Knife News Wire

Is This Jim Bowie’s Brother’s Knife?

A few times a year, a knife with a supposed James Bowie connection pops up, usually leading historians to raise a collective eyebrow. It’s the Elvis, or sasquatch, sighting of the knife world.

The latest entry can be found in Waco, Texas, where a bowie knife donated to the Texas Ranger Hall of Fame and Museum bears the inscription, “R.P. Bowie to Capt. Wm. Y. Lacey,” per the Waco Tribune.

The “R.P.” could be the initials of Rezin Pleasant Bowie, older brother to James Bowie, who gave knives as gifts.

Here are pics the Waco Tribune posted to Twitter:

A significant artifact of early Texas now resides in #Waco — courtesy of James Bowie’s big brother. #bowieknife https://t.co/d2WhWLDV1k

— Waco Tribune-Herald (@wacotrib) January 11, 2018

It wouldn’t be unusual to find a forged Bowie knife inscription, but William Lacy seems like an unlikely choice. https://t.co/d2WhWLDV1k pic.twitter.com/8lzj24hSse

— Waco Tribune-Herald (@wacotrib) January 18, 2018

From the article:

Johnson said it would not be unusual to find a forged inscription on a Bowie knife, but it seems unlikely that a forger would have chosen William Lacy as the recipient.

“There’s only about half a dozen historians who have heard of William Lacy,” he said.

That the knife’s previous owner didn’t seek money from the museum is no indication of authenticity. Neither is the circumstantial evidence supporting its origins. The truth could split either way. 

By default, BLADE takes a skeptical view with these sorts of claims, and this case is no different. 

Read the full article here.

Mississippi Moves to Relax Knife Restrictions

Knife Rights reports that it’s working alongside legislators to move HB 924 forward in Mississippi. The bill, introduced by Rep. Gary Staples, would strike bowies, dirks, butcher knives and switchblades from statutes governing deadly weapons.

As an aside, it’s surprising that butcher knives would be restricted in, of all places, Mississippi. 

Concealed Carry of Fixed Blades Proposed in Washington State

It’s not currently legal to carry a concealed blade longer than six inches in the state of Washington, but the could change. If signed into law, HB 2600 would decriminalize just that. Here’s more from Knife Rights.

This Knifemaker Learned from Autopsies

It doesn’t take much to imagine where Dr. Stephen Pustilnik, of Houston, developed an appreciation for knives. He performs autopsies for a living. It’s only natural that he’d try his hand at knifemaking, too.

From the Texarcana Gazette:

He is now working his way through a year-and-a-half-long waiting list of chefs, home cooks and pathologists willing to spend hundreds of dollars on knives that hold an edge and make clean work of anything from gnarly vegetables to sinewy flesh.

This line takes the cake:

Pustilnik, after spending years examining human bodies, speaks easily of the particular mechanics of the hands. He measures his customers’ palms and observes where the metacarpophalangeal joints—the hinges at the knuckles—rest on a knife handle.

You, too, can reach that level of expertise, if you put in enough corpse time.

Read the full article here.

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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.

How Much is a $75,000 Knife Really Worth?

Does it need to be said this $75,000 pocketknife is a William Henry? Because it is. It’s so pricey, Forbes featured it here.

Comments on social media asked how it’s possible to know the price of a knife before it’s sold. Who’s to say it isn’t $50,000? After all, it’s not like a $75,000 knife is mass-produced. It’s unique.

Three things:

• High-buck knives are usually commissioned before they’re made.
• The market-rate for the materials and labor are easy to price out.
• Something’s price is always what someone else is willing to pay for it. That someone else might not be you.

Disruptive Model Emerges for Financing Knife Start-Ups

Knifemaking start-ups face a tougher time securing financing because of backers’ leeriness toward “weapons.” Crowdfunding, where companies appeal directly to consumers for backing via pre-orders, is one way around this. Kickstarter is the best example of this approach.

Bolstering this business model are affiliate programs that dole out a cut of pre-order sales. This is sometimes disguised as editorial on news sites. This sort of backdoor marketing offers a pay-as-you-go approach that is appealing to start-ups with limited advertising budgets.

There’s nothing wrong with this approach. It’s just different, and worth considering if you’re starting a knifemaking business.

Here’s an example from Business Insider.

Quoting “Crocodile Dundee” Lands Restaurant in Lawsuit

You know the line, but here’s the clip anyway:

Best not repeat that line in formal marketing if you want to avoid legal trouble. Australian restaurant Grill’d allegedly used the famous utterance on its knife sleeves. From The Daily Telegraph:

Hogan claims the “knife line” — as it’s referred to in the claim document — is valuable because it has been “heard by the many consumers in Australia who have seen the Crocodile Dundee movie” and “has been featured, mentioned or referred to on television, in print, on the internet, and in popular culture”. He claims Grill’d has used the line “without the licence of either of Rimfire or Mr Hogan”.

Read the full story here.

United Kingdom Sentencing More Minors for Knife Possession Crimes

I’ll let this quote from The Guardian article do the talking. Read it carefully if you don’t get it at first.

The number of 10- to 17-year-olds cautioned or sentenced for knife possession offences has risen by 16% since this time last year.

Read the full article here.

Video: The Knifemaker Supplying the World’s Greatest Chefs

Business Insider profiled Chelsea Miller, a knifemaker cranking out blades for “name” chefs around the world.

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