Steve Shackleford's Blog

SHOT Show Hosts AKTI Ontario Marine Bayonet Drawing

Steve Shackleford

-

January 24, 2012

Pictured above, from left: Bill Raczkowski, AKTI president; Nick Trbovich Jr. of Ontario Knife/Queen Cutlery; Goldie Russell of A.G. Russell Knives, AKTI past president; and Jan Billeb, AKTI executive director. (Missy Beyer photo)

A Special Ontario Knife Co. Marine Bayonet was won by a current member of the American Knife & Tool Institute (AKTI) in a drawing at the Ontario booth during last week’s SHOT Show in Las Vegas. The member’s name is being withheld pending notification.

Individual members who renewed or joined AKTI between Jan. 1 and Dec. 30, 2011 were eligible to win the special bayonet and private factory tour, including a one-night stay in western New York.

The bayonet was taken from the Ontario archives. It is one of the first 200 OKC3s Marine Corps Bayonets produced and set aside in the company’s vault. Of those originally archived 200 knives, 52 were used to fill urgent requests from deploying Marines, when the company did not have regular production-run bayonets immediately available.

The reverse side of the 8-inch carbon steel clip point blade is laser engraved with the AKTI logo and the obverse side with a quote from Ronald Reagan, the Marine Corps logo and the serial #001 of 001. The one-of-a-kind knife with sheath ships with a glass-top walnut display case, and includes a certificate of authenticity attesting to its rarity, and a certificate for a one-night stay in western New York and a private tour of the Ontario facility.

“Ontario Knife Company has been a long-time member and supporter of AKTI, actively serving on the Advisory Members board as well as being an important asset on the Legislative Committee. They have been invaluable dealing with knife issues in their region of the country,” noted Jan Billeb, AKTI executive director.

AKTI has been actively changing restrictive knife legislation since 1998, working on a state-by-state basis promoting reasonable and responsible knife laws and enforcement to benefit all knife and edged tool users.

“AKTI is laying the groundwork for more knife law changes in various states to ensure that law-abiding citizens are not considered de facto criminals for carrying a tool they use every day,” Billeb said. “We are looking forward to an exciting year working with legislators for the benefit of the entire knife community.”

For more information 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+ssfb240112#BL1SU

Do’s & Don’ts of Knives

Steve Shackleford

-

September 12, 2013

0

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.

Best Blade Steels Unleash The Sharp

Steve Shackleford

-

November 29, 2017

0

Best blade steels and Damasteel — Forging some of the best blade steels is something with which Damasteel of Soderfors, Sweden, is well acquainted.

Best blade steels and Puma — The best blade steels combined with the best blade shapes can cut wonders. Puma’s SGB Buffalo Hunter comes in a recurve blade of 1.4116 stainless steel.

Raffir fossil mammoth ivory comprises the handle of Danish knifemaker Tommy Astrup’s mosaic damascus fixed blade.

The best blade steels, latest handle materials, blade shapes, knifemaking suppliers and most everything else it takes to make a knife the sharpest it can be populate the BLADE 2018 Complete Knife Guide, on newsstands now!

What’s the best knife steel for one application can be a disaster for another. However, there exists a happy medium where a maker and an end-user get as many general bennies from the steel as possible. Dave Rhea examines the phenomenon in detail and considers some of today’s best cutting materials in his story, “Keys To The Best Blade Steels.”

Based in Hadsten, Denmark, Raffir offers an array of the most beautiful and durable synthetics yet in its range of fossil, wood and other materials. In Raffir Mammoth Tooth in particular, the cracks and abrasions that handle companies have to fill and re-fill during finishing operations with standard mammoth tooth are reduced by 80 to 90 percent. The material is most pleasing to the eye as well. Get a handle on the latest gripping stuff in “Most Beautiful Synthetics Ever?” by yours truly and Mike Haskew’s “What’s Your Handle?”

The “S”-shaped recurve blade has the rear of the cutting edge, or belly, curving inward toward the spine in a continuous curve from the point. Though most recurves have similar looks, subtle design differences mean that each knife has a distinct feel and performance. David W. Jung outlines some of the leading performers of the genre in “The Inside Edge.”

There is a wealth of knifemaking suppliers providing just what the knife doctor ordered, whether it be the best in handle materials, steels, specialized forging equipment, or the tools that make the sparks fly. Daniel Jackson reacquaints you with some of the best of the lot in “Go-To Guys of Sharp.”

There’s much more in the Complete Knife Guide, including the most comprehensive listing of factory knife companies and other professionals in the industry, a sneak peek at the coolest knife debuts for 2018, the brightest flashlight knives, three fun-to-build knife kits, the latest in beer knives and much more.

Jantz Supply and Ken Jantz — Ken Jantz of Jantz Supply works on a prototype for a new hollow-grinding fixture in the Jantz Shop in Davis, Oklahoma.

How Knives Can Save Babies

Steve Shackleford

-

December 9, 2011

0

The recent tragic death of the 11-month-old infant who onlookers were unable to free from a burning car because no one had a knife to cut the baby free from a jammed seat belt is heartbreaking. First and foremost, a young life was snuffed out in a most painful, terrifying way. My thoughts and prayers go out to the child’s parents and family, as well as those on the scene who were unable to save the infant. The incident will continue to haunt all concerned for many lifetimes.

The lack of a knife carried by any of the bystanders to cut the seat belt and free the baby was a contributing factor in the infant’s death. The fact it happened in Los Angeles with its strict anti-knife ordinances is even more detestable, where anti-knifers continue to succeed in their crusade against knives. Anti-knife laws indirectly—some might say directly—kept the child from being rescued, and no doubt will prevent others from being saved in future catastrophes as well. (For more, see “For the Want of a Knife” in the “Forum” at http://knifeshowcase.blademag.com.)

Ordinances designed to keep people from carrying knives and, as a result, from saving the lives of others in emergency situations must be repealed. Of course, organizations like the American Knife & Tool Institute and Knife Rights and elected officials such as New Hampshire Rep. Jenn Coffey are the standard bearers in focusing on the repeal of anti-knife legislation. By joining and supporting them and speaking out on your own, writing your legislators and local newspapers, voicing your concerns on social media like Facebook, Twitter, etc., you can do your part, too. And be sure to voice your concerns in non-knife venues. You are “preaching to the choir” if you do it in pro-knife venues. It is the non-knife ones that need to hear the message.

In a heartrending way, the infant’s horrific death in a burning automobile magnifies the folly of anti-knife laws. In fact, thousands upon thousands more fatalities occur in car accidents than because of knives.

In place of anti-knife ordinances that exaggerate the problem, why not institute pro-knife ordinances that not only protect your right to carry knives, but also address the slaughter that occurs on our nation’s highways by enabling you to respond to emergencies such as the one in L.A.? Moreover, why not require the manufacturers of automobile baby seats to equip each of the seats with a seat-belt cutter conveniently placed for a parent or onlooker to use to cut the baby’s seat belt in an emergency? And while we are at it, why not require automobile and truck manufacturers to stock each and every vehicle with a seat-belt cutter?

Ideally, said manufacturers would take the lead and include seat-belt cutters with their products. Not only would it be a public service, the manufacturers would add value to their baby seats and vehicles. However, in today’s cost-cutting atmosphere, most manufacturers probably will not act without some kind of legislative push.

A number of knife companies have seat-belt cutters with the edges recessed for safety. Columbia River Knife & Tool offers one—the model also has a window breaker and flashlight—that attaches to a seat belt and is thus immediately accessible in an emergency situation. Seat-belt cutters can be the next best thing to carrying a knife, and are probably better and definitely safer when it comes to cutting a person from a jammed seat belt.

Repealing anti-knife legislation and promoting a seat-belt-cutter law would save the lives of innocents like the baby in L.A.—and, ironically, given the proper circumstances, maybe even the politically correct idiots who refuse to carry knives themselves.

To read similar stories and all about the latest knives, knife news, knife shows, knifemakers, knife manufacturers and much more, subscribe to BLADE® by clicking on http://www.shopblade.com/product/blade-magazine-one-year-subscription-us/?r+ssfb91211#BL1SU

CAPTION

Columbia River Knife & Tool’s Exitool is a seat-belt cutter, flashlight and window breaker that attaches to a seat belt—where you need it, when you need it. (CRKT photo)

Knifemaker Kit Carson Passes Away

Steve Shackleford

-

September 8, 2014

0

Knifemaker Kit Carson is dead. — Kit Carson passed away Friday, Sept. 5. He was 63.

Kit Carson of Vine Grove, Kentucky, long-time knifemaker, Army veteran and member of the BLADE Magazine Cutlery Hall Of Fame©, passed away Friday, Sept. 5. He was 63.

Instrumental in popularizing the flipper style of folding knife, Kit made a wide range of tactical and utility folders, the best known of which are the M16, M4 and M21. Reproduced by Columbia River Knife & Tool in a wide range of iterations, the M16 has been one of the company’s best-selling and most successful knives for many years.

As revered as he was for his knives, Kit was more respected for his willingness to teach any and all how to make them. When knives and knifemaking exploded on the Internet circa the late 1990s and early 2000s, his mentoring benefited perhaps as many new and upcoming potential makers as anyone before or since.

A voting member of the Knifemakers’ Guild, Kit spent 20 years in the Army, retiring as a master sergeant in 1993. He grew up in North Georgia, interested in all things mechanical from the start. He began making knives in 1972, the same year he was drafted into the Army. It was during his last 10 years in the service that knifemaking became an extremely interesting and challenging hobby for him. While he and his wife Betty supported their children, Kit would scrounge any place he could in government housing to grind a blade shape or handle, or try to figure out how a lock mechanism worked.

“We did not have the Internet, all the books or the specialty tools,” he said of those times in his prepared induction speech into the Cutlery Hall Of Fame at the 2012 BLADE Show. “Many of us still today do every piece by hand, filing, sanding, honing blades, slowly creating knives, spending hundreds of hours at knife and BLADE Shows establishing our names in the industry and, most importantly, making lifelong friends.”

A celebration of his life with military honors will be at 2 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 10, at the chapel of Coffey & Chism Funeral Home in Vine Grove. Visitation begins after noon Wednesday. At the request of family, everyone is asked to wear casual clothing and bright colors in honor of Kit’s life. Donations can be made to the National Parkinson’s Foundation at www.parkinson.org.

Blade Magazine 2012 Imported Knife Of The Year®

Steve Shackleford

-

September 20, 2012

0

Designed by Blade Magazine Cutlery Hall-Of-Fame© member Ken Onion for Columbia River Knife & Tool, the Foresight is the Blade Magazine 2012 Imported Knife Of The Year®. A recurve edge, a magnificently contoured handle for enhanced purchase and the Ikoma Korth Bearing System for ultra-smooth action help make this puppy a pocket keeper. It is also one of the 2012 Knives Of The Year that ShopBlade offered in an exclusive limited edition of 100 with Onion’s signature on the blade. Those exclusives sold out in a hurry.

•Knife: Foresight

Company: Columbia River Knife & Tool

•Designer: Blade Magazine Cutlery Hall-Of-Fame© member Ken Onion

•Pattern: Tactical folder

•Blade steel: AUS 8 stainless

•Heat treat: 58-59 HRC

•Blade length: 3.5”

•Blade pattern: Drop point

•Blade grind: High hollow

•Blade finish: Black titanium nitride

•Handle material: Cold-forged aluminum

•Closed length: 5.17”

•Operating/locking mechanism: Flipper with locking liner

•What to look for: IKBS ball-bearing pivot system provides a smooth, fast opening

•Weight: 6.3 ozs.

•MSRP: $140

•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=blss092012

Design and Make a Combat Knife

Steve Shackleford

-

March 13, 2015

2

Spartan Blades Difensa — Learn how to design and make a combat from Curtis Iovito and Bill Harsey at BLADE U.

Learn how to design and make a combat knife from two who have been there/done that—Curtis Iovito of Spartan Blades and award-winning custom knifemaker William W. “Bill” Harsey—at the 2nd Annual BLADE University.

Award-winning knifemaker Bill Harsey. — Bill Harsey’s designs have won numerous BLADE Magazine Knife-Of-The-Year® Awards.

Held the day before (June 4) through show Saturday (June 6) of the 2015 BLADE Show June 5-7 at the Cobb Galleria Centre in Atlanta, BLADE University assembles the world’s leading knife professionals to instruct you on most anything that has to do with the subject of cut.

Along with Mark Carey co-owner and co-founder of Spartan Blades, Iovito is a retired U.S. Army Ranger who saw action during Operation Just Cause in Panama and numerous sensitive deployments and missions throughout Asia and the Middle East. It was while in 1st Special Forces Group (Airborne) that Curtis got into making custom knives for his teammates. After finishing up his 20-year career he hooked up with Carey—himself a 21-year man with U.S. Army Special Forces with many deployments in Asia—to start Spartan Blades.

Harsey is well-known throughout the custom and factory knife industries for his custom knives and custom and factory knife designs. He collaborated with BLADE Magazine Cutlery Hall-Of-Fame© member Col. Rex Applegate to design Gerber’s award-winning Applegate-Fairbairn line; with Chief James “Peaches” Watson to design Gerber’s Watson/Harsey Silver Trident, and with Chris Reeve and Matt Larsen to design Gerber’s LHR Combat Knife; and one of Harsey’s most significant efforts—the Yarborough Knife, aka the Green Beret Knife for Chris Reeve Knives—named after Lt. Gen. William P. Yarborough, who is credited as being the “father of modern Special Forces.”

A number of Harsey’s designs, including the Green Beret Knife, have won BLADE Magazine Knife-Of-The-Year® awards. Spartan Blades also has won BLADE Magazine Knife-Of-The-Year® Awards with its knives.

Today Harsey is one of several custom makers who design knives for Spartan Blades, a list that includes BLADE® Magazine field editor and retired 5th Special Forces Master Sergeant Kim Breed and also ABS master smith John Horrigan. Among Harsey’s design efforts for Spartan is the Difensa combat fixed blade.

In “Designing and Making a Combat Knife,” Iovito and Harsey will take you through the process, including:

•The terms “combat” and “tactical” as they relate to knife use;

•Understanding task-specific uses of a combat knife;

•Combat knife geometry;

•Carry options for a combat knife, vehicle and on foot;

•Design features that make up a combat knife;

•Blade geometry, and;

•Materials that lend themselves to improving a combat knife.

For more information on Iovito and Harsey’s class, BLADE University and the BLADE Show, visit BLADE Show or e-mail [email protected].

Recommended for You:

Making Tactical Fixed Blades DVD

Learn both basic and advanced knife making techniques with expert instruction from Allen Alishewitz in Tactical Fixed Blades. Allen demonstrates how to craft a double-edged tactical fixed blade knife from start to finish, and creates two knives in order to fully illustrate the knife building process. You’ll learn:

– Profiling and Drilling the Knife
– Tang Tapering on a Grinder
– Tang Tapering on a Mill
– And more!

Order here

Can You Define Knife Choil?

Build a Knife From The Latest Knife Kits

D2 Tool Steel Just Keeps Cutting

Knives of The Expendables 2

BLADE Show 2018: Plan Now!

SHOT Show Hosts AKTI Ontario Marine Bayonet Drawing

Do’s & Don’ts of Knives

Best Blade Steels Unleash The Sharp

How Knives Can Save Babies

Knifemaker Kit Carson Passes Away

Blade Magazine 2012 Imported Knife Of The Year®

Design and Make a Combat Knife

Recommended for You:

Must Read Articles

Knifemaking 101 – Read This Before You Make a Knife

8 Things You May Not Know About “Forged in Fire”

How to Forge Damascus

How to Create Damascus Patterns

Why Are Switchblades Illegal?

The BLADE Blog w/Steve Shackleford

Recommended for You:

Must Read Articles