The recent Shooting, Hunting, Outdoor Trade (SHOT) Show in Las Vegas introduced many new factory knives from many production companies, including several fresh models from CRKT. Here are eight of CRKT’s latest cutters.
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2015 BLADE Show CRKT Tighe Rade™
This is a numbered Official BLADE Show Exclusive knife with limited quantity – only 300 available! Each custom Tighe Rade™ knife touts the Blade Show logo.
Designed by Brian Tighe, this knife is anything but understated. The textured and grooved aluminum handle complements the multi-purpose compound ground blade. The tip of the blade is reinforced, making it ideal for stronger cutting applications, while the area of the blade closer to the handle is optimal for finer cutting tasks and wire stripping. Keeping the blade secure is a button lock, allowing you to efficiently deploy the blade with a flipper or ambidextrous dual thumb studs. If you’re looking for a versatile blade with extreme style and sophistication, this is it. Learn more
Knife Icon Chuck Buck Passes Away
Chuck Buck, chairman of Buck Knives and a long-time member of the BLADE Magazine Cutlery Hall-Of-Fame©, passed away Friday. He was 78.
One of the most revered and admired of all factory knife industry executives, Buck had been suffering from poor health for a few years. However, as recently as the summer of 2013 he ignored health concerns and appeared at the 25th annual anniversary of the Buck Collectors Club Inc., shaking hands with club members, attending the club’s banquet along with his wife of so many years, Lori, and otherwise enjoying himself during the celebration.
Please keep the Buck family in your prayers, stressed the Buck Collector Club’s Larry Oden. “Obviously, there are also many Buck Knives employees who are greatly saddened by Chuck’s passing,” he noted. “He was loved by so many and was a highly respected man. The entire cutlery world has lost an icon.”
“It is with heavy hearts that we regret to inform everyone that we have lost a legend,” Buck Knives, Inc., noted in a statement on its Facebook page. “[Mr. Buck] was an industry icon and friend to all.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with the family and all those touched by this industry giant. Legacy planning for a company is always difficult; many companies do not survive the transition to the second generation, fewer still the third. Chuck was the grandson of company founder Hoyt Buck. It is a testimony to his leadership that the company remains strong today, still widely respected under the fourth-generation leadership of Chuck’s son, Buck Knives President and CEO CJ Buck.”
Along with his father, fellow Cutlery Hall-Of-Famer Al Buck, Chuck was a member of Buck’s board of directors appointed after the company was incorporated in 1961. Three short years later the Buck 110 folding hunter was introduced and the factory knife industry would never be the same. The Buck 110 just celebrated its golden anniversary last year.
A Celebration of Life for Chuck Buck will be held at 2 p.m. PST on Friday, Feb. 13, in Post Falls at Real Life Ministries Church. The service will be open to the public. Real Life is located at 1866 North Cecil Road, Post Falls, ID 83854/ 208-777-7325.
The family also will have a memorial service in San Diego, California, on May 13. Chuck was born on May 13, 1936. He will be laid to rest in his family plot there. More details are to come on the memorial. It also will be open to the public.
In lieu of flowers memorials may be made to Franklin Graham’s Samaritan’s Purse, www.samaritanspurse.org, or by calling 1-800-528-1980. Please ask that the call be directed to donations in honor of Charles T. Buck.
Collecting Knives By One Maker
In the April 2015 issue of BLADE® is a fascinating feature article about four knife collectors whose collections each consist overwhelmingly of the knives of one knifemaker only. The collectors and the makers they collect? The article, written by Stephen Garger, lists Chris Schluter, who enjoys accumulating the knives of Bob Terzuola; Tony Wang, who began collecting Bob Lum knives in the late 1980s; Tashi Bharucha, whose collection focuses on Tom Mayo knives; and Don Deckert who collects Ernest Emerson knives.
Don Deckert’s collection of Ernest Emerson customs includes these seven (left) very early “garage make” pre-tac knives.
The feature starts:
You’ve heard of people collecting dozens, even hundreds of assorted genres of knives, but have you heard of collectors amassing up to 100 or more knives of a single maker? Chris Schluter knows of such collectors and suggested the phenomenon as a topic for a BLADE story.
Chris enjoys accumulating the knives of Bob Terzuola and is one of several who practice the one-maker approach to knife collecting. See the April 2015 issue of BLADE to read the rest of the article, or click here.
Tashi Bharucha’s Tom Mayo collection (left) features at least 55 of the popular maker’s knives, including one of Bharucha’s designs, the “Mayo Chopper,” though Mayo calls it “The Tashinator.”
Sharp Knives of the SHOT Show
The latest in factory knives and accessories were among the surest of bets at the recent Shooting, Hunting, Outdoor, Trade (SHOT) Show in Las Vegas.
New automatics—no doubt spurred in part by the recent repeal of antiquated switchblade bans in a number of states, a move led by pro-knife groups Knife Rights and the American Knife & Tool Institute—were introduced by such companies as Buck, Kershaw, Hogue, Timberline, Pro-Tech and Benchmade. Tomahawks/hatchets were also a hot item, with new versions offered by Spyderco, Puma, 5.11 Tactical, Hogue, Kershaw, SOG and Camillus. Big knives, including machetes, bowies, bolos and camp models, also sizzled, with DPx Gear, Benchmade, CRKT, HK, Steel Will, Outdoor Edge and Condor Tool & Knife among those in the mix.
There were a number of other knives of note, including a new lightweight tactical fixed blade designed by ABS master smith Jerry Fisk based on a longer, flattened out version of his Sendero hunter for White River Knife & Tool. Canal Street Cutlery, in a departure for it, also offered a new tactical fixed blade with slabs provided by VZ Grips and models named after battles of the Iraq War.
Smooth-operating folders abounded, including the reasonably priced Hootenanny designed by BLADE Magazine Cutlery Hall-Of-Fame© member Ken Onion for CRKT. Emerson Knives, Inc., had four new tactical folder models: the Iron Dragon, Sheepdog, Hattin and Combat Systems Fighter. Coast Cutlery featured a number of reasonably priced tactical folders, all designed with specific input from spec ops personnel. SOG presented a small utility folder in its SOG-light series with four brilliant LEDs and a thin, lightweight profile—notable in terms of incorporating lights, lightweight and slender ergonomics in a folding knife.
“Celebrity steel” also proliferated, including a new Utica/Kutmaster knife inspired by the Pigman TV series, tactical fixed blades designed for Camillus by retired Green Beret Grady Powell and retired Navy SEAL Jared Ogden of TV’s Ultimate Survival Alaska, and a chopper from Condor used by survivalist Matt Graham on TV’s Dual Survival.
Meanwhile, Buck presented the 245 Matt Would Go knife based on the design of Navy SEAL Matthew Leathers. Leathers gave his life for his country in 2013 when he was lost at sea during open ocean training exercises.
Mora introduced what for it is a higher-end kitchen knife set—three models in birch handles and 14C28N Swedish Sandvik steel at an MSRP of $299. Zero Tolerance offered new, smaller folders in the $200 MSRP range, and Kershaw introduced a new, larger version of its CQC-4 Ernest Emerson collaboration. Spyderco presented a number of new models, including a Craig Douglas (aka “Southnarc”)/Michael Janich “two-way” fixed blade called the “Reverse” in which the handle slabs can be detached and the knife flipped/reversed and the handles reattached, resulting in mirror-image “edge-out” ergonomics, or two knives in one. Meanwhile, ESEE announced the debut of its long-awaited bushcraft line of fixed blades.
Case introduced its “reborn” version of the V-42 with a special hollow grind based on the original blueprint of the knife made famous by the First Special Service Force, the father of today’s spec ops units, of World War II. A special treat was two surviving members of the FSSF—90-year-old Del Stonehouse and 93-year-old Eugene Gutierrez—on hand at the Case booth. Look for a special story on them in a future issue of BLADE® magazine.
For the complete rundown on the knives from the SHOT Show, see the June BLADE in March.
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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.
Brush Demon Highlights New BLADE
The Jerry Hossom/Outdoor Edge Brush Demon is the cover knife for the latest issue of BLADE®, on newsstands TODAY! The Brush Demon is one of the latest examples of the many factory/custom knife collaborations that dot the cutlery landscape. The new BLADE highlights it and three other hot examples of a genre that showcases the great knives that can come of such joint projects. How do they come about? What problems do both the makers and the knife companies face in putting such knives together? Find out in the new BLADE.
Knife collecting comes in many approaches, from amassing scores of the same pocketknife pattern, to collecting specific brands such as Case and Buck, and many others. An approach BLADE focuses on this issue is the collecting of knives by one custom knifemaker—in some cases, as many as 100 knives or more by a single custom maker! Join Stephen Garger as he interviews several such collectors and the knives and the knifemakers they collect.
If your car were to flip and your loved ones were pinned by jammed seat belts, would you be prepared to cut those seat belts and save your loved ones’ lives? One way to be prepared for such an eventuality is to keep a “car blade” in your vehicle. Abe Elias examines some of the latest examples of the genre in his story “5 Sharp Car Blades.”
One of the most followed aspects of knives is the latest steels used for blades. Four of the newest steels to hit the cutlery scene are 80CrV2, CTS-PD1, CTS B75P and PSF-27. Find out from the manufacturers and the makers how well these steels perform, how easy they are to maintain and sharpen and much more in Mike Haskew’s “What’s Hot In Knife Steels.”
There’s much more in the latest issue, including Dexter Ewing’s review of the Work Sharp Ken Onion Knife & Tool Sharpener, tests of fixed blades by Sam Stoner Jr. and Darrin Sirois by Kim Breed, part two of Jim Hammond’s educational three-part series on the ivory ban, a comparison of four hot contemporary automatics, a recap of an exclusive new Italian knife show, the Art in Metal Show, an obituary of long-time knifemaker Joe Kious who lost his life tragically in a truck accident, and much more—all in the new BLADE, on newsstands TODAY!
Get One Here:
Designed by custom knifemaker and big blade expert, Jerry Hossom, the Brush Demon is the ultimate outdoor and survival tool. Made of sturdy 65Mn carbon steel with a black powder coat finish, this is one aggressive high-speed chopping tool you’ll want on your side. Be prepared for extreme conditions with the non-slip grip provided by the rubberized ergonomic TPR handle. Learn more
Feature Article Names BLADE® and KNIVES 2015
A December 2014 feature article by staff writer Phil Perry online and in the Lincoln Times-News of Lincolnton, N.C., mentions BLADE® Magazine and KNIVES 2015. A knifemaking feature on ABS journeyman smith and commercial pilot Steve Randall, it starts:
Often, when a craftsman pursues the road to independence through a business venture, they are inspired by a lifetime of collecting or being exposed directly to the craft. That wasn’t necessarily the case for Lincoln County’s Steve Randall, who has made an international name for himself crafting custom hand-forged knives from his workshop on the eastern end of the county.
“As an avid survivalist, I have used knives all my life,” he said. “I never collected them or thought a whole lot about it. Once I was bitten with the bug I have been obsessed with it ever since.”
Things changed in 2009 when Randall started “KSR Blades” and built an extension onto his garage to house the vast amount of forging equipment needed to facilitate his burning passion to produce high-quality hand-forged knives.
“I made my first sale on eBay and I was pretty excited,” Randall said. The ABS journeyman smith doesn’t sell his product on auction sites these days. Having been featured in national magazines like “Knives Illustrated,” “BLADE® Magazine” and four of his creations featured in “KNIVES 2015,” Randall has a one-year backlog on special orders and also ships to Germany, Sweden, Australia and Canada.
Click here to read the rest of the article.
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Stay abreast of the latest developments on this and many more knife rights issues with a subscription to BLADE.
Knife Trends—Flipper Folders
Flipper folders are wildly popular. Aside from adding an interesting visual element to any knife, the flipper serves a few key roles, including as a one-hand opening device, and as a guard.
Just like innovation and technology drive any industry, the same can be said for the knife industry. What’s neat about knives is that they’re often designed by handmade knifemakers, craftsmen, really, and innovations often take the form of folder locks, assisted opening devices, and in this case, flipper folders.
There are some monster flipper folders today. As Dexter Ewing writes in the March issue of BLADE®, “Flipper folders, aka flippers, continue to be wildly popular. Aside from adding an interesting visual dimension to the knife, the flipper—a simple protruding lobe at the bottom of the blade’s tang—serves a few roles. One is as a quick and convenient one-hand opening device. Clutch the closed knife’s handle, give the flipper a swift tug with your index finger and the blade has enough inertia to propel itself to the open and locked position. The flipper also serves as an integral hand guard when the knife is open, providing a physical obstruction to prevent your hand from sliding forward onto the blade.”
To read the rest of the story, see the March issue of BLADE.
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Making Tactical Fixed Blades DVD
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!
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