Knife Collecting Archives

American Bladesmith Society Announces 2014 Hammer-In Schedule

Joe Kertzman

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November 1, 2013

American Bladesmith Society Announces 2014 Hammer-In Schedule

One of the things that makes the knife industry such a pleasure to be involved with is artisans, bladesmiths and knifemakers in general sharing their knowledge, teaching people their craft and passing down the handcraft from generation to generation.

Some of the best at this are the members of the American Bladesmith Society, as well, of course, as those in the Knifemakers’ Guild and countless other knife clubs and organizations. The ABS claims to have had record attendance at its hammer-ins across the country in 2013, and has already announced its 2014 Hammer-In Schedule. Click here for a Complete Knifemaking Collection of books and digital downloads to get you started in your knifemaking endeavors. And without further ado:

ABS Hammer In Schedule for 2014

March 7, 8, and 9, 2014
Spring Great Smoky Mountain Hammer-In
Haywood Community College, Clyde, North Carolina
ABS Contact – Bill Wiggins (828) 226-2551 or Email [email protected]

April 26 and 27, 2014
Spring Piney Woods Hammer In
Texarkana College – Moran School of Bladesmithing, Washington, Arkansas
ABS Contact – BR Hughes (903) 838-0134 or Email [email protected]

June 2014
ABS Youth Hammer-In
Smoky Mountain Knife Works, Sevierville, Tennessee
ABS Contact – Houston Price (865) 397-0053 or Email [email protected]

July 11, 12, and 13, 2014
New England Hammer-In
New England School of Metalwork, Auburn, Maine
ABS Contact – Mace Vitale (203) 457-5591 or Email [email protected]

August 22, 23, and 24, 2014
Mid America Hammer-In
Miami County Fairgrounds, Troy, Ohio
ABS Contact – Butch Sheely (419) 832-5801 or Email [email protected]

September 13 and 14, 2014
Fall Piney Woods Hammer-In
Texarkana College – Moran School of Bladesmithing, Washington, Arkansas
ABS Contact – BR Hughes (903) 838-0134 or Email [email protected]

October 4 and 5, 2014
Heartland Hammer-In
Washburn Institute of Technology, Topeka, Kansas
ABS Contact – Steve Culver (785) 484-0146 or Email [email protected]

October 2014
California Hammer-In
College of the Sequoias, Tulare, California
ABS Contact – Mike Vagnino (559) 636-0501 or Email [email protected]

October 18 and 19, 2014
Smoky Mountain Fall Hammer-In
Haywood Community College, Clyde, North Carolina
ABS Contact – Bill Wiggins (828) 226-2551 or Email [email protected]

Distal Taper: Why Knives Have It

Knife Collecting

Steve Shackleford

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October 30, 2013

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Distal taper is a concept long used by knifemakers in different parts of the world. Characterized by a reduction in thickness of the blade from guard to tip and spine to edge, distal taper results in a knife that is both lightweight and exhibits excellent edge geometry. The concept is also employed on knife tangs, whereby the tang is tapered in thickness from the guard to the butt.

Since knives with distal taper are both lighter in weight and have super edge geometry, they are easier to handle and cut better—all other things being equal. Who can argue with those kinds of results?

As far as we know, exactly who first used distal taper is undetermined. Some Sheffield-made kitchen knives from the 19th century exhibit the trait, and the concept no doubt was used long before that. A number of custom knifemakers apply distal taper to their knives today, following in the footsteps of such makers as Blade Magazine Cutlery Hall-Of-Fame© members William Scagel, Bob Loveless (http://www.shopblade.com/loveless-legend-w5287) and Bill Moran, as well as Ted Dowell and others.

What about you? Do you own any knives with distal taper? If so, tell us about them—what styles they are, who made them, etc. Or do you use the concept on the knives you make? Tell us about it/them. Why do you like knives with distal taper? Why, in your opinion, is the concept important? If you apply the concept to your knives, how do you go about doing it?

By the same token, if you don’t think distal taper is all that important, tell us why. Is it overrated as a concept or what exactly? Don’t hold back. And don’t worry, you won’t hurt our feelings.

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

How Did You Use Your Knife This Weekend?

Knife Collecting

Steve Shackleford

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October 28, 2013

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How did you use your knife this weekend? Did you cut open a box or two, prepare meals, cut loose thread from an item of clothing, peel an apple or just whittle to pass the time? Maybe you performed some survival or bushcraft tasks, such as carving a drinking cup, practice building a makeshift shelter or some baton work to split small kindling. Whatever it was, tell us about it—the circumstances, what job you put the knife to, what knife you used, and how the operation came out. Did the knife do the job or did you have to go to your knife array for a smaller/bigger/different type of knife to complete the task?

I had the opportunity to use my carry knife of the day, a Spyderco Native5 in a G-10 handle and 3-inch blade of CPM S35VN stainless steel, yesterday while with my great nephew Carter at the annual Cherokee Pow-Wow at Red Clay State Park just south of here on the Tennessee side of the Georgia border. Carter and I were watching the American Indians perform a traditional dance when Carter spied a young girl holding a toy bow with rubber-tipped arrows. We asked where she got it, made a beeline for the exhibitor tent that sold them and bought one.

Carter wanted to test the bow, of course, so we proceeded to an open field in the scenic park, where we inspected the bow and arrows. The arrows were taped tightly to the bow with masking tape, so I pulled out the Native5, cut the multiple winds of tape and Carter proceeded to launch arrow after arrow into the cool October sky. “It’s a good thing you brought that knife,” Carter said.

How about you? How did you use your knife?

For the latest knives and knife news, stay tuned to www.blademag.com (www.blademag.com)

Embrace the Skull-Cutter Craze

Knife Collecting

Steve Shackleford

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October 24, 2013

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If you like knives, swords, cleavers and other edgeware embellished with skulls, the knife industry’s skull-cutter craze is for you. And it’s ideal for Halloween, too!

Knives with skull motifs are nothing new. Knifemakers long have offered knives embellished with skulls, along with other ghoulish characters such as goblins, gargoyles, dragons, witches and warlocks, ghosts, the Grim Reaper—the current issue of BLADE® (www.blademag.com), on newsstands now, has such a knife made by D.B. Fraley and owned by Jon Ukman on the cover—and others. However, the veritable explosion of the motif in recent years seems to have sprinkled skull shards worldwide on the knife scene.

"Butch the Cleaver" is Anders Hogstrom's answer to the skull-cutter craze. (SharpByCoop photo) — Anders Hogstrom’s “Butch the Cleaver” is one of several models addressing the skull-cutter craze. (SharpByCoop photo)

Meanwhile, the skull motif has engendered a knife cottage industry of sorts. Ernest Emerson, one of the world’s leading makers and author of the legendary CQC-6, has an apparel line through his Emerson Knives, Inc., that features skulls on any number of clothing items. Companies such as Schmuckatelli sell small skulls that serve a dual purpose of both adorning knives and anchoring knife lanyards. There are others.

Of course there will be those who slam the knife industry for introducing morbid themes on what they are utterly convinced are gruesome tools of death. But we’ve heard all that balderdash and even the most irrational of anti-knife fanatics know better by now.

What about you? Do you subscribe to the skull theme, even just a little bit? If not, don’t worry. There apparently are scores of knife enthusiasts who can’t get enough of it. And with Halloween just around the corner, many knifemakers and those in the knife/skull cottage industries are loving every minute of it.

For the latest knives, knife news and much more, keep it edgy with www.blademag.com (www.blademag.com).

Ohio Classic Knife Show Starts at 1 p.m. Today

Steve Shackleford

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October 18, 2013

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Ohio Classic Knife Show Starts at 1 p.m. Today

The Ohio Classic Knife Show hopes to build on the momentum of recent knife shows as it holds its annual event today and tomorrow.

Both the California Custom Knife Show held this past weekend and the Knifemakers’ Guild Show held last month were successes by a number of accounts, and the Ohio Classic hopes to build off their momentum as well as some of its own.

For instance, purveyor/collect Jon Ukman noted of the Cal show, “It was outstanding! I bought about 70 knives—and that is a good show.” Purveyor Dave Stark of Steel Addiction Custom Knives also had words of praise for the Cal show. Meanwhile, ABS bladesmith Johnny Perry, who helped display a collection of Bill Moran knives for the Moran Foundation at the Knifemakers’ Guild Show last month, said the Guild Show was a good one as well.

Held at the Pritchard-Laughlin Civic Center in Cambridge, Ohio, the Ohio Classic runs from 1 o’clock this afternoon until 7 tonight, and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. tomorrow. In addition to some of the custom industry’s top makers, the show will include some leading factory knife exhibitors and also a cutting competition tomorrow. In addition, Jeff Fournier from Mule Team Canvas will give a demo on canvas dying.

Exhibiting knifemakers include Tom Downing, Blind Horse Knives, Ryan Daniels of Queen Cutlery, Phillip Booth, Wayne Hensley, Pete Crowl, Andrew Demko, George Trout, Mickey Yurco, Greg Gottschalk, W.C. Johnson, James Downs, Thad Yeater, Gary Wheeler, BLADE® field editor Kim Breed, Lon Humphrey, Craig Steketee, Mark Carey of Spartan Blades, Bill Behnke and many others. Also exhibiting will be Charles Turnage of Turnage Productions, photographer Terrill Hoffman, purveyor Jerry Schroeder, Pop’s Knives and Supplies, Brad Vice of Alabama Damascus, Brad Stallsmith of Peters Heat Treat and many others.

For more information visit www.ohioknifeshow.com.

For the latest knives, knife news and more, keep an edge on it with www.blademag.com (www.blademag.com).

It’s a Hard-Use Knife

Joe Kertzman

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October 16, 2013

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I don’t generally abuse knives. Though I do fish, camp, hike and ski whenever I get the chance, using knives hard and putting them away wet is pretty unusual for me. The hardest I ever used/abused a knife was out in the horse pasture, and I laugh about that.

It had been a long day. I’m also not the “horse person” in my family. That would be my wife, and I wasn’t thrilled to be replacing fence posts, a job I’ve since become accustomed to yearly. Anyway, I was tired. Did I mention I’m an editor and writer? And I needed to cut some high-tensile electric wire (the fence was unplugged at the time—at least I had that right). I didn’t have a wire cutter on me, and the garage had to be at least 50 yards away. I pulled out my serrated Spyderco folder. The model escapes me, but it was a good knife, pocket clip, one-hand opener, lockback, the works. I figured the serrated blade could cut the wire, and cut the wire it did. The thick wire also chipped a blade serration, but it was well worth saving a trip to the garage. I cut several more wires that day with the Spyderco, and by the time I was done for the day, the blade looked like a toothless mountain model rather than a big-city blade. Oh well, there were more knives in the drawer, and that Spyderco holds a place of honor among them, though missing a few teeth.

What’s the hardest you ever abused a knife? Need a new one, click here, or just share your story with BLADE and KnifeForums users.

Innovative Knives

Joe Kertzman

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October 2, 2013

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Congratulations to Michael Vagnino for winning the 2014 Wooden Sword award, given out to one custom knifemaker each year on page 7 of the KNIVES annual book. The yearly prize (no trophy, just recognition via top placement and imagery in the book) is awarded to a knifemaker for his or her work that stands out from the thousands of images that pour in annually for consideration.

As noted in the book where his innovative knives are pictured:

“Michael Vagnino has busied himself most recently with “Convertible Lock-Back Push Daggers.” Yes, that’s correct, he’s fashioning handmade knives that convert from a lock-back fixed-blade position to a locked push dagger and back again. The models shown here sport 3.875-inch blades, one in CPM-154 stainless steel and the other Wootz steel, the former combined with an antique tortoise shell handle, and the latter in black-lip mother-of-pearl. The maker engraved the 416 stainless steel bolsters, and since the push daggers covert to fixed blades, Paul Long sheaths were necessary as fashionable carry options.

For all he has brought to the knifemaking table the past few years, his innovation, talent, all-around good vibes, and for these particularly striking examples of his work, the Knives 2014 Wooden Sword Award goes to Michael Vagnino. Congratulations, Michael, and keep up the good work.”

Click here to reserve your copy of KNIVES 2014.

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American Bladesmith Society Announces 2014 Hammer-In Schedule

Distal Taper: Why Knives Have It

How Did You Use Your Knife This Weekend?

Embrace the Skull-Cutter Craze

Ohio Classic Knife Show Starts at 1 p.m. Today

It’s a Hard-Use Knife

Innovative Knives

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