Steve Shackleford, Author at BLADE Magazine

Carry-On Knife Ruling Needs Your Support

The BLADE Blogs

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April 2, 2013

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.

KEEPING Your Knife Sharp

Steve Shackleford

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March 19, 2013

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KEEPING your knife sharp entails more than knowing how to sharpen it. If you maintain the knife’s edge on a regular basis, it will eliminate having to re-establish the edge each time the knife goes dull.

Maintaining the edge is easy. The hard part is getting in the habit of doing it. However, once you get tired of re-establishing the edge every time your knife goes dull, you will appreciate how important the habit is.

Fine tune your edge with a GATCO TRI-SEPS. — Edge touch-ups are a breeze on the GATCO TRI-SEPS.

First, get one of the easy to use pull-through or similarly easy to use sharpeners and store it by wherever you put your knife at the end of the day. When you go to put your knife up, simply grab the sharpener and pull the blade edge through it five or six times. This should be enough to fine tune the edge and get it back to a working sharpness for the following day.

Such sharpeners as the GATCO TRI-SEPS are ideal for the job because they are easy to use and store or even carry. The TRI-SEPS, for instance, includes a chain for keyring carry. It sharpens both plain and serrated edges.

For more information on the GATCO TRI-SEPS—ideal for end-of-day edge touch-ups—click here.

Use A Hunting Knife Designed by Russ Kommer

Steve Shackleford

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March 13, 2013

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Use A Hunting Knife Designed by Russ Kommer

A hunting knife is great—and when you use a hunting knife designed by an Alaskan hunting guide who also happens to be a knifemaker, that’s even better.

A hot hunting knife is just what the doctor ordered—the Alaskan Skinner designed by Russ Kommer for Timberline.

The Alaskan Skinner from Timberline is a hunting knife designed by knifemaker Russ Kommer, who also is a long-time Alaskan hunting guide. Kommer spent most of his youth in the Minnesota north woods hunting, trapping and fishing. Idaho is where he got his start as a big-game guide in the Selway-Bitterroot Mountains. He took his passion for hunting to Alaska in 1984—which is where he also discovered his love of knives, particularly the hunting knife design, after dressing big game. He learned to design the most functional and comfortable hunting knife he could and started making versions of them in 1997.

Kommer’s custom knives include the hunting knife/skinner, camp knives, folders, “unique” fillet knives, fighters, boot knives, bowies, hatchets and tactical knives. In addition to Timberline, Kommer also has designed knives for CRKT, including the Signature line of hunting knife, and the Escalade and Extreme Mountain hunting knife models for Browning

The Alaskan Skinner features what is called an upswept blade with a hollow grind—great for high-performance field dressing, skinning and other chores associated with big game. Besides that, it will also help you prepare your meals in camp and do the other cutting chores that need doing outdoors.

The blade steel is a 440 stainless that fights corrosion and is relatively easy to sharpen compared to steels such as CPM S30V and others. The handle is a soft Zytel rubber with a palm swell to fill your hand, and finger grooves and a bird’s beak pommel to lock your hand in for any number of cutting tasks, from light slicing to heavy-duty cutting. Overall length: 9.625 inches. A black ballistic nylon sheath with belt loop is both handsome, durable and secure. Weight (including the sheath): 13.5 ounces.

Click here for more about this Russ Kommer hunting knife.

KA-BAR Knives Featured on New History Channel Show

Steve Shackleford

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March 6, 2013

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KA-BAR Knives Featured on New History Channel Show

KA-BAR Knives will be featured on a new History Channel Show, What People Earn, Sunday, March 10.

Highlighted on the show’s premier episode entitled “Beer, Knives & Football,” the 115-year-old manufacturer will star along with American brewer Samuel Adams.

The March 10 issue of Parade Magazine will run a companion piece on the new show and KA-BAR.

The show will air at 10 p.m. EST in most areas, though be sure to check your local listings.

Of the 45 products that were in the KA-BAR line in 1996, only five still remain in line and one that is/was made in the USA: the 1217 Marine Combat Knife. There are now 85 products made in the USA by American cutlers stemmed in the KA-BAR tradition born in 1898. Among them is KA-BAR’s Zombie® Knives line, the Becker Knife & Tool line, a number of Bob Dozier designs, the TDI Law Enforcement line, Union and traditional KA-BAR knives including the Dog’s Head pocketknives, the Mule line of folders, and more.

For more visit KA-BAR.com or call 800-282-0130.

KA-BAR’s USMC fighting/utility knife, an industry icon.

Steve Shackleford

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!

KEEPING Your Knife Sharp

Use A Hunting Knife Designed by Russ Kommer

KA-BAR Knives Featured on New History Channel Show

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