The BLADE Blogs Archives

Washington State Pro-Knife Bill Passes; Next Stop: Governor’s Office

-

March 13, 2012

A bill designed to expand switchblade/automatic manufacture and carry, and to exclude one-hand-opening knives—an example of the latter, the Vulcan from SOG Specialty Knives shown above—from the Washington state definition of switchblade passed the state senate March 2.

According to the American Knife & Tool Institute (AKTI), HB 2347 is headed to the governor’s desk and should be effective around June 1. AKTI’s Jan Billeb stated that Mike Vellekamp of Fox Knives USA did a great job spearheading the effort to expand switchblade/automatic manufacture and carry in Washington state.

Meanwhile, clarifying the definition of switchblade/automatic knife (or spring-blade knife as it is known in Washington) is important to protect the rights of the individual knife owner. It eliminates potential misinterpretation about the legality of one-handed and assisted-opening knives that can result in inconsistent and wrongful conviction of individuals for owning or carrying a knife that is a valuable and potentially life-saving tool.

AKTI advisory member Spencer Frazer, founder of SOG Specialty Knives & Tools, testified at the state house judiciary committee hearing the same day in support of HB 2347. “The definition of switchblade needs to be clarified, and this bill does that,” he commented regarding changes to Sec. 1 RCW 9.41 that includes “a knife that contains a spring, detent, or other mechanism designed to create a bias toward closure of the blade and that requires physical exertion applied to the blade by hand, wrist or arm to overcome the bias toward closure to assist in opening the knife is not a spring blade knife.” This is the same “bias toward closure” language that AKTI introduced and has been successfully passed in other states and incorporated in to the 2009 amendment to the Federal Switchblade Act.

Senator Kastama reported to the Senate Judiciary Committee that SB 6179 corrects technicalities and would put Washington state in alignment with the Federal Switchblade Act. Before that committee on Jan. 25, Vellekamp stated, “We want to make it so Washington state is friendly for manufacturing all types of cutlery products.” Passing the new Sec 2 to Chapter 9.41 will make it legal to manufacture switchblade/automatic knives in the state of Washington, subject to certain restrictions.

The proposed changes will also extend the legal possession and carry of switchblades/automatics to include active military, firefighters and rescue responders, in addition to law enforcement and state patrol officers. “We need to get rid of the stigma that these are weapons and we need to start calling them tools because that’s what they are,” Vellekamp testified. “The push for this bill is so that we can ensure the local law enforcement branches, our military and our firefighters get to use these valuable tools because when they get trapped, they need to get out. They need a tool at the ready that’s going to be there without needing another hand to open it.”

For more info click on www.akti.org

For more on the latest knives, knife legislation, knifemaking instruction, knife trends, knifemakers, what knives to buy and where and much more, subscribe to BLADE Magazine, the World’s No. 1 Knife Publication. For subscription information click on http://www.shopblade.com/product/blade-magazine-one-year-subscripti…?r+ssfb031312#BL1SU

CKCA Funds For Cancer Research Tops $34,000

Steve Shackleford

-

December 10, 2012

0

CKCA Funds For Cancer Research Tops $34,000

The Custom Knife Collectors Association (CKCA) announced it has raised $6,598.30 for the Jimmy V Foundation for Pancreatic Cancer Research.

The money was raised through the CKCA’s raffle of a special bowie made by ABS master smiths/CKCA members Larry Fuegen and Tim Hancock. The winner was knifemaker/CKCA member Joel Chamblin.

The CKCA’s contributions to date to cancer research projects totals $34,053.30.

KnifeBroker.com/BLADE Sweepstakes Winner Announced

The BLADE Blogs

BLADE Staff

-

December 14, 2010

0

You can’t win if you don’t enter.

That’s what Larry Burton of Indiana learned. He won a Johnny Stout custom knife valued at $2,800 through the recent KnifeBroker.com/BLADE joint sweepstakes. The popular sweepstakes drew entrants from all over the world, but Larry’s entry proved to be the luckiest.

A big thank you to everyone who entered. Rest assured there will be another chance at a great prize from BLADE and its knife partners. In the meantime, be sure to check out KnifeBroker.com if you haven’t already. The innovative site allows you to bid on knives for sale, which is fun in its own right.

New Master Smiths at the 2012 Atlanta Blade Show

Steve Shackleford

-

June 10, 2012

0

Congratulations to the new Master Smiths in the American Bladesmith Society. The following new Master Smiths had their five presentation knives judged by the Judging Panel and were awarded their new rating at the 2012 Blade Show in Atlanta on Friday, June 8th.

Daniel Warren and Gary House
Congratulations to Daniel and Gary!

And congratulations to Daniel Warren who was awarded the BR Hughes Award for submitting the most outstanding knife as selected by the Judging Panel.

Kit Carson Enters Blade Magazine Cutlery Hall Of Fame©

Steve Shackleford

-

June 11, 2012

0

Harold “Kit” Carson, long-time knifemaker and designer of the M16 folder for Columbia River Knife & Tool (CRKT), was inducted into the Blade Magazine Cutlery Hall Of Fame© this past weekend during the 31st Annual BLADE Show (www.bladeshow.com) at the Cobb Galleria Centre in Atlanta, Georgia.

In addition to the M16, which has been one of CRKT’s most successful knives for many years and is available in a number of iterations, Carson is also known for his Model 4 folder and other custom knives, and his willingness to help most any aspiring knifemaker on how to make knives. Carson’s patience in answering questions from up-and-coming makers on the Internet and elsewhere approaches near legendary status, and he has helped guide the careers of such established makers as A.T. Barr, John Greco and many others.

A career Army man, Carson was inducted by his fellow Cutlery Hall-Of-Fame member and good friend, Ken Onion. In addition, CRKT head man Rod Bremer was on hand to add his observations on Kit and read a letter from Kit to the Blade Magazine Award Banquet, the site of the induction. Due to health concerns, Kit was unable to attend but he was definitely there in spirit.

A complete story on Kit’s induction will appear in an upcoming issue of BLADE® Magazine.

Factory Friday: Contingency By Winkler Knives II

Erin Healy

-

September 15, 2017

0

Factory Friday: Contingency By Winkler Knives II

Winkler II Knives' Contingency offers a variety of handle options. — Contingency by Winkler II Knives is well designed for concealed carry. The sheath system offers a variety of carry options and the curved handle easily accommodates positive or 90-degree reverse grip. Contacts for Winkler II Knives are listed at the bottom of this article.

Contingency by Winkler Knives II is a concealable personal protection knife with a sheath system that allows for inside- or outside-the-waistband carry. (You’ll want to order a left-hand-draw sheath for right-hand IWB draw.) The 3 1/2-inch blade on Contingency is made of 80CrV2 steel and has thumb-grip gimping. The knife has a tapered, skeletonized tang and measures 7.625 inches overall.

The curved-handle design is well-suited for easy draw and positive grip or 90-degree reverse-grip positioning. It comes in your choice of walnut, maple or Black, Tan or Green Micarta. Rubber is available but is not recommended for concealed carry. The MSRP is $300. You can also order yours with sculpting, $15; sculpted WASP (air injection), $30; or sculpted multi-camo, $30.

Daniel Winkler’s Early Frontiersman Style

Daniel Winkler, along with wife and leather craftswoman, Karen Shook, started Winkler II Knives in 2016. Daniel’s ever-present love of early American history intensified when he started using black-powder weaponry to extend his hunting season. He added to his 18-century woodsman outfit by making powder horns and other accessories, and in 1975 he made his first knife. He was a member of The American Mountain Men and other historically strict reenactment groups, and began selling knives at gatherings, called rendezvous. The money he made allowed him to upgrade his car-wheel forge to a hand-cranked model. By 1988 he was making knives full time.

Daniel Winkler, Kevin Holland and W.R. Case & Sons Cutlery Co. have collaborated on Skinner, which Holland, a Navy Seal designed. — Daniel Winkler, co-owner of Winkler Knives II with his wife, Karen Shook, is based in Blowing Rock, North Carolina.

When he’d been at it for nearly two decades, he spent a few years entering cutting competitions. He says those experiences taught him more than he had learned in all the other years combined. Not only did he improve his knife-handling skills, he came to understand what made a knife perform in a wide variety of tests. Cutting competitions are timed events that involve a number of stations at which the maker and his knife must cut, say, a hanging rope, an upright straw, a row of water bottles, a cardboard tube, a pool noodle and then chop through a piece of lumber. The blade either cuts or it doesn’t.

Now he establishes the use of the knife before anything else, because no single knife can do all things well. He is honest about how knifemaking is always changing, sometimes advancing, sometimes failing.

In 1992 Daniel had the opportunity to make the knives and tomahawks used in the movie “The Last of the Mohicans.” His pieces also made appearances in 2012’s “Zero Dark Thirty.” It was his work on “Mohicans,” however, that would send him on the path to making knives and combat axes for today’s Special Operations personnel, while continuing to serve the hunter-outdoorsman community.

Contact Daniel Winkler, Winkler Knives II, P.O. Box 2166, Blowing Rock, NC 28605; 828-295-9156; [email protected]; www.winklerknives.com and on Facebook at Winkler Knives.

A Digital Subscription To BLADE Is The Answer

Save $4 off the print price of a annual subscription to BLADE Magazine with a digital subscription. If piling up issues of magazine seems like a waste for you… If you feel like you don’t have time to read a magazine… If you like the stories we offer in BLADE, but want a more economical option, then a digital subscription is the answer. An annual digital subscription to BLADE is $17.98.

Great Knives Have “Face”

Steve Shackleford

-

October 26, 2017

0

Great knives have face. I’m not talking about a face like on a Halloween mask, but a knife with a design or style that’s recognizable by a large number of knife enthusiasts as having been made first by one knifemaker and one knifemaker only.

The face, in this instance, is the unmistakable knife design or style of the maker in question.

How the term came about I’m not exactly sure but I’ve heard it from or read it written about by long-time observers of the knife scene, including BLADE Magazine Cutlery Hall-Of-Fame© members Bernard Levine, Bruce Voyles and others. One explanation of face that applies here is that I may not know or remember a person’s name, but if I know his or her face I almost always instantly recognize it. The difference in the instance of knives with face is that I recognize both the knife design or style and the maker’s name.

There are at least two provisos: 1. To fully qualify as a knife with face the knife must be recognizable by a large number of knife enthusiasts. Now, there no doubt are great knives made by makers that one or a few enthusiasts may recognize as being the knives of specific makers, but the ones that really fill the bill are the ones many enthusiasts can look at and say, “Yep, that’s so-and-so’s knife.” It’s effective in terms of a conversation starter among knife enthusiasts who are friends, or as a conversation icebreaker among those who have just met. They don’t know each other but they do know great knives with face.

2. Some of the makers of knives with face have had their designs with face emulated by many others. Even so, if the knife has face those who recognize it will say that it’s in the style of the maker who originated it.

Following is a selection of great knives with face and why they qualify. Enjoy!

The Bob Loveless dropped or drop-point hunter. The Loveless drop-point hunter is one of the great knives with face on this list that meets Proviso 2 above. While it may not appear to be all that unusual, the drop-point style of the blade—where the blade tip falls below the plane of the spine—is something Loveless popularized in the 1970s and ’80s, and it remains his signature style to this day.
The Bill Moran style. Actually, as with Loveless, any number of Moran knives have face, though I’ve chosen one of my favorites: the ST-24. The flowing blade with a long clip point and ergonomically contoured dropped handle with silver wire inlay is unmistakably a Moran.
The Michael Walker style. Walker’s linerlock folder changed knives forever but he also makes models unlike anyone else. Outfitted with any number of his clever and innovative locks, each of which gives the handle a notably different look at the pivot, Walker’s knives use the latest and most exotic materials, are embellished in any number of creative and ornate ways, and usually have some of the most interesting blade shapes you’ll ever see.
The Jurgen Steinau style. When I first saw one of Jurgen Steinau’s knives, at first I wasn’t even sure I was looking at a knife. The designs, angles and materials of his knives are like something from a book on intergalactic architecture. Suffice it to say, Steinau’s great knives have face—and then some!
Jim Schmidt’s Goblin Folder. Schmidt’s Goblin Folders have face in more ways than one. Not only do they have the face of a goblin on the handle’s stag butt, but that face makes the knife unmistakable as the style originally made by Mr. Schmidt. A number of his other models have face as well.

There are others who make great knives with face. Which ones make your list?