Page 191 – BLADE Magazine

Featured Knife: CRKT Homefront – 2016 Most Innovative Imported Design Award Winner

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June 29, 2016

Featured Knife: CRKT Homefront – 2016 Most Innovative Imported Design Award Winner

The CRKT Homefront: A Hit Before It’s Even Out the Door

What I enjoy the most about knife shows is the hidden gems I’ll find among the blades. Whether it’s a unique spin on a classic design, a different type of steel or handle material, a peanut-butter-meets-chocolate pairing of knifemaking pros or a radical new approach, nothing beats finding that diamond in the rough. The 2016 BLADE Show was no exception, and that’s where I first encountered this:

This, ladies and gentlemen, is the new Homefront from Columbia River Knife & Tool (CRKT), and it went down as one of my top finds at the world’s foremost knife event. Straight from the brain of Ken Onion and sporting patent pending features, I could tell this was a game changer right from the beginning. The awards ceremony at the BLADE Show proved me right. The Homefront took home the award for 2016’s Most Innovative Imported Design, and it’s not even on shelves yet.

What Makes the CRKT Homefront Special? Field Strip Technology

CRKT Ken Onion Homefront Best Knife Award Winning — “The new Field Strip Technology is great and all, but have you tried NOT burying your knife in mud?” (CRKT photo)

The Homefront is to knives what takedown rifles are to firearms. The Homefront’s wickedly simple Field Strip Technology allows the user to disassemble and reassemble the knife in mere seconds. Just flip a switch and turn a screw as shown in the video above. It’s as simple as that.

That same video shows the knife being cleared of dirt and debris in a stream after use outdoors, which is a great application of the Field Strip Technology. But you know what I’m most excited about? Pocket lint.

“The Easier a Knife is to Clean, the More Likely it is to be Cleaned”

Pocket lint is the bane of my everyday carry folders. The sorcery of fuzz, residual heat and repetitive motion that comes with slipping an EDC into the pocket can form a gooey mess we knife scientists like to call, “gunk.” (I’m sure there’s a Greek root word in there somewhere.) This gunk builds up in hard-to-reach places and eventually requires disassembly, because there’s a limit to what all those gallons of knife oil can do.

With Field Strip Technology, cleaning up no longer requires a set of tools and a magnet to find those tiny screws when they inevitably roll onto the floor. The Homefront comes apart in seconds, then reassembles just as quickly. The result is an simple-to-maintain folding knife that will last. The easier a knife is to clean, the more likely it is to be cleaned.

I fully expect CRKT to use Field Strip Technology on other models in the future. I wouldn’t put it past CRKT to come out with add-ons to the Homefront to take full advantage of this tech, such as alternative blade and handle designs. To that end, the Homefront would be more like the AR-15 of knives, where the appeal is in a platform that allows customization specific to the end user. That level of personalization is obvious in trends outside of knives, too, and the Homefront could mark the beginning of a wider evolution of the consumer knife market. If this is the bandwagon, I’m hopping on.

Where to Get the CRKT Homefront: ShopBlade.com

Ken Onion award winning knife 2016 blade show — The CRKT Homefront before and after, and before and after again, and again, and again and again. Click to order yours today from ShopBlade.com.

ShopBlade.com is one of the first outlets anywhere to carry the CRKT Homefront, and it does so with pride. Here are the specs:

Overall Length: 8.313 inches
Closed Length: 4.728 inches
Weight: 4.8 ounces
Blade Length: 3.502 inches
Blade Thickness: 0.133 inches
Blade Steel: AUS 8
Blade HRC: 57-58
Blade Finish: Brushed Steel
Edge: Plain
Handle Material: 6061 Aluminum
Lock: Locking Liner

Click here to order your CRKT Homefront today!

Industry Achievement: Delavans & Plaza

Steve Shackleford

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June 29, 2016

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To understand why the Delavan Family and Plaza Cutlery won the BLADE Magazine 2016 Industry Achievement Award at this year’s BLADE Show, join us in a trip down memory lane.

Delavans and Plaza win Industry Achievement Award. — The Delavan Family and Plaza Cutlery are the winners of the BLADE Magazine 2016 Industry Achievement Award. From left: Lois, Dan and Pam Delavan inside Plaza Cutlery in 2007.

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It was over 42 years ago that Del and Lois Delavan, along with their son Dan, fresh out of the Army, opened Plaza Cutlery, a brick-and-mortar retail knife store in what is today the South Coast Plaza Shopping Resort in Costa Mesa, California.

A few years later Dan married Pam, and Pam took to knives as only a Delavan can. One of the keys to Plaza Cutlery’s remarkable longevity is that Dan and Pam have a passion for knives that is genuine—and the people who buy their knives and the vendors who work with Plaza Cutlery know it. It is a passion Dan and Pam come by honestly, a passion shared by Dan’s dad, Del, who became a Case salesman in 1959, and Dan’s mom, Lois. After Del passed away, it was Lois who took up the torch and became one of if not the first female traveling sales reps for Case. She helped run Plaza Cutlery until she, too, passed away just a few years ago.

Dan and Pam watched several generations of custom makers and a number of factory knife companies come and go. They started one of the oldest knife shows, the California Custom Knife Show, the venue where, in the early 1980s, BLADE Magazine Cutlery Hall-Of-Fame© member Jimmy Lile hooked up with Sylvester Stallone to start the Rambo revolution. Dan and Pam ran the California show for many years before selling it, reacquired the name and have it going again, with this year’s event set for Oct. 22-23 in Garden Grove, California. They also are planning a new knife show in Hawaii. In addition, they have held one-day special meet-and-greet shows inside Plaza Cutlery in which customers interact one-on-one with some of the world’s best makers, an encore rendition of which is scheduled for July 23.

It is retail knife stores such as Plaza Cutlery supporting both custom makers and knife companies over the decades that have helped make the knife industry the dynamic entity it is today. Whether selling knives to customers face to face or via their well-stocked and constantly changing website, the Delavans—in addition to Dan and Pam, their son Andrew, their son Bryan’s wife, Yuko, and Dan’s brother Russ—are known throughout the cutlery industry not just for their vast knowledge of knives, but also their reputation as straight shooters when it comes to providing the best in knives and customer service. It’s hard enough to maintain such a knowledge and reputation for just one year—it’s a monumental achievement to do it for 42.

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Ivory: Brady Deciphers Final Rule

Steve Shackleford

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June 20, 2016

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Final Rule on ivory. — If you collect, make or otherwise deal in knives containing elephant or antique ivory, the final rule concerning the Special Rule on African Elephants is a must read for you.

In case you missed it, this past June 6 the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service published its final rule concerning the Special Rule on African Elephants. The final rule will go into effect on July 6—just a little over two weeks from now.

As stated in the USFWS press release accompanying the rule’s publication, the USFWS goal is a “near-total elephant ivory ban.”

The final rule is basically the same as what USFWS proposed last year, including banning the international commercial import of antique ivory; shifting the burden from the trade of antique ivory items to the seller to prove the items are over 100 years old, have not been repaired or restored with ivory after Dec. 27, 1973, and, for some items, were imported through an endangered species “antique port”; and making it illegal to trade ivory in interstate commerce if the ivory is less than 100 years old. There is a 200-gram “de minimis” exception to the rule for “Pre-Convention” ivory that is further narrowed by six other criteria. There are also some special provisions for musical instruments.

According to Sandra Brady of the Elephant Protection Association, to qualify for the “de minimis” amount the following criteria must be met:

1) You must be able to prove your ivory component was legally imported either before 1990 or after 1990 with a CITES (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) certificate;

2) The ivory is a fixed or integral component or components of a larger manufactured or handcrafted item and is not in its current form the primary source of the value of the item, that is, the ivory does not account for more than 50 percent of the item’s value;

3) No raw ivory—period;

4) The manufactured or handcrafted item is not made wholly or primarily of ivory, that is, the ivory component or components do not account for more than 50 percent of the item by volume;

5) The total weight of the ivory component or components is less than 200 grams (7.054793 ounces), and;

6) The item was manufactured or handcrafted before the effective date of the rule (July 6, 2016).

“Ignoring the decline in both demand for ivory and poaching trends, the wildlife groups are also ignoring market laws like supply and demand, and past lessons taught by Prohibition [the USA’s failed ban on liquor from 1920-33],” Brady continued. “But to make matters worse for the elephant, they are ignoring the viability and long-term success of sustainable use, which has brought one species of rhino back from the edge of extinction, as well as the Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep of North America.

“The fight is not over and this is but a small portion of a larger agenda, one that will make animal rights trump human rights and will further defray our rights as citizens of this great nation. Please keep passing on the truth, calling your representatives and supporting the Elephant Protection Association.”

In all, the final rule encompasses over 30 pages. For more visit Revisions to the Endangered Species Act (ESA) Special Rule for the African Elephant.

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Bushcraft Knives Highlight New BLADE

Steve Shackleford

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June 14, 2016

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ESEE RB 3 and BLADE. — The RB3, ESEE knife company’s only bushcraft knife with a Scandi grind, is the cover model for the latest BLADE®, on newsstands NOW!

Bushcraft is the art of surviving in the wild with the tools and materials you have at hand and/or can scrounge on the spot, and few if any of those tools are more important than man’s oldest—the knife. In his story in the latest issue of BLADE®—on newsstands NOW—author, knifemaker, knife designer and bushcraft instructor Abe Elias puts four hot new bushcraft blades through the paces as only a bushcraft specialist can. One of the knives includes this issue’s cover model, the ESEE RB3. See how it and three other fresh factory bushcraft knives handle and perform in “Bushcraft Blades Big and Small.”

Jess Horn was one of the preeminent makers of custom folding knives for decades, but many of today’s younger followers of the custom knife scene don’t know of him. He passed away largely unnoticed earlier this year. BLADE® remembers him in a special story on page 22. Find out more about a knifemaking legend that you may have never heard of.

BLADE field editor Dexter Ewing is BLADE‘s resident sharpening guru. Not only does he run his own sharpening service on the side he also tests and writes about the latest and coolest sharpeners on today’s market. Check out a quartet of the newest and/or lesser-well-known models in his story, “Sharpening Just Got Fun!”

Some knife companies are taking today’s sheaths to the next level, configuring them so they are easier to clean, store added items such as firestarters and survival whistles—and in at least one instance even make such gizmo-packed sheaths for their folding knives. Learn more about today’s new generation of sheaths in BLADE field editor Mike Haskew’s “Sheath Chic.”

There’s much more this issue, including BLADE bidding a fond farewell to long-time managing editor Joe Kertzman, field tests of two custom fixed blades and four factory machetes, a comparison of today’s tactical folders vs. their original renditions, the latest knives and knife accessories, mini-knifemaker profiles and much more, all in the latest issue of BLADE—on newsstands NOW!

35th BLADE Show Enjoys Record Crowds

Steve Shackleford

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June 6, 2016

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Joe Keeslar

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Joe Keeslar (at table) has the full attention of his students during his BLADE U. class on leather sheath and pattern making.

Record crowds, unbelievable knives, the world’s best makers, the BLADE Magazine 2016 Knife-Of-The-Year Awards and so much more highlighted the 35th BLADE Show June 3-5 at the Cobb Galleria Centre in Atlanta.

Featuring almost 1,000 exhibitors covering all segments of the cutlery industry from over 20 countries in the world’s largest knife show, the event kicked off Thursday with the 3rd Annual BLADE University. The comprehensive school of knifemaking began by featuring Knives The American Bladesmith Society (ABS) Way, including how to forge and heat treat knives, how to make a cut ‘n shoot knife, pattern making and making a leather sheath, and how to make the dogbone bowie handle, all taught by some of the world’s top bladesmiths.

The show proper kicked off noon Friday with VIP ticket holders pouring into the show hall after waiting for hours—some as long as from the day previous—in long lines that snaked all though the show lobby and beyond. And once the patrons flooded the show hall, the race was on to get to their favorite exhibitor’s/exhibitors’ tables and booths. All told, more people attended the show the first two days of the event than for the entire show last year—and last year’s show enjoyed the highest attendance ever until this year’s rendition. A number of exhibitors commented on the large crowds, with many selling out of knives the first day.

The custom knife competition was conducted Friday, with Mike Quesenberry and Saign Charleston winning for both Best Collaboration and Best In Show to highlight the 16 awards in total. BLADE University also continued Friday with such classes as how to grind a knife, building and tuning a flipper folder, bushcraft knives survival school, how to build a knife from a kit and how to make a spike tomahawk. Friday night the ABS announced the new inductees to its Hall Of Fame, including ABS master smiths Harvey Dean, Jim Crowell and Greg Neely. They will be formerly inducted along with others in Little Rock, Arkansas, Aug. 6.

With enormous crowds continuing to swarm through the show hall, Saturday saw knives bought and sold by the score. BLADE demos included knife and tomahawk throwing, Japanese sword-cutting and others. Nicole Warden won the first-ever BLADE Show Women’s World Championship Cutting Competition and Dan Keffeler took the 14th Annual Men’s World Championship Cutting Competition—winning an unprecedented fourth title and fourth in a row. BLADE University presented classes on how to make knives on a budget, how to make a combat dagger, how to get your knife design put into production, how to be a contestant on Forged In Fire and more.

Saturday evening witnessed the BLADE Magazine Awards Reception highlighted by the Knife-Of-The-Year Awards, CJ Buck’s induction into the BLADE Magazine Cutlery Hall Of Fame©, Mel Pardue winning the Edda and Aldo Lorenzi Award, and BLADE Magazine/F+W Media being presented the inaugural American Knife & Tool Institute Industry Integrity Award for aiding in the battle to fight counterfeit knives.

Sunday saw more activity—even by Sunday standards it was a busy day—and show patrons left with their knife bags full and wanting more. They will have to wait another year for the next show, though, which will be held June 2-4, 2017, once again at the Cobb Galleria Centre. Make plans now to attend. If you love knives, you’ve got to go!