Knife collecting is an extremely rewarding experience for knife enthusiasts. There truly is a knife for everyone. Many increase or hold their value throughout the years, making collecting knives something to pass on to the next generation of knife collectors.
The Randall Knife Collectors Club is up and running and wants you to join its ranks today.
The RKCC has been over two years in the making and held its third meeting at the 2014 BLADE Show earlier this month at the Cobb Galleria Centre in Atlanta. “We boast an active membership of over 500 avid Randall Knife Knuts, including 15 percent of that total from our international community,” noted Capt. Chris Stanaback, RKCC founder and authorized dealer of Randall Made Knives. All of the club’s membership recruiting had been done by word of mouth until recently. The club is now running ads in BLADE® to help spread the word, Stanaback added.
The RKCC publishes a club newsletter called “KNIFE NEWS” every four months and also offers authentication and appraisal services of Randall knives. “The club has the blessings of the Randall shop and, if you happen to pay a visit to the shop in Orlando, you can usually pick up our latest issue of KNIFE NEWS,” Stanaback said. Randall Made Knives is owned and operated by Gary Randall, son of BLADE Magazine Cutlery Hall-Of-Fame® member W.D. “Bo” Randall.
The club already has sold its first Randall club knife and “is looking to do nothing but get bigger and better,” Stanaback noted.
The RKCC is the successor to the old Randall Knife Society, which was started by Rhett Stidham. The RKS also had a regular newsletter and sold Randall club knives on an annual basis. Stidham, a long-time knife collector, author and purveyor, passed away a few years ago. With his passing, the RKS was dissolved.
The RKCC’s website address is RKCC-RKCA.com and the e-mail address is [email protected]. Stanaback’s phone number is 352-598-1880.
For the latest knives, knife news, trends and more, keep it honed at blademag.com.
The Randall Knife Collectors Club wants you to join NOW! (image courtesy of Gary Clinton)
Since 21-year-old Jarrod Fiscus won with an axe in his appearance on Forged in Fire and also participates in frontier rendezvous events, it seems most appropriate that he would build a traditional pipe tomahawk.
Jarrod handforged the head of 1080 carbon steel and the body of mild steel. He then forge-welded the pipe to the body. He said the “weeping heart” cutout is a design used frequently in Colonial days, from the Eastern woodlands to the Great Plains. Jarrod dyed the curly maple haft in the traditional manner with nitric acid. He poured the pewter inlays directly into the wood. He finished it all up with a brass cap and a mule deer antler plug. As Jarrod noted, “This hawk is a fully functional, smokable piece of art.”
SPEC CHECK
ODEL: Pipe tomahawk
MAKER: Jarrod Fiscus
HEAD LENGTH: 4”
EDGE LENGTH: 3”
HEAD/EDGE MATERIAL: 1080 carbon steel
HAFT: Curly maple
OVERALL LENGTH: 19.5”
MAKER’S LIST PRICE FOR A SIMILAR
PIECE: $550
Halloween knives conjure visions of human steak and Bela Lugosi, high tops and Frankenstein, and decapitations and zombies. Warming to the genre yet?
ABS master smith Wally Hayes makes a couple of Halloween knives that fit the mold like a stake in Frank Langella’s heart: the Vampire Stake and the Zombie Spike. Formed like, well, a stake to drive into the chest of one of the spooky set’s most famous blood-sucking ghouls, the Vampire Stake has a distinctive cross forged into the handle butt to intimidate the worst of the slimy night crawlers, antique coloration and a leather sheath. The Zombie Spike, on the other hand, is 6 inches long and fashioned from O1 tool steel ground and heat treated for high performance. Hayes says it’s popular among his law enforcement customers, though he didn’t mention if it was the officers in the CSI: Walking Dead unit or not. It comes with a Kydex sheath.
Creatures of the night cringe at the sight of the Vampire Stake by Wally Hayes.Wally Hayes‘ Zombie Spike will keep the Walking Dead on their toes.
Dan Keyes‘ “The Count” features a coffin handle with inlaid ivory crosses, a fullered, 30-inch blade of double-drawn 440C stainless steel and LED bulbs that light The Count’s red eyes. The skull is powder-coated “anthracite gray” with highlighted airbrushing. Weight: Just short of five pounds. Overall length: 38.5 inches.
The Count by Dan Keyes is just what Dr. Death ordered.The red eyes of The Count’s skull light up with the flip of a switch in the handle next to the black-leather-lined skull.The Count boasts a 30-inch blade, weighs just short of 5 pounds and is 38.5 inches long overall.
The creation of French knifemaker/artist Jean-Marc Laroche, The Living Knife has a “hand” for a handle with “fingers” that close, an “eye” and an overall lifelike appearance that will literally, er, grab you. As you grab the handle, the “fingers” actually grab back so that it’s hard to tell who’s holding whom. And, as the fingers grab your hand, the “eye” opens. The hand also is embellished with gears in the Steampunk style. The blade is a composite of 15N20, 15LM and UHB11 high-alloy nickel and carbon steels in explosion, twist and random patterns forged by Swedish maker Roger Bergh. Overall length: 25 inches.
When you grab the “fingers” of the “hands” of Jean-Marc Laroche‘s The Living Knife, they literally grab you back!
The MacV Tool from SOG Specialty Knives & Tools is shaped like a skull and is 12 tools in one, including 1/4-, 5/16 and 3/8-inch wrenches, blade sharpener, strap/cord cutter, small and large flathead screwdrivers and more. Designed to resemble the original skull from the MACV-SOG group of Vietnam War fame the company is named after, it measures 2.5 by 1.5 inches and weighs .6 ounce.
Shaped to resemble the skull logo of the original MACV-SOG group of Vietnam War fame, the MacV Tool from SOG Specialty Knives & Tools is 12 tools in one.
A toxic green handle and big, bad modified-cleaver blade in a black finish complete the KA-BAR Zomstro Chopper.
As you might imagine, knives with a zombie theme are undead and well, including the Reaver Cleaver from Zombie Tools and the Zomstro Chopper from KA-BAR. Based on the Chinese war sword, the Reaver Cleaver features an 18-inch blade of 5160 carbon steel, weighs 3 pounds, 10 ounces, and is 31 inches overall. The Zomstro Chopper, meanwhile, features a big, bad modified cleaver blade in a black finish and KA-BAR’s toxic green Zombie handle.
If The Count and the rest of our Halloween knives don’t keep you down for the count, you might be among the living dead. If so, stay clammy and watch out for sunrise!
SOG (www.sogknives.com) has partnered with Electronic Arts, a global leader in digital interactive entertainment, to develop the Voodoo Hawk, a tomahawk weapon designed specifically for the video game Medal of Honor™ Warfighter.
The Voodoo Hawk (http://sogknives.com/store/F18-N.html), a combination of SOG’s Tactical Tomahawk and FastHawk weapons, was designed by SOG, game designers and U.S. Tier 1 Operators, the creators of the Medal of Honor series, to provide game players with an authentic warfare experience.
A limited-edition version of the Voodoo Hawk, which includes custom engraving, SOG patch, and special sheath (http://sogknives.com/store/F18LTD.html), will go on sale this October, in conjunction with the launch of Medal of Honor Warfighter. The Voodoo Hawk is made with a 420 stainless steel head, weighs 24 ounces and has a glass-reinforced nylon handle. Overall length is 12.56” and has a cutting edge of 3.5”.
Proceeds from sales of the Limited Edition Voodoo Hawk will be donated to Project HONOR (http://www.medalofhonor.com/project-honor), an initiative launched by Electronic Arts to benefit the NAVY SEAL Foundation, the Special Operations Warriors Foundation, and other charities. The Voodoo Hawk and the Limited Edition Voodoo Hawk will retail for $75.00 and $100.00, respectively. Only 500 Limited Edition Voodoo Hawks will be sold.
“We were honored to be asked by the Medal of Honor producers to work with them in creating a unique weapon specifically for this game,” says Nando Zucchi, VP of Marketing for SOG. “The Medal of Honor series dedication to accuracy in portrayal of the equipment and weaponry used in their game is incredible. The producers of the game felt that SOG had to be included in Warfighter in order to meet their standard of authenticity. We are delighted to be a part of this franchise and to work with Electronic Arts to benefit the Project HONOR foundation.”
Medal of Honor WarFighter, which is the latest video game from the Medal of Honor series, was written by U.S. Tier 1 Operators and will be released for PC, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3 on Oct. 23. In addition to the Voodoo Hawk, the SOG Ops Black TiNi belt knife and SOG PowerLock EOD Black Oxide Multi-Tool are also featured in the game.
SOG Specialty Knives and Tools are sold nationwide. To find a dealer in your area or to learn more about SOG visit www.sogknives.com.
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. Click on http://www.shopblade.com/blade-magazine-one-year-subscription-us/?r+ssfb062612 for more information.
New BLADE® salutes our military personnel and their favorite knives on the 12th anniversary of 9/11.
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
Designer Ryan Johnson’s latest tomahawk, a new spin on the Woods Chogan T-Hawk released in 2014, will only be available through CRKT.com. This new version sports a “black magnesium phosphate coating on the head for corrosion resistance and an aesthetically cool firewood-burned handle,” per CRKT.
Zero Tolerance’s new 0095TS offers a step up from its 0095 with premium steel and tactical aesthetics. The “TS” in the model name comes from the tiger stripes design on the blade.
