Page 205 – BLADE Magazine

6 Hotties Highlight New Knives

-

August 31, 2015

0

Case tear drop and muskrat. — New from Case is the Collector’s Tour Tear Drop and Ambassador Tour’s muskrat.

Think pink with Bear & Son’s new Model 114PK butterfly knife.

What’s hot and new in factory knives for the fall? Among them are 6 hotties ready to cut. Let’s start with Case. Its 2015 Collector’s Tour Knife is a traditional tear-drop pattern with an embellished smooth chestnut bone handle and the company’s famous “XX” scrolled bolsters. Case Collectors Club Manager Lisa Boser-Miller’s signature appears on the Tru-Sharp stainless spear blade.

The 2015 Ambassador Tour Knife is a muskrat in a smooth dark red bone handle and bolster engraving. One of the clip blades bears the signature of the owner of Coffman Hardware who doubles as a Case ambassador, Dennis Mikus.

Liong Mah designed the CRKT Viva. — The CRKT Viva is a pry tool, hex wrench, bottle opener and screwdriver all in one keychain multi tool.

Bear & Son offers up a cool butterfly in hot pink handles—the Model

114PK in a 3 5/8-inch stainless blade. The handles are epoxy-coated aluminum. Weight: 5 ounces. Closed length: 5 inches.

If you’re looking for a stout fixed blade, look no further than the Argonaut 800 from Steel Will Knives. The 6.3-inch blade is AUS-8 stainless in a satin finish and a Rockwell hardness of 56-58 HRC. Weight: 9.59 ounces. The $99.99 MSRP includes a Nylon sheath.

The Baja 4.5 features a 1095 high-carbon steel blade ina Black River Wash finish. — The Baja 4.5 is TOPS Knives’ “stretched sibling” of the Baja 3.0.

OK, so it’s not really a knife. So? Designed by Liong Mah, CRKT’s Viva is one of a growing number of key-ring multi-tools that includes a pry tool, screwdriver, bottle opener, hex wrench and more—all for a measly $9.99 MSRP.

The TOPS Knives Baja 4.5 is the “stretched sibling” of the TOPS Baja 3.0, sporting a 4.5-inch blade of 1095 high-carbon steel in a Black River Wash and a green canvas Micarta® handle. MSRP: $200 (includes a leather dangler sheath).

Grab you some Steel Will Argonaut! — The Argonaut from Steel Will Knives is one stout fixed blade.

Also Check Out:

Knives 2016, 36th Edition
The trusted guide for knife collectors, enthusiasts, knifemakers, and dealers around the world, this knife book covers the latest and greatest from front to back. A collection of feature articles explores the latest developments, history, and transformation of knives, swords, and edges of various kinds. Get your copy

Gear Up with The Team Jackal

Steve Shackleford

-

August 21, 2015

0

TOPS Knives Team Jackal Survivor — The Team Jackal Survivor is new from TOPS Knives.

Rotating spring steel sheath clip. — The Kydex sheath attaches to a belt or gear via a rotating spring steel clip.

Black Kydex sheath — The sheath protects the blade and makes for a handsome package, too.

Rocky Mountain Tread handle. — The G-10 handle is textured in a Rocky Mountain Tread for enhanced gripping.

The blade is 1095 high-carbon steel. — The 5-inch blade is 1095 high-carbon steel in a Coyote Tan powder coat.

Gear up with the Team Jackal Survivor fixed blade from TOPS Knives, a great everyday utility and/or bug-out-bag knife.

The Team Jackal Survivor sports a 5-inch blade of 3/16-inch-thick 1095 high-carbon steel heat treated to a Rockwell hardness of 56-58 HRC. The cutting edge is 4 5/8 inches long. A steel favored by many bladesmiths and a growing number of factory knife companies, 1095 is easier to sharpen than some of the higher-grade stainless steels such as CPM S30V. This is a valuable trait to have in the field and/or for novice knife enthusiasts who have not quite mastered the proper sharpening techniques required or do not have the proper sharpening equipment to put an edge on the higher-grade steels.

Of course, the trade-off with carbon steel is that it tends to rust more easily than stainless steel, though if you wipe the knife down after each use rust should not be a problem. However, just in case, the Team Jackal Survivor blade features a Coyote Tan powder coating to help reduce rust. The coating also holds down on glare. Still, though, a wipe down after each use never hurts!

The contoured, straight-backed handle is a black G-10 hard synthetic textured in TOPS’ Rocky Mountain Tread for secure purchase and a cool look. Enhancing purchase is a jimped blade ramp just forward of the handle spine and a finger groove behind the choil. The knife’s overall length is 9.75 inches. Without the sheath, it weighs 8.9 ounces.

The sheath is a black Kydex with a rotating spring steel clip. Counting the sheath, the complete knife package weighs 11.7 ounces.

The manufacturer’s suggested retail price for the made-in-the-USA Team Jackal Survivor is $175, but if you visit topsknives.com while its sale lasts you can get it for $140.

Recommended:

Stay abreast of the latest developments on this and many more knife rights issues with a subscription to BLADE.

Act NOW on Ivory Comment Extension

Steve Shackleford

-

August 14, 2015

0

To help save all ivory from proposed punitive federal regulations, request an extension for the comment period on the regulations from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service NOW!

Among other unreasonable stipulations, the regulations would require you to prove that the ivory on your knife or other item was imported prior to Jan. 18, 1990—a near impossibility for most people to prove about such items. The regulations also claim that the USA continues to play a role as a destination and transit country for illegally traded elephant ivory. However, as Sandra Brady of the Elephant Protection Association noted, the regulations offer no proof of this claim and no figures as to what percentage of illegal ivory is “laundered” here.

The proposed regulations were released on July 29, and concerned citizens were given only 60 days to contact the Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) with any objections the citizens might have to the regulations. Since there are 27 pages of proposed regulations, regulations the government had over 13 months to research and write, it seems only fair that concerned citizens get more than 60 days to respond. In fact, the law provides for up to a 90-day comment period, which is especially appropriate for regulations that are so voluminous and affect so many Americans.

The Elephant Protection Association has composed a form letter for you to use to request the extension. The letter is located here. Keep your request short and simple. Amend the letter to fit your association/group but don’t try to make a substantive case of why the extension should be granted so much as simply let FWS know the extension must be granted. The more people, associations and groups that request the extension, the better. In this instance, it’s more a matter of the quantity of requests than the quality of them.

The Elephant Protection Association strongly advises that you send your letter via priority or overnight mail with a means of confirming receipt.

For more information visit elephantprotection.org.

Video: A Knife Made from Old Wrench

Knifemaking

Corey Graff

-

August 12, 2015

0

Watch as Trollsky Knifemaking turns an old knuckle-buster wrench into a razor-sharp, cool-looking blade.

It just goes to show what you can do with some raw material, the right tools and a little know-how.

What’s the strangest tool you’ve ever transformed? Log in below and leave a comment.

Also Check Out:

Knives 2016, 36th Edition

Putting on display custom knifemaking at its finest, Knives is back in its 36th edition. The trusted guide for knife collectors, enthusiasts, knifemakers, and dealers around the world, this knife book covers the latest and greatest from front to back. Get it here

BLADE Show Recap BLADE Out NOW!

Steve Shackleford

-

August 11, 2015

0

Tim, Anne and Chris. — (From left) Tim, Anne and Chris Reeve basked in the limelight after Chris was inducted into the Cutlery Hall Of Fame© during the BLADE Show. (Piotr Makuch image)

Emerson Mutant debuted at the BLADE Show. — The Mutant from Emerson Knives, Inc., was one of many factory knives that debuted at the BLADE Show.

Hunters by Timberline, White River Knife & Tool, Steel Will and Boker Arbolito. — Gracing the new BLADE are new fall hunters, from left: two Timberline/Russ Kommer models, the Jerry Fisk Sendero repro by White River Knife & Tool, the Steel Will Druid 220 and the Boker Arbolito Sendero

The BLADE Magazine 2015 Knives Of The Year®, the 2015 BLADE Show recap, new BLADE Magazine Cutlery Hall-Of-Fame© inductee Chris Reeve and much more highlight the November BLADE®, on newsstands now!

The world’s finest knives descended on Atlanta for the 34th Annual BLADE Show, and the best of the best blades were on display for record crowds to drool over in the Cobb Galleria. Among the knives were the winners of the Knife-Of-The-Year Awards for the factory knife industry. See which knives won—one of the winners is this issue’s cover knife, the Desert Fox by Fox Knives—and also the best in the show’s custom knives and much more in respective stories on pages 12 and 46.

Few modern knives have had the impact of the Sebenza by Chris Reeve Knives, and the man who serves as the company’s namesake took his place among the industry’s elite when he was inducted into the Cutlery Hall Of Fame the Saturday night of the BLADE Show. Chris’s good friend, custom knifemaker/designer Bill Harsey, gave the speech inducting Chris, and it was one of the more popular inductions in recent memory. Get the details on page 22.

Rick Hinderer has been one of the knife industry’s great success stories. He has worked hard over the years and catapulted from a relatively unknown maker of art knives to being one of the industry’s leading makers of tactical folders—and one of the lottery movement’s biggest successes in the process. He has opened a new 14,000-square foot facility to bring more of his knives to his many fans. Learn more on page 28.

Also this issue: what’s hot in custom tactical fixed blades of the stock removal variety; a test of the Johnson Adventure Blades SEEK 3.5 and Battle Horse Knives Large Workhorse; a field test of four of the latest hunters by Timberline (a Russ Kommer design), White River Knife & Tool (a Jerry Fisk design), Steel Will and Boker Arbolito; a plethora of factory knives that debuted at the BLADE Show; a test of four new bushcraft models—the Condor Tool & Knife Final Frontier, CRKT Saker, ESEE Camp Lore RB3 and TOPS Scandi Woodsman; and much more.

Are More People Forging Today?

Joe Kertzman

-

August 6, 2015

1

I was watching American Pickers on the History Channel last night, and the stars were looking at an anvil, and Mike said something to the effect of, “More and more people today are going back to the basics and learning to forge, and learning the art of glass blowing and things like that …”

And it got me thinking about how my wife, Tricia, and I do this art tour every year where they give you a map and you go to artisans’ houses for kind of an “open house” art tour. And there’s usually a glass blower every year.

And then there’s that other History Channel show, Forged In Fire, and it seems like new knifemakers keep coming out of the woodwork …

What do you think, are more people forging today than in recent past?

Shown in the image are Finnish brother knifemakers Jakob (forging) and Simon Nylund.

Fossil Ivory: Banned Along With Ivory?

Steve Shackleford

-

August 6, 2015

0

Fossil ivory under attack on the federal and state level. — Fossil ivory could be banned with elephant ivory if federal and state governments are not stopped. Don Hanson uses fossil ivory on his folder.

Fossil ivory may well be on the way to being banned with elephant ivory if federal and state governments are not checked.

At least that’s the opinion of one informed source who wishes to remain unnamed, blademag.com has learned.

Fossil ivory could be banned with elephant ivory. — Ivory from the long-extinct mammoth and mastodon may be banned along with elephant ivory simply because many inspectors won’t be able to differentiate between elephant and ancient ivory.

As reported in blademag.com on July 29, proposed changes to the federal ivory laws are finally out and are designed to stop all trade in elephant ivory in the USA, no matter how old the ivory is. The proposed laws do not mention fossil or ancient ivory such as that of the long-extinct mammoth and mastodon. However, the concern is that the Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) officials who would be charged with inspecting elephant ivory to determine its legality would have no problem with fossil ivory IF they can differentiate it from elephant ivory.

“The way I see it,” the source stated, whether the inspectors can differentiate between elephant and fossil ivory “will depend on [the inspectors’] training, or lack thereof, and level of enthusiasm.”

Meanwhile, it is the state legislatures that the source is most worried about.

The sale of mammoth ivory tusks and teeth has already been banned in New York (http://open.nysenate.gov/legislation/bill/S7040-2013) and New Jersey (http://www.njleg.state.nj.us/2014/Bills/A3500/3128_I1.HTM). It has been reported on blademag.com that at least two other states—Florida and Illinois—ban the sale of mammoth ivory and/or make no exemptions for the sale of the ancient material. Other states are considering mammoth ivory bans as well.

“In all the states that have had [ivory] bills introduced, mammoth, fossil walrus and all forms of ivory are included [because, the state legislators say] ‘it’s so hard to tell the difference,'” the source noted. “Now, we’ve defeated almost every applicable bill that’s been introduced so far, but these guys are not going to roll over and play dead.”

For more information on how to protect your right to own and sell mammoth and other fossil ivories, and how to defeat the proposed changes to federal ivory laws that are designed to stop all U.S. trade in elephant ivory, visit elephantprotection.org.

BLADE Magazine

6 Hotties Highlight New Knives

Also Check Out:

Gear Up with The Team Jackal

Act NOW on Ivory Comment Extension

Video: A Knife Made from Old Wrench

Also Check Out:

BLADE Show Recap BLADE Out NOW!

Are More People Forging Today?

Fossil Ivory: Banned Along With Ivory?

Must Read Articles

Knifemaking 101 – Read This Before You Make a Knife

8 Things You May Not Know About “Forged in Fire”

How to Forge Damascus

How to Create Damascus Patterns

Why Are Switchblades Illegal?