The Custom Knife Collectors Association (CKCA) announced it has raised $6,598.30 for the Jimmy V Foundation for Pancreatic Cancer Research.
The money was raised through the CKCA’s raffle of a special bowie made by ABS master smiths/CKCA members Larry Fuegen and Tim Hancock. The winner was knifemaker/CKCA member Joel Chamblin.
The CKCA’s contributions to date to cancer research projects totals $34,053.30.
According to Knife Rights, the California Court of Appeals last week reversed a lower court’s ruling that a knife that could be “wrist-flicked” open was a “switchblade.”
The lower court made the faulty ruling despite an explicit provision in California law that distinguishes and protects one-hand opening and assisted-opening knives with a bias towards closure and despite prior Appellate Court rulings upholding that exception. These common folding knives represent over 80 percent of the U.S. market and the California legislature clearly wanted them to be legal when they clarified the original switchblade law as follows:
“‘Switchblade knife’ does not include a knife that opens with one hand utilizing thumb pressure applied solely to the blade of the knife or a thumb stud attached to the blade, provided that the knife has a detent or other mechanism that provides resistance that must be overcome in opening the blade, or that biases the blade back toward its closed position.”
This is essentially the same exemption that was added to the Federal Switchblade Act as a result of the knife industry banning together to help clarify the federal definition in 2009.
“We laud the Appeals Court on its decision and a well-written opinion, but it is unfortunate that the defendant had to undergo the extreme harassment and stress to him and his family and friends that comes with such an experience due to the ignorance and apparent anti-knife bias of the law enforcement officer, prosecutors and the lower court involved,” Knife Rights indicated in a statement. “We’d also like to acknowledge the successful efforts of the defendant’s court appointed lawyer who presented a strong defense. Hopefully, this will be the end of this sordid travesty of justice by the state and there will be no further appeal.”
You can read the Appeals Court opinion here: www.kniferights.org/G045929.pdf
Jesse Paul Fox Jr., long-time knifemaker known for his electric-motor-driven folder and winning the W.W. Cronk Award, died Nov. 19. He was 74.
Known to most by his middle name of Paul, Fox was a long-time member of the Knifemakers’ Guild and owner of Pioneer Woodcarving. As Fox’s friend and fellow maker Tim Britton noted on The Knife Network, “Paul may have been one of the most creative knifemakers of all time. He was perhaps best known for his electric-motor-driven folder and a series of very fancy knives that were a lot like sculpture. He won the W.W. Cronk Award at the Knifemakers’ Guild shows till they asked him to stop entering and let someone else win.
“Paul is the only maker I know who experimented with his own YAG laser and a trailing-wire EDM machine. The industry will miss him and so will his many friends throughout ‘knifedom.’ Paul and his wife Martha would appreciate our kind thoughts and prayers.”
According to Britton, Fox had a great sense of humor. “Paul had a Chevy Suburban that he bought at a North Carolina State Surplus auction for $700,” Tim recalled. “It was ugly, yellow and very beat up. He took it to Hendricks Motors of NASCAR fame and had them put a full race motor in it. Damned thing would fly and Paul loved nothing better than challenging redneck racers and usually beating them. Guess you have fugured out by now, that dude was a character!
“Paul was very much at home with locals—guys from the garage, bread-truck drivers, etc. He was one of a kind, like so many of us in knifemaking. I can still see Paul using the remote control boat to chase geese off his pond!”
A private service will be held at a later date. In lieu of flowers, memorials may be sent to Catawba Regional Hospice 3975 Robinson Rd. Newton, NC 28658. Bass-Smith Funeral Home is handling the services.
Ted Dowell, long-time knifemaker, past Knifemakers’ Guild president and popularizer of the integral knife design, passed away Oct. 5.
In a statement, Blade Magazine Cutlery Hall-Of-Fame© member and current Guild president Gil Hibben noted, “It is with a heavy heart that I report the passing of my friend and Knifemakers’ Guild Founding Member and Past President, Ted Dowell. Our hearts go out to his family and especially to his beloved wife, Betty. As soon as I know the arrangements and details I will post them. Ted was a true pioneer of the KMG and a great master knifemaker. He will be deeply missed.
Also known for his “Funny Folder” design, among many others, Dowell was the only Guild member to exhibit at every Guild Show—40 in all—until the streak came to an end in 2010, Betty always by his side, smiling and flying the “Dowell banner.”
According to Hibben, the family of Ted Dowell has requested that in lieu of flowers, a donation be made to the Knifemakers’ Guild (www.knifemakersguild.com) in Ted’s memory. “Ted truly loved the Guild, and the Dowell family’s request reflects that love,” Hibben added.
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What do many of today’s custom tactical folders have in common? Find out in the latest issue of BLADE® Magazine, on most newsstands TODAY!
Featuring the DMF tactical folder by Sniper Bladeworks on the cover, the World’s No. 1 Knife Publication covers the globe’s sharpest knives from all angles, including:
•A special 25th anniversary salute to the Sebenza by Chris Reeve Knives, one of the most influential folders in modern knife history;
•Part one of a two-part story on how to polish a Japanese sword by sword guru Leon Kapp;
•The top annual knives of the American Bladesmith Society as determined at the 2012 BLADE Show (www.blademag.com);
•A rundown of the latest and greatest factory hunting knives;
•A profile of one of Brazil’s hottest knifemakers, Gus Cecchini;
•BLADE field editor and ABS master smith Wayne Goddard’s four shop tips and quick fixes covering grinders, drill-bit sharpening, holes in hard tangs and more;
•A short history of the K.I.S.S., the knife that helped make Columbia River Knife & Tool a major player on the world knife stage;
•And all the latest in everyday carry knives, the results from the 10th Annual BLADE Show World Championship Cutting Competition, a test of A.G. Russell’s “Super Storm Knife” and much, much more.
For information on how to subscribe to BLADE, click on http://www.shopblade.com/blade-magazine-one-year-subscription-us?lid=SSfbbl100912
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EdgeCraft Corp. Founder, Chairman and CEO Daniel D. Friel, an acclaimed inventor, world-renowned for engineering the best-selling Chef’sChoice® brand of small kitchen electrics, passed away on September 21. He was 92.
“It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of our founder and beloved friend Dan Friel. He was a brilliant businessman, inventor and pioneer who forever changed the fundamentals of knife sharpening,” says EdgeCraft President Sam Weiner. “Building an enterprise that in a few short years became the world leader in sharpening technology is a true American success story. His unwavering commitment to quality and innovative excellence is a legacy that will live on through his family, friends, employees, the products he invented and the consumers who enjoy them,” says Weiner.
Born in 1920 in Queenstown, MD, Friel received a Bachelor of Science Degree in Chemical Engineering from John Hopkins University in 1942. He began his career on the Manhattan Project at the University of Chicago where the first atomic reactor was assembled. Friel then spent 39 years with the DuPont company where he helped pioneer such products as Riston® Dry Film Photo Resist, used in the manufacturing of circuit boards. At the time of his retirement from the company, he was the Worldwide Director of Instruments and Biomedical Products.
At the age of 65, Friel founded EdgeCraft, highlighted by the launch of its first Chef’sChoice® electric knife sharpener in 1985. Friel’s technologically advanced sharpener immediately earned the acclaim of food experts and chefs worldwide including Craig Claiborne, Pierre Franey, Jacques Pépin and Julia Child.
“Dan Friel literally established sharpeners as a separate and important product category in the worldwide consumer market,” says Weiner. Today, the Chef’sChoice brand is not only recognized as a market leader for professional knife sharpeners, but also for advanced cutlery and other upscale kitchen electrics including tea kettles, waffle makers, and food slicers.
Friel’s brilliance as inventor and businessman spanned decades, and two distinctive careers. During that time he authored numerous technical papers and hundreds of U.S. and foreign patents on his work at both DuPont and EdgeCraft. He was active with EdgeCraft Corporation until the last week of his life. He was also a founder and chairman of the Mt. Cuba Astronomical Observatory located in Mt. Cuba, Delaware. He was a man of several passions who had an insatiable curiosity for all of life’s beauty and wonder. These passions led to several other personal achievements including pioneering the first high-speed photography studies of hummingbirds and most recently inking exquisite watercolor paintings.
Friel was married in 1943 to June, who passed away in 2008 and remarried in 2010 to Carolyn Blish. He is survived by his wife Carolyn, and three children, Barbara Holme of Denver, CO, Patricia Friel of Chadds Ford, PA and Daniel Friel Jr. of Kennett Square, PA, along with six grandchildren.
