Steve Shackleford's Blog

Best Knives Under $50 Top New BLADE

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November 3, 2015

The best knives under $50, how to make one of the industry’s hottest folders, and two custom knife industry veterans doing their best to protect elephants and your legal ivory are among the highlights of the new BLADE®, on newsstands now!

Budget concerns are at the top of most people’s lists these days, including those of knife enthusiasts. Dave Rhea shows you how to save a few bucks and still get an outstanding knife at a reasonable price in “Best New Knives Under $50.”

Sandra Brady and Linda Karst-Stone are known throughout the custom knife industry as two of the best scrimshanders. They have a vested interest in the nationwide attack on legal elephant and ancient ivory by the federal and state governments. If you think all Sandra and Linda care about is their livelihoods and not the plight of elephants and the state of legal ivory, you would be wrong. Find out what the federal and state grab on legal ivory is really about in the “Dynamic Duo of Ivory” by Pat Covert.

Popularized by the late BLADE Magazine Cutlery Hall-Of-Fame© member Kit Carson, flipper folders remain one of today’s hottest knives in the custom and factory industries. ABS master smith Wally Hayes shows you what goes into making one of these fast-opening models in “How To Make A Flipper Folder.”

Protecting a knife from the physical degradations of hard use, the elements and more is one of the reasons many companies coat the blade and sometimes even the handle in a variety of different finishes. Find out what the finishes are, how they are applied and more in Mike Haskew’s “Coats of Many Colors.”

Also this issue: tests of the latest hatchets, neck knives and two new folders, those who forge damascus in quantity for use by other knifemakers and companies, 41 reasons you may be an edgeneck and much more in the latest BLADE.

New Knife Category From ZT/Hinderer?

Steve Shackleford

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July 2, 2014

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Zero Tolerance’s Model 0392 “factory custom” collaboration with Rick Hinderer is not only a new knife idea, it might be an entirely new knife category.

Here’s how it works: Hinderer makes and supplies the knife parts such as the pocket clips, screws, spacers, filler tabs, standoffs and other furniture and Zero Tolerance employs them in the manufacture and assembly of the resulting knife—thus the name, ‘factory custom.’ The initial parts will be titanium anodized cool blue.

According to a ZT news release, “While we’ve often worked with custom knifemakers … we’ve never had this kind of partnership before. Now, working together, we can create knives with true custom details, while producing quantities that would be impossible for a custom knifemaker.”

The resulting factory custom knives will also offer “after-market customization.” Customers will be able to buy the furniture from Hinderer with different finishes, anodized in different colors, etc. The furniture may even come in different materials, including copper, to go with the standard titanium. The different finishes, anodizations, etc., apparently will come later.

An award-winning custom knifemaker out of Shreve, Ohio, Hinderer is best known for his XM-18 folder, and his knife lotteries are always among the best attended. He also has been expanding his knife operation to offer semi-production-type knives. He had a booth at the recent BLADE Show, where he celebrated exhibiting at his 25th consecutive rendition of the event.

A flipper folder, the 0392 will feature M390 blade steel, a titanium handle and the KVT ball-bearing opening system.

For the time being, the factory custom project is in the formative stages. Exactly how many of the knives will be made or when they will be available remains unknown. Stay tuned to Zero Tolerance and blademag.com for more details.

New BLADE® Salutes Military On 9/11

Steve Shackleford

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September 10, 2013

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Military heroes past and present and their favorite knives are the focus of the new BLADE® (www.blademag.com) on the 12th anniversary of 9/11—on many newsstands NOW!

Featuring a Bob Dozier Freedom Fighter on the cover that stopped a bullet and likely saved U.S. Marine Lance Corporal Josh Clysdale’s life, the latest issue of BLADE (www.blademag.com) is our 4th annual military issue, and it covers the subject of military knives like no other.

The issue kicks off with a heart-rending story about Lima Company, 3rd Battalion, 25th Marines, all save one of whom—Lance Corporal Travis Williams—were killed by an enemy IED in Iraq. Williams eventually returned home and began making knives part time under the tutelage of knifemaker James Behring Jr. Williams made a knife in honor of Lima Company that was auctioned to raise money to support the work of an artist who was painting life-size portraits of the Lima Company Marines killed by the IED. It’s must reading for military and knife aficionados alike.

There’s much more, including stories on the aforementioned Lance Corporal Clysdale and his “bullet-proof” knife; one on if a soldier had just one knife in a military emergency, what that knife would be; a knife collaboration between Andy Sharpe and Chuck Richards to honor the American GIs who fought off a furious Japanese Banzai attack in a little-known battle on Attu Island in Alaska during World War II; a ground-breaking new program to not only teach returning vets how to make knives but also to help equip them with the tools and equipment they need to do the job; a new “Arkansas Veterans” knife from A.G. Russell Knives, with $10 of the sales of each knife going toward an emergency fund for vets who are students at the University of Arkansas; a one-of-a-kind Bob Loveless Lawndale boot knife made specially for Pat R. Dailey, thought to have been a CIA operative; and much more.

For your copy, check your newsstands. To subscribe to the digital version of BLADE, click on

www.shopblade.com/blade-1-yr-digital-subscription?lid=ssfbbl091013

BLADE University: Few Seats Remain!

Steve Shackleford

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May 27, 2014

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Few seats remain for BLADE University, the BLADE Show‘s classroom approach to teaching you all about your favorite subject—knives—from every angle. Held on the BLADE Show site at the Cobb Galleria Centre in Atlanta, BLADE University will begin the day before the BLADE Show next week, June 5, and end June 7.

•TACTICAL KNIVES: In Knife Designs of The Masters, learn from such world-renowned tactical makers as Chris Reeve, Bill Harsey and Jerry Busse as they explain how they approach making their tactical and other knives, from the design process all the way to the completed knife;

•FORGING: Let ABS master smith Joe Keeslar and other members of the ABS take you through how the ABS tests applicants for journeyman and master smith status, how and why ABS smiths incorporate the concept of line and flow into their knives, and how to inlay wire in handles and sheaths. Also, ABS master smith Jerry Fisk will explain how he forges such knives as his award-winning Sendero model and others in his Knife Designs of The Masters class;

•COLLECTING: The knives of such legends as Bob Loveless, Bill Moran, Bo Randall and Jim Schmidt are among the world’s most collectible custom knives. Major Louis Chow, Dave Ellis and Gary Clinton will school you on which of the legends’ knives are most collectible, their values, what to look for and much more;

•EMBELLISHMENT: Glendo Corp. has a state-of-the-art engraving school in Emporia, Kansas, where it teaches some of the world’s finest engravers and also knifemakers the art of engraving. Learn from the experts via the latest in engraving equipment and hands-on instruction and much more in this comprehensive series of classes;

•TRADITIONAL POCKETKNIVES: Tony Bose has been making award-winning slip joints for decades and also designs special collaborations for W.R. Case & Sons. Allow him to share his extensive experience and knowledge on how he makes his famous saddlehorn trapper and other traditional pocketknife patterns;

•JAPANESE SWORDS: ABS master smith Wally Hayes forges both Japanese swords and knives and also specializes in their handles and fittings. Let him show you hands-on how to wrap Japanese handles and his approach to fittings and the wavy temper line known as the hamon.

For information on how to enroll, visit BLADE University.

Edgecraft Founder Passes Away

Steve Shackleford

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October 2, 2012

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EdgeCraft Corp. Founder, Chairman and CEO Daniel D. Friel, an acclaimed inventor, world-renowned for engineering the best-selling Chef’sChoice® brand of small kitchen electrics, passed away on September 21. He was 92.

    “It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of our founder and beloved friend Dan Friel. He was a brilliant businessman, inventor and pioneer who forever changed the fundamentals of knife sharpening,” says EdgeCraft President Sam Weiner. “Building an enterprise that in a few short years became the world leader in sharpening technology is a true American success story. His unwavering commitment to quality and innovative excellence is a legacy that will live on through his family, friends, employees, the products he invented and the consumers who enjoy them,” says Weiner.

    Born in 1920 in Queenstown, MD, Friel received a Bachelor of Science Degree in Chemical Engineering from John Hopkins University in 1942. He began his career on the Manhattan Project at the University of Chicago where the first atomic reactor was assembled. Friel then spent 39 years with the DuPont company where he helped pioneer such products as Riston® Dry Film Photo Resist, used in the manufacturing of circuit boards. At the time of his retirement from the company, he was the Worldwide Director of Instruments and Biomedical Products.

    At the age of 65, Friel founded EdgeCraft, highlighted by the launch of its first Chef’sChoice® electric knife sharpener in 1985. Friel’s technologically advanced sharpener immediately earned the acclaim of food experts and chefs worldwide including Craig Claiborne, Pierre Franey, Jacques Pépin and Julia Child.

    “Dan Friel literally established sharpeners as a separate and important product category in the worldwide consumer market,” says Weiner. Today, the Chef’sChoice brand is not only recognized as a market leader for professional knife sharpeners, but also for advanced cutlery and other upscale kitchen electrics including tea kettles, waffle makers, and food slicers.

    Friel’s brilliance as inventor and businessman spanned decades, and two distinctive careers. During that time he authored numerous technical papers and hundreds of U.S. and foreign patents on his work at both DuPont and EdgeCraft. He was active with EdgeCraft Corporation until the last week of his life. He was also a founder and chairman of the Mt. Cuba Astronomical Observatory located in Mt. Cuba, Delaware. He was a man of several passions who had an insatiable curiosity for all of life’s beauty and wonder. These passions led to several other personal achievements including pioneering the first high-speed photography studies of hummingbirds and most recently inking exquisite watercolor paintings.

    Friel was married in 1943 to June, who passed away in 2008 and remarried in 2010 to Carolyn Blish. He is survived by his wife Carolyn, and three children, Barbara Holme of Denver, CO, Patricia Friel of Chadds Ford, PA and Daniel Friel Jr. of Kennett Square, PA, along with six grandchildren.

Knifemaker Norman Bardsley Passes Away

Steve Shackleford

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December 9, 2011

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Long-time knifemaker Norman Bardsley of Pawtucket, Rhode Island, passed away yesterday.

Probably best known for his fantasy knives, Mr. Bardsley also made working knives. His patterns included fighters, boot knives, and renaissance and native American styles in upscale and presentation fashion. He used exotic hides for his sheaths.

Among others, Mr. Bardsley made knives for such actors as Geoffrey Lewis, known for his role as Clint Eastwood’s sidekick in Everyway Which Way But Loose, the leader of the trio that seeks revenge on the town of Lago in High Plains Drifter and other films.

Mr. Bardsley’s funeral arrangements are pending.

Englehart’s Dad’s World War II Knife

Steve Shackleford

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December 11, 2011

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The author (left) holds his dad’s World War II Warther Commando Knife in the Warther knife shop in Dover, Ohio. At right is knifemaker Dale Warther, grandson of Ernest Warther. Dale passed away in 2010. (photo courtesy of Gene Englehart)

Editor’s note: On page 114 of the December BLADE®, we ran the story “Ed’s Dad’s WWII Ek” about the knife BLADE field editor Ed Fowler’s dad carried during the Second World War. Along with the story we asked readers to send us pictures and information about their dads’ military knives. It didn’t take long for reader Gene Englehart to supply the following.

My father, Orville Englehart of Paw Paw, Illinois, spent four years in the Navy as a chief petty officer during World War II. He was stationed stateside, training aircraft mechanics in Michigan, Florida and Oklahoma.

I believe it was when he was stationed in Michigan that he ordered a Commando Knife from Ernest Warther in Dover, Ohio. After Dad got the knife, he kept it in the original box and, as far as I know, never used it. It has a 7-inch blade with his name and serial number engraved on it.

Ever since I was a little kid the knife fascinated me, and I was forbidden to touch it. In 2009, I took it with me on a trip East that included a visit to the Warther Museum and workshop in Dover. I had the good fortune to meet Ernest’s grandson, Dale, and show him the knife. He told me the copper in the sheath came from a local sheriff who had confiscated it from a moonshine still. The brass came from the kick plates on the men’s room door at the local high school. Ernest’s son Dave took it home for the war effort. Ernest made only about 1100 of these knives and sold them for about $15 apiece, which is probably less than they cost him to make.

Ernest was a genius and an incredibly skilled carver and craftsman. Dale was very gracious to me the day I visited his shop, and I was very sad to hear of his passing about a year later.

I consider Dad’s Warther Commando knife to be a family heirloom now.

Do you have your dad’s knife or any knife used by any family member—including you—while in the service? Send a photograph or photographs of it and/or of you or the family member holding it, any information/anecdotes about the knife and its use by the family member who owned/carried it, along with the knife’s specs—brand/maker, model, overall length, your family member’s name, rank and branch/years/theater of service, etc.—to BLADE, c/o “Knives Of Heroes,” 700 E. State St., Iola, WI 54990. If digital, the image(s) must be at least 600 K. E-mail it/them to [email protected].

To read similar stories and the latest knife news, forums, blogs and much more, subscribe to BLADE®. For subscription information, click on http://www.shopblade.com/product/blade-magazine-one-year-subscription-us/?r+ssfb111211#BL1SU

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Best Knives Under $50 Top New BLADE

New Knife Category From ZT/Hinderer?

New BLADE® Salutes Military On 9/11

BLADE University: Few Seats Remain!

Edgecraft Founder Passes Away

Knifemaker Norman Bardsley Passes Away

Englehart’s Dad’s World War II Knife

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