What started as a family vacation quickly took a turn for the worst after a six-year-old boy is attacked by a mountain lion in Big Bend National Park. “We we…
AKTI Member Edward Weeren Wins Ontario Marine Bayonet
As reported Jan. 24, a member of the American Knife & Tool Institute won a USMC Marine bayonet by Ontario in a special AKTI drawing at the Ontario booth during the 2012 SHOT Show. AKTI member Ed Weeren wasn’t in attendance at the show, but was recently notified of his big win.
Ed is the proud new owner of one of the first 200 OKC3s Marine Corps Bayonets, which is specially displayed and engraved with the AKTI logo and a quote from President Ronald Reagan Ed also wins a stay in Western New York and private tour of the Ontario Cutlery facility.
When responding to news of his win, Ed explained what being an AKTI member meant to him:
“ I joined AKTI because of the respect I have for those who set it up and for the work AKTI is doing to allow citizens like me to continue to enjoy knives and to carry my pocketknives without fear of being arrested. I am an NRA Life Member and understand that each of us has to accept some responsibility and do what we can to help all of us continue the freedoms given to citizens when this country was founded. While I was not a Marine, I hold Marines in the greatest respect. I attended Texas A&M and received a commission in the U.S. Army in 1958. Keep up the good work you and your group are doing.”
As a nonprofit association, AKTI’s role is to be the reasonable and responsible advocate for the knife-making and knife-using community, providing the focal point for sensible evolution, development, and the consistent enforcement of knife legislation.
For more information about the American Knife & Tool Institute, visit www.akti.org.
For more on the latest knives, knife legislation, knifemaking instruction, knife trends, knifemakers, what knives to buy and where and much more, subscribe to BLADE® Magazine, the World’s No. 1 Knife Publication. For subscription information click on http://www.shopblade.com/product/blade-magazine-one-year-subscripti…?r+ssfb020912#BL1SU
Fox Sports Bans Firearms, Knives & Ammo Ads
The National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) — the trade association for the firearms, ammunition, hunting and shooting sports industry — has learned that FOX Sports Media Group has banned advertisements featuring firearms, knives and ammunition from its coverage of Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) events.
While the UFC has yet to make an official announcement, NSSF has confirmed that “absolutely no firearms, ammo, hunting or knife companies will be permitted as sponsors in any Zuffa-promoted events.”
NSSF is encouraging all gun and knife owners, sportsmen and firearms and knives enthusiasts to contact FOX today and urge them to rescind this anti-knife, anti-gun corporate policy. FOX’s decision to ban advertisements for lawful products owned by millions of Americans is nothing more than corporate gun and knife control.
Make sure your voice is heard. Here’s how to contact FOX:
Corporate Headquarters FSN
10201 W. Pico, Bld. 103
Los Angeles, CA 90035
Phone: 310-369-1000
Web: www.FOXSports.com
Knife Of The Day XVI: Seber Drop Point
Our “Knife Of The Day” for Feb. 8 is the Seber Drop Point Model RK1150CP.
Featuring a 3-inch serrated blade of 8Cr13MoV stainless steel and a G-10 handle, the knife offers up the Rotation-Loc, a ratcheting-type mechanism that enables the blade to lock open at a variety of different angles. There’s really nothing else quite like the mechanism among folding knives.
Weight: 7 ounces. Closed length: 4.5 inches. Your price at ShopBlade: $39.99.
For more information click on http://www.shopblade.com/product/drop-point-knife-rk1150cp/?r+ssfb020812#X3930
CKCA Club Knife Orders Are Sold Out
All 13 pre-orders for the 2012 Custom Knife Collectors Association (CKCA) Club Knife, a Loveless-style boot knife by CKCA knifemaker/member Charles Vestal, have been sold. The picture above is an example of one of the boot knives Vestal has done in the past. The pattern for the club knife will be somewhat different but close.
The CPM-154 stainless steel blades will be 4 3/4 inches long. The price of $500 for each order will include a Vestal-made leather sheath.
Handle material will be black, green or burgundy Micarta®, with wood handle options as provided by the collector, and approved for use by Vestal, with no guarantees as to suitability (i.e., shrinkage, etc.).
The guard and furniture will be stainless steel. Thad Buchanan provided Vestal with a pattern from the Loveless Shop from which the club knife will be modeled.
First deliveries should be at the CKCA Banquet on Thursday, June 7, the night before the beginning of the 2012 BLADE Show (www.bladeshow.com).
For more information regarding the knives click on www.customknifecollectorsassociation.com/
For more on the latest knives, knife legislation, knifemaking instruction, knife trends, knifemakers, what knives to buy and where and much more, subscribe to BLADE® Magazine, the World’s No. 1 Knife Publication. For subscription information click on http://www.shopblade.com/product/blade-magazine-one-year-subscripti…?r+ssfb020712#BL1SU
Boy With Form of Autism Killed After Threatening Police With Knife
Police in Calumet City were defending their actions Wednesday after officers shot and killed a 15-year-old boy, who has a form of autism, after he threatened them with a knife.
Stephon Watts’ family said he suffered from Asperger’s Syndrome — a high-functioning form of autism — and attention deficit disorder.
According to the story at http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2012/02/01/boy-15-shot-dead-by-police-in-calumet-city/, some witnesses claimed the boy was only holding a butter knife. Police would only describe it as a “kitchen knife.”
Calumet City Police Chief Edward Gilmore said the boy cut a police officer through his shirt sleeve with a “kitchen knife.”
“I think they did everything they possibly could to avoid this,” Gilmore said. “It’s unfortunate that we had to get to this situation.”
The boy’s mother, Danelene Powell-Watts, was screaming, livid, and inconsolable after her son was killed. She was furious that officers used deadly force against her son this time rather than subduing him with a stun gun.
“They shot my son,” she yelled at officers as she was blocked from entering the Calumet City police station. “Every last one of you know my son has autism.”
Gilmore said police had been called to the home 10 times since 2010 to deal with the boy. Stephon’s father reportedly called police again Wednesday morning after the teen had become aggressive.
“We tried to do everything we could to keep him from being a victim, as he was an offender. He chose to be an offender,” Gilmore said.
The chief said police were called to the home to get Stephon under control, as they had been before. But that didn’t work, he said.
“When he slashed the officer’s arm, the officer felt his life was in jeopardy and he had nothing else to do, but to defend himself,” Gilmore said.
Stephon’s family said police have used a stun gun on him in the past.
“They didn’t have to murder him. This is nothing but murder and they shoot to kill,” Powell-Watts said. “He had a butter knife and … my husband said that he lunged at the police officer.”
Stephon’s uncle said police had subdued his nephew with stun guns before.
“They didn’t have to shoot him. They could have tasered the child. He’s only 15 years old,” Wayne Watts said. “They could have tased him, like they did him before, took him to the hospital and he would have been fine and that’s what I want to know. Why couldn’t they do that to him so that he could still be breathing with us right now?”
Gilmore said a stun gun wasn’t used because the lead officer did not have a stun gun.
Five officers responded to the Watts home after Stephon’s father called police, according to Gilmore. Two entered the house, heading to the basement where they found Stephon. One of those two officers did have a stun gun with him.
“Unfortunately today, when he slashed the officer’s arm, the officer felt his life was in jeopardy and he had nothing else to do, but defend himself,” Gilmore said.
The boy’s family said police should have used a stun gun and spared his life, especially since they’d been to the home before and knew what to expect.
Both officers have been placed on paid administrative leave.
Gilmore said a year ago, all of the officers in the department went through a three-day autism awareness program to learn how to handle calls involving people with autism.
Dr. Louis Kraus, professor and section chief of child and adolescent psychiatry at Rush University Medical Center, questioned whether deadly force was really necessary.
“With everything that they’ve done before, they should have known before going in what they were dealing with. And, you know, the goal really should have been to have gotten this child to a hospital,” Kraus said.
He said people with autism can frequently become aggressive, but not because they are trying to hurt someone.
“What we know is that, when they get anxious – probably more commonly than the typical person when they get anxious – they might lash out; not with the intention of doing harm, but simply because of how frightened they are,” Kraus said.
Calumet City Alderman Brian Wilson had questions about the shooting as well. “I think less deadly means could have been used,” Wilson said.
Meanwhile, Illinois State Police are investigating the shooting.
For more on the latest knives, knife news, knife legislation, knifemaking instruction, knife trends, knifemakers, what knives to buy and where and much more, subscribe to BLADE® Magazine, the World’s No. 1 Knife Publication. For subscription information click on http://www.shopblade.com/product/blade-magazine-one-year-subscripti…?r+ssfb020612BL1SU
What’s Hot In Knife Mechanisms
Designed by Flavio Ikoma and using the IKBS (Ikoma Korth Bearing System) Flavio helped create, Columbia River Knife & Tool’s Sampa line is an example of the non-assisted-opening flipper folder purveyor Duane Weikum said seems very popular at the moment. (CRKT photo)
User needs and refined design/construction rule the hottest knife mechanisms
By Dave Rhea
Mechanisms are everywhere on the knife market. There are so many different ways to open, shut and lock a knife it seems there could never be anything new under the sun. Invariably, though, advanced, creative minds push the boundaries of what is out there. Sure enough, along comes something that revolutionizes the cutlery culture.
So what is going on in the sphere of knife mechanisms? Owner of New Graham Knives retail knife store, Michael Dye said it is difficult to have a really fresh, new idea, and pointed to a visit he had with Blade Magazine Cutlery Hall-Of-Fame© member Ken Warner a few years ago.
“He showed me drawings in a bound notebook that were dated back to the ’70s,” Dye recalled. “Ken said, ‘Recognize these?’ and they looked the same as the handles that are on [a line of leading field knives now].” Dye was not alluding to any sort of theft or malicious intent, but to the fact so many people have so many ideas, and over the years the ideas start to overlap.
Which is a roundabout way of saying what is hot today in knife mechanisms is not necessarily new but a combination of consumer preference and a refinement of existing mechanisms.
Get Your Tweak On
“I think you’re seeing a lot of refining, where the changes are in movement improvements and [modifying] existing mechanisms,” he said. “The devil is often in the details. Also, like putting mechanisms such as the IKBS [Ikoma Korth Bearing System] in affordable production knives.”
He used the Taylor Cutlery/Smith & Wesson knives as an example of the benefits of tweaking a design. “Their third-generation flippers really hit the mark,” Dye explained. “When people put that little knife in their hand, they really are impressed with how the assisted opening works. Refining and tweaking of the geometry to make flippers open more easily—that’s what I have been seeing more than anything in the last year.”
Owner of EDC Knives, purveyor Duane Weikum cited the venerable non-assisted-opening flipper folder popularized by Kit Carson as probably the most-sought-after mechanism this year. “A flipper tab on the knife, along with a strong detent and a smooth pivot, makes for an impressive-opening knife,” he said. “I prefer a straight flipper to an assisted knife myself—fewer chances of it opening in my pocket.”
Weikum is also a big fan of Flavio Ikoma and the IKBS bearing pivot system (page 50, June BLADE®). “There are other bearing systems coming online, people tweaking things so they can call it something other than IKBS,” he opined, “but Ikoma and Korth were putting it into practice long before these other systems came along. Some guys were even using IKBS before they knocked it off—sad but true.”
He added that Columbia River Knife & Tool (CRKT) has licensed the IKBS for Ikoma’s and Cutlery Hall-Of-Famer Ken Onion’s CRKT designs (the Sampa and Ripple, respectively), which he said speaks well for the mechanism’s performance.
Another hot existing mechanism Dye singled out is the one on the Blade Magazine 2010 Overall Knife Of The Year®, the Chris Reeve Knives Ti-Lock. “You definitely have some people who are pushing the envelope, like Gavin and Grant Hawk with the Ti-Lock,” Dye pointed out. “That is, without a doubt, a very unusual locking mechanism.”
The Ti-Lock lock bar is mounted along the back of the blade toward the pivot. When the blade is opened, the handle edge of the lock bar, which has a cross bar with thumb-stud-like grips, is forced down into a slot through spring pressure, locking the knife securely open.
The Ti-Lock folder by Chris Reeve Knives is a collaboration between the father-and-son Hawk team and Chris Reeve. According to Dye, it is a design that, initially, was almost complete but shy of actual fruition. “I think Gavin and Grant got it about 90 percent figured out,” Dye noted. From there, he said Reeve took the lock and made it economically feasible to build on the larger manufacturing scale of Chris Reeve Knives. “It works very well and it adds a different look to the knife, to say the least, with the [lock’s] anodized titanium bars,” Dye observed.
Another hot mechanism is Benchmade’s Paul Axial system, according to Trevor Darby, owner of BladeOps LLC. “I think the [Benchmade version of the] Paul Axial system that has just been hitting the market is very interesting,” he said. “It’s a smooth-opening one-handed mechanism that seems to be generating quite a bit of buzz, as well as demand.”
Developed by Paul Poehlmann in the 1970s (page 50, November BLADE), the Paul Lock has a spring-loaded interlock key that can be depressed and rotated. It is simple and strong. “Along the same lines,” Darby added, “even though it is a mechanism that has been around for a while, the Tri-Ad lock that Cold Steel makes is always in huge demand.” Darby also points to the Spyderco Ball Bearing Lock (page 24, February BLADE) as something that has been gaining interest with his customers.
Hard To Put Down
Sometimes it is the mechanism itself that pushes a buyer into purchasing a knife. The “gadget factor” has a strong allure, and, when someone puts a knife in his hand and starts toying with it and it is hard to put it down, that is an almost certain sale. For many of BladeOps’ clientele, Darby said there is often a specific mechanism that drives them to buy.
“We have a lot of customers who have seen something somewhere and want that particular mechanism,” he related. “I would say there’s about a 50/50 split between buyers looking for a specific mechanism and those looking more along a size, brand and price range.”
A great example of a company that excels in the marketing of interesting mechanisms is CRKT. It has led the way by offering an incredible array of opening and locking mechanisms to the point that, each year, this writer cannot wait to see what is in its new catalog.
“Things like what Ed Van Hoy did with the Snap Fire with the anodized wheels and stuff,” Dye pointed out. “We have a lot of people who come in and really get mesmerized by the glitzy opening systems that you see in some designs.” (Editor’s note: Though CRKT offers at least one other Van Hoy design, the Snap Fire has been discontinued.)
Dye mused that sometimes the mechanism itself outweighs the knife’s actual usefulness. “In such cases, the knife is not utilitarian by any means,” he said. “But what sells the knife to every customer that puts it in his hand is the way it opens and closes. It becomes a gizmo at that point—it just happens to have a sharp blade on it.”
For more on the latest knives, knife legislation, knifemaking instruction, knife trends, knifemakers, what knives to buy and where and much more, subscribe to BLADE® Magazine, the World’s No. 1 Knife Publication. For subscription information click on http://www.shopblade.com/product/blade-magazine-one-year-subscripti…?r+ssfb020512#BL1SU
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