the BLADE Show for many years, Branton will bring his knife-throwing target and assortment of his custom Pro-Flyte throwing knives. He also has thrown tomahawks on occasion in his seminars. Word is he might be throwing some new factory hawks at this year’s BLADE Show, too.

Branton’s seminars are always casual and impromptu. He chats informally with his audience and encourages questions, comments and other open dialogue. It’s a seminar suitable for the entire family.

A member of the American Bladesmith Society, Branton offers a complete line of utility and mid-tech knives. Many know him as one of the country’s leading knife-throwing knifemakers. He follows in the footsteps of Blade Magazine Cutlery Hall-Of-Fame© member Dan Dennehy, who handled the BLADE Show’s knife-throwing seminars before Branton took over. It was just a few years ago when Mr. Dennehy was inducted into the Cutlery Hall Of Fame that he visited Branton during one of the latter’s knife-throwing seminars. Dennehy entertained questions from the audience and otherwise added to what was a most memorable get together of knife-throwing legends.

In fact, you never can tell who might show up for one of Bobby’s seminars. Past special guests have included Ernest Emerson, among others.

Branton has been active administrating the American Knife Throwers Alliance over the years, and has hosted many knife-throwing events near his shop in Awendaw, South Carolina.

Branton will throw his knives during his seminar the Saturday of the BLADE Show at 10 a.m. in “The Courtyard”—otherwise known as the parking lot of the host hotel, the Renaissance Waverly. Admission is free to all BLADE Show ticket holders.

For more information click on http://www.bladeshow.com/ehome/index.php?eventid=55860&

New BLADE On Most Newsstands TODAY!

Steve Shackleford

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March 26, 2013

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Spartan Blades gets its first BLADE® cover with the June BLADE, on most newsstands TODAY!

Designed by BLADE field editor and retired 5th Special Forces master sergeant Kim Breed, the cover knife is the Spartan-Breed fighter/dagger—and it is just one of the latest knives from the 2013 SHOT Show and many other knives highlighted in the June issue.

•On the custom collector front, Mike Haskew examines the exploding phenomenon of Chinese and Taiwanese collectors hoarding custom handforged knives in “Asian Damascus Invasion.”

•BLADE field editor Ed Fowler continues his lavishly illustrated sheep-horn handle how-to in part IV of “Breaking Sheepish.”

•Spring is here and so is fishing season. Fillet your favorite catch with the latest in fillet blades in Tom Carpenter’s “Fish Knives Combine Form & Function.”

•Former New Hampshire state representative Jenn Coffey wants your help in getting car dealers and manufacturers to consider including the CRKT Exitool seat-belt cutter as standard issue in cars in an effort to avoid such tragic deaths as the baby in Los Angeles who was killed when no one had a tool to extricate the infant from a burning automobile.

•The SHOT Show was in Las Vegas and, in terms of knives, what happened there didn’t stay there. Steve Shackleford tells you about some of the factory industry’s hottest new knives from the show.

•In “How Thick Should Your Blade Be,” ABS master smith/BLADE field editor Joe Szilaski tells you which blade thicknesses for which knives.

•Clyde Fischer was a knifemaking legend from the 1960s until his death in 2001. His son Sammy Fischer is carrying on the family tradition, and Blade Magazine Cutlery Hall-Of-Fame© member B.R. Hughes gives you the inside story in “Dad’s Footsteps, Not His Coattails.”

•In part two of a three-part series, a panel of knife industry authorities select the top custom knives from 1989-2000 in “A Decade Of Excellence.”

There’s much more. To subscribe to BLADE print issues click on www.shopblade.com/blade-magazine-one-year-subscription-us/?lid=blss032613 and to subscribe to the new digital editions of BLADE, click on https://ssl.palmcoastd.com/07614/apps/ORDOPTION1LANDING?ikey=I**B47&et_mid=608607&rid=3579379?lid=blss032613

Pro-Knife Laws Need Your Help!

Steve Shackleford

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March 22, 2013

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Three states are considering pro-knife laws that need your help, Knife Rights reports.

Pending measures in Kansas, Tennessee and Texas have been approved in lower legislative bodies and are moving on for further approval. If you act now, you still have time to help ensure these pro-knife laws will be enacted.

The one in Kansas (HB2033) would enact Knife Law Preemption and repeal the ban on switchblades, dirks, daggers and stilettos. Legislators helping the cause there include Rep. Jim Howell and Rep. Richard Carlson.

Tennessee’s progressive pro-knife law (Senate Bill SB1015) would also enact Knife Law Preemption, repeal the state’s antiquated switchblade ban and repeal the state’s 4-inch blade-length limitation. Sen. Mike Bell has been most helpful in the fight to save the knife rights of those in the great state of Tennessee.

Finally, the Texas law (HB1299) would enact Knife Law Preemption and repeal the state switchblade ban (HB1862). Rep. Harold V. Dutton, Jr., has led the fight in the Lone Star State.

Knife Law Preemption eliminates conflicting knife laws from county to county, city to city and town to town within a state, laws that act as “knife traps” to unjustly snare law-abiding knife users and build tax coffers in the applicable jurisdictions. Blade Magazine Cutlery Hall-Of-Fame© member Bill Adams likes to call the practice “tax farming,” and the term applies in spades in this instance.

According to Knife Rights, Knife Law Preemption has been enacted in Arizona, Utah, New Hampshire and Georgia.

For more information on how you can help visit www.KnifeRights.org.

Steve Shackleford

The Gunny’s Back and The BLADE Show’s Got Him!

BLADE Show Will Welcome “The Hammer”

Ernest Emerson Will Offer BLADE Show Seminar

Carry-On Knife Ruling Needs Your Support

Branton Will Throw Knives in BLADE Show Seminar

New BLADE On Most Newsstands TODAY!

Pro-Knife Laws Need Your Help!

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