Designed by Harold Moeller, the SpyderThrowers from Spyderco feature 8Cr13MoV stainless steel and carry in a three-tiered sheath.
Whether it’s blood relatives or your inner circle of friends, all of them need family gift knives. Here are 10 examples of some really sharp gifts you can give to those closest to you this holiday season.
Kitchen knives make good family gift knives for just about any adult who likes to work with food. The three-piece Kershaw-Emerson set includes a chef’s knife, paring knife and bread knife—three of the most used cutting tools in the eating area. Check this great gift out for an MRSP of only $44.99.
Tactical guru Ernest Emerson designed a new set of kitchen knives—outstanding family gift knives—for Kershaw.
Grandpa loves traditional pocketknives and the Case dark redbone trapper commemorative tin in the motif of
Grandpa will love the Case Duke knife that includes John Wayne’s signature on the blade and the Red River D shield.
the premier pilgrim of them all, John Wayne, will be sure to fit gramps’ pistol. The shield is the “Red River D,” the ranch brand used by Duke’s character of Tom Dunson in the western movie classic Red River.
With bans against switchblades being overturned nationwide, it might just be that your state has overturned its ban as well. Check with the American Knife & Tool Institute or Knife Rights to find out. If it has, just about anyone of a proper age in your family will love the out-the-front auto from Hogue.
Hogue’s out-the-front auto sports a tanto blade of CPM 154 stainless steel in a black PVD finish. MSRP: $369.95.
For the bush crafter in your family, check out the Bush Craft Ignite G-10 from Browning. It features a hollow-ground blade of 7Cr17MoV stainless steel and a carbide fire starter with a nylon lanyard that fits in a sheath pocket.
The Bush Craft Ignite G-10 from Browning includes a ribbed black G-10 handle, a partially serrated edge and a fire starter that fits in a sheath pocket. MSRP: $59.99.
Every family has one–the type who, in an emergency situation where extreme measures must be taken to save someone from a burning building or other disaster, is more than ready to do what needs doing. Such situations can call for breaching tools, and Camillus has such a model with its Crash Breaching Tool. The CBT features titanium stainless steel, full-tang construction, a pry bar and hammer head.
The Camillus Crash Breaching Tool is for the door knocker downer in your family. MSRP: $119.99.
Your family member who likes to sharpen his/her family gift knives or wants to be better at it will love Smith’s Sharpener and Knife Tool. It sharpens both plain and serrated edges and comes in a cool compact carry unit.
Who’s the Zombie fan or fans in your family? KA-BAR‘s Zombie Knives line has just the folder for him, her or them with the Kharon Tanto Folder in the company’s familiar Zombie green handle.
ESEE‘s Izula Gear Wallet Kit has a mini razor blade, kevlar cordage, signal mirror, non-metallic handcuff key, E&E plastic instruction cards, clear plastic survival nav card, fire starter, arrowhead, fish hooks, button compass and more.Knife, wrench, pliers, flashlight, screwdriver, comb, pen and more, the Stowaway Tool from Klecker enables you to load as many or as few of the items on one platform as you like.
No matter your family member’s need, the Klecker Stowaway Tool most likely has a tool for it. Knife, flashlight, screwdriver, pliers, scissors, tweezers, bottle opener, pen, fire starter, comb, wrench, seat belt cutter and straight razor, you have your choice of any of them–and you can install as many or few of them on the Stowaway Tool as you like.
Every family has someone who likes to throw stuff, so why not with family gift knives? Spyderco has a set designed especially for the purpose with its SpyderThrowers. They are designed by Canadian knifemaker/knife-throwing authority Harald Moeller.
Everyone needs a survival kit, and one in wallet form is especially handy. ESEE‘s Izula Gear Wallet Kit has everything a dyed-in-the-wool survivalist needs in a handy carry package 4.25×2.75 inches in size and weighing in at only 4 ounces.
The Kharon Tanto Folder in KA-BAR‘s Zombie Knives line has a 3.375-inch blade of AUS 8A stainless and a Zombie green synthetic handle. MSRP: $21.05.Sharpen those pesky serrated edges and more with Smith’s Sharpener and Knife Tool.
Straight from the Italian military to your sheath, it’s the Col Muschin from Extrema Ratio.
History
Made to order for the renowned 9th Parachute Assault Regiment “Col Moschin” of the Italian special forces, which officially adopted it in 2002, this is a quintessential combat knife.
Extrema Ratio’s Col Moschin represents a contemporary reworking of daggers issued to the Arditi – the historical force in whose footsteps the 9th walks – which sported asymmetrical blades and straight, but direction-sensitive, hilts. This new knife is designed to be light and handy, balanced decidedly toward the hilt, with a highly perforating tip. Each new “Incursore” (assault paratrooper) is issued one of these combat knives and trained to use it to its best. Available versions: COL MOSCHIN BLACK, COL MOSCHIN DESERT WARFARE, COL MOSCHIN COLLECTOR EDITION.
Forging some of the best blade steels is something with which Damasteel of Soderfors, Sweden, is well acquainted.The best blade steels combined with the best blade shapes can cut wonders. Puma’s SGB Buffalo Hunter comes in a recurve blade of 1.4116 stainless steel.Raffir fossil mammoth ivory comprises the handle of Danish knifemaker Tommy Astrup’s mosaic damascus fixed blade.The best blade steels, latest handle materials and more of what it takes to make the hottest knife are in the new BLADE 2018 Complete Knife Guide, on newsstands now!
The best blade steels, latest handle materials, blade shapes, knifemaking suppliers and most everything else it takes to make a knife the sharpest it can be populate the BLADE 2018 Complete Knife Guide, on newsstands now!
What’s the best knife steel for one application can be a disaster for another. However, there exists a happy medium where a maker and an end-user get as many general bennies from the steel as possible. Dave Rhea examines the phenomenon in detail and considers some of today’s best cutting materials in his story, “Keys To The Best Blade Steels.”
Based in Hadsten, Denmark, Raffir offers an array of the most beautiful and durable synthetics yet in its range of fossil, wood and other materials. In Raffir Mammoth Tooth in particular, the cracks and abrasions that handle companies have to fill and re-fill during finishing operations with standard mammoth tooth are reduced by 80 to 90 percent. The material is most pleasing to the eye as well. Get a handle on the latest gripping stuff in “Most Beautiful Synthetics Ever?” by yours truly and Mike Haskew’s “What’s Your Handle?”
The “S”-shaped recurve blade has the rear of the cutting edge, or belly, curving inward toward the spine in a continuous curve from the point. Though most recurves have similar looks, subtle design differences mean that each knife has a distinct feel and performance. David W. Jung outlines some of the leading performers of the genre in “The Inside Edge.”
There is a wealth of knifemaking suppliers providing just what the knife doctor ordered, whether it be the best in handle materials, steels, specialized forging equipment, or the tools that make the sparks fly. Daniel Jackson reacquaints you with some of the best of the lot in “Go-To Guys of Sharp.”
There’s much more in the Complete Knife Guide, including the most comprehensive listing of factory knife companies and other professionals in the industry, a sneak peek at the coolest knife debuts for 2018, the brightest flashlight knives, three fun-to-build knife kits, the latest in beer knives and much more.
Ken Jantz of Jantz Supply works on a prototype for a new hollow-grinding fixture in the Jantz Shop in Davis, Oklahoma.
Thanksgiving cutters, Japanese style, from left: Victorinox SwissClassic Santoku, Case Santoku, Boker Forge Santoku Maple and Spyderco K08 Santoku.
Santokus are Thanksgiving cutters, Japanese style. A design that originated in the Land of the Rising Sun, the santoku is a specialized tool well suited to preparing holiday meals. From cutting meat to dicing veggies and cutting fruit for creative holiday salads and such, santokus are perfect for Gobbler Day.
Santokus have a wide blade sometimes with scallops, which are supposed to create less friction than a solid blade, a sheepfoot tip, and are lighter and thinner than a French or German chef’s knife. Their length runs between 5 and 8 inches. The Thanksgiving cutters do not have a bolster. They have a straight edge with no curve.
San-to-ku is Japanese for the three cutting tasks for which the knife is designed: slicing, dicing and mincing. It is a specialized knife that, in the Japanese view, is optimized for the three aforementioned tasks. The straight edge of a santoku does not allow for the rocking motion commonly used with a French or German chef’s knife.
Cuts are made straight down with little or no forward movement, almost a guillotine action, which, again in the Japanese view, allows slicing very thin pieces of whatever’s being cut with precision. The Thanksgiving cutters are not meant to be all-around kitchen knives. An all-around knife used to cut many things is not a Japanese concept. The Japanese chef will typically have a vast array of knives, each one designed for a specific function.
Japanese kitchen knives typically have a chisel grind, which also contributes to cutting very thin slices with precision, as you may have seen sushi chefs do. The chisel grind is optimal for slicing, say, very thin slices of turkey, with the caveat that there are left and right grinds. If you are right handed you’ll need a blade ground on the right side. The chisel grind doesn’t work well for cutting through thick media, such as roasts and ribs because the chisel grind—since the edge is off center—will cause the blade to cut off center, and to wander. Also, the thin edge of a Santoku should not be used to cut through joints or bones, or to disjoint, say, a chicken.
HAPPY MARRIAGE
One reason santokus make such good Thanksgiving cutters is their ability to cut small meat slivers. The Boker Forge Santoku Maple is a classic example.
With its hefty blade, full tang, nicely sculpted bolsters and maple scales, the Boker Forge Santoku Maple is a happy marriage of a classic santoku and a German or French chef’s knife. While it lacks the acute point of a chef’s knife, the slight point is usable. The edge does have somewhat of a curve, which allows the rocking motion Western-trained chefs, and many domestic home cooks, are accustomed to using. It is the only one of the four knives reviewed that I would use to cut through pork rib joints, chicken backs, etc. The Boker is almost a mini cleaver as well as being an excellent slicer. It is a handsome knife and comfortable for long periods of work.
Thanksgiving cutters must be adept at slicing veggies, and the Boker Forge Santoku Maple is that and more.
STURDY STUDY
With its walnut scales and full tang, the Case model is also a sturdy example of a Santoku. It has a barely perceptible curve to the edge and a scalloped blade. The Case looks more like a classic santoku than the Boker, but like the Boker has a thicker blade than a standard Japanese santoku. It felt solid in hand and while not as sculpted as the Boker, the traditional American handle was comfortable during extended use. The Case sliced, diced and minced as well as thin-bladed Santokus while giving the impression that it would be up for harder work if need be.
Thanksgiving cutters must be able to tackle meat slicing and the Case Santoku is a prime-cut cutter.
21st-CENTURY SHARP
Spyderco image
With its wide blade, classic Santoku profile, comfortable, molded grip and graceful overall appearance, the Spyderco K08 looks like a 21st-century interpretation of a classic—which is pretty much what it is. It is a very lightweight knife with an extremely thin blade, which is optimal for doing what a santoku is supposed to do. The Spyderco does have a slight curve toward the tip, which I think adds to its smooth lines. Since I am accustomed to using a French or German chef’s knife, the curve also made it easier for me to work my way through piles of squash and mushrooms, especially mushrooms, which I find hard to slice. The blade also made it easy to slice salmon smoothly and evenly.
ENTRY-LEVEL PRO
Victorinox image
Victorinox makes the knives The American Culinary Institute gives to its students: chef’s knives, paring knives, bread knives and, yes, santokus. Pro chef Shawn Carlson’s first professional knife roll contained only Victorinox knives. So, he was familiar with the Victorinox characteristics: thin profile, very sharp, fairly soft steel that requires frequent steeling but which comes back to a fine edge quickly, and which does not chip if dropped on a kitchen floor. It has the standard santoku shape: flat edge and sheepfoot tip rather than a curved profile and pointy tip. I missed a curved edge and had trouble adjusting to the flat straight edge. Shawn did not—again, a pro is a pro. It is an entry-level professional knife.
FLAIR GAME
If you enjoy cooking and take pleasure in using specialized tools, you’ll find a santoku a welcome addition to your quiver of Thanksgiving cutters—keeping in mind that a santoku is a specialized tool. If you like to keep things simple, an 8-inch chef’s knife and a 4-inch paring knife will do most any kitchen job—if not with the flair of a santoku.
The lightweight and ergonomic Mamba Black tactical knife from Extrema Ratio comes with a Kydex sheath sporting an innovative, quick-release system. Thanks to its lean shape, the sheath can be easily insertedin the loops of the M.O.L.L.E system. Available in black, desert, HCS and ranger green colors.
Is a U.S. Army Ranger made or is he born? Is it the training he receives that makes him a Ranger, or is there some innate quality in him that draws him to Ranger training in the first place? If you tell former U.S. Army Ranger Sergeant Kyle Gahagan (pronounced guh-HAY-gan) that he doesn’t have the proper credentials for full-time employment with your company, he’ll proceed to acquire three doctorates. If you were to suggest that he not go to work at the auto-body shop if the pain in his right arm is so bad that he cannot hold a toothbrush, he’ll go anyway and tape a hammer to his forearm. If you crush his 10-year-old spirit by telling him that the knife he spent hours making is no good and throwing it on the ground, he will one day use that craft to not only heal himself from the emotional ravages of war, but to help heal other veterans as well. Never tell an Army Ranger he cannot make a knife.
U.S. Army Ranger Sergeant Kyle Gahagan, right, pauses for a drink with Chris Hickox after his first tour in Afghanistan. Kyle is using blacksmithing to help counsel veterans as they find new missions in life.
Kyle doesn’t remember a time when he didn’t want to be a soldier. As a boy, he would dress the part and play army for hours. He came from a military family with a grandfather who served in the U.S. Navy during World War II and a father who retired as a full Colonel after a near-three-decade career in the Army’s Armor branch. Kyle was born in Colorado and lived in Kentucky and Germany, but from ages 8 to 11 the family lived in Savannah, Georgia. He would see the then-black-bereted Rangers of the 1st Ranger Battalion, who were stationed at Hunter Army Airfield in Savannah, and he knew that’s what he wanted to be. “I thought they were the coolest guys on the whole planet,” he said.
Growing up Kyle remembers a giant-to-him W. R. Case & Sons bowie on display above the mantle. He was not allowed to touch it, but he spent many hours studying it. When he became a knifemaker the only thing he wanted to make was big bowies. Only now he was bigger and so his bowies kept getting larger to recapture the proportion of his boyhood fascination with the big bowie. “I had to scale that back a bit,” he says with a laugh. This one has a 12.5-inch blade of forge-welded 1075 annd 15N20 steels with a fossil walrus ivory handle. Maker’s list price: $3200. Contacts for Gahagan Knives are listed at the bottom of this article.
Kyle got his first knife from his maternal grandfather when he was 5. It was a little Old Timer pocketknife to go with the shotgun he got for deer hunting. “I hunted with my grandfather until he couldn’t hunt anymore,” he said. His father transferred back to German, so Kyle saw him infrequently. It was his grandfather who spent time with the hyperactive boy, teaching him how to hunt and build things, how to work with his hands. At 10 his grandfather handed him a piece of aluminum and told him to go make something with it. It was his first attempt at making a knife. Although not an easy material to be cutting and grinding on, he crafted something resembling a knife. There was no heat treating involved, he said with a rare chuckle.
As Kyle learned more, he once spent a long time forging a knife. He hammered painstakingly to forge-weld steel for the blade. He made a wooden sheath, carefully lining up the wood grain. “I was so proud of that knife,” he said. He took it to an area knifemaker. That maker couldn’t stop telling him how bad it was. He threw it on the ground. “It crushed me,” Kyle said. “I didn’t make another knife for about 20 years.” He didn’t even tell his grandfather what had happened. “I think he thought I just grew out of my interest in it.”
U.S. Army Ranger Kyle Gahagan, second from left, was deployed twice to Afghanistan. This was taken in Kandahar before a mission on his first tour.
In 1999 at the age of 19, Kyle enlisted in the Army with a Ranger contract. He was engaged when he went in and was married in between basic training and Airborne school. He went into the Ranger Indoctrination Program and Ranger school and was assigned to his boyhood heroes’ unit, 1st Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment. But then 9/11 hit and he was being deployed back to back. He did two deployments in Afghanistan and two in Iraq, but because they blend into what amounted to nearly three years of being gone, he can’t quite recall the order. He was a SAW gunner in Afghanistan, he led a team for a while, and in Iraq, he was an S3, which organized training operations in the rear and coordinated missions during combat.
During one training session, Kyle was giving a private a block of instruction on the M203 grenade launcher. It hit a buried mortar not 15 meters away. They were able to determine that the grenade had not had sufficient time to arm itself, so the mine had caused most of the damage. Kyle received shrapnel wounds to his face, chin, neck and right leg. In a parachute training jump Kyle got his right arm entangled in his rigging, which led to a torn tendon and debilitating tendinitis. His unit was involved in the Jessica Lynch rescue, but the mission that had the most impact on Kyle was the Ranger rescue of a Navy SEAL team on the third day of Operation Anaconda, a sweep of al Qaeda and Taliban forces in the Shahikot Valley of Eastern Afghanistan.
Although not on the mission, Kyle lost three friends on the firefight atop Takur Ghar Mountain: Rangers Marc Anderson, Bradley Crose (with whom Kyle attended paramedic school) and Mathew Commons. You can read about the harrowing battle for Roberts Ridge in Sean Naylor’s “Not A Good Day to Die, The Untold Story of Operation Anaconda” and in Malcolm MacPherson’s “Roberts Ridge, A Story Of Courage And Sacrifice On Takur Ghar Mountain, Afghanistan.” Kyle can go for days without thinking about his brother Rangers, but then something in life will remind him that they’re not here to live their lives.
This Gahagan Knives bowie has a 10.5-inch blade made of forge-welded 1075 and 15N20 steels. The handle is mammoth ivory with a bronze guard. Maker’s list price: $3000. Contacts are listed at the bottom of this article.
Kyle would have stayed in the Army, but after seeing his parents divorce and his father remarry two more times, he knew he didn’t want to lose his wife over his career choice. He felt it wasn’t fair to Dana, so he transitioned out in 2004. Their daughter, Zoe, was born right after Kyle got out, and their son, David, was born in 2011. At first Kyle wasn’t sure what he wanted to do. He worked in an autobody shop, but when the pain in his right arm, exacerbated by a bone spur on his clavicle, got so bad he could barely function, he knew he had to find other work. “On my last day, the pain was so bad I couldn’t hold a hammer—I couldn’t hold a toothbrush.” He taped the hammer to his forearm and at the end of the day told his boss that he just couldn’t do the work anymore.
He was at the right place at the right time to land a job as an IT (information technology) contractor for Lowe’s, developing three data centers, one in Texas and two in North Carolina. When Kyle applied for full-time employment, the company told him it could not hire him because he lacked a degree. So, he went back to school. His mother was a teacher, so education has always been important to him. In the end, “100 percent and then some” in keeping with the Ranger creed, he came away with three doctorates, two in education and one in psychology.
Kyle Gahagan made this 10.5-inch blade with forge-welded 1075 and 15N20 steels. The guard uses the same steel, and the handle is ringed gidgee wood. Maker’s list price: $3500. Some Gahagan Knives pieces are available through https://exquisiteknives.com or you can contact Kyle via the methods listed at the bottom of this article.
During this time Kyle was an administrator to a local college, a school principal and eventually an acting superintendent. His frustration grew as he continually tried to hold students and parents to high standards. Kyle ensured that the children had what they needed to succeed, but if they didn’t follow the rules, they faced the consequences. He felt undermined, however, by a politically-correct environment in which his decisions were often overturned. Eventually, he just quit.
When Kyle was a school administrator, his chief financial officer asked him to make a knife he could give to his future brother-in-law as a wedding gift. Kyle was reconnected with that kid who had became engrossed in making the best knife he could make. “I enjoyed the process,” Kyle said. He began making knives “as a hobby.” Although he may not have recognized it at the time, that sounds like too casual an approach for a craft that would end up tying his love of knifemaking, education, psychology and his warrior brethren together, giving him a new mission in life.
In 2013 Nate Bocker began Resilience Forge in Virginia. Nate served in the Army with the 249th Engineer Battalion. The active-duty sergeant sought a way to help the wounded warrior community. He thought by teaching veterans the skill of bladesmithing they could hammer out some of the issues associated with post-traumatic stress disorder, receive appropriate physical therapy for some injuries and have the foundation of a new skill they could expand into a trade if they so chose. Nate’s first student christened the program Blade Therapy. Kyle then launched Resilience Forge North Carolina and began implementing standard operating procedures so that the non-profit could expand nationally. No matter where a veteran attended, they’d know that the program would be the same.
The Department of Defense made a video of ABS journeyman smith and former Army Ranger Kyle Gahagan, third from right, to celebrate the work he’s done in helping veterans. You can watch it below.
The irony is that there is no structure to the program. Veterans when they’re transitioning from active duty or medical care into civilian life don’t have a schedule. “My door is always open,” Kyle said. All a veteran has to do is call ahead and he is there to provide counselling in the active environment of the forge. “Sitting on a couch and talking doesn’t work with the military mindset. They want to be producing something,” he said. Lots can unfold in the course of making a knife in one of Kyle’s classes. Take the 96-year-old veteran who was on Omaha Beach on the D-Day Invasion of Normandy. “He couldn’t do much,” Kyle said, but it was only a couple of weeks after visiting Resilience Forge that the veteran’s wife called. “She said, ‘I don’t know what you did, but my husband is happier.’ He had opened up to her,” Kyle said. And now Kyle is happy too. He’s found his new mission.
He knows what it’s like to reach that point where it’s darkest. Where the trudging goes on incessantly, you feel miserable physically and mentally, you’re exhausted and there’s no clear purpose to your life. Irrespective of his constant advancements career-wise, Kyle knows the heartbreak of remembering lost buddies. Anderson had been a school teacher. “We all face it,” Kyle said. At one point the emotional and physical pain was so bad that he walked away from the one thing that could have ever compelled him to leave the Army: his marriage. That lasted six months. There is a point, even in knifemaking, when the challenges seem to go on for too long, when things don’t fall naturally into place, when braking the blade seems nobler than letting it crack under stress.
Kyle taps into each veteran’s ability to adapt and overcome. Even though he’s teaching a physical skill, he’s giving veterans back their confidence, their ability to overcome and adapt. He helps them find their flexibility, their resiliency, their ability to fight back and achieve self-sustainability again. He can’t tell the veteran what his new mission is, but he can guide and support him while he figures it out. And that knife that they thought they couldn’t finish becomes a token of what they’re capable of accomplishing.
DoD News In Focus: Taking the Edge Off
Kyle’s plans, not surprisingly, are big. He currently puts veterans up in area hotels. He’d like to get a camper that he could use to haul a mobile forge to VA hospitals. He could use it for sleeping on those trips and to accommodate veterans when they’re at Resilience Forge. The VA is now sending patients to him. He sees the program expanding across the country, and eventually, Dana leaving her insurance agent job and working with him. He hints at perhaps another doctorate, and in 2018 he’ll be testing for his American Bladesmith Society master smith rating in Kansas. He uses a power hammer when he’s forging his own knives, but he teaches by hand. He’s hoping to stave off another tendinitis surgery, but he can feel his tendinitis getting worse. Like many veterans, his battle for coverage continues. Even so, his mission is crystal clear, and he is happier than he’s ever been.
Donations and Inquiries
To make a donation to Resilience Forge North Carolina, you can access gahaganknives.com through Paypal, or you can mail a check made out to Joy To The World Foundation to Kyle at the address below. The Joy To The World Foundation provides administrative services, such as tax preparation, to non-profits.
You can read your digital issues of BLADE Magazine anywhere you have your phone, tablet or computer, and there’s no need to find storage for all your old issues.
If piling-up issues of magazines seems like a waste to you… If you feel like you don’t have time to read a magazine… If you like the stories we offer in BLADE, but want a more economical option, then a digital subscription is the answer. An annual subscription to BLADE is $17.98, $4 off the print price.
If you could apply a motto to VMX Knives it would be: Let’s have some fun. At least that’s the impression you get after talking with co-owners James Robert Buckley of Maverick Customs and Kyle Vallotton of three-generation-strong Vallotton Custom Knives. Rob and Kyle became friends online. For BLADE Show 2017, Kyle—sporting a new do—invited Rob, whom he calls Buckley, to share space at the Vallotton table. But due to a confluence of issues, Kyle, who is known for his butterfly art knives, had no balisongs at the table this year. Rob, a machinist and welder before getting into knifemaking, asked Kyle if he’d look at a design he’d come up with for a balisong. Kyle liked it. The men agreed to make the knife together, Kyle bringing his expertise in the art-balisong industry to the newcomer and Rob offering to show Kyle what he knew about machining steel. It wasn’t long before a work flow was ironed out and the VMX-1 was brought from paper to reality, a baby born of blue mohawks, butterfly knives and buddies.
James Robert Buckley is the owner of Maverick Customs out of Horse Cave, Kentucky. He is also the co-owner with Kyle Vallotton of VMX Knives.
Rob Buckley grew up in Glasgow, Kentucky, about 45 minutes northeast of Bowling Green. While in high school and working at a family-owned cabinetry shop, he came to a realization: “I hated wood,” he said, laughing. But he took college-level courses in welding and machining. “It got me,” he said of metalwork. At 17 he entered the Army, wanting combat medic, but settling for infantry. He sustained injuries that would require surgery before continuing his training, so he accepted the proffered medical discharge. Returning home, he landed a machining job in Dickson, Tennessee, where his parents were living at the time. After those few months as a manual machinist and welder, he moved back to Glasgow to work as a certified welder. Six months later he took a position at a magazine printing plant, staying for 10 years. He left for a computer numeric controlled (CNC) machinist position, but he found operating the computer-programmed mills and lathes not as satisfying as hands-on metalworking. Three years ago he began making tools, then later knives, full time.
Kyle Vallotton hit BLADE Show 2017 with a blue mohawk. He is a third-generation knifemaker and the fifth person in his family to be making knives under Vallotton Custom Knives. He is also co-owner of VMX Knives with James Robert Buckley of Maverick Customs.
Kyle Valloton marks the third generation and fifth family member to be making knives under Vallotton Custom Knives. He began in the shop when he was 10 years old. He took some time off to test jobs away from the family business, such as telephone sales representative, but by the time he was 23, he knew he wanted to make knives for a living. He grew up in Umpqua, about an hour and a half south of Eugene. His grandfather Butch was an innovator in the tactical folder and automatic knifemaking world. The Vallottons hold 15 patentable developments with seven still-running royalty contracts. Vallotton innovations appear in numerous production knives, from Gerber to Spyderco.
Kyle Vallotton, left, specializes in high-end balisongs, tapping into both the artistry of his dad, Rainy, and the innovations of his grandpa, Butch, right.
Kyle’s dad, Rainy, made his mark in the high-end art-knife market, and Kyle’s specialty is the butterfly knife. He taps into both his grandfather’s exactitude in specifications and his father’s artistic flare. Kyle’s demeanor exudes good-natured enthusiasm and a sense of fun without being reckless. He contemplated attending BLADE Show 2017 sporting a blue mohawk, but wasn’t sure how it would go over. Finally, he decided to do it. “Let’s have some fun,” he said. “Everyone loved it.”
The VMX-1 prototype was made of BG42, but the production model has a 4-inch blade of CPM 154 steel. The prototype handle is black titanium, but custom-colored anodized titanium handles are available. Artwork by Zach Burcham of West Main St. Tattoos in Glasgow, Kentucky.
The balisong segment of the knife community is a microcosm of the knife industry itself. There are those who use the knives in the practice of Filipino-style martial arts; those who use the knives in a mesmerizing display of twirling and tricks, resplendent with the individual’s unique style; and those who collect the knives created as works of art. In addition, because many states have laws preventing the sale of balisongs—only trainers can be used by residents of those states. Kyle mentioned that he follows Knife Rights‘ work to overhaul outdated knife regulations in numerous states.
Rob jokes that he knows just enough about flipping balisongs to cut himself. In fact, VMX Knives will sell you its butterfly knife without an edge if you prefer. At any time, you are welcome to send it back if you decide you want to go with a live blade.
Zach Burcham, owner of West Main St. Tattoos in Glasgow, Kentucky, designed the logo for Maverick Customs and was brought in again to combine the M from Maverick Custom’s logo as well as a V for Vallotton Custom Knives to create the VMX Knives logo. Like the VMX-1 balisong itself, the logo uses old-school lettering with a modern twist.
Rob got his tattoo artist, Zach Burcham of West Main St Tattoos, who designed the M logo for Maverick Customs—named after Rob’s son—to come up with a logo that incorporated a V for Vallotton with the M for Maverick, and the VMX Knives logo was born. It is representative of the gold-leafing in signs of yore in the style of David Smith, for example, but with a modern twist, which is exactly how this team approaches their design.
The VMX-1 has phosphor bronze washers, titanium screws and standoffs, and a floating latch system designed by Kyle Vallotton. It measure 5.25 inches closed, 9.25 open. Artwork by Zach Burcham, West Main St. Tattoos in Glasgow, Kentucky.
Right now, whichever of the two are ordering supplies in the course of their personal knifemaking businesses purchases whatever VMX needs. They split those expenses 50-50, watching the price of titanium as it fluctuates. At present, Kyle machines the profiles and handles then sends them to Rob, who likens what he receives to model car parts connected to their frames by plastic tabs. “From the sheet I surface everything flat, chamfer holes and shape the tops by hand,” he explained. He also applies any final finish, such as anodizing, and machines some internal parts. Currently, the blades go back to Kyle for hand-grinding, hollow on the belly and convex on the point. Soon unused equipment at the Vallottons’ will be heading Rob’s way so he can also do the grinding. Once all the components reach Rob’s shop, they’re ready for clean-up, assembly, packaging and shipping.
VMX Knives has built a high-end balisong that Kyle Vallotton hopes will change the way flippers think of flippers. You will find some offered for sale at Blade HQ or you can custom order yours by contacting Rob Buckley at Maverick Customs via methods listed at the bottom of this article. Tattoo art by Zach Burcham at West Main St. Tattoos in Glasgow, Kentucky.
“They are the strongest folding knives,” Rob said of balisongs. “There’s no locking failure; the pin stops it from closing.” No matter how tight tolerances are, owners will often loosen up butterfly knives for better flipping. “So it’s like a chain-link fence,” Rob said. He and Kyle are striving for a knife that is as tight as a bushings-and-washers construction can be while still allowing for smooth flipping action. In the future, they hope to offer a bearings model, as well as a limited-run high-end model.
Even though Rob Buckley is in Kentucky and Kyle Vallotton is in Oregon, the men have worked out a division of labor that maximizes the strengths of each. Rob receives the parts on sheets. From there, they undergo numerous processes before they are ready to be finished, assembled and shipped.
The balisong community is an entity all to itself within the knife industry. Both Rob and Kyle acknowledge the achievements of others who started where they are now, while simultaneously carving out their own space in the market. Bladerunners Systems, which goes by BRS, started out as “flippers making flippers for flippers,” Kyle explained.
“I met the BRS boys before they became BRS,” he noted. “They are a bunch of balisong enthusiasts and great guys doing a great job.” In Kyle’s opinion BRS excels at using overlay materials that look cool and grab the attention of the crowd. “They are a big production company making a decent knife.”
“They make a great product,” Rob agreed, adding that butterfly knives made by Bali-Song Inc. (1979-1983), which became Pacific Cutlery Corp. (1983-1987), which became Benchmade (1988 to present) are well made as well. In fact, he owns a Benchmade Balisong 53 Mangus and a Spyderco Spyderfly.
VMX Knives is set to release its first round of VMX-1 balisongs in mid-November, 2017. They received 15 preorders, enough to get the project off the ground.
Kyle explained the partnership’s goals with the VMX-1. “What I have been doing and am now doing with VMX is simplifying and changing the norm,” he commented. “We are a small company making a very high-quality knife for the same price, and it’s custom-to-order.” Kyle wants to change the way flippers think about flippers. “I want to push boundaries and change things for the better. It’s what I wanted to do when I started making balis.”
It is obvious from their banter, that Rob and Kyle enjoy ribbing each other and genuinely respect what each brings to the project. The online acquaintances who developed a friendship and started a business together have also seemingly adopted each other’s families. Only Rob does not flip balisongs in front of his impressionable son, he admitted with a laugh.
Contact James Robert (Rob) Buckley, VMX Knives, 111 Corner Ave., Horse Cave, KY 42749; 270-576-4392. You can view the work of Rob on Facebook at Maverick Customs and Kyle’s work along with the work of other Vallottons at Vallotton Custom Knives.
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