Maine has repealed its antiquated switchblade ban. Maine Gov. LePage has signed into law LD 264, “An Act To Restore the Right To Possess Certain Knives That Are Used by Many Citizens as Tools,” repealing the state’s ban on switchblade (automatic) knives.
A freshman legislator, LD 264 sponsor Rep. Joel Stetkis may have been inspired by similar, previous bans in seven states, gaining the confidence to take on Maine’s ban as one of his first legislative efforts. The new law takes effect 90 days after the legislature adjourns.
Automatic knives are now legal for civilians without restriction in 27 states, and legal with various restrictions in 10 more. The eight states with complete repeals of the antiquated switchblade bans are New Hampshire, Alaska, Indiana, Kansas, Maine, Missouri, Tennessee and Texas. If you live in one of those states, you might want to click here and check out this link.
Forged tacticals are heating up in the new BLADE®, on newsstands NOW!
Forged tacticals as a trending new niche market, perhaps the best knives to use in corrosive saltwater environments, four hot new butterfly knives, the latest machetes and a comprehensive preview of the 2nd Annual BLADE University highlight the new BLADE®, on most newsstands today.
Purveyor Les Robertson specializes in tactical and handforged knives, so it only stands to reason he would be on the cusp of the edge if forged tactical knives were to become hot as firecrackers—and apparently such is the case. Find out why, which ones are hot and more in Robertson’s “A Niche Market In The Making?”
Spyderco has long touted its H1 steel as being not just stainless but stain proof. Ocean kayaker Lance Clinton decided to try out the company’s Pacific Salt model while floating off the coast of Costa Rica. Find out what he found out about this intriguing blade material in “Down To The Sea With Knives.”
Balisongs—aka butterfly knives—have long intrigued edged enthusiasts, and the latest examples of the genre will capture your fancy in “Enter The Spin Zone.” Factory machetes, meanwhile, are appearing in ever-increasing numbers. Check out some of the latest of the long blades in “Those Magnificent Machetes.”
BLADE University, a fresh approach to knife education at knife shows, was a huge hit at last year’s BLADE Show—and this year’s 2nd Annual BLADE University has been expanded to cover a wider range of topics, including knife grinding, collecting, how to have your design picked up by a knife manufacturer, 3D CAD/CAM knife design, how to engrave, how to design combat knives, how to make handles and guards, introduction to bladesmithing, how to sharpen, what to look for in the best high performance knife and much. Get the complete lowdown in “School of Steel.” BLADE University will commence a day before through the show Saturday of the BLADE Show, which will be June 5-7 at the Cobb Galleria in Atlanta.
There’s much more in the latest issue of BLADE. Check it out at your local newsstand.
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Anyone who has ever been to the BLADE Show will tell you that there are more production knives, handmade knives, antique knives, collectible knives, knifemakers, dealers, factories, purveyors, collectors and enthusiasts at that show than anywhere else in the world. But the BLADE Show has always been much more than that, and today it is becoming the Ultimate Knife Experience like never before.
Not only does a visit to the 2015 BLADE Show, June 5-7 at the Cobb Galleria Centre in Marietta, Georgia, afford you the opportunity to go to the show, but the chance to attend BLADE U or BLADE University classes covering everything from grinding a knife blade to engraving, choosing a survival knife, knife design and function, using 3D CAD/CAM Software in knife design and much, much more.
Visitors are invited to attend the American Bladesmith Society knife auction, see a glass showcase filled with the Blade Magazine Knife-Of-The-Year® Award entries from all the major knife companies around the world, witness the BLADE Show World Championship Cutting Competition hosted by BladeSports International, view knife displays, see BLADE Show demonstrations covering knife throwing, testing, forging, hand-to-hand-combat and a host of other subjects and even see Japanese sword demonstrations.
Afterwards, enjoy a nice meal and a cool drink at the host hotel, including the infamous ” The Pit” sunken bar—the Renaissance Waverly Hotel in Marietta.
Join us at the BLADE Show and enjoy the Ultimate Knife Experience!
Chris Williams of Wilmont Grinders will be among the makers who will teach knife grinding during BLADE University, brought to you by Premium Knife Supply. (Wilmont Grinders photo)
Learn knife grinding at the 2nd Annual BLADE University brought to you by Premium Knife Supply in a three-part class taught by knifemakers Lucas Burnley, Tom Krein and Chris Williams.
BLADE U. will be held in conjunction with the 2015 BLADE Show June 5-7 at the Cobb Galleria in Atlanta. Also held in the Cobb Galleria, BLADE U. will begin the Thursday (June 4) before the show and end show Saturday. The grinding seminar is but one of a full range of classes on a variety of knife subjects taught by some of the world’s leading cutlery professionals.
In their blade-grinding instructional, the three makers will outline the proper tools and equipment, the importance of safety and show you how it’s all done.
In the classroom setting of part one, they will discuss two-wheel vs. three-wheel grinders; variable speed vs. fixed speed; the differences between 1- and 2-inch contact wheels; belts and belt backings; flat platens; small wheel attachments; rotary attachment; grinding jigs; and more.
From the classroom to the outside setting of The Courtyard of the show’s adjoining host hotel, the Renaissance Waverly, in part two the three makers will teach grinding for beginners on machines provided by Wilmont Grinders. The session will include how to scribe the centerline and grind lines on the blade, how to hollow grind to the grind lines and grind a swedge/clip, and more. Finally, in part three, Burnley will cover advanced blade grinding—including grinding in a fuller—and recurve, compound and convex grinds.
Learn both basic and advanced knife making techniques with expert instruction from Allen Alishewitz in Tactical Fixed Blades. Allen demonstrates how to craft a double-edged tactical fixed blade knife from start to finish, and creates two knives in order to fully illustrate the knife building process. You’ll learn:
– Profiling and Drilling the Knife
– Tang Tapering on a Grinder
– Tang Tapering on a Mill
– And more!
When established knifemaker Lee Williams met Donna, little did he know that he had a future knifemaker on his hands!
As husband and wife, Lee and Donna Williams collaborate on the usual things, like what’s for dinner or where to go on vacation. So why not team up on making knives?
When Lee, already an established knifemaker with a large collector base, met Donna, little did he know that he had a future knifemaker on his hands, or a beautiful and devoted wife!
In a feature article titled “Mr. and Mrs. Sharp” in the June 2015 issue of BLADE®, writer Pat Covert tells Lee and Donna’s story and shows some of the knives Lee has fashioned recently on his own, and collaborative pieces the couple has made together before and after marrying in July of 2014.
As Lee notes, “I started making knives in 2001. I had set up a small machine shop in my garage around 1996,” he recalls. “In November of 2001 I decided to make knives for my siblings as Christmas presents. Twenty-something knives later I had managed to finish knives for all of them, plus their spouses, before Christmas that year. I wasn’t completely satisfied with those first few knives and started doing a lot of research on the Internet.”
The Cherub (above right) is a result of the first collaboration between Donna and Lee Williams as a married couple. (Steel Addiction Custom Knives image)
Learn both basic and advanced knife making techniques with expert instruction from Allen Alishewitz in Tactical Fixed Blades. Allen demonstrates how to craft a double-edged tactical fixed blade knife from start to finish, and creates two knives in order to fully illustrate the knife building process. You’ll learn:
– Profiling and Drilling the Knife
– Tang Tapering on a Grinder
– Tang Tapering on a Mill
– And more!
The Harpoon designed by Jerry Hossom is new from Outdoor Edge.
The factory knife industry is always evolving and the evolution of change exhibited by the latest and greatest sharp stuff at the 2015 Shooting, Hunting, Outdoor Trade Show at the Sands Convention Center in Las Vegas was a case in point.
Automatics appeared in increasing numbers, both by companies known for them, such as Pro-Tech and Benchmade (CLA or Composite Lite Auto), and those not known for them as much, including Buck (Impact), Kershaw (Launch 1, 2 and 3), Hogue (EX-AO1, AO3 and AO2) and Timberline (18-Delta). Machetes were in abundance, including those by Outdoor Edge (Brush Demon), CRKT (Mah-Chete designed by Liong Mah), Timberline (Machete Survival System), Condor (Duku and Mini Duku) and the CHOP slated for a BLADE Show debut by DPx Gear. More in big fixed blades included a bolo (Jungle Bolo) and a bowie knife (Jungle Clip-Point) from Benchmade, the Camp 12 by Kershaw, a Steel Will bowie and also tactical fixed blades, the latter including a stretched-out-and flatter version of the Jerry Fisk Sendero in CPM S30V from White River, and Canal Street Cutlery’s Green River Tactical Knives in D2 tool steel with handle slabs by VZ Grips and model numbers based on special dates/battles of the Iraq and Persian Gulf Wars.
Also proliferating were models in a tomahawk, hatchet or hatchet configuration from 5.11 Tactical, Hogue, Spyderco (Szabohawk), Kershaw (Tinder), SOG Specialty Knives & Tools (Survival Hawk), Timberline (Tomahawk CBT/Combat Breaching Tool) and Puma (Tomahawk XP and Packable Hatchet). A design collaboration with Allen Elishewitz, the Hogue model is especially noteworthy with hammer poll and spike attachments to make it two hawks in one.
The new Chef’s Choice Hybrid AngleSelect from Edgecraft combines electrice and manual sharpening stages and is desgined for sharpening traditional European/American at a 20° angle and Asian style knives at a 15° angle.
Knives designed by or dedicated to military heroes were highlighted by a Case V-42 based on vintage drawings of the original model made for World War II’s First Special Service Force, the father of today’s spec ops units, with two surviving FSSF members—93-year-old Eugene Gutierrez and Del Stonehouse, 90—on hand at the Case booth to visit with show attendees. Buck offered the 245 Matt Would Go Knife designed by Navy SEAL Matthew J. Leathers, who was lost at sea during open ocean training exercises in 2013. Camillus featured new tactical fixed-blade designs by retired Green Beret Grady Powell and retired Navy SEAL Jared Ogden of National Geographic TV’s Ultimate Survival Alaska. (Editor’s note: All of the preceding military knives will be featured in special stories in an upcoming BLADE®.)
Other knives with a celebrity influence include new Kutmaster fixed blades inspired by the Pigman TV series. Condor premiered the Primitive Bush Knife used by survivalist Matt Graham on the Discovery Channel’s Dual Survival reality show.
It’s not a knife event without new tactical folders. Emerson Knives, Inc., debuted four entries—the Sheepdog, Iron Dragon, Hattin and Combat Systems Fighter—and Kershaw a larger version of its most popular Emerson collaboration, the CQC-4KXL. Coast Cutlery presented three smooth-opening, economical tactical folders (models TX399, TX395 and TX360) with design input from Spec Ops personnel. Krudo had four new folder designs—three flippers and an Asian-influenced model with a modified tanto blade called the Dao.
Other introduced models and items of note include:
ESEE’s long-awaited Camp-Lore bushcraft series, the Ontario Bushcraft Woodsman chopper and the Saker, a bushcraft design by BLADE contributor Abe Elias for CRKT;
Zero Tolerance addressed the lower-end and smaller-knife industry segments with smaller folders (the 0450 and 0452CF) designed by Dmitry Sinkevich in the $200 MSRP range, and also introduced the model 0630 folder which includes Ernest Emerson’s wave-opening feature;
DPx is working on a new version of its pivoting-handle-and-blade-guard design, also set for a BLADE Show debut, that is easier to operate and will be in a skinning knife configuration;
White River’s hunting knife collaborations with Fisk, the Sendero Bush knife, with CPM S30V blade steel and an MSRP of $220;
Hogue and Benchmade (a river knife) fixed blades with lock-and-switch-release sheaths for both secure knife carry and easy deployment;
For the ladies, 5.11 Tactical’s black folders with assorted handle color inserts with matching anodized liners;
Traditional pocketknives by Queen that include Schatt & Morgan Anglo-Saxon patterns and those by Case in handles by Eagle Grips;
Timberline’s Trophy Drop-Point hunters designed by knifemaker/professional Alaskan hunting guide Russ Kommer;
Spartan Blades is developing a lapel dagger and a redo of an old Bill Harsey tactical folder design;
Smith’s and its new Edgesport outdoor specialty tools and product line includes a natural tinder maker w/fire starter ($8.99 MSRP); Pack Pal Sharpener and Fire Starter w/emergency whistle ($9.99 MSRP); Pocket Pal X2 Sharpener and Survival Tool (sharpener, LED light, compass, whistle and fire starter, $14.99 MSRP); Survival Knife (a folder w/sharpener, whistle and fire starter, $19.99 MSRP); Survival Knife and Kit (w/collapsible silicon cup, fishing kit, duct tape, safety pins, emergency blanket, zip ties and tinder, $39.99); and Ultimate Survival Kit and Multi Tool 10-N-1 Multi-tool w/basic survival and first-aid kit, $49.99 MSRP).
Recommended:
Stay abreast of the latest developments on this and many more knife rights issues with a subscription to BLADE.
The Pro-Strider SnG, a collaboration between Pro-Tech and Strider Knives, is the cover knife for the latest issue of BLADE®.
The latest 2015 factory knives as seen at the SHOT Show—including the Pro-Strider SnG cover knife from Pro-Tech—how to make a knife with basic tools, hot bottle-opener knives, the edgiest custom knife-sheath combos going and much more highlight the new BLADE®, on newsstands NOW!
The Shooting, Hunting, Outdoor Trade (SHOT) Show is the annual coming-out party for the year’s brand new guns and related products for those in the applicable trades—including factory knives. BLADE was there to visit with factory knife and knife accessory companies from all corners of the globe to see what their latest and greatest knives are for the new year. Check out the results in “A Beveled Bevy of Blade Beauties” on page 12.
Many people seem to think you must have a complete shop setup to make a good knife, but BLADE field editor and ABS master smith Joe Szilaski knows better—and shows you how to make a knife from a file with a few basic tools on page 20.
Bottle-opener knives are nothing new—Swiss Army and boy scout knives with folding bottle-opener tools have been around for ages—but the recent crop of bottle-opener knives with the opener incorporated into the butt of the handle is going gangbusters. Check out this hot new trend on page 50.
Time was a sheath with a fixed blade was a given, kind of like milk with your cereal, bacon and eggs, and toast and jelly. However, it is not uncommon for some of today’s fixed blades to be absent a sheath. On the other hand are those custom makers who take pride not only in making world-class knives but pairing them with world-class sheaths as well. Meet some of these makers and their handiwork in “Edgy Combos” on page 72.
