Knife News Wire

Knife Skills Movie Nominated for Oscar Award

Knife Skills is a documentary about an upscale restaurant staffed by people fresh out of prison with zero culinary experience. It’s not a knife movie like the ones BLADE normally covers, but blades do play an important role. 

On the knife front, the larger point to be made is about the intentions behind the use of a knife. Here is a group of people with serious criminal records. In another context, that could be dicey, but here it isn’t. It takes the air out of arguments for regulating knives according to specs.

Knife Skills also shows how knives can create collaborative spaces for the sake of art, business or leisure. Can a restaurant function without knives? Why do the best chefs on Earth also seek the best knives? You can’t separate food and people so long as there is a tool with a cutting edge, and that means knives. The relationship is so essential that even convicts can be trusted to preserve it.

The documentary caught the attention of more than just BLADE, too. It received a 2018 Oscar nomination. We’ll see if a knife movie brings home the big award on March 4, when the awards ceremony takes place.

Knife Skills didn’t hit theaters in a wide release, but you can stream it on Amazon Prime for a couple bucks.

Heads up: The trailer above contains some coarse language. 

Happy 30th Birthday, Outdoor Edge

Denver-based Outdoor Edge turned 30 years old last month, which means it’s still clinging to the spirit of its 20s but contemplating middle age while holding down a mortgage and a couple kids. (In lieu of a birthday card, BLADE respectfully submits that joke.)

Outdoor Edge won a BLADE Magazine Knife Of The Year® in its debut year at the 1988 BLADE Show in Knoxville, Tennessee, with the Game Skinner. As BLADE‘s Steve Shackleford points out, that went on to be one of the most knocked off knives ever. No good deed goes unpunished, I guess.

Less copied is the way Outdoor Edge got its start, simply because it’s so challenging to build a knife company from the ground up. From its news release:

From its humble beginnings as a one-man show with four prototype samples, [David] Bloch’s company, Outdoor Edge, has grown significantly in the past thirty years. Currently, the company has 24 employees and offers more than 120 products. Originally based in Boulder, Colorado, the company moved to a larger facility in Denver in 2010.

BLADE wishes Outdoors Edge 30 more great years of success! 

New York Times: Knives Make Excellent Gifts

For being based on an island that prosecutes electricians for carrying pocketknives on the job, this is a refreshing change of pace for the Gray Lady. A NYT article about gift registries favors knives and knife accessories as foolproof (and inexpensive) options.

Who can blame them? If you have a kitchen, you’ll use a knife. Heck, even if you don’t have a kitchen, you’ll probably use a knife at some point. 

From the article:

Choose a few high-quality knives instead of a knife block set, as sets tend to have a lot of filler knives that you don’t need. Wirecutter suggests three different knives for the average cook: chef’s knife, paring knife and serrated knife.

Throw in a cutting board while you’re at it, too.

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Bear & Son Cutlery Plans Expansion

Who says domestic knife manufacturing is dying? Alabama-based knife company Bear & Son Cutlery will grow its Jacksonville facility and add new jobs. From The Anniston Star:

Bear & Son Cutlery in Jacksonville plans to take a stab at expanding production and adding more jobs.

The knife manufacturer expects to buy equipment and hire around 25 people over the next two years to meet growing customer demand.

Assisting with the expansion is a local tax abatement, as well as a generous knife pun on behalf of the Star.

What’s Life Like After Forged in Fire?

Steve Gorsvenor competed and won on Forged in Fire, the History Channel program. But what happens after the lights go out and the knifemakers go home?

The Argus Leader caught up with Gorsvenor to ask just that. From the article:

He’s never done learning. Never done perfecting his craft.

“A simple score in music, right? A simple score is just a few notes and it’s very straightforward. Nothing fancy,” Grosvenor said. “When you get into a forged blade, the score can be Beethoven. I mean, it’s just where do you want it to end?”

In other words, knifemakers don’t know how to stop. An appearance on a popular TV show isn’t the peak. It’s another stop on the journey into the craft of knifemaking.

Grosvenor likely isn’t alone. Contestants, as BLADE reported here, experience a boost in sales after appearing on the show. They don’t rest on their laurels for long.

A Steak Knife that Looks Like a Scalpel

On Feb. 19, new knife company Skalpel will launch a Kickstarter to prime the pump for its steak knife. The twist? It looks like a scalpel.

While some most Kickstarter knives should be taken with a grain of salt, the Skalpel is backed up by an actual knifemaker, Stuart Mitchell, out of Sheffield, England. Each knife is made from “high carbon, surgical grade steel,” per the website.

No word yet on whether there will be a matching fork.

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Instagram Photos Land Knife Retailer in International Hot Water

Instagram is a haven for the knife community (follow BLADE‘s account here), but some accounts are under fire for promoting products legal in one country but illegal in another. 

Take Alien Outfitter’s Instagram account. Based out of the United States, Alien Outfitters sells knives disguised as mundane objects, such as combs or lipstick. When Instagram users in the United Kingdom followed links to order the knives, they could successfully make a purchase. Such knives, however, are banned from import.

Rather than keeping this a customer service issue, some are attacking Instagram itself for hosting the images in the first place.

From The Telegraph:

The Ben Kinsella Trust, a campaigning charity set up in memory of Ben Kinsella, a 16-year-old stabbed to death in Islington a decade ago, said it was appalling that Instagram was helping promote the US company Alien Outfitters.

“Instagram’s action in hosting this site is reprehensible,” said Patrick Green, the charity’s chief executive. “They are glamorising these knives as fashion accessories. This is a forum where young people openly encourage each other to break the law by buying flick knives and concealed knives which are illegal for any age group.”

BLADE does not condone purchasing knives that are illegal in your area. However, it finds that attacking images of knives posted online that are otherwise illegal is as fruitless as it gets. There are thousands upon thousands of knife-related accounts on Instagram. The Internet at large contains millions of blogs, websites and social media accounts depicting knives.

To that end, Instagram is not in the wrong here. Whether the retailer or customer is more at fault isn’t a question I can answer. Oftentimes, stories like these are how the knife community learns about the hard stops in the patchwork of knife laws around the world.

UK Police Find It “Disappointing” Anyone Would Carry a Knife

Policies discouraging knife ownership in the United Kingdom are often cited in the global knife community, but it can be difficult back up their impact with numbers.

Enter the “Bin a Blade” campaign. It solicits unwanted knives from the public using drop boxes, similar to how people in the United States can dispose of prescription meds at police stations. In Suffolk, England, the campaign took in 20,000 knives.

From The Lowestoft Journal:

Likewise, Suffolk’s police and crime commissioner Tim Passmore pledged his support to the initiative.

He said: “To see that over 20,000 blades have been collected since the initiative was launched is excellent.

“We need to do all we can through education, peer pressure, policing and sentencing to make it absolutely clear that it’s never acceptable for a person to carry a knife or weapon.

“I find it really disappointing that anyone carries a blade of any kind.”

Reducing crime is a worthy cause, but one questions the efficacy of such amnesty drives. In 2006, when 90,000 knives were turned in as part of a UK-wide amnesty drive, crime rates changed little. 

Further amnesty drives did little to change the upward swing of violence in years since. In England and Wales, last year marked the highest number of crimes involving a knife or sharp instrument since 2011, according to the BBC. Most of these crimes involved robbery or assault.

Although knives remain the instrument of choice for criminals, 77 percent of violent attacks are committed with no weapons at all. 

As for knives, they account for seven percent of attacks.

Cape Town Water Crisis Impacts Knifemakers

but no rain! Are you kidding me! pic.twitter.com/dI4Smz4XXl

— Tim Flack (@tim_meh87) February 13, 2018

Four million people will be without water in a few months unless conditions change in Cape Town, South Africa. That includes knifemakers living in the area.

BLADE is hearing from the hot knife shops in Cape Town under stress due to water restrictions and related pressures. The impacts include the obvious, such as using leftover shower water to flush toilets, to the lesser known, such as the steep opportunity costs of waiting in line for water. The criminal element is also on the rise as people become more desperate.

BLADE will continue to monitor the feedback from knifemakers in the area, and present opportunities for those outside South Africa to help should they arise.

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Jim Sargent, long-time antique pocketknife dealer and knife retailer, passed away yesterday, Feb. 11.

Along with his wife, Jean, Jim founded J. Sargent Co. in 1968. Today, known as Sarco Pocket Knives and based in Florence, Alabama, the company specializes in new knives, antique knives, reference guides and imported knives from around the world.

Jim authored eight knife books, including several editions of the American Premium Guide to Knives & Razors, and articles on antique and collectible cutlery. He was past president of the National Knife Collectors Association and served on the NKCA’s board of directors. He was also instrumental in the establishment of the National Knife Museum in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

Herman Schneider, one of the most talented of the pioneering custom knifemakers of the 1970s and beyond, passed away Jan. 26. He was 87.

Perhaps best known for the spiked dagger in the 1986 Sylvester Stallone movie, Cobra, Schneider made some of the cleanest knives anywhere. Among them were hunters and skinners in his early days to art knives and reproductions of 19th-century dress bowies in the style of Michael Price as Schneider’s style evolved.

The workmanship of Schneider knives was second to none. As long-time knife collector and the headman of the Art Knife Invitational (AKI), Phil Lobred, once noted, “Herman Schneider’s knives lifted the industry up two notches in the fit-and-finish department.” Schneider was among the very first group of elite knifemakers to be invited to the AKI, and exhibited at the premier event for a number of years.

Of all Schneider’s impeccable knife creations, it was his art knives that stood out. “Herm Schneider built beautiful art knives,” observed Dave Harvey, owner of Nordic Knives retail knife store and coordinator of the biennial Solvang Custom Knife Show. “Many of his blades featured complex grinds that many of the most talented makers would not, or could not, pull off themselves.”

In 1982, Schneider was Lobred’s first choice to make the landmark King Tut Dagger reproduction. Schneider had to decline, however, and Lobred chose BLADE Magazine Cutlery Hall-Of-Fame© member Buster Warenski to make it instead. The rest is history.

An interesting back story about the Tut dagger repro: As part of Lobred’s instructions for the making of the legendary knife, the blade had to be solid gold. Warenski struggled with finding a way to harden the all-gold blade. After repeated failed attempts, he enlisted the aid of Schneider and Jim Hardenbrook, and together they were able to harden the blade successfully.

In a poll of the greatest custom knifemakers from BLADE®’s first 15 years (1973-88), Schneider did not make the top 10, though he didn’t miss by much and made the honorable mention list. And in the Top 10 custom knives from the same time period, Schneider was the only maker Lobred mentioned for his entire body of work instead of just one piece.

An early member of The Knifemakers’ Guild, Schneider not only was a great knifemaker but was also close to many in the knifemaking and knife fraternity. Along with Buster and Joan Warenski, Cutlery Hall-Of-Famer D’ Holder and Bob Gladstone, Schneider was instrumental in helping Dan and Pam Delavan get the first California Custom Knife Show up and running in the early 1980s. Many thought a lot of Schneider, not just for his knifemaking ability but for his friendship and kindness as well.

Medieval Knives Doubled as Erasers?

Nothing brings back grade school memories like those big, pink erasers. However, medieval students used knives instead of rubber.

From Atlas Obscura:

The job of a scribe was to copy the text from an existing manuscript using a quill pen and an inkhorn. When they made mistakes, they had to scrape the ink off the page with a sharp knife, a painstaking job that could easily ruin a piece of parchment.

Read the full article and see an example of such a knife here.

Video: How Well Can a Wooden Knife Perform?

How well can a knife made out of wood perform? Pretty dang well.

This video details how a man in Japan, identified only by his YouTube channel Kiwami Japan, shaped a knife from a wooden blank using sandpaper and whetstones. 

Here’s the video, featuring a few cutting tests:

The key is the lignum vitae wood the man used. It’s “the densest and hardest wood known,” according to the Forest Legality Initiative. 

Lignum vitae is regulated under Article II of the Convention on International Trade of Endangered Species. That means you’re not doing to pick this type of wood up from Home Depot. Still, it’s another admirable example of creativity meeting craftsmanship.

New Hollywood Steak Restaurant Will Feature Knives Made In-House

Adam Perry Lang gained renown for running a barbecue smoker outside the studio of Jimmy Kimmel Live in Los Angeles. Now, Lang is set to open a steak restaurant with something sharp on the menu: knives made by the chef himself.

From Variety:

Walking into Lang’s man-cave/test kitchen, the first thing you spot is the double-barreled smoker rig that Lang tows to various barbecue events. The next thing is the forge. Glowing at something like 2000 degrees, the renowned pitmaster heats a piece of vaguely knife-shaped raw steel until it glows bright orange, puts it on the anvil and gives it a dozen or so good thwonks with a mallet on the way to making a sharp edge. Making Damascus steel knives by hand is just one of his clutch of obsessions — and APL diners will be able to slice into their aged steaks with Lang’s own carefully-forged blades.

Read the full article here.

Knifemaker Turns Out Blades with 14-Year-Old Grandson

The Tribune-Review out of western Pennsylvania recently profiled a grandfather/grandson combo keeping the tradition of bladesmith alive. The article was originally about a heart attack the grandfather experienced, but to BLADE that’s second to the fact a multi-generational pair was pounding steel in the first place.

From the article:

After his heart attack, Eyth had three stents placed in his major coronary artery. But, he said, “It didn’t stop or slow me down much. They wanted me to take it easy for a month or two.”

The pace of production at Eyth’s forge has slowed some, mainly because his son doesn’t participate as much, he said. But his 14-year-old grandson, Joe, has stepped in to help fill the gap.

“We’re still turning out 120 to 130 knives in a year,” said Eyth, who puts some of his knives to use when he hunts deer.

Read the full article here.

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Facebook Puts the Screws to the Knife Community

Facebook’s new policy for Pages, effective now, means it will be even more challenging for knifemakers, companies, enthusiasts and websites to reach their audiences on the site. From a Facebook blog post:

Because space in News Feed is limited, showing more posts from friends and family and updates that spark conversation means we’ll show less public content, including videos and other posts from publishers or businesses.

As we make these updates, Pages may see their reach, video watch time and referral traffic decrease. The impact will vary from Page to Page, driven by factors including the type of content they produce and how people interact with it. Pages making posts that people generally don’t react to or comment on could see the biggest decreases in distribution. Pages whose posts prompt conversations between friends will see less of an effect.

Basically, this means Facebook users will see fewer posts from the Pages they Like in their newsfeeds. Unless the Page pays for an ad, of course.

But that isn’t an option for knife-centric pages. Facebook will refuse ads that feature “weapons,” and that includes legal knives from legitimate organizations. It doesn’t matter if the Page sells knives or not, or if the ad’s content is tame. If there’s a knife in it, Facebook will refuse the ad.

So what are the alternatives?

The only option here is to look elsewhere to spend ad dollars and grow audiences (follow BLADE on Twitter here). Maintain those existing Facebook Pages, because the rules could change later, but focus on building followers on other platforms. 

If I could be so bold, we here at BLADE magazine offer plenty of alternatives to getting the word out.

Todd Begg Talks Early BLADE Magazine Influences

Renowned knifemaker Todd Begg recently made the move from California to Texas, which kicked off a profile by The Dallas Morning News. He talks about how BLADE magazine sparked his knifemaking career in this video:

Begg briefly mentions the controversy with the use of his name to sell knives, something the knife community has been watching closely, but the majority of the article focuses on his craft.

Read the full article here.

Trench Knives Still Illegal in Texas

It’s legal to carry most knives in Texas since restrictions relaxed last September, but that doesn’t go for trench knives. From the Dallas Observer:

It’s a lesson local construction worker Christopher Sparks learned when he was arrested over the weekend for possession of prohibited weapon. A Royse City police officer told him that he was under arrest for having brass knuckles, a Class A misdemeanor, and took him to the Rockwall County Jail.

Now Sparks is facing a fine of up to $4,000 and up to a year in jail. He’ll also have a permanent criminal record attached to his name, making it harder to find work and places to live, unless he pays an attorney to have his record expunged.

“I was just trying to get home from work,” Sparks says.

This is a perfect example of how nuance in knife laws creates more problems than solutions. Were Sparks in possession of a dagger instead of a trench knife, he wouldn’t be looking at a four grand tab and a year in the cooler.

Read the full article here.

P.S. Construction workers take the brunt of knife laws like this one. Just ask the blue collars, largely from minority backgrounds, in Manhattan. When even The New York Times editorial board thinks it’s the wrong approach, you know you’ve got an ugly law on the books.

Attend a Knife Show in February and March

FEB. 2-4 LAKELAND, FL
The 40th Annual Gator Cutlery Club Knife Show
Lakeland Center. Call Dan Piergallini 813-754-3908 or 813-967-1471.

FEB. 10 WYOMING, MI
West Michigan Edge Show, the K of C Hall. Call Mike 616-322-5846.

FEB. 17 HONOLULU, HI
Hawaii Custom Knife & Tactical Show
Pomaikai Ballrooms at Dole Cannery. Contact JSM Cutlery LLC, Dept. BKG18, POB 1290, Aiea, HI 96701 872-356-2953 [email protected].

FEB. 17 LITTLE ROCK, AR
The Arkansas Knife Show
Statehouse Convention Center. Call 870-279-7329 arknife.com.

FEB. 24 OZARK, MO
The 21st Annual Spring Cabin Fever Knife Show, 4-H Building, City Park. Call Don Long 417-485-6759.

FEB. 24-25 LEWISBURG, PA
Keystone Blade Association Annual Knife Show
Country Cupboard Inn. Contact Marlyn Kepner 570-584-4835 [email protected] or Skip Fryling 570-204-1544 [email protected].

MARCH 2-3 TROY, OH
Spirit of the Blade Custom Knife Show
Miami County Fairgrounds. Call Joel Worley 937-638-9518 or visit [email protected].

MARCH 2-4 DALTON, GA
The Knife Road Show
Northwest Georgia Trade Center. Contact Spirit of Steel Promotions 423-238-6753 [email protected], jbrucevoyles.com.

MARCH 3-4 NEW BRAUNFELS, TX
Guadalupe Forge Winter Hammer-In & Knifemakers Rendezvous.
Contact Johnny Stout 830-606-4067 [email protected] and/or Harvey Dean 512-446-3111 [email protected].

MARCH 3-4 PASADENA, CA
The 33rd Annual Knife Expo 2018 presented by the Southern California Blades Knife Collectors Club
Pasadena Convention Center. Call Helen 619-417-4329 knifeexpo.net.

MARCH 9-12 NURNBERG, GERMANY
The IWA Outdoor Classics 2018.
For trade visitors only. Contact NurnbergMesse North America Inc. +1.770.618.5842 [email protected].

MARCH 16-17 FORT LAUDERDALE, FL
East Coast Custom Knife Show
Westin Fort Lauderdale Beach Resort. Contact 417-866-6688 [email protected] or visit fiftyfiftyproductions.net or ecckshow.com.

MARCH 23-24 HAMPTONVILLE, NC
The 43rd Annual Tar Heel Cutlery Club Show
Yadkin VFW Building. Call Chris Groce 336-679-8817 [email protected].

MARCH 23-25 JANESVILLE, WI
The 2018 Badger Knife Club Knife Show
Janesville Conference Center/Holiday Inn Express. Contact Bob Schrap 414-479-9765 Badgerknifeclub@ aol.com.

MARCH 30-APRIL 1 HARRISONBURG, VA
The 27th Annual Greater Shenandoah Valley Knife Show
Rockingham County Fairgrounds. Call Ralph 540-828-0778 svkc.org.

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