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Knife Collecting

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.

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Knife Review: A $7 Bolo?

Msg Kim Breed (ret.)
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Knife Review: A $7 Bolo?
  • Purchase Price: $7
  • Maker: Unknown
  • Blade Length: 14 1/8″
  • Blade Material: Hardened carbon steel
  • Handle: Hand-carved wood
  • Handle Design: Dropped at butt
  • Collar: Aluminum conduit
  • Knife to Know: Blade has a forged distal taper; handle butt flared to enhance purchase
  • Weight: 12 ozs.
  • Overall Length: 20″
  • Sheath: Wood with handcarved details
  • Sheath Weight: 3 ozs.

I received a bolo made in the Philippines from my friend, Mike Key, as a gift a couple of years ago. He went on a three-day search for good bolos made from carbon steel in villages, not the souvenir type. He was successful in his quest.

I ran a triangle file down the edge and it skated off, an indication the blade is hardened steel for sure. The forged blade has a smooth distal taper, starting around 3/16-inch thick down to 0 inches at the tip. The knife sports hidden-tang construction. The wood for the sheath and handle are from a local shop in the Philippines. Of course, a blade must cut no matter where it’s made.

Cutting Tests

Up first: the paper slice. Despite a coarse edge, the bolo still managed to give clean slices in 20-pound bond paper. Normally, a bigger blade is cumbersome slicing paper, but the bolo has a perfect balance due to its distal taper.

Best bolo knife reviews
The bolo was very aggressive on the plastic foam. The author held the pool noodle suspended in air with one hand and sliced it. He indicated the knife is very controllable and the handle is indexed perfectly.

A pool noodle was next on the test menu. The bolo was very aggressive on the plastic foam. I held the pool noodle suspended in air with one hand and sliced it. The knife is very controllable and the handle is indexed perfectly.

Next up: chopping into a hard cardboard tube with the noodle inserted to prevent wall collapse. It worked on the first two chops, but then I hit too close to the previous pair of chops and the tube crushed under the force of the blows. Still, the blade made it halfway through the tube.

When you have trees encroaching on your property, you have to take steps to keep your yard clear. One such branch had scraped me for the last time while I was mowing the lawn. Its 2.5-inch diameter was a breeze for the bolo. Five whacks and the branch was down.

Bolo knife reviews
Five whacks and the 2.5-inch-diameter branch was down.

I dragged it away from the fence to whack it into smaller pieces. This is what the bolo was designed to do. One chop per branch and it was in pieces quickly. Just a wrist snap carried the blade halfway through a 1.5-inch-diameter branch. The bolo is a very fast chopper.

A note on the wooden sheath: It’s flat on one side for resting against your body and slightly rounded on the other. The maker even added some hand-carved detail into the wood. Excellent workmanship!

A big thank you goes out to Mike Key for finding this gem of a bolo for me.

Changes

On a blade this long, I would like to see a pin in the handle for a mechanical connection.

Final Results

The bolo is a very balanced working model. You can use it all day without wearing your hand or arm out. It exhibits great workmanship in the forging and the woodwork!

Factory Friday: Contingency By Winkler Knives II

Erin Healy
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Factory Friday: Contingency By Winkler Knives II
Winkler II Knives' Contingency offers a variety of handle options.
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, Kevin Holland and W.R. Case & Sons Cutlery Co. have collaborated on Skinner, which Holland, a Navy Seal designed.
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

Save $4 off the print price of a annual subscription to BLADE Magazine with a digital subscription.
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.

 

 

 

Factory Friday: Spartan Blades Hybris Combat/Utility

Erin Healy
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Factory Friday: Spartan Blades Hybris Combat/Utility

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.

Spartan Blades' Hybris Combat/Utility Knife is available in a number of different blade, handle and sheath colors.
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.

Sebastian Gorka, military and intelligence analyst, stopped to chat with the co-owners of Spartan Blades, Curtis Iovito and Mark Carey.
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

A U.S. subscription to BLADE magazine, 13 issues, is $21.98.
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.

 

 

5 New Knives for the Outdoorsy Crowd

BLADE Staff
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5 New Knives for the Outdoorsy Crowd

For Those Willing to Wait (a Little): Realsteel Knives Relict

Realsteel Knives Relict

The Relict, from Realsteel Knives, won’t be out until May 18, but it’s already catching some buzz. Full specs aren’t available yet, but the company did have this to say on its Facebook page:

Named purposely after its design features, that include a bullet cartridge opener, extendable clip and splicingly sharp S35VN cutting edge, the Relict takes Eastern European designs of past and adds that extra bit of class to them.

Because the Relict sits on the higher end of Realsteel’s catalog, expect it to go for a few hundred dollars when it hits shelves.

More info

For the Bushcrafter: Condor Tool & Knife Headstrong

condor tool and knife headstrong

The Headstrong, from Condor Tool & Knife, sports a 1095 blade, a choice steel for bushcrafters and survivalist types who enjoy versatility in their sharpening methods. That the blade is uncoated may speak to the aesthetic preference of its designer, Joe Flowers, but it’s worth noting because of how passionate bushcrafters are about their knives.

More info

For the Backpack: Eldris Limited Edition 2018

Morakniv Eldris

It’s small, it only comes in one color and it comes with a firesteel. It’s Morakniv’s Eldris Limited Edition 2018.

In addition to its collectibility, the Eldris is basically a high-functioning fire-starting kit. A small fixed blade knife replaces an otherwise single-purpose striker. An aubergine handle and sheath (that’s a color similar to eggplant, not a material) suggests a female user, but there’s no reason to pigeonhole this kit in that way. If you need a fire in a pinch, the last thing on your mind will be aubergine. It’s too hard to spell anyway.

More info

For the Mil-Tac Crowd: Bear OPS New AC-551-B4-B Tactical Automatic Knife

Bear OPS New AC-551-B4-B

It won’t ship outside of Alabama, but maybe an authorized dealer can wrap your hands around the G10 on Bear OPS’s new AC-551-B4-B. That’s a mouthful to say, so Bear OPS gave it the “Bold Action V” name, too. 

No matter what you call it, it continues Bear OPS’s line of autos at economical prices.

  • Blade Material: Sandvik 14C28N Stainless Steel
  • Handle Material: Black G10
  • Open Length: 8-3/4″
  • Closed Length: 5″
  • Blade Length: 3-3/4″
  • Weight: 5.4 oz.
  • Extras: Automatic Opening & Safety Lock & Reversible Pocket Clip
  • MSRP: $171.99

More info

For Collectors: Victorinox Deluxe Tinker Damast Limited Edition 2018

Swiss army knife for collectors

Part of the appeal of Swiss army knives (SAK) is their bang-for-buck factor. They’re affordable and offer loads of utility. But what about higher end SAKs for collectors interested in another kind of value?

Collectors should take note of the Deluxe Tinker Damast Limited Edition 2018, from Victorinox. It offers the same multi-tool platform SAK fans expect, plus features that wouldn’t look out of place at a black-tie event. 

From Victorinox:

This year’s limited edition Damast Swiss Army Knife features the “Ladder” Damast pattern forged from an impressive 333 layers of steel and is complimented by plum wood scales with a metal inlay cross + shield. The 2018 model marks the first use of plum wood and the first Damast edition with combination pliers.

  • Swiss made pocket knife with 15 functions
  • Large Damast steel blade
  • Sequential numbering on every piece
  • Limited to 6,000 pieces worldwide
  • Plum wood handles
  • Weight: 4.3 oz
  • MSRP: $300

More info

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Act Now To Fight Ivory Ban

Steve Shackleford
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Act Now To Fight Ivory Ban

If you think it’s too late for you to do anything about the oppressive ivory ban being implemented by federal officials, think again.

Ivory ban is unjust.
With federal officials saying elephant ivory is being disguised to resemble fossil ivory in some cases, authentic fossil ivory pieces such as Jerry Fisk’s majestic bowie could attract undeserved scrutiny from law enforcement. (Chuck Ward photo)

You can act now to have your voice heard by congressional and federal officials to stop more language adverse to those who buy, sell and collect ivory knives being added to the federal government’s “use after import” regulations.

One of the issues that apparently remains unsettled in the official language of the new ban is the exact wording concerning the legality of the sale of ivory, including ivory knives, across state lines. The updated regulations are due to be completed and released sometime in April, sources said.

As a result, you have time to contact your representative and other federal officials now before it’s too late. For more on the specifics of the ban, frequently asked questions and more, visit http://www.fws.gov/

To determine the name and contact information for your Congressional representative, visit http://www.house.gov/representatives/find/

In addition, make your views known to Sally Jewell, Secretary of the Interior, and Daniel M. Ashe, director of U.S. Fish and Wildlife. The mailing address for the Department of the Interior is 1849 C St., NW, Washington, DC 20240. It can be reached by phone at 202-208-3100 or e-mail at [email protected]. The mailing address for U.S. Fish and Wildlife is 4401 N. Fairfax Dr., Arlington, VA 22203.

We recommend hitting all of them on all fronts—by phone, e-mail and snail mail. They say a written letter carries more weight, so it may be time to break out the pen and paper and attack this issue old-school style.

For the latest knives, knife news, trends and more, stay tuned to www.blademag.com.

Book Review: ”Spirit of the Sword”

Steve Shackleford
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Dear Mr. Shackleford-

Today I published my first book review. I choose your book-“Spirit of the Sword.”

I hope my review meets with your approval. Here is my review.

Book Review-“Spirit of the Sword”

 
Steve Shackleford published his book “Spirit of the Sword.” in 2010. ISBN-13:978-1-4402-1156-0
For the serious blade collector, sword fighting enthusiast, and overall lover of things edged, I found this to be one of the more readily accessible books concerning swords, I have read in a long time.Shackleford has spent the past 25 years writing, and editing for Blade’s Guide to Knives & their Values. He has authored thousands of articles about edged weapons.

In his foreword, Shackleford says, “Bruce Voyles once told if he did not the answer to a knife question, he knows someone who does. Similarly,since so many of today’s knifemakers also make swords, I figured I could call on them for answers if need be. I hope you will agree that the results of this book indicate I met with success.”

With a 238 page, page count it has a mere seven chapters. It is absolutely filled with full color photographs of various sword types, with close up detail pictures. The first chapter gives a nice overview of the sword making world, and its attendant market. Shackleford then does something that most writers of a book would not do, he allows contributors to insert their technical skill into his book. Most notably by Sword Smith Vince Evans.

In Chapter 2. entitled: European Vacation-Sword Style! Evans is an award winning custom maker of swords and knives. His chapter details his travels through England, Scotland and Ireland. He breaks up the chapter with discussions on such sword types as the Windsor, Askeaton, and Drayton.There are several color photographs of such sword types as a 9th Century Anglo-Saxon sword, Evans recreated, from an example from Gilling West on display at England’s Yorkshire Museum.

Chapter 3 is authored by John Clements. Clement’s chapter deals with the resurgence of period accurate sword fighting techniques. Clement’s explains the reality of sword fighting as opposed to the Hollywood version most have stuck in their psyche. Helping to define his presentation, Clement’s uses illustrations as varied as Albrecht Duerer to Hans Talhoffer. Clement’s also uses various swords from modern sword makers as examples of the types used historically.

The aspect of this book I like the most, is its ease of reading. If you are new to collecting swords or looking for a historical example of a sword, this book is very informative, without being a pure academic exercise. One of the more compelling portions of the book is a 128 page guide to sword and knife makers. The index includes, their physical address, telephone numbers and their web address if, they have one. It also showcases some of the more exotic samples of various the sword smiths listed in the index.

I would rate this book as a “Must Have” for any serious Modern Medievalist. It should be used as one of your first “Go-to-Books” when you need to answer to one of those tickling questions, you are having trouble with.

Steve Shackleford maintains a blog on blademag.com.

This is my first book review. If you have any suggestions or would like me to review another book. Please do not hesitate to contact me at: [email protected]

Thanks!

My blog can be found at: www.modernmedievalist.blogspot.com/

 

W2 and Ironwood Bowie.mov

BLADE Staff
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W2 Bowie with presentation Ironwood and clay induced hamon.

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