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.
Contingency by Winkler II Knives is well designed for concealed carry. The sheath system offers a variety of carry options and the curved handle easily accommodates positive or 90-degree reverse grip. Contacts for Winkler II Knives are listed at the bottom of this article.
Contingency by Winkler Knives II is a concealable personal protection knife with a sheath system that allows for inside- or outside-the-waistband carry. (You’ll want to order a left-hand-draw sheath for right-hand IWB draw.) The 3 1/2-inch blade on Contingency is made of 80CrV2 steel and has thumb-grip gimping. The knife has a tapered, skeletonized tang and measures 7.625 inches overall.
The curved-handle design is well-suited for easy draw and positive grip or 90-degree reverse-grip positioning. It comes in your choice of walnut, maple or Black, Tan or Green Micarta. Rubber is available but is not recommended for concealed carry. The MSRP is $300. You can also order yours with sculpting, $15; sculpted WASP (air injection), $30; or sculpted multi-camo, $30.
Daniel Winkler’s Early Frontiersman Style
Daniel Winkler, along with wife and leather craftswoman, Karen Shook, started Winkler II Knives in 2016. Daniel’s ever-present love of early American history intensified when he started using black-powder weaponry to extend his hunting season. He added to his 18-century woodsman outfit by making powder horns and other accessories, and in 1975 he made his first knife. He was a member of The American Mountain Men and other historically strict reenactment groups, and began selling knives at gatherings, called rendezvous. The money he made allowed him to upgrade his car-wheel forge to a hand-cranked model. By 1988 he was making knives full time.
Daniel Winkler, co-owner of Winkler Knives II with his wife, Karen Shook, is based in Blowing Rock, North Carolina.
When he’d been at it for nearly two decades, he spent a few years entering cutting competitions. He says those experiences taught him more than he had learned in all the other years combined. Not only did he improve his knife-handling skills, he came to understand what made a knife perform in a wide variety of tests. Cutting competitions are timed events that involve a number of stations at which the maker and his knife must cut, say, a hanging rope, an upright straw, a row of water bottles, a cardboard tube, a pool noodle and then chop through a piece of lumber. The blade either cuts or it doesn’t.
Now he establishes the use of the knife before anything else, because no single knife can do all things well. He is honest about how knifemaking is always changing, sometimes advancing, sometimes failing.
In 1992 Daniel had the opportunity to make the knives and tomahawks used in the movie “The Last of the Mohicans.” His pieces also made appearances in 2012’s “Zero Dark Thirty.” It was his work on “Mohicans,” however, that would send him on the path to making knives and combat axes for today’s Special Operations personnel, while continuing to serve the hunter-outdoorsman community.
Contact Daniel Winkler, Winkler Knives II, P.O. Box 2166, Blowing Rock, NC 28605; 828-295-9156; [email protected]; www.winklerknives.com and on Facebook at Winkler Knives.
A Digital Subscription To BLADE Is The Answer
You can read your digital issues of BLADE Magazine anywhere you have your phone, tablet or computer, and there’s no need to find storage for all your old issues.
Save $4 off the print price of a annual subscription to BLADE Magazine with a digital subscription. If piling up issues of magazine seems like a waste for you… If you feel like you don’t have time to read a magazine… If you like the stories we offer in BLADE, but want a more economical option, then a digital subscription is the answer. An annual digital subscription to BLADE is $17.98.
The co-owners of Spartan Blades, in keeping with the company name, decided to call their 10 7/16-inch reverse-tanto sheepsfoot-bladed combat/utility knife, Hybris. Those familiar with Greek mythology might vaguely recall indirect reference to her hubris (over-inflated pride), insolence and arrogance. However, she is also the goddess of violence and outrageous behavior, necessary traits in elite warriors, no matter the era or place in which they fight. According to myth, she was the last among her peers to marry, so Polemus, the god of war and battle, married her. Clearly, an ideal christening for Spartan Blades Hybris Combat/Utility Knife.
The 5 7/16-inch reverse-tanto sheepsfoot blade on the Spartan Blades Hybris Combat/Utility Knife is made with CPM S35VN steel with a black or earth finish. Handle comes in black or green canvas Micarta. MSRP: $330. Contact Curtis V. Iovito, Spartan Blades, LLC, 625 SE Service Road, Southern Pines, NC 28387; 910-757-0035, [email protected], www.spartanbladesusa.com.
Should you want to accessorize, Spartan Blades offers an appropriately warrior-looking line of beads in spartan helmet, skull with beret, shield and crusader cross designs, MSRP: $5-$10. However, there’s also a line of beads in sterling silver and bronze, including the exclusive-to-Spartan-Blades plumed spartan helmet, crafted by GD Studios in Latvia and exclusively imported by veteran-owned GD Skulls USA in Florida, MSRP: $98.
Curtis Iovito and Mark Carey co-founded Spartan Blades in 2008. The two retired from U.S. Army Special Forces with over 40 years combined service. They prefer to focus on providing military personnel and outdoor enthusiasts with functional, durable knives, rather than chasing the latest innovations, which may or may not have staying power. They stick to using U.S. materials, and batches are small so that quality control can remain exacting. Accompanying sheaths are made by American- or U.S. veteran-owned businesses. At the BLADE Show® Spartan Blades’ Kranos framelock flipper model won the BLADE Magazine 2017 American Made Knife Of The Year®.
Since Curtis and Mark taught at the U.S. Army Special Operations Command sniper school (Special Forces Sniper Course), they continue to support the school and USASOC International Sniper Competition. At one event, they ran into guest speaker Sebastian Gorka, intelligence analyst, best-selling author of “Defeating Jihad, The Winnable War” and now-former deputy assistant under President Donald J. Trump.
American military and intelligence analyst, author of “Defeating Jihad, The Winnable War” and former deputy assistant to President Donald J. Trump, Sebastian Gorka (center), spoke at a U.S. Army Special Operations Command event attended by the co-owners of Spartan Blades, Curtis Iovito (right) and Mark Carey (left).
Read About New Releases From Knife Manufacturers In BLADE
An annual U.S. subscription to BLADE is $21.98. You can get your 13 issues sent to Canada for $39.98 and internationally for $49.98. Or go green and get your issues sent digitally for $17.98.
Each month BLADE Magazine features new knives from manufacturers and custom makers in its What’s New section. Be sure to subscribe so you don’t miss out. You can also read about some of them here on our website. Be sure to Like and Follow us on Facebook at BLADE Magazine.
The hip kids know that the latest knife video craze involves rusty knives, knife maintenance tools and elbow grease. There’s something strangely satisfying about watching a beater knife that couldn’t fetch a quarter at a garage sale return to its former glory.
Here are the best “rusty knife rescue” videos from around the web.
Keep Your Knives Looking Their Best with This Guide
Bob Terzuola’s ATCF remains among the most iconic of tactical folders and is featured in the latest BLADE®.The Gunny shares his ample knife knowledge in the special military issue of BLADE®.
What are the top 5 U.S. military knives of all time? What’s it like to be married to the military, each other and knives all at the same time? Can the modern knife age be divided into two eras—before and after tactical folders? The latest issue of BLADE®, our special annual military issue, answers these questions and more, and is on newsstands and/or available in the digital editionnow!
The top 5 U.S. military knives of all time–wow, that covers a lot of ground, don’t you think? BLADE polled such military veterans as USMC Staff Sgt. R. Lee “The Gunny” Ermey, Special Forces MSG/BLADE field editor Kim Breed, Navy EOD Chief Petty Officer Rob Cude, Special Forces/Green Beret Mark Carey, USMC Sgt. Les George and others to determine the elite knife grouping. Find out the results on page 42.
Michael Zieba’s Trench Cleaver includes a handle from the iconic World War I Trench Knife in the latest BLADE®.
Army SFC Michael “Rod” Rodriguez (retired) of the 7th Special Forces Group and SFC Kelly Rodriguez and also CW3 Jeremy Valdez (retired) and Sgt. Rachel Valdez (retired) are respective husband-and-wife teams who saw action in Iraq and Afghanistan, and now design knives for CRKT in the company’s “Forged By War” series. Read how these military heroes served their country above and beyond the call and their connection to knives—including Rod, who forges knives and had his portrait painted by President George W. Bush for Bush’s book, Portraits of Courage: A Commander In Chief’s Tribute To America’s Warriors—and more in Erin Healy’s story, “On-Point With Love & War.”
Ever since tactical folders became the hottest knives of all in the 1990s, knife observers have predicted time and again that the folders had peaked and/or were on their way out. Now, about a quarter of a century later, tactical folders maintain their lofty position as being among the most popular knives anywhere. Get the complete story on the longest-lasting knife trend going in Mike Haskew’s “The Renaissance Knife.”
See how many of the Top 5 U.S. Military knives of all time you can pick in the latest BLADE®!
There’s much more in the latest issue but you’re going to have to buy it to find out what all that entails. Get your copy on newsstands or the digital edition, or subscribe to the domestic, Canadian or international print editions, or to the digital edition now!
Depending on where you live and by what method you hunt, deer season is underway. There are any number of blade patterns you could select for a skinning knife, but why are they shaped the way they are? What is the maker considering when he crafts a knife he calls a skinner? Let’s look at 20 examples of 5 types of skinners, plus an extra.
1. Bull-Nose Skinners
“The blunt tip in conjunction with the trailing point helps from punching through the hide,” noted Travis Fleming of Fleming Fabrications in North Texas about bull-nose skinners.
This set of bull-nose skinners were made for a father and son by Travis Fleming. The 4 1/2-inch blade is made out of CPM 154 stainless steel. The bolster is brass, and the antler handles were supplied by the son from the first buck he got with his dad. Overall length: 9 inches. Maker’s list price: $500/set. Contact Travis Flemming at [email protected] or on Facebook at Fleming’s Fabrications.
Josh Bryant of JB Custom Knives put it this way: “The bump and large drop at the tip are intended to go over guts without popping them.”
Josh Bryant’s Mini Green River Skinner is made with a 2 3/4-inch blade out of CPM 154 steel. The handle is made of dyed stabilized maple burl. Overall length is 6 inches. Maker’s list price: $180 with leather sheath made by the maker. Contact Josh Bryant at [email protected], on Facebook at JB Custom Knives and on Instagram @jb_custom_knives.
“I like a skinner made with a CPM steel,” Mike Cleveland of Half Life Knives commented. “(It) keeps its edge longer and that means more game prepared before sharpening.” Mike added: “I prefer the fuller belly for its ability to cape around tight areas. I value that over the ability to stab in a skinner. With this style of blade you’ll finish ahead of those with a sharper point.”
Michael J. Cleveland of Half Life Knives uses CPM S90V to make the 3.85-inch blade on this skinner. The overall length is 8.5 inches. The handle is made of mammoth bone with Voodoo Resin bolsters. Maker’s list price: $650 with leather sheath. Contact Mike Cleveland at Half Life Knives on Facebook or at 405-627-6097.
2. Drop-Point Skinners
The drop-point skinner is one of the most, if not the most, popular skinning knife blade design. Within the drop-point category, however, there is plenty of individual styling.
When Raymon Hunt of 3H’s Knives LLC makes a skinner, he strives for “enough belly for caping, but with enough point to make opening the cavity easy without piercing the organs.” A skinner should be balanced and lightweight, he notes. “It is amazing how carrying a heavy knife along with a rifle on a six-hour stalk through the bush can wear you out.” Raymon added that comfort is important. There should be no areas on the handle that could produce hot spots.
Raymon Earl Hunt’s Nessmuk-style drop-point hunter has a forged 4-inch flat-ground blade made out of 1075 steel. The convex cutting edge is 3 1/2 inches, and the knife is 8 1/2 inches overall. The mortised handle is made with exhibition-grade desert ironwood with sterling silver pins and 416 stainless steel guard. Maker’s list price: $600 (includes sheath). Contact Info: Ramon Hunt at www.3hsknives.com, raymon.hunt@3hsknives and on Facebook at 3H’s Knives, LLC.
“I feel the most important parts of a good skinner are on edge-holding and the ability to be sharpened easily in the field,” Lane Ferrell of Farrell Custom Knives commented. He pointed out that comfort, not being too heavy and being balanced well, is essential “since some skinning jobs can take a while to finish.” He noted that a skinner “should also be small enough to be carried on a belt or in a pack, but large enough to get the job done effectively.”
Lane Ferrell’s Razorback model skinner has a 4.25-inch blade made with 1084 steel. The handle is Russian bog oak with red G10 liners and mosaic pins. Overall length is 8.75 inches. Price $275 with vegetable-tanned leather sheath with red stitching. Contact Lane Ferrell at [email protected] or Facebook at Ferrell Custom Knives.
“I do such a wide variety of skinners that it all depends on what the customer wants,” Spencer Aplin of STA Custom Knives noted. “Most people want a 3- to 4-inch drop-point. Then the second most requested is a trailing-point 4- to 5-inch blade.” And in Spencer’s experience, a whopping 99 percent want finger grooves.
This Spencer Aplin skinner has a 4-inch blade made of ELMAX Steel. The handle is made with stabilized myrtle burl. Maker’s list price $550 with padded zippered pouch. Hand-tooled and carved sheathes are available upon request at an additional cost. Contact Spencer Aplin at [email protected], www.stacustomknives.com or on Facebook at STA Custom Knives.
Chris Rowley made this 3.25-inch blade from pattern-welded 1084 and 15N20 steels. The overall length is 7.5 inches. Scales are by Voodoo Resins. Maker’s list price: $350 with Kydex sheath. Contact Chris Rowley at [email protected] and at Nomad Custom Knives and Tools group on Facebook.
Mike Jeffries of 2 Birds Metalworks made the smaller skinner in this set as a companion to the camp knife. “The slight fighter profile and small size make it excellent for thumb, as well as index, purchase for those internal and fine skinning tasks,” Mike noted.
This drop-point set was made with pattern-welded steel from Alabama Damascus Steel. The scales are made from dyed box-elder burl. The blade on the bottom knife is 3 inches, contributing to an overall length of just over 7 inches. Maker’s list price: $320 with leather sheath. Contact Mike Jefferies at [email protected], on Facebook at 2Birds Metalworks and on Instagram @2birdsmetalworks.
The carbon content in the steel James McClendon used to make this skinner is approximately 1.27 percent. “Makes a most excellent knife,” James declared. “Those old files are getting harder to find.” James likes the “second-to-none on edge-holding–at least as simple-carbon steels go.” He added that the addition of a soft backdraw gives the blade toughness. “I just prefer a guard on a blade so sharp it could take a finger off with one slip. LOL. I also leave just a hint of the file teeth but not enough to hold contaminants.”
James McClendon made this 4-inch drop-point hunter/skinner out of a Black Diamond file. The bolt-through handle is made of stabilized stag. Overall length is 8 1/2 inches. Maker’s list price: $180 with sheath. Contact James McClendon at [email protected].Johnny Stout’s Rio Grande Skinner has a 3 3/4-inch blade made out of 154 CPM steel. Overall length is 8 inches. Handle is made from amber stag antler. Fluted bolsters are 416 stainless steel. Maker’s list price: $925 with custom Paul Long sheath with red full-quill ostrich inlay. Contact Johnny Stout at 830-606-4067 or [email protected].
Will Thompson put it this way: “The 3 1/4-inch blade is perfect to get around those places that you just can’t get to with a bigger blade. It’s ready to help you get those hams and backstraps to the ice.”
Will Thompson made this 3 1/4-inch drop-point blade out of 1095 carbon steel. The Plantstone handles are by Robert Belcher. Overall length is 6 7/8 inches. Maker’s list price: $120 with leather sheath. Contact Will Thompson at [email protected] or 910-385-6021.Phill Bilkey’s Sambar Skinner has a 3.5-inch blade made of 1085 carbon steel. The handle material is Australian sambar antler with red G10 liners. $200 AUD with leather sheath. Contact: Southern Cross Custom Knives on Facebook.Eric Pearson of Lake Effect Knifeworks made this 4.25-inch hollow-ground drop-point blade out of 1095 steel with hamon. Overall length 9 3/4 inches. The scales are big-leaf maple burl. Maker’s list price: $200-plus. Contact Eric Pearson at Lake Effect Knifeworks on Facebook.
3. Nessmuk-Style Skinners
Joe Elinburg in northeast Florida likes the Nessmuk pattern for a skinner. “The rounded point makes skinning easier with less chance of putting a hole in the hide if you’re going to save it for tanning,” he commented. “Also the swoop in the back of the blade makes a great finger rest for more control of the blade.”
This Mini Nessmuk Skinner is made by Joe Elinburg in northeast Florida out of 1095 high carbon steel. The 3-inch blade is convex ground. Overall length is 6 inches. Handle material is camaru. Maker’s list price: $90 with Kydex sheath with mounted metal belt clip. Contact Joe Elinburg at [email protected], @jecustomknives on Instagram or call 904-962-0341.
4. Spear-Point Skinners
“I have always been a fan of spear-point skinners,” Jon Waltz commented. His son designed this model, and Jon made a few changes by adding the thumb ramp and expanding the belly. The deep finger guard and thumb ramp allow for full control of the blade. “The hollow grind makes for a extremely sharp cutting edge, and the large belly is great for slicing through flesh with precision,” Jon added.
Jon Waltz of Edge7 Custom Knives calls this model the 24/7 Skinner. The Hex resin scales are custom-made. Overall length is 7 inches. The 3-inch hollow-ground blade on this particular one is made of CPM D2 steel, but they are now made in PSF27 steel. Available finishes include acid etched, sandblasted and stonewashed. Makers list price: $275 and up with leather or Kydex sheath with combat loop. Contact Jon Waltz through www.edge7customknives.com.
Denny Furey of Furey’s Urban Combat Knives Unlimited uses NJ Steel Baron 1095 steel to make his Sukina, which is Japanese for skinner. Overall length is 7.75 inches with a 3.25-inch blade with a dark blued polished finish. The handle scales are Rob Carper Innovations (RCI) stabilized, dyed spalted maple. Maker’s list price: $175 with Kydex sheath with belt attachments. Contact Denny Furey at Furey’s Urban Combat Knives Unlimited on Facebook.
5. Trailing-Point Skinners
Trailing-point skinners excel for skinning small game, and are probably the second most popular skinning knife blade design behind drop-points.
“I believe that the finger groove and the thinned spot between it and the spine allows for easier indexing when trying to be precise while skinning raccoons or fox,” commented Tyler Freund of Freund’s Custom Knives. “One can simply pinch the knife between their thumb and finger. Much like you would a scalpel.” In addition, “the thin tip and thin steel lets the user make less intrusive cuts and more precise cuts around the wrists and ankles of the coon,” Tyler explained. He feels this would be more challenging with a bigger-bellied or thicker-bladed knife. “The knife has just enough belly in it that you can draw the knife and skin efficiently once you’ve gotten around the ribs,” he concluded.
Tyler Freund made this small-game skinner for a local trapper. The 3-inch trailing-point blade is made out of Vegas Forge’s raindrop-patterned steel, and the maker added file work along the spine. The handle is bone Micarta paired with Mike Sakmar mokume-gane. The knife is 7 1/4 inches overall. Maker’s list price: $350. Contact Tyler Freund at Freund’s Custom Knives on Facebook or on Instagram @tylerfreund08.Bryce Love’s trailing-point skinner has a 5-inch acid-etched stonewashed blade made out of 1095 steel. Overall length is 9 inches. The handle is made from curled cherry. Maker’s list price: $140. Contact Bryce Love on Facebook at 50Cal Forge or [email protected].
“This skinner has a short blade with pointed tip to reach into tight areas when skinning and caping,” Scooter Davis of Rough Run Forge explained about his Shrade-Sharpfinger-like knife. “The recess on the spine serves as a finger rest, allowing you to choke up forward on the knife for more control.”
Scooter Davis made this Shrade-Sharpfinger-style skinner with a 2 1/2-inch hollow-ground blade forged from 52100 steel. The scales are prickly pear cactus fastened with stainless steel corby pins. Maker’s list price: $175 with leather sheath. Contact Scooter Davis at Rough Run Forge on Facebook or call 540-560-1672.
Although not a traditional trailing-point blade shape, an upswept point is still evident. Richard Darby’s customer said you can make long sweeping cuts with this big-bellied blade design, as well as flesh with it. “Plus it gives a longer cutting edge for the length of the blade,” Richard noted.
Richard Darby’s big belly skinner has a 4.5-inch blade of 1095 steel with hamon. Overall length is 9 inches. The handle is made with flame masur birch from JHue Custom Sales. Maker’s list price: $150. Contact Richard Darby at [email protected].
Miscellaneous Skinners
When you skin, the idea is to pull the skin back and make sweeping slices like you would when using an ulu, but it’s not an ulu, Matthew Nolan from Angry Beaver Knives explained. “The whole handle fits in your hand while grasping the blade with thumb and pointer finger…more blade…angles…equals more slicing…and it fits nice in the hand for sweeping strokes.”
Matthew Nolan’s Dear Beaver deer skinner is made out of 15N20 or 1095 steels. The overall length is 5 to 6 inches, depending on the hand size of the customer. The scales are Dustin Smith lace maple burl at Simply Scales. Maker’s list price: $225 with Kydex only sheath. Contact Matthew Nolan at Angry Beaver Knives at [email protected] or at 518-791-2551.
Learn Which Knife Designs Stand The Test Of Time
“101 Knife Designs” provides actual scaled patterns that you can use to spark your own designs. At $19.53, you’ll be saving 35 percent on a classic.
Compare and contrast different skinner designs as well as knife patterns of all types. Hiro Soga’s images will satisfy your knife eye-candy jones, you’ll be able to delve into the theory of blade design and you’ll get 101 scaled patterns that you can use to initiate you’re own design. “101 Knife Designs” by Murray Carter is a must-have in hard copy so you can work with the designs, mark with notes and refer to again and again.
Michael Zieba applies distal taper to the blade of his Brooklyn Made folder. (SharpByCoop image)Note the gradual distal taper of the blade from just above the bolster to the blade tip on Peter Swarz-Burt’s chef’s knife. (SharpByCoop image)
Distal taper makes knives feel more lightweight, quicker in the hand and easier to use. However, the concept affects more than just weight. It also distributes balance so the knife feels neither top nor bottom heavy. In other words, the knife is well-balanced so that it goes where you want it to and cuts how you want it to when you want it to. It looks cool, too.
How does distal taper work? It’s pretty simple, really. The maker removes steel, usually by grinding, from each side of the blade beginning at the ricasso, that is, from just forward of where the blade and handle meet, and ending at the blade’s tip. The effect is of the cross-section of the blade gradually thinning, or tapering, toward the tip. Less steel means less weight and, if removed properly, better balance for the knife. Some makers apply taper to the tang as well, beginning the tapering just below where the blade and handle meet and gradually thinning the tang toward the handle butt. However, in general, the concept is identified more with the tapering of the blade than the tang.
At bottom is the distal taper flat grind and at top is the parallel flat grind. Each image includes both side and overhead views. As you can see, the angle is “blunter” with the parallel spine. The point will be thinner and not as strong with the distal-taper spine. However, unless you simply want to punch holes with your blade, the knife with the distal-taper spine will be more efficient at cutting and chopping (Jim Crowell drawings)
ABS master smith Tim Hancock said tapering is most important on larger, thick blades such as those in the 3/8-inch range that often are heavier and benefit from the weight reduction for quickness and ease of use. “The thinner the blade, the less important distal taper is,” Hancock said. “In fact, full-length distal taper on a bowie blade of a 3/16-inch thickness and an 8-inch length would leave the tip area so thin and weak that, in my opinion, it would be an inferior knife. To me, it’s a process of speed and strength. Some balance between the two must be considered to make a superior knife.” Conversely, ABS master smith Jim Crowell said, if done properly, even a blade with a thin spine can benefit from tapering. “The degree of taper won’t be as much as on a thicker spine—in fact, it will be very subtle—but even then it provides the most efficient cut,” he noted.
Tom Buckner takes what is already a thin blade and makes it even leaner toward the tip via distal taper. (SharpByCoop image)
Larger hunting knives, camp knives, some bowies, fighters and knives used in cutting competitions where quickness and cutting ability are keys will benefit from being tapered. On the other hand, ABS master smith Mike Williams said he did not think distal taper was important for the rope cutting of the cutting competitions except for the balance of the knife itself. “It’s like using a fillet knife versus a butcher knife,” he continued. “When cutting rope you want the weight forward.” Since tapering removes steel toward the end of the blade, the process does not result in a knife with the weight forward such as a khukuri, for instance. Knives designed for cutting meat and paper will benefit from distal taper because it promotes a thinner edge that produces less drag, he observed.
According to ABS master smith Jarrell Lambert, reduced weight, quickness and balance are not the only benefits of tapering. He adds another: flexibility. He indicated distal taper gives the blade more of it and spreads the stress more evenly throughout the blade than one made of the same material but without distal taper.
Crowell added another benefit of tapering: greater edge penetration. “Distal taper allows the cutting edge to have a smaller degree of angle progressing down the blade, resulting in less drag and producing greater penetration into the medium with a said amount of energy,” he explained. “As a result, a blade with distal taper will always cut more efficiently than the same blade with a parallel spine.
“If you want weight in your blade, maybe for chopping, increase the width of the blade, but have a distal taper. This will provide the weight needed but also a lesser degree of angle on the edge. Consequently, you will have the best of both worlds.”
A cool camp cutter is a must to help you fully enjoy the fun and sun of summertime in America. Whether you are wilderness camping or simply spending a leisurely day at the lake, some of the latest models will make your experience easier and more satisfying.
Eating outdoors can be a challenge. Enter the new Tactical Spork from KA-BAR. Featuring the stacked-handle design made famous by KA-BAR’s iconic USMC fighting/utility knife, the Tactical Spork is a fork/spoon combo with a 2.5-inch serrated blade that screws into the handle. The Tactical Spork is made from food- and water-approved Grilamid. MSRP: $8.32.
CRKT addresses outdoor dining with the Eat’n Tool XL. Designed by Liong Mah of Palm Bay, Florida, the Eat’n Tool XL consists of a spoon/fork combo and a
lso has a bottle opener, GI-style can opener and a flat screwdriver (6.8.10mm hex), and carries via a non-load-bearing carabiner clip. Made of 3Cr13 stainless steel, it’s 6.13 inches overall and weighs 2.7 ounces. It comes in a choice of silver and black finishes. MSRP: $14.99.
Cool Camp Cutter No. 3: Camp Axe
Cool Camp Cutter No. 3: Buck Camp Axe. MSRP: $71.
If you need something a bit more substantial to split kindling, hammer tent stakes or otherwise handle heavier-duty jobs, Buck‘s Camp Axe is the ticket.
At 12.25 inches overall, a weight of 17.2 ounces and including an injection-molded nylon sheath, the Camp Axe is an ideal size for convenient carry and a wide spread of utility jobs. The 3-inch head is forged, powder-coated, high-carbon steel and the ergonomic haft is high-impact plastic. MSRP: $71.
A knife that will cut, double as a screwdriver, comes equipped with a jump ring and also will open a bottle of your favorite beverage is an outdoor necessity, and the Shuffle from Kershaw fills the bill. The short (2.4 inches) but wide blade of 8Cr13MoV stainless steel in a black-oxide coating should be legal in most jurisdictions, and the manual-opening folder features a K-Textured glass-filled nylon handle with a single-position pocket clip. Weight: 3.5 ounces. Closed length: 3.25 inches. MSRP: $34.99.
Cool Camp Cutter No. 5: Hobo
Cool Camp Cutter No. 5: Case Hobo. MSRP: $134.
A traditional pocketknife equipped with a clip blade, fork/can opener and spoon makes the Case Boy Scouts of America Hobo an ideal choice for most any outdoor junket. Stainless steel blades/implements and a natural handle complete this utilitarian classic. Weight: 7.7 ounces. Closed length: 4 1/8 inches.
The knife includes Boy Scouts of America and BSA logo blade etches and a BSA logo shield. MSRP: $134.
