The Blondie Man’s Blades, the latest in filework, the hottest knives of the hottest custom makers and much more highlight the new BLADE®, on newsstands now!
ABS master smith Wally Hayes was an up-and-coming maker when he first met Chris Stein at a late 1990s New York Custom Knife Show. The co-founder and guitarist of the new wave band Blondie featuring lead singer Debbie Harry, Stein has collected knives for decades and added another one to his collection when he bought Hayes’s first double-edged wakizashi at the show. Get the story on Stein and his knife collection in “Blades of the Blondie Man.”
The Blondie Man’s Blades are in the latest BLADE®, on newsstands now!
Filework is one of those understated yet elegant bits of embellished finery that many of today’s leading makers incorporate onto the spines of their knives. Daniel Jackson picked the brains of some of the top practitioners of the art in his story, “Cutting The Tool That Cuts”—which includes the Panama Trapper cover knife by Luke Swenson.
Staying abreast of the hottest knives of the hottest custom knifemakers is something the leading custom knife purveyors must do on a continuing basis if they want to keep bringing home the blade bacon. BLADE polled seven of the industry’s top purveyors to see which knives of which makers apply in “Top Of The Food Chain.”
Tactical knives have enjoyed varying degrees of popularity since the mid-’90s, but they never really go away for long before getting hot again. One of the reasons for their popularity is that they seem to constantly evolve to meet market needs. Get the lowdown on what is, isn’t and what’s to come in the genre in “Is It Tactical?”
The latest installment in our “Knives That Changed Knife History” is on the Buck 110. When the iconic folding hunter first appeared in 1964, lockback folding knives had pretty much faded into the background. The Buck 110 was big and strong and worn on a belt. It was much more a hardcore using knife than a pocketknife and it changed knives forever. Learn about the groundbreaking cutter in “The Buck That Went Bang.”
There’s much more in the latest BLADE. Get it on newsstands now!
Lightweight and with great balance, Cladio and Ariel Sobral’s stag-handle bowie dons a 10-inch, satin-finished san mai steel blade, stainless steel fittings and a Marcelo Sobral custom leather sheath. (Ward image)
Knives 2017, The World’s Greatest Knife Book.September 19, 1827, on a sandbar between Louisiana and Mississippi, there was first a duel and then a fight. The fight between Col. Robert Crain and Jim Bowie purported to last only 90 seconds, and those 90 seconds have been discussed and reviewed since that day. While the sandbar fight started the Bowie legend, man and knife, it was probably ant 1831 incident in Texas that solidified the legend. Three armed men, hired to kill him, attacked Bowie. The story goes that even though the attackers were armed with rifles, Bowie was the only man to walk away.
Bowie dispatched all three attackers using his knife. If interested in an in-depth look at the start of the Bowie legend, I highly recommend Dr. James Batson’s book titled James Bowie and the Sandbar Fight: Birth of the James Bowie Legend and Bowie Knife. Batson is not only an excellent researcher and writer, but also an American Bladesmith Society (ABS) master smith. His firsthand knowledge of crafting bowie knives gives him a special insight into the creation of Jim Bowie’s original knife.
Of all the great knifemakers and designers in the world, none of them have an entire category of knives named after them like Bowie does. The style of knife used by Bowie—now known simply as a bowie or bowie knife—saw some changes after the confrontation at the sandbar. Most notable were the addition of double guards to most bowies, and sharpened clip points with the appearance of the forward third of the blade spines being clipped off.
The knives bearing Bowie’s name gained such a reputation and following that they began to be mass-produced in Sheffield, England. Renowned makers such as Joseph Rodgers and George Wostenholm started making bowie knives. Estimates are that upwards of 70 percent of the bowies that went West with the first wave of pioneers came out of Sheffield.
Well balanced and exceptionally quick in the hand, ABS journeyman smith Steve Randall’s bowie boasts an 8.5-inch san mai steel blade, a Sambar stag handle, and a blued high-carbon-steel guard, ferrule and pommel, the latter filed to match the grooves of the stag. (PointSeven image)
The bowie knife enjoyed “must have” status for many soldiers on both sides of the Civil War. The bowie’s diversity was summed up by a historian of the time who described the knife style as, “ … long enough to use as a sword, sharp enough to use as a razor, wide enough to use as a paddle, and heavy enough to use as a hatchet.”
What is and what is not a bowie is the subject of numerous debates. Rezin Bowie, Jim’s brother who had the first knife made for his sibling, indicated the historic knife had a 9 ¼-inch blade. Given that there is no photo of the knife, we can only go by information historians have gathered. My take on the blade length of the first bowie is that it was between 9 and 11 inches.
I’d like to say I based this on Rezin’s comments but that is not the case. Certain blade lengths favor particular tasks. Bird-and-trout blades are usually between 2 and 4 inches. Hunters and skinners generally have blades in the 3- to 5-inch range. Camp knives often feature blades stretching from 5-7 inches, and fighters commonly sport blades in the 6-8-inch range.
Based on Rezin’s comment that the blade made for his brother was 9 ¼ inches, combined with the variety of chores that could be done with the bowie, the 9-11-inch range is where I place the bowie’s blade. All of the blade lengths mentioned are generalizations. Blade lengths are subjective, and different categories will often feature shorter or longer blades. I have seen gent’s or a gambler’s bowies with 4-inch blades and hunting knives parading 10-inch blades. When I see knives sporting blades that defy the conventional lengths of their category, I am reminded of my 7th-grade shop teacher who always reminded us to use the “right tool for the job.”
For going on four decades, Knives has been the most comprehensive and trusted resource in the knife world, delivering an entertaining and authoritative selection of features, industry reports and eye-catching knife galleries. The annual offers knifemakers, knife collectors, knife buyers and knife dealers the vital information they require. From reliable factory knives to custom-made gems, Knives 2017, 37th Edition cuts to the quick matter to raise readers’ blade IQ. Get Your Copy Now
Robert Scott Wolfrom sold his personal knife collection to start Blade Junkee, which sells custom and tactical knives to blade junkies worldwide.
Addicts: It takes one to know one, as the saying goes. It’s no different with knife junkies. Robert Scott Wolfrom, who goes by Scott, is the driving force behind Blade Junkee, a California-based custom and midtech knife purveyor. He’s a blade junkie himself, so he knows exactly how to feed the addiction in others. Knife junkies are always on to the latest thing, so Scott tries to be one step ahead of the next trend. One way he’s done that is to create a retail app, not just a mobile-responsive website, but a true app that you download to your phone from Google Play or Apple iTunes. Since its launch in 2015, approximately 4000 people have done just that, according to Scott. Websites will be a thing of the past, Scott predicts. “Phones are getting bigger. Younger people are doing everything on their phones. Most of them don’t even own a computer.”
In the 1990s Scott owned a custom flooring and milling business. That industry was decimated when exotic woods began flooding the market and China began producing cheap composites, Scott explained. Homeowners are currently suing Chinese manufacturers because they are getting sick from the formaldehyde used in lumber products coming from that country. Nobody understood the dangers of not using formaldehyde-free American-made flooring and molding at the time, Scott said. The end result was his company went out of business.
Blade Junkee is based in California but supplies knife junkies all over the world with custom and midtech knives.
He tried his hand at air conditioning manufacturing and construction, and he became a general manager in retail. Finally, in 2008 he thought about what he was passionate about: knives. He’d always been a collector, so he took a huge step. He sold his knife collection. He reaped $40,000 from the sale and sunk it all into his new business: Blade Junkee. The name came from his user name on knife forums.
“I am blessed,” he said about what he’s doing now through Blade Junkee. His wife, Jennifer, a school psychologist, helped him recognize his own knife addiction, and now he gets to collect all kinds of custom knives…and then sell them. “They come in and they go out,” he said with a laugh.
The Blade Junkee app offers a running list of custom knives that Scott has in stock. He is on knife forums daily, social media daily, he talks with makers and others in the industry daily. He explains that he must be following the trends in order to capitalize on what’s hot. A certain maker might be in demand for a while, or a certain construction method. Then it changes. Hand-rubbed could be in, or acid treated or the current psychedelic-looking craze. Then the trends circle back around.
Scott recognizes those cycles, because…well, he was a junkie. While some dealers can only take one or two knives at a time from a maker, Scott offers to buy eight or 10 knives at a time. The maker might say, That’s going to be $30,000; and Scott’s right there to say, Yeah, here’s $15,000 now. “It’s hard for a maker to turn that down,” he said. In this way, he never worries about whether he sells all the knives or not; if he doesn’t, he’ll have some set aside for when everyone’s scrambling to get one of that maker’s knives again.
The strategy appears to be working. In 2016, according to Scott, Blade Junkee did $1.3 million in sales. (In addition to selling custom knives, Scott also manufactures fittings, such as screws, that he sells to knifemakers.) Scott sees a lot of business from Russians, Thais and Europeans. He has customers who will spend $10,000 a month on knives. A customer may tell him, “The wife’s buying purses and shoes,” so he wants a knife that matches a particular watch.
But it isn’t just wealthy customers who fall in love with a well-crafted custom or tactical knife. Customers will tell Scott simply that he made them happy when he posted a certain picture of a knife. They might be having a bad day and seeing a picture of a well-made piece of art that Scott posted lifted their spirits. “There’s plenty more where that came from,” Scott says with a laugh. Not only does he understand buyers from both ends of the spectrum and their motivations, but it brings him joy to make them happy and feeds his own blade addiction.
If you think you can’t afford a knife you see on Blade Junkee (while you’re rocking out to, say, Rage Against the Machine or Bob Marley’s youngest son Damien), you’d be wrong. Scott offers Bladeaway, layaway for knives in four payments over a 45-day period with a 5 percent fee. This is a certain way to lock in the purchase of a knife at the current price. Some knives go so fast that Scott can’t keep them in stock because the makers aren’t mass-producing their work. “They’re artists, and I treat them like artists,” Scott said. Because of his willingness to purchase higher quantities of a maker’s work up front, a maker might pick up a call from Scott where he might avoid a call from a dealer who can only take one or two knives. This also gives Scott the ability to pick and chose which knifemakers he pursues, based on what trends he sees developing and what his junkies are clamoring for.
Although never a hunter, Scott used to fish, and like many of us, his first knife was a Buck. “I don’t drink. I don’t have kids. But I have a lot of energy. I know how to run a business. I have connections. I know how to make calls and make things happen.” And he is passionate about knives. Although Scott currently sees most of his business coming through the Blade Junkee website and social media, he can see every company having a mobile app in the future. He’s already one step ahead on that trend.
Know what your collection is worth
This book, edited by BLADE editor Steve Shackleford, will help you price and care for your knife collection.
This volume will help you understand the history of the knives you collect, how much they are worth, and how to spot a fake. You will learn how to grade knives for buying and selling, and how to take care of the ones you keep. Best of all, you don’t have to wait for mail delivery. You can begin reading your e-book version right away for $24.13, a 20-percent savings.
Shane Barefoot of Barefoot Custom Knives made this knife from a piece of angle iron from the World Trade Center.
Shane Barefoot of Barefoot Custom Knives is always seeking out ways to craft something unique, something “100-percent Shane,” as he puts it. It was a simple Google search that lead him to a piece of angle iron from the World Trade Center. In the normal course of business trading, the scrap metal from the demolished buildings that was cleared of DNA was sold to China. Understandably, this upset family members of the victims and others. Shane wanted to honor the fallen of 911 by doing what he does best: making knives. He purchased from a company in China. The sacred piece of history arrived–with accompanying verification documentation–and with a bolt in it and two rivets. So, it didn’t take the knifemaker long to decide which direction to take with his creation: a san-mai-constructed blade—damascus steel jacket over a high-carbon core—in the Barefoot hunter pattern.
What took a while, was the actual making. Like many knifemakers, Shane always has something around that he’s working on, and the World Trade Center knife was one of those projects. The three steels forge-welded right together, creating a random pattern in the drop-point blade design. The knife is 7 ¾ inches overall, with a 3 ¼-inch blade, hollow-ground using a 12-inch contact wheel. Shane prefers a convex edge on his hunters so that a simple touch-up on a strop is all that is needed for maintenance. The gimping on the thumb rest is in a rope pattern, adding visual interest along with texture.
The scales on this knife are made from desert ironwood burl, and the liners are in “toxic green,” making a striking color contrast that fishermen and hunters can appreciate. Shane tests his knives by hunting, fishing and cooking with them; all of his knives are made to be purposeful, to carry out their intended tasks. The ¼-inch pins and the thong tubing are stainless steel.
Shane was careful to collect his shavings of the Twin Tower steel, and if anyone wants to buy the knife, he would give those shaving to the new owner. He received one set of documents on the angle steel, so he made copies of the paperwork to prove the legitimacy of the steel’s origin. There is enough left for two more knives.
Knifemaking is a journey. Each knife teaches the knifemaker something new. Overall, Shane is happy with how the knife came out, especially how the blued core nested in the damascus jacket is revealed. The only thing he’d like to experiment with is the blade shape.
Craig Myles tooled the New York City skyline into the sheath that goes with the knife Shane Barefoot made from a piece of World Trade Center angle iron.Craig Myles tooled the New York City skyline on the leather sheath that accompanies this Barefoot knife.
Fittingly, Shane’s friend Craig Myles tooled the New York City skyline into the leather sheath that accompanies this knife. The maker’s list price for the combo is $1000. Although individuals may hold pieces of the World Trade Center buildings privately, there is no longer any left to purchase on the open market, Shane explained, so this is a noteworthy knife.
Barefoot Custom Knives specializes in custom pieces for fishermen, hunters and outdoorsmen. You can read more about Shane Barefoot, his dad and his work in the April 2017 edition of BLADE magazine, which is on newsstands now.
This knifemaking book includes a chapter on sheaths and what the knifemaker needs to consider when deciding on a particular sheath style.
Sure, it’s all about the knife, but knifemakers do well to pick the right sheath for their creation. As the above article on Barefoot Custom Knifes shows, the right sheath can bring excellence to a special knife-sheath combo. Normally, $21.99, “How to Make Knives” by Richard W. Barney and the father of custom knifemaking Robert W. Loveless is now on sale for $12.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s knife bill veto at the end of 2016 targets minorities and others who carry pocketknives.
Flipper folders such as the CRKT Acquisition, pocketknives, linerlocks, framelocks and other folding knives remain subject to the definition of switchblade and/or gravity knife as a result of Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s veto of S. 6483-A.
According to Knife Rights, Cuomo vetoed the Gravity Knife and Switchblade Reform Bill, or S. 6483-A. If he had approved it, the bill would have excluded the vast majority of pocketknives, linerlock and framelock folders, flipper folders, assisted openers and other one-hand-opening folding knives from being designated as gravity knives or automatics (aka switchblades) under existing law. As a result of Cuomo’s knife bill veto, those who carry pocketknives, flipper folders, linerlocks and framelocks, and other one-hand-opening folders in New York remain subject to violating the state’s ban on automatics and gravity knives.
Since many minorities in New York City and others throughout the state carry pocketknives and folders and are the ones most likely to be targeted by the law that stays in place as a result of Cuomo’s knife bill veto, they remain subject to a fine and jail time if arrested for carrying said knives. As BLADE® field editor Ed Fowler notes in his story in the upcoming issue of the April BLADE, on newsstands Jan. 24, “The ultimate display of bureaucratic stupidity are the thousands of knife laws that serve no purpose other than to turn law-abiding citizens, usually minorities, into criminals in the name of public safety.”
According to the Knife Rights news release, Knife Rights will return when the New York legislature convenes this year to the job of fixing “the state’s Gravity Knife law to prevent these arrests and prosecutions. This bill passed with such large majorities in both houses of the legislature that an override of a veto is theoretically possible.”
As Knife Rights noted, Cuomo effectively thumbed his nose at a New York legislature that had overwhelmingly passed S. 6483-A, as well as at other New Yorkers, many of whom include his own constituents, who had supported the bill. In so doing, he joined the “Nexus of No” that includes New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, New York Police Department Commissioner James O’Neill and District Attorney Cyrus Vance, Jr., in being virtually the only ones who oppose S. 6483-A.
The defeated bill would have added wording excluding knives with “a spring, detent or other mechanism designed to create a bias toward closure and that requires exertion applied to the blade by hand, wrist or arm to overcome the bias toward closure and open the knife” from the existing bill’s definition of switchblade. In other words, knives such as pocketknives, linerlocks and framelocks, assisted openers and others could not be defined as switchblades in New York if Cuomo had not vetoed S. 6483-A. Similar wording would have excluded pocketknives, etc., from the definition of gravity knife as well.
Which knifemakers will excel in 2017? What is the mark of knife greatness? When does the magic begin in the making of mosaic damascus, aka canned steel? What were the knife industry’s top stories of 2016? What will not happen in the knife industry in 2017? These and other edge-pressing questions are answered in the latest issue of BLADE®, on newsstands now!
Custom knifemaking is a whirlwind of talented individuals worldwide. Picking the ones on the verge of breakout years is no easy task, but BLADE feature writer Pat Covert tackles the assignment with gusto, interviewing some of the custom industry’s top authorities for their opinions on the subject. Find out which makers will take their work to the edge and beyond in “Will One Steel Your Heart?”
What is the mark of knife greatness? One leading indicator is a knife that, after its debut, serves as a yardstick against which all subsequent knives of a similar type are measured. BLADE field editor Mike Haskew examines these “yardstick knives” in “The Mark of Greatness.”
Mosaic damascus, aka canned steel, provides some of the most beautiful and intricate of blade materials. BLADE feature writer Daniel Jackson visits with some of today’s forgers of the scintillating steel to find out not only why they do it but how in “When The Magic Begins.”
The year past had more than its share of cool happenings in the knife industry, including the first-ever
Read how mosaic damascus is forged, such as on these folders by Mike Tyre, in “When The Magic Begins.” (PointSeven image)Which knifemakers will excel in 2017? One Neil Ostroff highly recommends is Sebastijan Berenji of Borka Blades. (True North Knives image)Find out which knifemakers will excel in 2017 in the latest issue of BLADE®, on newsstands now!
BLADE Show Women’s World Championship Cutting Competition, burgeoning knifemaking stars on social media, pro-knife legislative gains, a world record price for an American knife at auction and much more. Read all about it in “Sharp and Sweet ’16.”
Predicting what will happen in the coming year is a skill far beyond that of yours truly. However, one thing I can do is predict what will not happen in the coming year. Of course, one question remains: Can I even do that? It will take one year to find out. Check out my predictions in “What Will Not Happen in 2017.”
There’s much more in the latest BLADE, including an educational examination of knives and the Second Amendment by Knife Rights’ Doug Ritter (page 6), tests of the latest tantos, flipper folders and factory/custom collaborations, the hottest convenient carry knives and much more, all in the March 2017 BLADE, on newsstands now! For subscription info, click here.
Larry Roberts used the L.T. Wright Knives’ Genesis to survive as a participant on the History channel’s “Alone.”
Larry Roberts, runner-up in the second season of the History channel’s wilderness survival show “Alone,” lasted 64 days in the harsh environs of Vancouver Island with one knife: the Genesis made by L.T. Wright Knives. L.T. Wright knew Roberts as a customer and because he wrote articles for the company’s Self Reliance Illustrated magazine. What he didn’t know, because “Alone” participants are not allowed to discuss the show, was which knife Roberts used on the show. When Roberts was allowed to talk about his experiences, he raved to Wright about how much he appreciated the Genesis. Wright suggested they team up, and a winning partnership was born.
On Dec. 16, LTWK introduced its Larry Roberts Signature Edition Genesis to the public. Fans of the “Alone” star and members of the LTWK Pout House club were eligible for pre-release access for 24 hours prior to the general release.
The premise of the reality show is that a group of outdoorsmen and women are deposited in a remote locale—alone—and whoever can survive the longest, wins—$500,000 to be exact. They are positioned so that natural obstacles prevent them from encountering each other. There is no crew; the participants film themselves and are resupplied with batteries and camera chips. They must build shelters, find enough to eat without expending too many calories, stave off hypothermia and marauding animals, and maintain their sanity.
So, how exactly did Roberts use his knife? The list is extensive. He built small game traps and a fish trap. He used it batonning, feather-sticking, harvesting spruce sap and cedar bark, gutting and filleting fish, processing mice and prying shellfish off of rocks. He used it to make a spoon, a spatula and a fork. He harvested mushrooms with his Genesis, cut cordage and used the sharp 90-degree spine of the knife to strike his ferrocerium rod to start fires. He used the knife to make a spear and tent stakes, and even for first-aid and hygiene tasks, such as removing a splinter or cleaning his fingernails.
The Larry Roberts version of the LTWK Genesis has a broomstick handle and sharpened spine to assist in firebuilding.
The knife measures 9 inches overall. The 4.25-inch blade has a Scandinavian grind, and the chiseled edge is ideal for bushcrafting skills like making kindling, tent stakes and stripping bark, L.T. Wright explained. It used to be, he continued, that outdoor knives were overbuilt to account for hard use in the field, but now that the education and skill level of outdoorsmen has advanced, often through watching and practicing skills learned just on YouTube, thinner-edged knives are sought after by outdoorsmen and survivalists. Roberts, too, praised the knife’s ability to bite deeply into wood.
The Genesis offers a 1/8-inch-thick spear-point blade made of A2 tool steel, following a Kephart design overall. The knives are tested to 57 to 59 HRC on the Rockwell hardness scale, so they are tough but hold an edge, Wright said. The A2 steel, in the opinion of both Wright and Roberts, outperforms O1 and 1095 for edge retention, and corrosion and stain resistance. For his time on the island, Roberts only stropped his knife on his leather belt to remove micro-oxidation from humidity and moisture. He never had to resharpen it at all.
The Roberts version of the Genesis has a broomstick handle because Roberts found the thicker handle easier to hold and control. It also has thumb scallops and a sharpened spine for striking a fire steel against. LTWK made the black Micarta handle with white liners because Roberts likes the black-and-white contrast. The blade is stamped with Roberts’ rendition of his Vancouver Island nemesis: a mouse. “It became an obstacle for me to overcome,” he said of the creature he battled during the show.
The MSRP of the Larry Roberts Signature Edition Genesis is $225 and includes a true 8-ounce black leather sheath with a dangler and 3/8-inch ferro rod loop. Wright prefers to purchase 10-ounce double-died leather from Spen Stelzer, the owner of JRE Industries in Illinois, and have it split to 8 ounces so there are no discrepancies. “We can control consistency better that way,” he explained.
Roberts wanted the largest ferrocerium rod he was allowed to have during the show, so he went with a ½-inch rod and wasn’t able to use the loop that comes with the Genesis sheath. Roberts did use the dangler, however. He explained that it allowed the knife to hang where his hand fell naturally for easy access—just like a gunslinger in a western—and yet carry out of the way of a backpack or any other gear.
Wright grew up playing Tarzan and Rambo in the woods as a boy, and, of course, the tactical use of knives and their implementation in hunting and bushcraft interested him all along. But he wanted to make a living making knives, so he listened to what people told him they wanted. “If you go to a show and come home with all the knives you brought, you’re not going to be in business long,” he said. Like the survivalist industry itself, as the education and skill levels of users advance, so too must the sophistication of the knives. Wright listened.
L.T. Wright (front row, second from left) was surprised and happy to find out his Genesis was the knife Larry Roberts used on the “Alone” series.
At first he made knives as L.T. Wright then as Blind Horse Knives and he’s back as L.T. Wright Knives. Wright learned to make knives from R.W. Wilson, who made the tomahawks for the 1972 movie “Jeremiah Johnson,” a cult favorite among outdoorsmen. “He’s probably sold off all of those,” Wright said, “but I do have a prototype of a tomahawk he made for the Texas Rangers.”
So, it is fitting that Wright should partner up with a man who carried his knife in a reality-based outdoorsman show for the small screen. Roberts grew up in Oregon, spending as much time outside as he could, bait-fishing for steelheads in the Rogue River and bow hunting. His first knife was probably a 3-inch lockback Buck pocketknife, he said. He married his high-school sweetheart, and they had a son and a daughter, now grown and on their own.
Roberts attended the Pathfinder School, LLC Survival Classes offered in Jackson, Ohio, through Self Reliance Outfitters. An instructor at the top-rated school, Dave Canterbury, had been on Discovery Chanel’s “Dual Survival” show, and Roberts had heard about “Alone” from a season one participant named Josh Chavez. Roberts had been looking for a challenge, a real-world way to apply the skills he’d learned. “This was it,” he said, and applied online.
You can be a superb outdoorsman, Roberts pointed out, but if you can’t express yourself in front of a camera, you won’t be selected for the show. Although more shy in real life, Roberts is a natural in front of the camera. He sent along hours of footage of himself conducting survival skills. He made the cut, and a total of 20 finalists attended a boot camp in New York. They were tested on their comfort level in the outdoors in a city park. They underwent both medical and psychological testing, and were trained extensively on how to operate the cameras they would be using to film themselves for the show.
Even though Roberts eventually had to “tap out” because he could not get enough food to compensate for the calories he expended, his life has changed from being on “Alone.” He teaches now for Pathfinder and privately on his own farm. He attended the Primitive Living Skills Conference, Rabbitstick, in September in Idaho and will be attending Winter Count, Feb. 12-18 in Maricopa, Arizona.
Roberts can’t say enough good things about the LTWK Genesis. It’s everything he ever wanted in a knife, in every way. Similarly, he can’t say enough good things about L.T. and his crew at LTWK. It was on the island, at night, when Roberts began designing a tattoo he wanted to get. It incorporated everything that was important to him during the “Alone” challenge. You can read about his experiences on the show and how the tattoo both gave him something to think about and something to look forward to getting in “Star of History Channel’s ‘Alone’ Talks Survival and Tattoos,” an interview by Kirstie Kovats in Inked magazine.
Of course, the mouse figures prominently in the design, as does the knife.
Dave Canterbury, instructor at top-rated wilderness survival Pathfinder School in Ohio, explains the 5 Cs of survivability in his “Bushcraft 101.”
Not sure where to start with your quest to master wilderness survival skills? Dave Canterbury, the primitive arts instructor at Pathfinder School in Ohio mentioned above, has written a book that’ll help you get back to basics, enjoy the outdoors and understand the essentials of wilderness survival.
