A contemporary version of the Mount Rushmore of Knifemakers is one of many feature stories in the latest BLADE®, on newsstands now!
A contemporary version of the Mount Rushmore of Knifemakers, a secret of knife collecting, knives with nice butts, the Bob Loveless knife that changed knife history and more touch up the edge of the latest BLADE®, on newsstands NOW!
BLADE did an all-time “Mount Rushmore of Knifemakers”—the top four makers of the modern era—in the May 2015 issue. Afterward, one of the participants, Dan Delavan of Plaza Cutlery, suggested we do a Mount Rushmore saluting contemporary makers. The result is our poll of leading industry observers that pinpoints the top four makers—four to fit on our Mount Rushmore—from 2000 to 2017. Check out who they are, as well as the ones who just missed, in the latest issue.
Collecting custom knives must be fun and rewarding for you or else why do it? One way to make it fun and rewarding is to be successful at it, and one way to do that is to be aware of the life cycle of popular knife genres. BLADE field editor Les Robertson makes a living staying abreast of the life cycles of hot custom knife genres, something he has been doing for almost 35 years now. Learn what the cycles are, their history and how you can use them to enhance your collection in “The Circle Remains Unbroken.”
In knife parlance the end of a knife handle is called a butt—and knives with the nicest butts often are the kind that attract knife aficionados most. See why this is so and some examples of some of the best of their kind in “Knives With Nice Butts.”
Creek Stewart uses his survival knowledge, and a few good knifes, to tell a rockling adventure story, with a good romance interwoven throughout.
Valentine’s Day saw the release of survivalist and Whiskey Knives co-collaborator Creek Stewart’s young-adult romance novel, “Rugosa.” What knife enthusiasts will appreciate about this adventure is that by page 4 a machete crafted from a lawn-mower blade has made an appearance, and many others follow.
In the dystopian world of post-globalization America, 17-year-old Omaha Hoyt must leave the farm and woods were he is most at ease and travel to the city to rescue his love. The plan is to stay on back roads and subsist off his trapping and foraging skills. Very quickly plans change and the lifelong Boy Scout is forced to help someone he meets along the way.
Omaha’s pocketknife gets lots of use, and his sister makes a survival girl’s dream barrette that is shaped like a butterfly with cutting edges, a fishing line wrap with hooks for antennae, and is apparently weighted for easy throwing as a weapon. In what one might consider the equivalent of a gun getting reloaded in a movie, in the book there is actually a knife-sharpening scene.
This is not to say that “Rugosa” is knife heavy. It’s first and foremost a survival story about a 17-year-old who uses his scout training to survive physical and emotional challenges. But knives are more than an essential tool in this book. They each have a story behind them. Even the knife used against the protagonist is rich in lore.
“Rugosa” is also equal part love story. An author must possess the emotional intelligence to remember what it was like to be 17 and be able to convey what’s going on in the heart of a young man before that youth necessarily understands his own emotions, never mind knows how to convey them. It’s hard not to come across as a mature adult when writing from the perspective of a teen, but Creek creates a believable character. You can read more about the wilderness survival instructor and knife co-collaborator at “Survivalist Creek’s Life Led Naturally to Whiskey Knives.”
The book’s opening is slightly choppy, but only because editors now demand action begin in the fist paragraph. The beginning describes the farm and woods where Omaha lives with his mother and sister and the secret storage bunker he keeps hidden by “Rugosa.” It’s relaxed reading and idyllic, but once Omaha departs on his mission, the excitement is ramped up and the pace is non-stop. It’s easily read in a day or two.
You can get the paperback edition of “Rugosa” for $14.99 and the Kindle version for $3.99 through Amazon. Young-adult novels are one of the healthiest segments of publishing, probably because they’re fun for adults to read as well.
If you’d like to learn more about how Creek collaborated with Hank Gevedon of Reptile Toolworks to create Whiskey Knives, the bushcrafters that look like they stepped out of a 1700s mountain man’s kit, be sure to pick up the June 2017 edition of BLADE Magazine.
And yes, Creek is working on a follow-up novel to “Rugosa.” It takes place during the same timeframe but is told from the perspective of Omaha’s love interest, London, while she struggles to survive during the hostile takeover of Philadelphia.
Build a bug-out bag for your next adventure
Follow Creek’s instructions for putting together your emergency kit and you’ll have least a fighting chance of surviving.
Larry Wayne “The Hammer” Harley, friend, knifemaker, bladesmith and knifemaking teacher to anyone who showed an interest—especially kids and “wounded warriors”—passed away in his sleep Feb. 12. He was 66.
A lifelong resident of Bristol, Tennessee, Larry made knives under the business name of Lonesome Pine Knives. An American Bladesmith Society journeyman smith, he was the chair of the ABS Youth Program and was involved with the Wounded Warriors Project. He was best known outside the knife industry as one of the stars of the National Geographic television show Lords of War, on which he went simply by the nickname of “The Hammer,” specializing in identifying and judging the worth of assorted knives, swords and other edged weapons.
Though not a tall man, Larry was large with burly arms and a massive chest—which was no doubt needed to contain his huge heart. He conducted bladesmithing symposiums at his shop in Bristol, entertaining youths, veterans and anyone and everyone who wanted to make knives. He also taught at the Batson Bladesmithing Symposium, youth programs at the BLADE Show and Smoky Mountain Knife Works, and just about anyplace he could find that would allow him to teach the craft, and interact with the people involved, that he loved so much. “Larry always felt that the real payment for teaching a youngster of any age was the irrepressible smile that was always on their face when they realized they could do it,” wrote ABS journeyman smith Wes Byrd, who, along with Larry, taught kids how to make knives in the ABS Youth Program.
Larry learned to make knives from his father, the late B.L. “Pap” Harley. “It just so happened that my daddy made knives and that’s how come I’m a knifemaker,” Larry said in the February 2015 BLADE®. “I remember my daddy working on bowie knives on the kitchen table when I was 4 or 5 years old. He also read me books by Raymond Thorp, author of Bowie Knife and Crow Killer, for bedtime stories, and I remember we saw the Alan Ladd movie about Jim Bowie, The Iron Mistress.”
Larry “The Hammer” Harley talks with young knife fans at a past BLADE Show seminar.
Larry’s friends were too many to count. In fact, if you met him he probably counted you as one of his friends and you counted him one of yours. His infectious laugh and twinkling eyes immediately broke the ice. A regular exhibitor at the BLADE Show in the early years, he was known then for his “hog-killing knives” and excursions on which he would take customers to hunt wild hogs in the Appalachian Mountains of East Tennessee and the surrounding area. He was also known as a top competitor in the early years of the ABS cutting competitions, winning at least one championship before the competitions became more organized and eventually evolved into today’s events conducted by BladeSports International, including the BLADE Show World Championship Cutting Competition, the 15th annual rendition of which will be held at this year’s BLADE Show June 2-4 in Atlanta.
Larry is survived by his loving wife of 35 years, Kristine; sons Richard and Nicholas; goddaughters Sarah and Julia Denton; aunts, uncles, cousins both in the Holbrook and Harley family; and many friends.
The family will receive friends from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. tomorrow, Feb. 15, at Oakley-Cook Funeral Home in Bristol. The funeral service will follow at 7 p.m. with the Rev. Steve Playl officiating. The committal and inurnment service will be at 2 p.m. Feb. 16 at Glenwood Cemetery in Bristol.
In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to the Wounded Warrior Project, POB 758517, Topeka, KS 66675-8517 woundedwarriorproject.org.
The Blondie Man’s Blades, the latest in filework, the hottest knives of the hottest custom makers and much more highlight the new BLADE®, on newsstands now!
ABS master smith Wally Hayes was an up-and-coming maker when he first met Chris Stein at a late 1990s New York Custom Knife Show. The co-founder and guitarist of the new wave band Blondie featuring lead singer Debbie Harry, Stein has collected knives for decades and added another one to his collection when he bought Hayes’s first double-edged wakizashi at the show. Get the story on Stein and his knife collection in “Blades of the Blondie Man.”
The Blondie Man’s Blades are in the latest BLADE®, on newsstands now!
Filework is one of those understated yet elegant bits of embellished finery that many of today’s leading makers incorporate onto the spines of their knives. Daniel Jackson picked the brains of some of the top practitioners of the art in his story, “Cutting The Tool That Cuts”—which includes the Panama Trapper cover knife by Luke Swenson.
Staying abreast of the hottest knives of the hottest custom knifemakers is something the leading custom knife purveyors must do on a continuing basis if they want to keep bringing home the blade bacon. BLADE polled seven of the industry’s top purveyors to see which knives of which makers apply in “Top Of The Food Chain.”
Tactical knives have enjoyed varying degrees of popularity since the mid-’90s, but they never really go away for long before getting hot again. One of the reasons for their popularity is that they seem to constantly evolve to meet market needs. Get the lowdown on what is, isn’t and what’s to come in the genre in “Is It Tactical?”
The latest installment in our “Knives That Changed Knife History” is on the Buck 110. When the iconic folding hunter first appeared in 1964, lockback folding knives had pretty much faded into the background. The Buck 110 was big and strong and worn on a belt. It was much more a hardcore using knife than a pocketknife and it changed knives forever. Learn about the groundbreaking cutter in “The Buck That Went Bang.”
There’s much more in the latest BLADE. Get it on newsstands now!
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s knife bill veto at the end of 2016 targets minorities and others who carry pocketknives.
Flipper folders such as the CRKT Acquisition, pocketknives, linerlocks, framelocks and other folding knives remain subject to the definition of switchblade and/or gravity knife as a result of Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s veto of S. 6483-A.
According to Knife Rights, Cuomo vetoed the Gravity Knife and Switchblade Reform Bill, or S. 6483-A. If he had approved it, the bill would have excluded the vast majority of pocketknives, linerlock and framelock folders, flipper folders, assisted openers and other one-hand-opening folding knives from being designated as gravity knives or automatics (aka switchblades) under existing law. As a result of Cuomo’s knife bill veto, those who carry pocketknives, flipper folders, linerlocks and framelocks, and other one-hand-opening folders in New York remain subject to violating the state’s ban on automatics and gravity knives.
Since many minorities in New York City and others throughout the state carry pocketknives and folders and are the ones most likely to be targeted by the law that stays in place as a result of Cuomo’s knife bill veto, they remain subject to a fine and jail time if arrested for carrying said knives. As BLADE® field editor Ed Fowler notes in his story in the upcoming issue of the April BLADE, on newsstands Jan. 24, “The ultimate display of bureaucratic stupidity are the thousands of knife laws that serve no purpose other than to turn law-abiding citizens, usually minorities, into criminals in the name of public safety.”
According to the Knife Rights news release, Knife Rights will return when the New York legislature convenes this year to the job of fixing “the state’s Gravity Knife law to prevent these arrests and prosecutions. This bill passed with such large majorities in both houses of the legislature that an override of a veto is theoretically possible.”
As Knife Rights noted, Cuomo effectively thumbed his nose at a New York legislature that had overwhelmingly passed S. 6483-A, as well as at other New Yorkers, many of whom include his own constituents, who had supported the bill. In so doing, he joined the “Nexus of No” that includes New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, New York Police Department Commissioner James O’Neill and District Attorney Cyrus Vance, Jr., in being virtually the only ones who oppose S. 6483-A.
The defeated bill would have added wording excluding knives with “a spring, detent or other mechanism designed to create a bias toward closure and that requires exertion applied to the blade by hand, wrist or arm to overcome the bias toward closure and open the knife” from the existing bill’s definition of switchblade. In other words, knives such as pocketknives, linerlocks and framelocks, assisted openers and others could not be defined as switchblades in New York if Cuomo had not vetoed S. 6483-A. Similar wording would have excluded pocketknives, etc., from the definition of gravity knife as well.
Custom knife ambassador Phil Lobred joined Gil Hibben in a special audience with Elvis Presley and Kenpo martial artist Ed Parker in 1974. From left: Presley, Parker, Lobred and Hibben. (Conway image)
Custom knife ambassador Philip Carl “Phil” Lobred, the man who commissioned the reproduction of the King Tut Dagger by Buster Warenski and along with Gil Hibben enjoyed a special audience with Elvis Presley, passed away Dec. 14 after a long illness. He was 72.
Hibben and Lobred were especially close. Lobred lived in Alaska in the early 1970s and Hibben moved to Anchorage and made knives out of Lobred’s garage. In 1974, Lobred accompanied Hibben on a private audience with Elvis Presley (see “The Elvis Knife,” July 1997 BLADE®). A member of the Martial Arts Hall Of Fame as well, Hibben knew Ed Parker, the renowned Kenpo martial arts instructor, who also had been one of Presley’s bodyguards. Hibben had made a Kenpo knife in which The King expressed interest, so Parker arranged a meeting for Hibben to present one of the knives to Presley. Lobred was invited along.
“I had the privilege to have Phil Lobred in my life, not only as a friend but as a brother for the past 47 years,” Hibben noted. “He was the closest friend I have ever had and I truly loved him. We shared a
history that few others will ever know and my memories with Phil will live on forever in my heart. His loss is devastating, not only to his family and close friends but to the many, many hearts he touched in the knife community and around the world. ‘Here’s to you P.Q., we had a great time together.'” “P.Q.” is Hibben’s nickname for Lobred and stands for “Pretty Quick.”
One of Lobred’s crowning achievements is the biennial Art Knife Invitational. The AKI assembles 25 of the world’s finest knifemakers in a special show in which high-dollar collectors are invited and enter their names in drawings to buy the knives of their choice. It was the first successful biennial knife show and at least two other shows—the Solvang Custom Knife Show and California Custom Knife Show—are biennial shows today. As of this writing, this year’s AKI is scheduled for Oct. 28 at the Sheraton Hotel San Diego Bayside Tower. Exactly how Phil’s passing will affect the show’s status is unknown at this time.
Through it all, the thing Lobred probably will be remembered for most is his commissioning of the reproduction by Warenski of the King Tut dagger in 1982. It took Warenski five years to complete the knife, which included 33 ounces of gold, an ancient technique known as granulation for the handle and much more. When the knife was exhibited at the 1987 Knifemakers’ Guild Show it was a sensation, and served as the cover knife for the February 1988 BLADE. The knife has since been valued at $1 million.
Funeral arrangements are under the direction of El Camino Memorial-Sorrento Valley, San Diego, California. Service information is unavailable at this time.
Official BLADE Show photographer since 2001, PointSeven shot such BLADE Magazine Knives Of The Year® as the 2016 American-Made Knife Of The Year, the SHF by Spartan Blades. (PointSeven image)Eric Eggly is saying goodbye to three decades of knife photography. (PointSeven image)
Eric Eggly is saying goodbye to knife photography. The longtime knife photographer and founder of PointSeven Studios is taking a job in a different though related industry.
A familiar face at knife shows worldwide, Eggly photographed knives for three decades. For about the past two decades he had owned and operated PointSeven Studios in Toledo and then Maumee, Ohio, where he photographed not only knives but products of many kinds for various companies. It was the latter commercial photography that paid the bills, but it was photographing knives that was among his first loves. Along with a number of other photographers that continue to do so, PointSeven not only photographed custom knives but supplied the photos to knife magazines and other media that helped publicize the makers and their knives worldwide.
In addition to photographing knives in his studio, Eggly also took his photography operation on the road, including shooting knives at knife shows in America and abroad. One of those shows is the world’s largest and most important knife event, the BLADE Show in Atlanta, Georgia—this year’s show will be June 2-4, once again at the Cobb Galleria Centre—for which PointSeven had served as official photographer since 2001.
Among the 2016 BLADE Show custom knife judging winners shot by PointSeven was the winner of Best Handle Design by Jean-Louis Regel. (PointSeven image)
Among the BLADE Show duties of Eric and his staff were photographing the BLADE Magazine Knife-Of-The-Year® Awards, the winners of the show’s custom knife judging competition, the American Bladesmith Society’s annual award-winning knives, the BLADE Show World Championship Cutting Competitions, and photos of the overall event inside the show hall in the Cobb Galleria Centre, all for use in the annual BLADE Show recap issue of BLADE® Magazine. In addition to the latter, PointSeven photographed any number of custom and factory knives for a goodly amount of the show’s exhibitors, which number near 1,000. Eggly also conducted BLADE Show seminars on how to photograph knives.
As these words are written, the BLADE Show is in the process of finding a replacement for PointSeven as the show’s official photographer.
Eggly’s new job will be chief product officer for F.J. Westcott, a manufacturer of high-end lighting equipment for professional filmmakers and photographers.
