Navajo artist David Yellowhorse has collaborated with Buck on some of the most beautiful knives anywhere, and the two have nailed it again with the Yellowhorse Spirit Singer. The handle is turquoise, black jet and nickel silver. The knife comes with a glass top display case and in a limited edition of 100 (if, indeed, any are left!)
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See the latest knives, swords, and edges of all types, and explore the latest trends in blades, steels, styles, and materials. Gaze upon a “State of the Art” section parading engraved, scrimshawed, jewel-inlaid, carved, etched, sculpted and forge-welded, and Damascus and mosaic-damascus knives. Click here.
2014 will go down as a year that marked some noteworthy knife company anniversaries and milestones. On top of the heap is Puma, celebrating its 245th anniversary! Yes, you read that correctly, Puma Knife Co. is nearly two and a half centuries old.
Other anniversary milestones: Boker (145th); Case (125th); Gerber (75th); the Buck 110 folding hunter (50th); Frost Cutlery, Kershaw and Plaza Cutlery (40th); Lansky and Masecraft (35th); Outdoor Edge (25th); CRKT and Microtech (20th); Benchmade McHenry & Williams 710 AXIS™ and Pro-Tech (15th); and Canal Street Cutlery (10th.)
That’s a lot of anniversaries, and a lot of cool, quality knives. For more, click here.
Veteran knifemaker Joe Kious, popularizer of the “Pocket Locket” style of high-end art folder and long-time Knifemakers’ Guild member, passed away Dec. 5 as a result of injuries suffered in a vehicle accident.
A resident of Kerrville, Texas, Kious was a full-time knifemaker who sold his first knife in 1969. He specialized in investment-quality interframes and bolstered folders, some bringing up to as high as $10,000 apiece.
However, it is his Pocket-Locket models for which he may be best remembered. Featuring elaborate engraving, the folding knives include a small compartment in the handle with a sliding panel that slides back to reveal another engraved scene inside.
“Joe was a staunch supporter of the Knifemakers’ Guild and believed in handmade knives,” said knifemaker and fellow Guild member Edmund Davidson. “Joe had a wonderful personality, was very easy to speak with and would tell you anything you wanted to know. He held nothing back and had no secrets. His knives reflected a great deal of thought, craftsmanship and artistry. He was a true master and genuine person. He will be sorely missed. When we lose a man of his caliber, we are all diminished.”
“Joe was a gentleman who loved his family, friends, enjoyed shooting, fine scotch and making knives,” noted Michael Donato of KnifePurveyor.com. “Please keep his family in your thoughts and prayers.”
A member of a close-knit group of Texas-based Guild knifemakers that includes Warren Osborne, Tom Overeynder and others, the stately Kious was liked and respected by most everyone who knew him in the industry. A lean, handsome man with a full head of grey-white hair, he was soft-spoken but never at a loss for words or a well-thought-out opinion.
Though he did not make BLADE® Magazine’s 40th anniversary list of top knifemakers—he received enough votes to make honorable mention—his Pocket Locket was chosen No. 6 among the most important custom knives of the period from 2001-2012 in the magazine’s 40th anniversary list of top custom knives.
“Joe’s Pocket Locket is important because it is the most flexible engraving platform ever offered,” noted custom knife purveyor Paul Shindler of KnifeLegends. “It includes many models and styles but offers pretty much endless possibilities for the imagination of any collector. The Pocket Locket may be the most important engravable knife ever conceived.”
Added Donato, the Pocket Locket “has a very high ‘cool factor’ to it and has served as a canvas for many of the best engravers to work their magic. Joe’s Pocket Lockets are featured in many books, magazines and great collections worldwide.”
BLADE’s Complete Knife Guide Spring 2015 is your knife bible for most every cutting need in the coming year and is on newsstands NOW!
In addition to providing you with the contact information for every factory knife, knife accessory and cutting need, the new BLADE’s Complete Knife Guide (BKG) keeps you in the loop for the latest industry trends, including the new wave of genticals that is flooding the cutlery landscape.
Sporting a name that combines the “gent’s” of “gent’s knife” and the “tactical” of “tactical knife,” “gentical” is a term christened by BLADE Magazine Cutlery Hall-Of-Fame© member Ken Onion. As you might guess, it’s a genre that exhibits the best traits of gent’s and tactical knives and it’s taking the knife industry by storm. Get the full story on this burgeoning trend on page 10 of the new BKG.
Want that special custom knife but are not exactly sure how to go about it, where to look or who to contact? In “7 Keys to Getting the Best Custom Knives,” Mike Haskew picks the brains of those who buy and sell the best custom knives for a living—custom knife purveyors/dealers. Read what the pros recommend on page 78.
Neck knives—aka neckers—are those handy little blades you can wear around your neck and are instantly accessible for whatever cutting job is at hand. Abe Elias takes you through some of today’s leading examples and also shows you other ways to wear them other than around your neck.
Are silky smooth folders at the top of your Christmas list? If so, join Stephen Garger as he explores a quartet of the top ones on both sides of the Atlantic in “4 Silky Smooth Folders.”
There’s much more in this issue, including the new knives for 2015, the hottest knives for law enforcement officers and EMTs, sharp knifemaking tool deals, top survival knives for under $75, the best-selling knife sharpeners by company and much more, all in the new BKG.
Good for the Topeka Capital-Journal and journalist Carolyn Kaberline for covering the “Heartland Bladesmithing Symposium,” which took place in Kansas this past October and is sponsored by the American Bladesmith Society (ABS) and the Kansas Custom Knifemakers Association.
(Carolyn Kaberline photo)
One of 10 ABS Hammer-Ins and events across the country, the Heartland Bladesmithing Symposium included demonstrations by renowned steel makers and knifemakers like Jerry Rados and Steve Culver, who conducted demonstrations covering such subjects as damascus pattern makng, tomahawk forging, creating wood-lined sheaths, applying metallurgical theory, ABS journeyman smith judging standards, and even a knife photography segment taught by Caleb Royer.
Click here to read the full story.
For more knifemaking how-to, click here.
An unusually high number of knifemakers have died recently, all of whom left more than their fair share of lifelong marks on family, friends and the knife industry. In terms of influence on knife design, though, the two that probably had the largest impact were Ed Halligan and Kit Carson.
Ironically, both men designed wildly popular folding knives for CRKT, and it is those folders that have been so influential on the knife industry.
A member of the BLADE Magazine Cutlery Hall Of Fame©, Carson passed away Sept. 5. Halligan passed away Nov. 8. Though both made many great knives, each will be remembered most for their industry standards: Carson for the M16 and Halligan for the K.I.S.S.
The K.I.S.S. is a simple yet ingenious folding knife. In the closed position, its two-piece frame-lock construction and safe, user-friendly design “seals” the cutting edge of the chisel-ground blade against the handle. As Halligan once explained, “With the K.I.S.S., the frame and the lock are all one piece … I made the original knife with the blade chisel ground on one side only so it would slide against the frame when folded and make a seal so you wouldn’t cut yourself.”
In fact, when it first came out, I recall talking to one long-time industry observer who thought the K.I.S.S. was a lawsuit waiting to happen because he thought consumers would cut themselves on the blade edge despite the blade’s seal against the handle in the closed position. However, Halligan’s version of the design works so well that such accidental cuts never happen. One of the main reasons the design is safe is that Halligan tested it in real-life conditions to be sure that such accidents never occur. “Safety is a big reason why I carried the knife around so much to make sure it worked properly,” Halligan said.
In 1997, Halligan signed a deal with CRKT for the company to reproduce the K.I.S.S., and CRKT launched the repro of the knife at the 1998 SHOT Show. Only four years old at the time, CRKT was struggling to find a knife that would help “drag the rest of the product lines along,” as CRKT’s Rod Bremer put it. The K.I.S.S. was that knife. Unfortunately, a number of unscrupulous companies blatantly knocked the K.I.S.S. off so much that it eventually became one of the most copied sporting knives worldwide. CRKT and Halligan weathered that storm, though, and Ed designed a series of K.I.S.S. iterations and spinoffs for CRKT that included the Delilah’s P.E.C.K. (for Precision Engineered Compact Knife), Samson’s K.I.S.S., the H.U.G. (Halligan’s Ultimate Gadget), the Slip K.I.S.S., the Neck P.E.C.K., the blackened K.I.S.S. In The Dark, even a fixed-blade version called the Stiff K.I.S.S. and others.
Just as they were linked in their passing, Halligan and Carson were also linked in their CRKT collaboration deals. CRKT must have been living right back in those days because it was just a year after signing the deal with Halligan to reproduce the K.I.S.S. that it signed the deal with Carson to reproduce Carson’s M16 folder. Even though Carson did not invent the flipper, his M16 is universally credited as the model that popularized flipper folders—folding knives with one-hand-opening “flippers” that double as guards when the blade is opened. “The M16 with the Carson Flipper was a huge improvement on non-assisted blade opening, making a manual knife open almost as fast as an auto without a secondary thumb stud or hole mechanism,” observed long-time knife writer Mac Overton. “Because it had less moving parts and its opening relied on inertia rather than a spring or torsion bar, the mechanism was inherently stable and reliable.”
The M16 and its military look—Carson was a U.S. Army career man—soon became not only immensely popular with consumers but with service personnel as well. In fact, by many accounts, the M16 was the most popular knife among active duty service personnel in the wars in both Iraq and Afghanistan.
Meanwhile, as with the Halligan/CRKT K.I.S.S., Carson’s M16 begat a number of CRKT iterations and spinoffs, including the M16-10KZ, M16-13Z, M16-12Z, M16-14ZSF, M16-13ZM, M16-14SFG, M21-14SFG, M21-02G, M16-13FSG and others. And, most fittingly, the K.I.S.S. and M16 were ranked third and fourth, respectively, in a BLADE® Magazine poll of veteran industry observers of the top factory knives from 1989-2000.
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Turn back the clock with BLADE‘s digital collection of annual KNIVES books. Get every KNIVES book from 2004 to 2015 in one PDF download for just $79.99.
Click here to get the best knife books in one spot.
The American Knife & Tool Institute (AKTI) sent an email blast detailing three ways knife enthusiasts can support good, solid, pro-knife law changes. They are:
1) Follow AKTI’s Legislative News and be prepared to act when asked. Here’s just a peek at what’s already happening:
2) Bid on AKTI’s online auction. Proceeds go to the AKTI Legislative Fund. Awesome Opportunity!! Buck 110 50th Anniversary Set
You have an awesome opportunity to own a limited edition four-knife set of Buck 110’s commemorating the 50th Anniversary of the iconic knife. Thanks to the generosity of Buck Knives, you can bid (until Nov. 30th) on AKTI’s online auction to own one of the few remaining sets. Help support AKTI’s Legislative efforts and bid today!
Click here for more iconic knives.
3) Encourage others to sign up for AKTI’s free Grassroots newsletter.
Knife owners, makers, retailers and others willing to contact legislators when asked by email are important for the knife community to be heard and change to happen. Ask your employees, customers, friends and contacts to visit www.SaveOurKnives.org for why it’s important.
