Knife news, people, top picks and patterns
My second Editor’s Favorites pick from the Knives 2013 book is included for its sweet simplicity. Don’t let the straightforward, integral form of Billy Mace Imel’s dagger fool you, though, the lines flow symmetrically, with rounded edges along the grip, a pointed pommel and penetratingly pointed blade.
Only mother-of-pearl interrupts the shapely, blackened 01-tool-steel dagger. (SharpByCoop.com photo)
The knife is featured on page 86 of Knives 2013. Click here to order your copy today!
The success, popularity and response from the Greatest Bob Loveless Knife Designs posts has prompted me to start a “Favorites from the Knives 2013” book thread.
So, here’s the first of the “Editor’s Favorites from Knives 2013 Book.” It is a Mediterranean dirk as only Rick Eaton could fashion it, blending old styles with modern flair. It parades flare-cut engraving, Arabesque accents and banknote engraving, as well as an ancient-ivory handle and a damascus blade. The guard is sculpted and engraved, and the entire dirk intrigues.
So here’s to Rick, his Mediterranean dirk and a new thread showcasing fine knives. To order your copy of the book, go to: http://www.shopblade.com/knives-2013-33rd-ed?lid=JKblfl090712.
KA-BAR Knives created a Military Appreciation Program to give thanks to the heroes of the U.S. Armed Forces, and will give one KA-BAR Fighting/Utility knife to an active-duty service member each month. To be considered for the drawing, military personnel should send an email to [email protected] from a .mil email address. The email should include a name, shipping address and a brief summary of how the knife will be used. Shipping addresses must be stateside.
Winners will be selected at random the last Friday of each month. The first drawing will be held September 28th. Good luck!
BLADE‘s sister magazine, Deer & Deer Hunting, is receiving a ton of big league attention for its interview about Paul Ryan hunting deer. It’s offering the full Paul Ryan hunter Q&A as a download from this page on Deer & Deer Hunting.
That’s Paul Ryan deer hunting with a bow in his home state, Wisconsin, in the photo at left. It shouldn’t come as any surprise, since the area has a long tradition of hunting deer and other game species. Here’s a snippet from Paul Ryan deer hunter himself:
“I’m just pretty typical for a Wisconsin guy. I love hunting and fishing,” Ryan said. “Bowhunting is my passion. Studying the strategy, preparing food plots, the strategy of where a dominant buck is living or will be moving and then being in position to get a shot, that’s really exciting. Half of it is getting ready for the shot.”
A good deal of the Paul Ryan hunting interview covers everything before the shot. BLADE would’ve liked to sneak in a few questions about the knives he uses, but the time allotted for the Paul Ryan hunter interview was brief. We suppose he had just a littlebit on his plate.
Still, BLADE celebrates Deer & Deer Hunting‘s Paul Ryan deer hunting interview. It shows how mainstream hunting is with a lot of people. It must only follow that knives play a role with these folks, too.
Click here to read the Paul Ryan deer hunter interview with Deer & Deer Hunting.
As preeminent Bob Loveless knife collector John Denton says, “The dagger is up there with the New York Special. It is really beautiful, and I just keep those back in the collection.”
Denton continues, “Bob was not as much about fit and finish as Steve Johnson, but more about making a knife feel so good in the hand. He always said, ‘Make a knife look so good you want to pick it up, and feel so good you don’t want to put it down.’ And that worked. His design and balance were critical to making the knife market shoot to the moon.
“People have been telling me since the 1960’s when they got a Loveless knife, that it was so pretty they did not want to use it, but Bob wanted it to look good, and he also wanted people to use them.”
The dagger in a full, tapered tang, Micarta handle and double guard looks and feels good. It is from the John Denton Collection. Photo courtesy of Denton.
“Bob wanted his knives to be working tools, not just art objects. In his mind, practicality was art to Bob Loveless,” Steve Johnson is quoted by Durwood Hollis as saying in the book Knifemaking With Bob Loveless.
As a young man in the early 1970’s, Johnson worked with Loveless as a junior partner in the business, learning to build knives. In fact, for several months, Steve lived with Bob in the same house. A full-time maker, Johnson freely admits that the time he spent in the Loveless shop made a huge difference in his life.
Pictured is one of the few knives marked “Loveless Johnson” reportedly still in existence. The image is courtesy of John Denton and the John Denton collection.
“The Loveless knife design is all about function,” Jim Merritt once noted. “A Loveless knife is made for the guy who wants to have the best knife possible for field work.” Merritt worked side-by-side with Loveless in his shop for 30 years, and toward the end was making Loveless’s knives on his own, with Bob pitching in and helping whenever he could.
This pair is a prime example of the combined efforts of Bob Loveless and Jim Merritt. Their skill as knifemakers is simply without peer.
The knife photo is by Durwood Hollis and was used in the book he authored titled Knifemaking With Bob Loveless.
