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New BLADE Show Photographer is Chuck Ward

Steve Shackleford
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New BLADE Show Photographer is Chuck Ward
Chuck Ward/BLADE Show photographer
Chuck Ward is the new Official BLADE Show Photographer. (Chuck Ward image)

Long-time knife photographer Chuck Ward is the new Official BLADE Show Photographer, the BLADE Show and BLADE® Magazine are happy to report.

The BLADE Show is the world’s largest and most important knife show and will be held in its 36th annual rendition June 2-4 at the Cobb Galleria Centre in Atlanta.

Chuck replaces Eric Eggly and PointSeven, who had been the Official BLADE Show Photographer for about 20 years. Eggly retired from photography late last year to enter another industry.

The new Official BLADE Show Photographer counts being president of the Arkansas Knifemakers Association and membership in The Knifemakers’ Guild among his credentials. He is also the official photographer for the Oklahoma Custom Knife Show and the Arkansas Knifemakers Association Show—officially known as The Art of Steel Custom Knife Show slated for Feb. 18-19 at the Statehouse Convention Center in Little Rock. He has been photographing knives for over a decade and has been published in many magazines, including BLADE.

As the Official BLADE Show Photographer it will be Chuck’s job to photograph all of the annual BLADE Magazine Knife-Of-The-Year® winners, all of the winners in the annual BLADE Show custom knife competition, and all of the American Bladesmith Society’s annual best knives named at the show. All told those images will total 32, give or take a few. The resulting images will be the exclusive property of BLADE and will be used in the magazine’s stories recapping the annual BLADE Show.

The Official BLADE Show Photographer will be ably assisted by his staff. His grandson, Brennan Ward, will help Chuck with the photography, editing and printing of images. Brennan’s wife, Mrs. Anna-Catherine Ward, will handle all clerical duties and Chuck’s grandson, Grayson Ward, will assist in returning knives after they have been photographed. Brennan and Anna-Catherine are graduates of Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee. Brennan is director of marketing at Elite Core Audio, and Grayson is custom shop director at ECA.

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Do’s & Don’ts of Knives

Steve Shackleford
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Do’s & Don’ts of Knives
DO ask a maker's permission before picking up a knife from his table at a knife show.
DO attend as many knife shows as possible—such as here at the BLADE Show (www.bladeshow.com)—to handle knives and meet the makers.

The do’s and don’ts of knives are many. Knowing them will make your knife experience much more rewarding and satisfying. Here are but a few:

DO use a sharpener to touch up the edge of your knife after each use or at the end of each day of use.

DON’T use your knife as a pry bar (unless it has a pry tip and is designed for such use).

DO rinse off and dry your non-stainless carbon steel knife after each extended use or at the  end of day of each use (it’s probably not a bad idea to do the same no matter what the blade material is).

DON’T store your knife in a leather sheath for extended periods.

DO cut away from other people/your body when cutting rope, cardboard boxes open, etc.

DON’T show off flipping your folding knife open and closed at knife shows in crowds of people or around any area crowded with people, for that matter.

DO ask a maker’s permission to pick up a knife from his table at a knife show.

DON’T open more than one blade at a time on a multi-blade folder (it puts unnecessary pressure on the backsprings; besides, it’s a good way to get accidentally cut).

DO carry a knife whenever possible where it is legal to do so (and when the knife meets local legal requirements).

DON’T pull out a loupe/magnifying glass to closely inspect a new custom or handmade knife at a knife show (it’s just not considered good form; besides, unless you’re legally blind, if you can’t see what’s right or wrong with a knife with the naked eye, then it’s not worth worrying about).

DO attend as many knife shows as you can and view knives up close and personal and meet the makers who build them.

DON’T interrupt a conversation between a maker and someone he or she is talking to at his or her table at a knife show. It’s rude.

DO read as much as you can about knives, their history and their makers.

DON’T take everything you read about knives as gospel. Always look for at least one additional opinion on the subject.

One final DO is to check out these knife deals BLADE‘s lined up for you at ShopBlade.com.

Game Edge: Fall Hunting Knives

Steve Shackleford
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With fall hunting season close at hand, you need the best in today’s latest outdoor knives.

    Enter our new “Game Edge: Fall Hunting Knives” series on ShopBlade.com!

    First up: the Outdoor Edge Butcher-Lite Knife Set.

    The set includes a 3-inch caper, 4.25-inch gut-hook skinner, 6-inch boning/fillet knife, 7.25-inch wood-bone saw, a tungsten-carbide sharpener, a rib-cage spreader and a set of game-cleaning gloves.

    Straight from the hunting knife genius of Outdoor Edge’s David Bloch, the set has every tool you need to skin, quarter and debone big game. The set is belt-carried in a nylon roll pack, with each piece easily accessible for instant use.

    ShopBlade’s price: $59.99.

    For more info and ordering information, click here.

Gene Osborn Passes Away

Steve Shackleford
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     Gene Osborn, the head man behind Center Cross Instructional Videos of Fort Worth, Texas, passed away Nov. 9. He was 51.

      As noted on the company’s website, www.centercross.com/cciv/, Osborn remained the “UNKNOWN KNIFEMAKER” by choice, and proudly displayed the Center Cross as the signature on all his work. For the last 30 years he made “‘one-of-a-kind knives,’ custom-made damascus steel for other knifemakers across the globe, and built the most complete and comprehensive video library of instructional guidance designed to take you to the next level in custom knifemaking.”

     Center Cross is known for a wide range of knifemaking videos featuring such leading makers as Steve Johnson, Harvey Dean and others. The company is also known for the “Ultimate Knife Kit,” a kit that provides all the parts to build a knife with any number of different materials.

     Among Osborn’s survivors is his wife, Mellanie, who will continue to run Center Cross.

To read more on the latest knife news, subscribe to BLADE® by clicking on

http://www.shopblade.com/product/blade-magazine-one-year-subscription-us/?r+ssfb301111#BL1SU

Use A Hunting Knife Designed by Russ Kommer

Steve Shackleford
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Use A Hunting Knife Designed by Russ Kommer

A hunting knife is great—and when you use a hunting knife designed by an Alaskan hunting guide who also happens to be a knifemaker, that’s even better.

The Alaskan Skinner designed by Russ Kommer for Timberline.
A hot hunting knife is just what the doctor ordered—the Alaskan Skinner designed by Russ Kommer for Timberline.

The Alaskan Skinner from Timberline is a hunting knife designed by knifemaker Russ Kommer, who also is a long-time Alaskan hunting guide. Kommer spent most of his youth in the Minnesota north woods hunting, trapping and fishing. Idaho is where he got his start as a big-game guide in the Selway-Bitterroot Mountains. He took his passion for hunting to Alaska in 1984—which is where he also discovered his love of knives, particularly the hunting knife design, after dressing big game. He learned to design the most functional and comfortable hunting knife he could and started making versions of them in 1997.

Kommer’s custom knives include the hunting knife/skinner, camp knives, folders, “unique” fillet knives, fighters, boot knives, bowies, hatchets and tactical knives. In addition to Timberline, Kommer also has designed knives for CRKT, including the Signature line of hunting knife, and the Escalade and Extreme Mountain hunting knife models for Browning

The Alaskan Skinner features what is called an upswept blade with a hollow grind—great for high-performance field dressing, skinning and other chores associated with big game. Besides that, it will also help you prepare your meals in camp and do the other cutting chores that need doing outdoors.

The blade steel is a 440 stainless that fights corrosion and is relatively easy to sharpen compared to steels such as CPM S30V and others. The handle is a soft Zytel rubber with a palm swell to fill your hand, and finger grooves and a bird’s beak pommel to lock your hand in for any number of cutting tasks, from light slicing to heavy-duty cutting. Overall length: 9.625 inches. A black ballistic nylon sheath with belt loop is both handsome, durable and secure. Weight (including the sheath): 13.5 ounces.

Click here for more about this Russ Kommer hunting knife.

BLADE MAGAZINE 2012 AMERICAN-MADE KNIFE OF THE YEAR®

Steve Shackleford
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The late great purveyor J.W. Denton said the best-looking knives were shaped like sports cars, and the Microtech Socom Delta—the Blade Magazine 2012 American-Made Knife Of The Year®—is one J.W. would have loved to take around the block for a cut or two.

MICROTECH SOCOM DELTA

•Pattern: Single-action folder

•Blade steel: Powdered CPM S35VN stainless

•Blade length: 3.75”

•Handle material: G10/carbon fiber

•Closed length: 5.25”

•Weight: 4.2 ozs.

•Special stuff: Carbon-fiber handle has a titanium lockbar w/removable insert to hold the blade securely in place; ceramic bearing system provides smooth, fast action

•MSRP: $330

•Available: Now

    The Blade Magazine Knife-Of-The-Year® Awards are voted on each year at the BLADE Show (www.bladeshow.com) by the show’s exhibiting booth holders, plus a panel of five special judges, the latter whose votes count double. The 2013 BLADE Show will be held May 31-June 2, once again at the Cobb Galleria Centre in Atlanta, Georgia.

For the latest knives, knife trends, knifemakers, what knives to buy and where, knife legislation, knifemaking instruction, and much more, subscribe to BLADE® Magazine, the World’s No. 1 Knife Publication. Click on http://www.shopblade.com/blade-magazine-one-year-subscription-us/?lid=blss091712

Twas The Knife Before Christmas

Steve Shackleford
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Twas the knife before Christmas, when all through the house
Not a creature was stirring, not even a Blade-Tech Mouse.
The scabbards were hung by the chimney with care,
In hopes that knives of nickel silver soon would be there.

The children were nestled all snug in their beds,
While visions of sugar-plums danced in their heads.
And mamma with her Kershaw, and I looking for my Loveless painter’s cap,
Had just settled our brains for a long winter’s knap.

When out near the forge there arose such a clatter,
I sprang from the workbench to see what was the matter.
Away to the window I flew like a SOG Flash,
Tore open the shutters and threw up the sash.

The moon on the breast of the new-fallen snow
Gave the lustre of mid-day to blades below.
When, what to my wondering eyes should appear,
But a miniature sleigh, and eight tiny sambar deer.

With a little old bit driver, so lively and slick,
I knew in a moment it must be St. Nail Nick.
More rapid than Al Mar Eagles his coursers they came,
And he whistled, and shouted, and called them by name!

“Now Trapper! now, Whittler! now, Lobster and Slim Jack!
On, Muskrat! On, Canoe! on Tickler and Swayback!
To the top of the porch! to the top of the wall!
Now cut away! cut away! cut away all!”

As wood chunks before the bowie fly,
When they meet with a sharp edge, pieces multiply.
So up to the knife shop they flew,
With the sleigh full of Toys, and St. Nail Nick too.

And then, in a stropping, I heard on the roof
The prancing and pawing of each little hoof.
As I turned on the grinder and listened for the sound,
It was obvious ol’ St. Nail Nick had come to ground.

He was dressed in overalls, from his head to his foot,
And his clothes were all tarnished with ashes and soot.
A bundle of knives he had flung on his back,
And he looked like a bladesmith, just opening his pack.

The bolsters how they twinkled! The quillons how merry!
The scrimshaw like roses, the pommel like a cherry!
The knife exhibited just the right amount of “flow,”
And the blade’s belly was full as the BLADE Show.

The body of the knife held tight in the sheath,
And the guard encircled the tang like a wreath.
It had a sharp edge and was a perfect cutter,
That whisked when it cut like a hot knife through butter!

It was keen and useful, a right sprightly tool,
And I laughed when I saw it, me being an ol’ fool!
A honing of its edge and a twist of my wrist,

Soon gave me to know it was on St. Nail Nick’s list.

He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work,
And filled all the scabbards, then turned with a jerk.
And laying his Sharpfinger aside of his nose,
And giving a nod, up the chimney he rose!

He sprang to his sleigh, to his team gave a whittle,
And away they all flew, not one blade brittle.
But I heard him exclaim, ‘ere he drove out of sight,
“Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good-knife!”

On behalf of the staff of BLADE® Magazine, the BLADE Show and F+W Media, it is my honor to wish you all a Merry Christmas and/or whichever holiday you are celebrating at this most special time of year.

For information on how to subscribe to BLADE, click on http://www.shopblade.com/product/blade-magazine-one-year-subscription-us/?r+ssfb241211#BL1SU

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