The BLADE Blogs

Dellana shows you how she made her first goblin folder, read why Buster Warenski’s King Tut dagger changed knife history, school yourself on the hottest custom makers’ hottest knives and more in the latest issue of BLADE®—on newsstands NOW!

Dellana is known throughout the custom knife industry for her ornate high-end folders and learned a lot under the great ABS master smith Jim Schmidt. Schmidt was known in no small part for his goblin folder, a style Dellana had never tried until approached by collector Larry Marton to complete one Schmidt had planned to before Schmidt passed away. Dellana accepted the daunting assignment. In her two-part story she outlines the challenges she faced in making the goblin folder she christened “Gryzzlesnick,” which includes a stag handle with a butt shaped into the grotesque face of a goblin. Read part one this issue.

A member of the BLADE Magazine Cutlery Hall Of Fame and the top vote-getter in a poll of veteran industry observers for their “Mount Rushmore of Knifemakers” of the modern era—1960 through the May 2015 BLADE in which the applicable story appeared—Warenski spent five years (1982-87) making the reproduction of the gold dagger found in King Tutankhamen’s tomb. Phil Lobred commissioned Warenski to make the knife and liquidated his entire collection of handmade knives to pay for it. The knife featured 32 ounces of gold, the long-lost technique of granulation to embellish the knife’s handle and has been valued at being worth over $1 million. Get the full story on this landmark knife and the trials and tribulations of Warenski in its making in “A Piece of Buster’s Soul.”

Pinpointing the hottest custom knifemakers’ hottest knives is something all enthusiasts of the genre need to stay on top of, and BLADE helps you in the endeavor with the help of top industry observers in “Compound Your Cutlery Interest.”

There’s much more this issue, including:

•BLADE Managing Editor Erin Healy’s story on the period-correct knife-and-tomahawk combos by Don Shipman, “Edged Warrior Sets”;

•The best knives to take on summer vacation;

•Rick Barrett‘s custom folder based on and that salutes the legendary World War II Marine F4U Corsair fighter aircraft made famous by the equally legendary pilot Pappy Boyington of Baa-Baa Black Sheep fame;

•Tests/reviews of four of the latest factory utility fixed blades, four EDCs, three assisted openers and a pair of ample straight knives;

•The conclusion of Dexter Ewing’s three-part series on the latest knife sharpeners in “The Hone Zone.”

And much more, all in the latest BLADE, on newsstands now or subscribe to the print, digital, international or Canadian issues here.