Steve Shackleford's Blog

BLADE Show: Where The ABS Shines

Steve Shackleford

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March 28, 2016

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Levi Miller

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For his journeyman smith applicant knives, Levi Miller used the carbon steels 52100 and 80CrV2 for blade material. (SharpByCoop image)

The annual BLADE Show hosts the awarding of both master and journeyman smith stamps by the American Bladesmith Society (ABS), and the 35th rendition of the world’s largest knife show will, too.

Set for Jan. 3-5 at the Cobb Galleria Centre in Atlanta, the BLADE Show hosts knifemaker and knife company exhibitors from every continent but Antarctica—and who knows, there may even be an Antarctic exhibitor this year, too.

Five master smiths and 12 journeyman smiths earned their stamps at last year’s show. The masters were Veronique Laurent, Jean-Louis Regel, Andrew Meers, Haley DesRosiers and David Lisch. The journeyman smiths were Wess Barnhill, Sandro Boeck, Dionatam Franco de Souza, Stephan Fowler, Kyle Gahagan, Micah Kamer, Levi Miller, Facundo Montenegro, Nick Rossi, Bobby Wetten, Russell White and Robert Wright. Adding to the international flavor is that of the masters, Laurent is from Brussels, Belgium, and Regel is from France. Meanwhile, of the journeyman smiths, Boeck and de Souza are from Brazil, and Montenegro is from Argentina.

Though the requirements differ for both the master and journeyman smiths’ knives, all must submit five models that are judged by a panel of ABS officials on a number of traits. (For more on those traits, visit americanbladesmith.com.) Herein is a selection of some of the knife quintets submitted by the successful applicants last year. If you attend the 2016 BLADE Show, you can view the knives that are submitted for master and journeyman smith status this year. For more information at/during the show, visit the ABS at table 1P.

Guild Show: Granddaddy Custom Knife Event

Steve Shackleford

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September 17, 2013

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Guild Show: Granddaddy Custom Knife Event

The Knifemakers’ Guild Show will hold its 44th annual rendition—the granddaddy of all custom knife shows—this weekend at the Seelbach Hilton Hotel in Louisville, Kentucky. Knifemakers, knifemaking suppliers, purveyors and more from all over the world will convene in Derby Town, where some of the best custom knives will be shown and sold.

The Guild got its start in February 1970 when the Guild’s “founding father,” BLADE Magazine Cutlery Hall-Of-Fame© member A.G. Russell, rented tables at the Sahara Gun Show in Las Vegas and invited several knifemakers to display knives there. Later that year, 11 makers met in Tulsa, Oklahoma, to form the Guild. The makers were John Applebaugh, Cutlery Hall-Of-Famer Blackie Collins, John Nelson Cooper, Cutlery Hall-Of-Famer Dan Dennehy, Ted Dowell, Chubby Hueske, John Kirk, Cutlery Hall-Of-Famer Bob Loveless, John Owens, Jim Pugh and G.W. Stone. Loveless was elected secretary—the Guild office title today is president—and A.G. Russell was made honorary president.

The purposes of the Guild are to:

1) Promote custom knives and knifemakers

2) Assist the knifemaker technically;

3) Encourage ethical and professional business conduct;

4) Sponsor an annual business meeting and knife show.

The show has been held in assorted venues over the years, including Kansas City, Dallas, Orlando, New Orleans, Las Vegas and now Louisville. Some of the earliest Kansas City shows were held at the old Muehlebach Hotel, where, in addition to Loveless and Dennehy, such Guild legends as Cutlery Hall-Of-Famers Buster Warenski, Bill Moran, Ron Lake, George Herron, D’ Holder, Frank Centofante, Gil Hibben and many others displayed their knives and kick-started an organization that continues to be recognized worldwide today. Hibben, in fact, remains active in the Guild today, and is in his seventh and final year as Guild president. He will step down this year.

Make plans now to attend the show this weekend. There will be a special President’s Gala Thursday, Sept. 19, at the Seelbach, and should be a great place to see Gil and Linda Hibben in their final show as the Guild’s first family, as well as all the other makers and their great knives show Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

For the latest in knives and knife news, keep it here at www.blademag.com.

BLADE Show: Experience Ed’s Homespun Knife Knowledge

Steve Shackleford

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May 16, 2013

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BLADE Show: Experience Ed’s Homespun Knife Knowledge

BLADE® field editor and ABS master smith Ed Fowler will offer another of his seminars as only he can in “Knives That Survived The Frontier” during the 2013 BLADE Show & Living Ready Expo (www.bladeshow.com) May 31-June 2 at the Cobb Galleria Centre in Atlanta.

Ed’s seminar will be show Saturday at 2 p.m. in Room 104.

Ed will discuss an antique Huber bowie, Ames Rifleman Knife and a T-backed wootz knife.

“The Huber bowie made in 1832 looks to have been in combat as evidenced by the cuts in her blade,” he noted. “The Ames Rifleman’s Knife from 1849 was used hard, most probably during the Civil War. Her scabbard was refurbished on the frontier with what was available.

“The T-backed wootz knife collected by a British soldier who traded a carton of cigarettes for her while driving a lorry over the Khyber Pass during World War II is another knife with a great history visible through repairs where few tools and materials were available,” Ed continued.

“Those who attend will be invited to hold, study and discuss what aspects of design and steel made these knives great. These aspects of design remain as hallmarks of the high performance knife of today.”

Author of his “Knife Talk” column in BLADE for over two decades, Ed is well known for his controversial opinions and approaches to not only bladesmithing/knifemaking, but also to knives and their history in general. He also has written Knife Talk I and Knife Talk II—compilations of his Knife Talk columns in BLADE.

World Championship Cutting Competition at BLADE Show

Steve Shackleford

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April 24, 2013

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World Championship Cutting Competition at BLADE Show

Defending champ Ted Ott and a host of challengers will compete for the 11th Annual World Championship Cutting Competition at the BLADE Show (www.bladeshow.com) May 31-June 2 at the Cobb Galleria Centre in Atlanta.

The World Championship will be conducted by BladeSports International (BSI) the Saturday of the show at 4:15 p.m. in “The Courtyard”—the parking lot of the show’s host hotel, the Renaissance Waverly. Current qualifiers include Ott, past champ Gary Bond, Donavon Phillips, Jim Cottingham, Michael Eubanks, Dwight Schoneweis, Dan Keffeler, Bud Robbins and Chris Rowland. Whether more will qualify by the time of the competition, including at least one international contestant, remains to be seen.

Speed, power, technique and a good knife are all important ingredients to winning the competitions. All certified beforehand by BSI, the knives must be no longer than 15 inches overall, with a blade 10 inches or shorter and no more than 2 inches wide. There are no thickness or weight limits. The majority of the knives are custom made, with the balance being factory.

The contestants perform a number of cuts, all of which are timed. Points are deducted from the total time for successful cuts, and the low score wins. While some cuts such as slicing through hanging ropes, water-filled plastic bottles and chopping 2x4s are standard fare, there are usually a couple of surprise cuts for which the competitors cannot prepare. The knives are inspected after each round and disqualified if the blade is damaged.

For more on the BLADE Show, subscribe to BLADE® www.shopblade.com/blade-magazine-one-year-subscription-us?icid=SHBLNCF2BL1SU-030613?lid=ssfbbl042413

Custom Pocket Clips: Sal’s Pals

Steve Shackleford

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July 27, 2016

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Zieba's rose gold clips — The serpentine titanium clips on Michael Zieba’s folders are finished in rose gold. (PointSeven image)

Butch Ball's damascus trailing point clips. — Damascus trailing-point clips adorn Butch Ball’s pearl folders. (PointSeven image)

C15 with pocket clip — Spyderco’s first factory/custom collaboration, the C15 designed by Bob Terzuola, sported a pocket clip.

Custom knifemakers seem to introduce most knife innovations, which are then emulated by factory knife companies. Not so with custom pocket clips. BLADE Magazine Cutlery Hall-Of-Fame© member Sal Glesser popularized knives with pocket clips in his Spyderco production line, and custom knifemakers took their cue from him. As a result, today’s custom pocket clips might well be called “Sal’s Pals.”

mokuti pocket clip — Craig Camerer employs mokuti for the long, curved clip on his folder. (PointSeven image)

Celebrating its 40th anniversary this year, Spyderco offered its first knife with a pocket clip—and also the company’s trademarked blade opening hole—in 1981 when it introduced the Worker model. Spyderco also popularized serrations on sporting folding knives.

The fact that custom knifemakers adopted the pocket clip, as did factory knife companies everywhere, should come as no surprise. For one thing, the clip’s abilities to attach a closed folding knife to the lip of your pocket rather than having the knife bang around in the bottom of it with car keys, coins, etc., and to make it much easier to retrieve are eminently practical. In addition, Spyderco has offered many factory/custom collaborations—knives designed by custom knifemakers and then reproduced by a company, in this case Spyderco. The first of these was in the early 1990s—the C15 designed by Bob Terzuola, which, of course, also had the blade hole and a pocket clip.

Today’s custom versions of the pocket clip run the gamut, including long ones, short ones, tall ones, round, anodized ones, rose gold ones and more.

For instance, Michael Zieba won Best New Maker at the 2016 BLADE Show for his S2 standard and mini models with serpentine titanium pocket clips finished in rose gold.

Short, cross-hatched clip — Ken Onion’s folders have a short, cross-hatched pocket clip. (PointSeven image)

On the other end of the scale is Lucas Burnley’s Asian-style folder with a very short skeletonized clip, while Butch Ball offers trailing-point damascus clips on his pearl-handle folders. Craig Camerer presents a long, curved clip in mokuti on his damascus folding knife, while Cutlery Hall-Of-Fame member Ken Onion opts for a short, cross-hatched clip on one style of his folders.

These are but a few of today’s custom knifemakers who took their cue from Sal Glesser and his utilitarian pocket clip. Hey, if you’re going to emulate someone, emulate the best.

Don’t Miss Knives 2017, the World’s Greatest Knife Book

The best knives in the world can only be found in the greatest knife book on the planet. Put your order in for Knives 2017 and look forward to gorgeous full-color photos of custom knives, in-depth articles and profiles of the hottest knives from the best ‘makers.

Order Knives 2017 from ShopBlade.com for the best price anywhere.

How The Nov. 4 Vote Affects the Ivory Ban

Steve Shackleford

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November 6, 2014

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How The Nov. 4 Vote Affects the Ivory Ban

The pending ivory ban will be impacted by the Nov. 4 elections. — The Nov. 4 elections will impact the pending ivory ban, though to what extent depends on several factors. Meanwhile, even legal ancient ivory has been banned in New Jersey! Robert Appleby uses legal mammoth ivory on his fixed blades. (Chuck Ward photo)

While some might think Republicans taking control of Congress as a result of the Nov. 4 elections will be good for those fighting a pending legal ivory ban, such may not be the case.

Rob Mitchell of the Elephant Protection Association indicated that though the election results would seem to make a Republican majority in Congress more effective at challenging “out-of-control administrative agencies” that want to ban all legal ivory, including knives with handles of legal ivory, it could also have the opposite effect.

Since President Obama has indicated he will do what he thinks necessary to deal with aliens in the country illegally through executive order or administrative action by the end of the year at the latest, it also may mean he will take a similar approach to such issues as the ivory ban. “If so,” Mitchell writes, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) “may become more aggressive with regulations putting politics ahead of science-based conservation.”

Moreover, he added, such non-governmental organizations (NGOs) as the World Wildlife Fund, Africa Wildlife Foundation, Wildlife Conservation Society, international and American humane societies and others will “continue to spread misinformation in Congress to confuse issues and push an animal rights agenda in spite of the harm it will cause to legitimate conservation efforts and people who own legal ivory.”

As a result, Mitchell urges all those against the ban on legal ivory to either contact or to continue to contact their legislators and see where the legislators stand on House Resolution 5052 and Senate Bill 2587. In a nutshell, if approved, both measures would roll back the attempt by USFWS to ban legal ivory to the status quo of February 2014, “while allowing the government to pursue other means to combat elephant poaching and other wildlife trafficking.”

For more information on the ivory ban and related issues, visit elephantprotection.org.

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KNIVES 2015

See the latest knives, swords, and edges of all types, and explore the latest trends in blades, steels, styles, and materials. Gaze upon a “State of the Art” section parading engraved, scrimshawed, jewel-inlaid, carved, etched, sculpted and forge-welded, and Damascus and mosaic-damascus knives. Click here.

Cutlery Hall-Of-Fame Series: CRKT/A.G. Sting

Steve Shackleford

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January 4, 2013

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Cutlery Hall-Of-Fame Series: CRKT/A.G. Sting

When you talk Blade Magazine Cutlery Hall-Of-Fame© members, few carry the cache of A.G. Russell, and his Sting design reproduced by CRKT is a great way to experience his knife genius. The non-reflective, powder-coated blade of 1050 carbon steel is 3.197 inches long, and the integral handle is contoured to fit your hand.

Click here to get stung for yourself at ShopBlade.com.

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BLADE Show: Experience Ed’s Homespun Knife Knowledge

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Custom Pocket Clips: Sal’s Pals

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