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.
Outdoor Edge exploded onto the scene with the Game Skinner. (Outdoor Edge image)
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!
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.
Chris Nolen’s collection of custom repros of antique bowies tops 200. Here are some of them in his 7×14-foot display vault made of alderwood, including 18 drawers full of bowies at the bottom. (All images by Chris Nolen unless otherwise noted)
Editor’s note: This article originally appeared in the February 2018 edition of BLADE.Download the issue here.
A Bowie Knife Collecting Obsession
The trail of the fabled bowie knife is long and winding. From the Sandbar Fight to the Alamo and beyond, its fact, mystery and myth have become the stuff of legend. The trail extends nearly 200 years, and for half his life Chris Nolen of West Monroe, Louisiana, has traveled down it.
For sure, he’s gone further than most.
At 65, Chris remains heavily engaged in a custom embroidery and screen print business called Reflections with his daughter, Lori Rockett, while another daughter, Lindsey Sanders, lives in Chattanooga, Tennessee. A retired telecommunications worker, he has sought and bought knives since his days mowing lawns for money so that he could run to the local hardware store and buy the knives that caught his eye.
“My mother still kids me about not having any money in those days because I was always buying knives,” he smiled.
A close-up of Nolen’s display is a bowie buff’s delight.
Cutlery Hall-Of-Famer Jim Bowie’s legendary encounter at the sandbar, his final hours at the Alamo, the association of numerous knives that bear his name with the history of Texas, its link to the Civil War, and its stretch across the Atlantic to beginnings in the cradle of quality knifemaking—Sheffield, England—made the bowie irresistible.
“It seems like every time I went to a show I was attracted to the big bowie knives,” he recalled. “Sometimes, you might say, ‘What are these good for?’ but I saw them as art in steel.”
Today, the Nolen collection of bowies tops 200, and a fortress-like display room keeps them safe and allows their owner to show them to visitors. One of Chris’s primary pursuits has been the history of the bowie along with a desire to own reproductions of some of the most significant bowies in history. He has worked with several top-notch custom knifemakers, pored over documents and traveled to various locations, the results of which are nothing short of spectacular.
A look at a different angle down into “The Bowie Knife: Fact-Myth-Legend” display reveals custom repros of classic antique bowies. From lower left to right: Jesse Clift Knife; Bart Moore Bowie; Noah Smithwick Bowie; Huber Steel Bowie; Searles-Fowler Bowie; Musso Bowie; Bowie No. 1; Berrera-Campbell Bowie; Schively-Perkins Bowie; Juan Seguin Bowie; and Edwin Forrest Bowie. Across the top, from left: Caiaphas Ham Knife, Madame Candelaria Knife and James Black Knife. At top: the Iron Mistress.
Among his bowies are repros of the Searles-Fowler bowie (the original of which is on display in the Alamo), the Joe Musso brass-back bowie, the Iron Mistress, the Jesse Clift bowie, the Juan Seguin Bowie and Bowie No. 1, to name a few.
“No Turning Back”
In 1986, Chris contacted knifemaker Jerry Berry of Natchitoches, Louisiana, after sketching a bowie. He asked if Berry could actually make the knife from the drawings. Of course, the answer was yes.
“That knife has a 9.5-inch blade with a slight recurve,” Nolen said, “with brass and nickel-silver trim and a solid stag handle with a hidden tang. The blade is ATS-34 stainless steel. That is one of my favorites because it was one of the first. Once I got it there was no turning back, and for the last 30 years I have pretty much stuck with the big bowies. Robert Blasingame of Kilgore, Texas, helped me get started on the making of copies of antique knives before he passed away in 2010. He was quite a historian.
Bringing Bowie Knife History to Life
“It was about 10 years ago that I got this wild idea to track back the bowie and its origin,” Chris continued, “and Linda and I visited 12 museums and met curators, who were all such nice people who even let us hold some of the original knives that were associated with the Bowie family.
“For example, we went to the Alamo and actually got the dimensions of the original Searles-Fowler knife. Now, we’ve researched and had reproductions made of pretty much every knife associated with the Bowie family.”
Nolen’s “The Bowie Knife: Fact-Myth-Legend” glass display with a statue of Jim Bowie atop it at left. The framed magazine pages on the wall are from a story that included Nolen as a source in a past issue of BLADE®.
Through the years Chris has developed a reputation as something of an expert on bowie knives, resulting in his traveling exhibit aptly named, “Bowie Knife: Fact, Myth, and Legend.” In 2014, he traveled to the Historic Arkansas Museum in Little Rock, where more than 200 genuine bowies were on display.
“They had my reproductions at the entrance there in a big black case,” he remembered. “There is probably more legend than anything surrounding these knives. Jim Bowie didn’t leave us much to go on, and I have studied him for years now. His brother, Rezin, was a big promoter of the bowie knife and gave a lot of them away as gifts. These reproduction knives have been everywhere, and I get a kick out of it.”
Along with the history lesson that the bowie repros convey, visitors can begin to grasp the tremendous skill that is required to produce a high quality bowie.
“It’s hard for a maker in today’s time to get into the head of a maker from 180 or 200 years ago,” Chris offered, “and most of them want to put their own artistic spin on a knife. But along with Jerry Berry, I narrowed it down to Rich McDonald and Mark Banfield who do a lot of work for me, and Cowboy Bob Giles of Whitefish, Montana, who has probably made 15 of them for me. These men are unbelievable artists.”
Musso and Musician Phil Collins
The Joe Musso Bowie repro by Mark Banfield with the brass back and “S” guard on the stand serves as a centerpiece for one section of Nolen’s display.
Mention of the Musso Bowie conjures some of the theory and conjecture surrounding its authenticity.
According to Chris, Joe Musso sold the original knife to Phil Collins of the rock music group, Genesis, who in turn donated the original to the Alamo, where some metallurgical testing has been done and some believe the “JB” mark on the guard ties the knife to Jim Bowie.
“That is one of my favorite reproductions because Mark [Banfield] went the extra mile and even copied the stains on the blade,” Chris commented, “and it is the only authorized true copy of the Musso knife. I have some Samuel Bell copies and one of my favorites was just done by Giles. It is an exact copy of the Charles Congreve knife done in Sheffield around 1835, a big swayback bowie trimmed in silver.”
Among others, Nolen is a big fan of 19th-century bowie maker Samuel Bell. Mark Banfield reproduced this Bell bowie.
A “Dazzling Display” of Bowie Knives
A couple of years ago Chris and Linda decided to build their dream house on a tract of land they had owned for a while. The move brought to light several knives that had been packed away for 20 years or so. Thinking about the future of his collection, Chris decided to make space available to display it properly.
“I always wanted to have a secured room to display the knives in,” he remarked, “so we designed this room 20 by 18 with no windows, solid brick, and with concrete next to the brick. It would take a tank to get into this thing. There is also a solid steel security door, so it is pretty much a vault. Lori’s husband, Marc, owns a custom cabinet shop. He cuts wood with a laser, and he cut out an entire wall and put in a cabinet for guns to go on each end and 18 drawers at the bottom. You can pull out the knife displays. There are two center panels, and the display is 14 feet wide and 7 feet tall. The center panels have 32 pewter hangers in a fleur-de-lis design that hold 32 bowie knives. At the bottom is a 3-foot shelf that holds about 40 bowies.
“It isn’t everywhere that you can see 70 or 80 bowie knives in the open,” Chris added. “People come in and they have to catch their breath. I also have a coffee table with a glass-top display that holds about 20 knives and is kind of my dedication to Davy Crockett. The other side of the room is a glass display of the ‘Fact, Myth, and Legend.’ The cabinetry is all of alderwood.”
To complete the dazzling display, Nolen commissioned three paintings depicting the epic of the bowie knife during the desperate, heroic stand at the Alamo. The first painting depicts the death of Jim Bowie, slashing defiantly at Mexican soldiers from his cot.
The second depicts the death of Crockett, a death which is surrounded in controversy. The artist allows the viewer to decide Crockett’s fate, depicting the legendary Tennessee long hunter and adventurer standing but exhausted.
The third depicts the death of Col. William Travis, commander of the doomed Alamo garrison.
Although it might seem to the casual observer that the Nolen journey down the bowie trail is complete, such is not the case.
Chris continues to add to his collection. Mark Zalesky, editor of KNIFE magazine, recently pitched in to assist with the recreation of a Samuel Bell knife located in Knoxville, Tennessee, and Mark Banfield completed the addition.
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.
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.
Kissing Crane 2018 Valentine’s Day Toothpick Pocket Knife (image via BudK)
Help celebrate Valentine’s Day by telling BLADE about the knife you love the most. Which knife do you love best? It can be one you carry, one from your past, one you wish you had, one someone used to save a life or otherwise do something significant, etc.
Use the form below to explain why the knife is so special to you. Include a picture if you have one.
BLADE will choose the best stories for a feature here on blademag.com.
Instagram Photos Land Knife Retailer in International Hot Water
An example of a concealed knife Alien Outfitters sells. (image via Alien Outfitters)
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.
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.
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.
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.
A hot movie knife can still take on a life of its own, but the shift toward video games in entertainment is changing the relationship between knife enthusiasts and screen time. Global video game revenue was estimated at $108.9 billion in 2017. That’s more than the movie and music industries combined.
With numbers like that, it’s no wonder that some of the newest, and youngest, collectors to commission custom knives draw inspiration from popular video games.
Here’s one example.
Making The Far Cry 4 Video Game Knife
The knife featured in the “Far Cry 4” video game. (image via farcry.wikia.com)The knife in “Far Cry 4” is wielded from a first person point of view. (image via farcry.wikia.com)Tim Flack, a knifemaker from Capetown, South Africa, received a commission for a knife featured in the video game, “Far Cry 4.” (image via Facebook)
Tim Flack, of Flack Handmade in Capetown, South Africa, recently received a request to recreate the knife featured in Far Cry 4, an action-adventure video game. The knife is inspired by the real-world kukri, although the iconic bend in the middle of the blade isn’t as pronounced.
This presented a challenge for Flack. Unlike movie knives, which follow physical specs, there wasn’t a template to work from. The knife only exists in the video game, although the Extrema Ratio KH is often cited as the inspiration.
Flack filled this gray area with his own creativity.
“I gave it a more practical look and feel,” Flack said in an e-mail.
It helped that the collector commissioning the knife acknowledged there was wiggle room.
“[The client] wanted the blade to look aged and battle used,” Flack said. “This was a challenge, as it’s been drilled into me that fit and finish is everything. So using fine belts I put nicks into the blade after heat treat, and then left it in a 10-percent ferric chloride solution for 20 minutes.”
The rest of the build followed along the same lines.
“The [stink ebony] handle was also, after the bolsters an pommel were peened on, left in ferric for five minutes and then neutralized in soapy water and bicarbonate of soda,” Flack said. “The handle was then saturated in sure glue and buffed, and then scuffed and sanded to age it.
“The ‘engraving’ was cut from vinyl and then transferred onto the blade with a nine-volt battery and some salt water on a Q-tip.”
It took three grinds to finish the O1 blade’s edge: a full flat that turned into a hollow, and a convex on the tip. The overall length of the completed knife came in at 370mm (14.56 inches).
Worth the Challenge
Flack acknowledged that the knife was a challenge to create, but that it was worth it in the end for both maker and collector.
“I’m really happy with how it came out,” he said.
Collecting Video Game Knives
The collectibility of video game knife reproductions should follow the path already set by movie knives. These are display pieces that appeal to built-in audiences. They should retain value so long as the game is popular.
How that translates into returns decades down the road is yet to be seen, since video game sequels are regular. Far Cry 5 is slated for release in March.
However, there’s no doubt that this segment of knife collecting is here to stay.
From all indications, this folding fruit knife belonged to Abraham Lincoln. The legal papers in the background are from Lincoln’s presidential years. Note the similarity in his signature and the name engraved on the shield. (Inset) The hallmarks on the blade of folding fruit knives contain a language all their own. These particular hallmarks stand for the following, from left: Queen Victoria’s profile-duty stamp; the crown-made in Sheffield; the capital letter “MJ’-in this case, made sometime between 1855-56; the lionsilver blade; and JYC-made by John Yeomans Cowlishaw. (The Lincoln Museum, Fort Wayne, Indiana-a part of Lincoln National Corp., photograph by Scott Simpson)
Is This an Honest-to-Goodness Knife for Honest Abe?
A silver folding fruit knife owned by U.S. President Abraham Lincoln? It seems too good to be true. But there it is, bigger than life on display at the Lincoln Museum in Fort Wayne, Indiana.
It all started with a letter to BLADE magazine from William Graves, Sr. He wrote that he’d seen a picture of the knife in Lincoln Lore, the official publication of the Lincoln Museum, a part of the Lincoln National Corp. All the signs seemed right; the hallmarks on the blade, the carved pearl handle, even Lincoln’s name engraved on the shield. But the question remained: Was the knife really Lincoln’s?
Abraham Lincoln’s Knives Can Fetch $100,000
Acting museum director Ruth Cook said the knife was bought by television executive producer Harry Ackerman at the auction of Oliver R. Barrett’s Lincoln collection in 1952. Ackerman’s discovery of the knife is a story in itself. He bought Lincoln’s legal wallet, inside of which, unknown to the seller or buyer, was the knife. A collector’s dream come true!
Cook said the Lincoln National Corp., subsidiary of Lincoln National Life Insurance Co., bought the wallet and knife from a dealer. She could not divulge how much was paid for both items, though she said the price was in the five-figure range. She said neither item is for sale. Another knife-a multi- blade pocketknife-that belonged to Lincoln sold alone at auction for $99,825 at Sotheby’s in New York in 1989, as reported in the August 1989 BLADE magazine.
Even though Cook said there is no documentation of when Lincoln received the folding fruit knife or who gave it to him, it reportedly has been authenticated. There are photographs of it in famed poet and biographer Carl Sandburg‘s Lincoln volumes and elsewhere.
History of Fruit Knives
One of the only books about fruit knife history offered a few clues. (image via Amazon)
But were the principals involved familiar enough with the special “hallmark language” of fruit knives to know if this particular fruit knife could have been made for Lincoln?
We decided to check with Bill Karsten, author of the only known book on the subject, Silver Folding Fruit Knives, to flush out the facts.
According to Karsten’s book, folding fruit knives first appeared in France in the 17th century. They often had blades made of silver or gold for corrosion resistance as stainless steel was not yet available. Men often gave them as presents to their wives or girlfriends.
In England, silver fruit knives flourished after the silver assay offices opened at Sheffield and Birmingham in 1773. The blades were hallmarked following assay (a procedure analyzing the blade’s silver content) in accordance with the system conceived in London during the early 14th century.
A series of five small stamped marks disclosed the city of origin, the maker’s initials, the year of assay, the sterling silver (92.5 percent) content and the duty stamp (Karsten said the latter was no longer carried after the duty was abolished in 1890).
How Lincoln’s Knife Measures Up
The hallmarks on the Lincoln knife blade are of a profile of Queen Victoria, a crown, the capital letter “M,” a lion and the initials “JYC.” Karsten said the “JYC” stands for the maker, John Yeomans Cowlishaw, who was so well thought of that a street in Sheffield, Cowlishaw Lane, is named after him.
Karsten said the queen’s profile means the duty on the knife had been paid indicating the knife was made pre-1896 the crown indicates the knife was made in Sheffield, and the lion means the blades are made of silver.
The Mysterious M Holds Key to Lincoln’s Fruit Knife
When you’re on the hunt for knife history, don’t discount books that aren’t explicitly about knives. A book about silversmithing contained another clue about Lincoln’s fruit knife.
But it was the “M” hallmark for the year of make that intrigues Karsten. He said the capital letter or uppercase “M” meant the-knife was made-either from 1855-56 or from 1879-1880. If it were made between 1879 and 1880, then the knife could not have been Lincoln’s since he was assassinated in 1865.
Moreover, Karsten said, Cowlishaw made his last knife around 1920, which indicates if he made a knife in the mid-1850s, his knifemaking career spanned six-and-a-half decades. If that’s true, it’s a remarkable record for working longevity at that point in history.
Some checking by Karsten in The Book of Old Silver: English, American, Foreign by Seymour B. Wyler revealed that Cowlishaw was admitted as a maker of silver folding fruit knives to the Sheffield Assay Office in 1854. So he could have made the knife in 1855-56.
However, Karsten said the “M markings on the knives made in 1855-56 are thinner than those made in 1879-80.”
“If I had to make a choice I would say the shape of the ‘M’ indicates the knife was made in 1879-80,” he said, but he could not be positive and would not discount that the knife could have been Lincoln’s on that basis.
Mistakes Don’t Necessarily Discredit Lincoln’s Fruit Knife
Learn more about knife history in this collection of BLADE back issues, dating back to 1973.
Next came a question about the order the hallmarks appear in on the blade.
Quoting from Wyler’s book, Karsten said on almost all fruit knives made from 1844-1921 the crown is the first hallmark to appear at the left. On the Lincoln blade the queen’s profile appears first at the left. However, Karsten said there is a picture of a Cowlishaw knife made in 1855 with the hallmarks in the same order in Karsten’s book.
Moreover, he said mistakes in the application of hallmarks were made and the Lincoln knife may be an example.
“They did make boo-boos,” he noted. “I’ve found several of them. They’re not normal but the mistakes don’t discount the knife’s authenticity, either.”
Simon Moore, a leading English authority on fruit knives, agreed with Karsten’s assessment.
“We do often get mistakes like that. There might be a whole batch of blades with marks jumbled up higgledy-piggledy,” he said. “They might go stamping away before they’d realized their mistake but by then they might’ve run off quite a few blades that way.”
As for the shield style and the engraved blade, Karsten said he had seen examples of neither on other Cowlishaw knives. Concerning the “A. Lincoln” engraved on the shield, Karsten said it was probably done some time after the knife was made. He said if the knife were made especially for Lincoln by Cowlishaw, Cowlishaw may have engraved the name on the shield later.
The Verdict for Lincoln’s Fruit Knife
Dr. William Rosenthal, a leading fruit knife authority who donated a huge collection of fruit knives to the National Knife Museum, said the shield was probably engraved after the knife came to America.
“The fancy shape of the handle, the engraved bolster, these sort of things say to me Cowlishaw well could have made the knife,” Karsten noted. “And the knife very well could have been Lincoln’s.”
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.
