The BLADE Blog w/Steve Shackleford

The new BLADE showcases the hottest knives of the SHOT Show—including the new Kershaw/Emerson CQC-6K on the cover—the inside scoop on knife lotteries, field tests of the latest skeleton knives and more.

Held this past January at the Sands Expo Center in Las Vegas, the SHOT Show is the annual coming out party for the latest in knives, guns, deer stands, sharpeners and everything that has to do with shooting and hunting. The movers and shakers of the cutlery industry were there to present the newest in tactical, outdoor, kitchen, sporting, bushcraft and just about any knife you can think of. BLADE was there to scope it all out and you can be too in the pages of the June issue.

Knife lotteries are one of the hottest tickets in the industry. Knife enthusiasts who normally can’t even sniff buying the knives of some of today’s hottest makers due to long waiting lists have an equal chance at the makers’ new knives through the lotteries. But are the lotteries really all they’re cracked up to be? Find out the good and the bad of an industry juggernaut in the new BLADE.

Bare-bone cutters, skeleton knives are cool tools that offer a minimalist approach to design but maximum cutting output for blades their size. Find out how some of the newest models perform in this issue.

The Buck 110 is one of the icons of the knife industry and this year celebrates its 50th anniversary. Get the lowdown on the history of the famous folding hunter and all the various sweepstakes surrounding the knife’s golden anniversary in the new BLADE.

Open through June 22, “A Sure Defense: The Bowie Knife In America” is a celebration of perhaps the world’s most famous American knife. Held at the Historic Arkansas Museum in Little Rock, the exhibit features some of the world’s oldest and most valuable antique bowies from the 19th century. Read all about it this issue.

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Veteran knifemaker Joe Kious, popularizer of the “Pocket Locket” style of high-end art folder and long-time Knifemakers’ Guild member, passed away Dec. 5 as a result of injuries suffered in a vehicle accident.

A resident of Kerrville, Texas, Kious was a full-time knifemaker who sold his first knife in 1969. He specialized in investment-quality interframes and bolstered folders, some bringing up to as high as $10,000 apiece.

However, it is his Pocket-Locket models for which he may be best remembered. Featuring elaborate engraving, the folding knives include a small compartment in the handle with a sliding panel that slides back to reveal another engraved scene inside.

“Joe was a staunch supporter of the Knifemakers’ Guild and believed in handmade knives,” said knifemaker and fellow Guild member Edmund Davidson. “Joe had a wonderful personality, was very easy to speak with and would tell you anything you wanted to know. He held nothing back and had no secrets. His knives reflected a great deal of thought, craftsmanship and artistry. He was a true master and genuine person. He will be sorely missed. When we lose a man of his caliber, we are all diminished.”

“Joe was a gentleman who loved his family, friends, enjoyed shooting, fine scotch and making knives,” noted Michael Donato of KnifePurveyor.com. “Please keep his family in your thoughts and prayers.”

A member of a close-knit group of Texas-based Guild knifemakers that includes Warren Osborne, Tom Overeynder and others, the stately Kious was liked and respected by most everyone who knew him in the industry. A lean, handsome man with a full head of grey-white hair, he was soft-spoken but never at a loss for words or a well-thought-out opinion.

Though he did not make BLADE® Magazine’s 40th anniversary list of top knifemakers—he received enough votes to make honorable mention—his Pocket Locket was chosen No. 6 among the most important custom knives of the period from 2001-2012 in the magazine’s 40th anniversary list of top custom knives.

“Joe’s Pocket Locket is important because it is the most flexible engraving platform ever offered,” noted custom knife purveyor Paul Shindler of KnifeLegends. “It includes many models and styles but offers pretty much endless possibilities for the imagination of any collector. The Pocket Locket may be the most important engravable knife ever conceived.”

Added Donato, the Pocket Locket “has a very high ‘cool factor’ to it and has served as a canvas for many of the best engravers to work their magic. Joe’s Pocket Lockets are featured in many books, magazines and great collections worldwide.”

Learn how to make a cut ‘n shoot “pirate pistol,” what effect the federal ivory ban has on your knives, all about the BLADE Show’s groundbreaking new BLADE University and much more in the latest issue of BLADE®, on many newsstands today.

Steve Culver won “Best Of The Rest” in the 2013 BLADE Show custom knife judging competition with his “Laffite’s Revenge” cut ‘n shoot, and he takes you through the building of his award-winning knife pistol in this month’s issue.

On the ivory knife front, the federal government is targeting any and all items made of elephant ivory, including the very same knives that have been legal to sell for decades! Find out what the new regulations mean for you and your knives on page 10.

BLADE University is a brand new approach to knife show seminars. In fact, instead of seminars, BLADE University is a curriculum of classes, each concentrating on specific subjects and including some of the world’s best-known knife professionals as teachers, including knifemakers Jerry Fisk, Chris Reeve, Jerry Busse, Tony Bose and Bill Harsey, to name a few.

A chief concern among many in the knife industry is there are far too few young people making knives. In “Kids Just Want To Make Knives,” three young aspiring makers show off the knives they’ve made and tell how they make them, and also explain the support system of family and friends that has sustained their knifemaking endeavor.

Other stories in the new BLADE include: the heartwarming tale of how many in the knife community came together to help damascus maker Zoe Crist and family after he suffered a debilitating shop accident; the end of an era is saluted with a story on the closing of Aldo and Edda Lorenzi’s famous retail knife store in Milan, Italy; and much more, all in the new BLADE.