Two Knife Shows On Deck This Weekend

Check out the latest in custom, factory, antique and other knives at the SHARP Show and Ohio Classic Knife Show this weekend.

Held at the Fern Valley Inn in Louisville, Kentucky, the SHARP Show will be Oct. 20-22. It is sanctioned by the National Knife Collectors Association. For more information call 423-238-6753, e-mail [email protected] or visit www.spiritofsteel.com.

The Ohio Classic will be conducted Oct. 21-22 in the Pritchard-Laughlin Civic Center in Cambridge, Ohio. Call L.T. Wright at 740-219-1141, e-mail [email protected] or [email protected], or visit www.ohioknifeshow.com or www.bhkoutdoors.com.

Knife Law Preemption Bill Passes House Hearing, Now to Rules Committee

According to Knife Rights, Georgia Knife Preemption Bill SB432 passed out of the House Public Safety and Homeland Security Committee yesterday on a 6-2 vote. Your emails and calls make an impact!

     Successful passage of SB432 would not only ensure Georgia residents carrying a knife are treated fairly wherever they travel in Georgia, but all those traveling to the BLADE Show though towns and cities with knife laws more restrictive that Georgia’s otherwise decent knife laws, would be safe from violation.

 

    Now the bill moves to the House Rules Committee today or Thursday to be scheduled for a vote of the full House. You can continue to help by calling or emailing the members of the House Rules Committee and request they schedule SB432 for a vote. It is VERY IMPORTANT to remember to be very RESPECTFUL & POLITE when making your request.  Knife Rights has included a succinct sample message below. Committee members a lot of bills to consider, so all you need to do is to politely let them know that this bill has support from an involved constituency.     

    If you are a Georgia resident it is best that you call the committee members below. If you can’t call, at least email.     

  

    If you are a BLADE Show attendee from outside of Georgia, please email ALL of the committee members (listed below) and ask them to vote YES on SB432.  

    Use Email SUBJECT: Please Schedule SB432  for a Vote

    Suggested email:  

Dear Representative [insert name],

    As a knife owner, collector and enthusiast, I attend the BLADE Show in Atlanta which generates millions of dollars for the Georgia economy. SB432 would ensure that when I visit Georgia, the knife laws will be consistent statewide. It will also ensure that Georgia residents will know that their pocketknife is legal throughout the entire state.

    Please schedule SB432 for a vote as promptly as you can.

    Thank you for your time and consideration.

    [your signature] 

    If you call, here is what you might say to the Representative’s secretary:

    Hello my name is xxxxxx xxxxxxx and I am calling to ask Representative [insert name] to please schedule SB432 for a vote as soon as possible. This bill is important to me because I attend the BLADE show in Atlanta and would like to see the knife laws across Georgia be consistent. Thank you for taking my message.

Rich Golick:  404-656-5943 – [email protected] 

Tommy Benton: 404-656-0213 – [email protected] 

David Casa: 404-656-0254 – [email protected] 

Mickey Channell:  404-656-5103 – [email protected] 

Sharon Cooper: 404-656-5069 – [email protected] 

Katie Dempsey: 404-463-2247 – [email protected] 

Earl Ehrhart: 404-463-2247 – [email protected] 

Gerald Greene: 404-732-2973 – [email protected] 

Bob Hanner: 404-656-7859 –  [email protected] 

Bill Hembree: 404-659-9195 –  [email protected] 

Judy Manning: 404-656-7868 – [email protected]  

Greg Morris: 404-656-5115 – [email protected] 

Butch Parrish: 404-463-2247 – [email protected] 

Allen Peake: 404-656-5025 – [email protected]

Tom Rice: 404-656-5912 – [email protected] 

Jay Roberts: 404-656-7153 – [email protected] 

Ed Setzler: 404-656-0177 – [email protected] 

Donna Sheldon: 404-656-5025 – [email protected] 

Barbara Sims: 404-656-0213 – [email protected]

Lynn Smith: 404-656-7149 – [email protected] 

Ron Stephens: 404-656-5115 – [email protected] 

Tom Weldon: 404-656-0152 – [email protected] 

Wendell Willard: 404-656-5125 – [email protected]  

    It is much, much better to email each member individually, but if you cannot, below are all the email addresses which you can copy and paste into your email:

[email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected][email protected]; [email protected]; [email protected][email protected]   

    CALL or EMAIL TODAY! 

    For more click on www.KnifeRights.org.

For more on the latest knives, knife legislation, knifemaking instruction, knife trends, knifemakers, what knives to buy and where and much more, subscribe to BLADE Magazine, the World’s No. 1 Knife Publication. For subscription information click on http://www.shopblade.com/product/blade-magazine-one-year-subscripti…?r+ssfb032112#BL1SU.

Ivory Ban Worsens Plight Of The Poor

U.S. ivory ban targets the poor.
The U.S. ivory ban not only unjustly targets legal ivory knives but hampers the legal ivory trade on which many poor Zimbabweans depend.

Wildlife administrators in Zimbabwe are asking the U.S. government to lift the ban on ivory imports from the southern African nation immediately due to concerns over how it is worsening the plight of poor Zimbabweans and also other animal species.

Elephant hunting contributes more than $14 million a year to Zimbabwe’s economy, and “not less than 55 percent” of the income from sport hunting goes directly to the poor, rural communities where wildlife is often the only source of income, according to information Zimbabwe’s wildlife administrators supplied to the Department of Parks and Wildlife Management Authority.

The U.S. banned imports of ivory from Zimbabwe and Tanzania, among others, in February over misguided concerns surrounding the preservation of elephant populations. Meanwhile, according to Zimbabwe’s wildlife administrators, the country’s 97,500 elephants destroy food supplies needed for other species. Combined with the adverse affect on Zimbabwe’s poor, the U.S. ivory ban has disastrous implications for the southern African nation.

For more, visit http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-07-14/zimbabwe-wants-u-s-to-lift-ivory-import-ban-immediately.html

For information on how you can fight the U.S. ivory ban and at the same time help save the elephant, join the Elephant Protection Association. For more, visit elephantprotection.org.

How The Nov. 4 Vote Affects the Ivory Ban

The pending ivory ban will be impacted by the Nov. 4 elections.
The Nov. 4 elections will impact the pending ivory ban, though to what extent depends on several factors. Meanwhile, even legal ancient ivory has been banned in New Jersey! Robert Appleby uses legal mammoth ivory on his fixed blades. (Chuck Ward photo)

While some might think Republicans taking control of Congress as a result of the Nov. 4 elections will be good for those fighting a pending legal ivory ban, such may not be the case.

Rob Mitchell of the Elephant Protection Association indicated that though the election results would seem to make a Republican majority in Congress more effective at challenging “out-of-control administrative agencies” that want to ban all legal ivory, including knives with handles of legal ivory, it could also have the opposite effect.

Since President Obama has indicated he will do what he thinks necessary to deal with aliens in the country illegally through executive order or administrative action by the end of the year at the latest, it also may mean he will take a similar approach to such issues as the ivory ban. “If so,” Mitchell writes, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) “may become more aggressive with regulations putting politics ahead of science-based conservation.”

Moreover, he added, such non-governmental organizations (NGOs) as the World Wildlife Fund, Africa Wildlife Foundation, Wildlife Conservation Society, international and American humane societies and others will “continue to spread misinformation in Congress to confuse issues and push an animal rights agenda in spite of the harm it will cause to legitimate conservation efforts and people who own legal ivory.”

As a result, Mitchell urges all those against the ban on legal ivory to either contact or to continue to contact their legislators and see where the legislators stand on House Resolution 5052 and Senate Bill 2587. In a nutshell, if approved, both measures would roll back the attempt by USFWS to ban legal ivory to the status quo of February 2014, “while allowing the government to pursue other means to combat elephant poaching and other wildlife trafficking.”

For more information on the ivory ban and related issues, visit elephantprotection.org.


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New Jersey Tries to Ban Fossil Ivory, Too

New Jersey targets fossil ivory. (SharpByCoop.com image)
A pending New Jersey bill would outlaw fossil ivory in addition to elephant and other ivories. Steve Johnson’s subhilt features “crackle” mammoth ivory. (SharpByCoop.com image)

A pending New Jersey bill that needs no more than the governor’s signature would ban all ivory, even the fossil ivory of animals long extinct.

Not only would it be the first bill to target fossil ivory in addition to elephant and other ivories, if passed, it reportedly would be the first state bill to ban both the import and sale of ivory.

Meanwhile, in an unseemly effort to smear owners of legal ivory, bill co-sponsor and Jersey City Assemblyman Raj Mukherji went so far as to link them to poaching profits that he said funds the operations of terrorist organizations like Al-Qaeda affiliate Al-Shabaab, the Lord’s Resistance Army and Janjaweed. Linking the owners of legal ivory with poaching and Al-Qaeda not only is blatantly false but an example of just how far mealy-mouthed politicians and pro-ivory-ban extremists can go to further their corrupt agenda.

Anyone and everyone with any connection to New Jersey who values their ivory items, from knives to pianos and much more, is encouraged to contact New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie immediately and urge him not to sign the bill. As noted, it would appear to be the first bill to ban fossil ivory—the ivory of animals of mammoths, mastodons and other creatures long extinct. It would, of course, have no impact on animal populations that no longer exist but would impact the legal owners of items made of such materials, including knives.

The Elephant Protection Association has contacted Christie to urge him not to sign the bill. For more information on how to do so, send a message online, call Christie at 609-292-5000, email him at [email protected], or write him at Office of the Governor, PO Box 001, Trenton, NJ 08625.

 

2012 Hammer-In Schedule for the American Bladesmith Society Announced

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The 2012 ABS Hammer-In schedule has been released and the American Bladesmith Society will sponsor weekend Hammer-Ins and Youth Programs and in North Carolina, Kansas, Ohio, Arkansas, Maine, Tennessee, and California. The 2012 events schedule is listed below and when more information is available it will be posted on the ABS website at www.americanbladesmith.com and here on the ABS page.

March 9-11, 2012

Great Smoky Mountain Bladesmithing Symposium & Knife Show
Haywood Community College, Clyde, North Carolina
ABS Contact – Bill Wiggins (828) 226-2551 or Email [email protected]

April 28 and 29, 2012

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 22, 23, and 24, 2012

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

July 13, 14, and 15, 2012

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

August 24, 25, and 26, 2012

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

September 15 and 16, 2012

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 6 and 7, 2012

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

October 19, 20, and 21, 2012

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

October 20 and 21, 2012

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

Boston Proposes to License Knife Sales

This Thursday, Sept. 8, the Public Safety Committee of the Boston City Council will hold a hearing with the intention of licensing the sale of knives in the city of Boston, Knife Rights reported. Below is the official stated purpose of the hearing:
 

That the appropriate committee of the Boston City Council hold a hearing to examine requiring the sale of knives to be licensed by the appropriate police agency that would monitor, regulate and license businesses selling knives. Representatives from the Boston Police Department, Inspectional Services Department, and other interested parties shall be invited to attend.

The meeting will be at Boston City Hall, Ianella Chambers, 5th Floor on Sept. 8 at 10 a.m.  
 
If you are a Boston citizen, here is a link to the councilors’ webpages where you can find a link to contact them and POLITELY express your outrage: http://www.cityofboston.gov/citycouncil/councillors
 
Along with Knife Rights, Blademag.com urges all Boston area knife enthusiasts to contact the Boston City Council and express their opposition to this measure. According to Knife Rights, Bostonians currently need a license to possess pepper spray. In a year or so this measure could lead to licensing citizens to possess a basic pocketknife.

As noted in the article linked below, existing Boston law already prohibits knives with a blade two inches or longer from being sold to anyone under age 18. A number of stores were fined as a result of a recent sting operation for illegally selling knives to underage people. There is no indication of any factual connection made between violence committed with knives in the city and these retailers, or that licensing would actually help the situation any more than simply enforcing the existing law on the books.

Knife Rights has a representative in Massachusetts who will attend the meeting, but if you live in the area and can attend as well, the stronger the show of opposition to the proposal, the better.

Video: www.bit.ly/p0TUmg 
Article:  http://bo.st/qBwsaZ 

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