TV and Movie Knives

Editor’s note: This article originally appeared in the March 2012 issue of BLADE. Keep exploring BLADE‘s extensive archives with this download of back issues.

Through knives I have met some of the most amazing people, one of whom is actor Johnny Strong.

Last summer I received an e-mail from Johnny. He was interested in my Dragon Waki he had found on Bladeart.com’s website. We exchanged e-mails about his new waki, music and his interest in knifemaking. I learned Johnny is an actor, musician, martial artist and artist. He has been collecting knives since he was 8.

From Collecting to Making Knives

“It was when I was on tour with my band, Operator, that I got serious about collecting custom knives. I would be on the tour bus searching the web for knife dealers,” he said.

After talking with Johnny and learning a little about him, I suggested he visit my shop and hang out for a weekend. He did—and he jumped in with both feet.

We started out forging two blades to shape. Then I taught him grinding and heat treating. The crash course was three long, fun-filled days. As Johnny told BLADE®, “It was a great experience coming to Wally’s and having him share all his knowledge with me. I learned how to manipulate steel and apply these skills to my edged art.”

As soon as Johnny returned home, he ordered a belt grinder, drill press and some steel. In the past year he has created some very original designs. His computer-drawing skills enabled him to develop a practical and aggressive-looking knife style. As he noted, “With my knives, I like to paint in tactical colors.”

Johnny Strong’s Knives

His blades are flat ground from CPM-S35V stainless steel and heat treated by Paul Bos Heat Treating.

Johnny has created some unusual blade finishes with a combination of bead blasting and etching. The blades are ground with a wide secondary bevel that makes his knives razor sharp, similar to those by Shiva Ki.

Johnny hand carved a mold to make his handles. He casts them one at a time. The handle material is an impact/chemical-resistant resin. The cutouts in the handle butts are multi-purpose prying/shaping tools. He also designed and ordered custom-made black titanium handle fasteners. Three of Johnny’s models are the Urban Assassin, Canine Assassin and Combat Assassin.

Respective blade lengths are 6.5, 8.5 and 11 inches. The blade of the Canine Assassin has a tiger-stripe finish, while the Combat Assassin blade features a sawback. Each blade has what Johnny calls his three-edge design, which was inspired by the knife-combat training he has received. All his knives come with custom leather sheaths.

Sinners & Saints

Johnny has starred in Black Hawk Down, The Fast and The Furious, Get Carter, The Glimmer Man and his new (as of the original publication of this article) action movie, Sinners and Saints. Johnny plays the lead role of Sean Riley, a New Orleans detective.

To prepare for one of the movie’s knife fight scenes, Johnny trained with Ron Balicki for three months. Balicki is well known as a practitioner and teacher of the martial arts, and is a student and son-in-law of Dan Inosanto, a legendary martial arts instructor who studied under Bruce Lee. Balicki is also a top Hollywood stuntman and plays the role of Rucker in Sinners and Saints.

Johnny learned both one-handed and two-handed combative drills. In a knife-fighting scene in the movie, Johnny uses an Allen Elishewitz “Phalanx” folder and a Cold Steel Tai Pan dagger. Balicki plays Rucker, a bad guy Johnny’s character must kill. The knife-fighting scene took two days to shoot. Balicki uses a Cold Steel Voyager folder in the scene.

“Ron has a ton of experience and was great to work with,” Johnny noted. “We wanted to make the knife-fighting scene as realistic as possible.”

Johnny has a strong background in martial arts with a black belt in Brazilian Ju-Jitsu, and is training hard to get in shape for his next movie.

Movies, Music and Knives

This past fall I flew down to Johnny’s to help with his knifemaking and have some fun playing music as well.

Music is a big part of Johnny’s life. When not acting, he works on music either for film scenes or his own CDs.

Prior to press time he had released his new album, The War of Art, on iTunes. It features two of his Urban Assassin models silhouetted on the cover. I was asked to bring my guitar so I could play lead on a couple of songs in his studio.

What a blast—mixing knifemaking with recording music! Stay tuned for more movies, music and knives from a very talented guy.

Adam Drescher, known best to the world of knives for his stingray leather supply company, has enjoyed many highlights in an acting career that spans over 40 movies and TV shows, but his experience in The Mule directed by and starring Clint Eastwood ranks at or near the top.

Released on Dec. 14, 2018, The Mule is about a botanist—played by Eastwood—who unwittingly becomes a mule transporting drugs for a criminal cartel. As with most of his roles, Adam’s character doesn’t have a name.

“I’m a computer online sales guy trying to talk Clint into taking his business online,” Drescher said. “I’m in two or three scenes that were shot, though I have no idea what will end up in the finished cut.”

The scenes were in a bar, which is where Adam asked the person playing the bartender to photograph him, Eastwood and actor Richard Herd.

“Working with Clint was a dream come true,” he added. “I’m what’s known as a ‘day player’—I work on a film for a day, maybe two days at a time, then I’m done,” Adam explained. “People think they remember seeing me but they’re not sure. I’m usually there and gone pretty quickly, usually just a scene or two, and this thing with Clint is almost like the epitome. Being a day player I don’t know how it could get any better. I got to work with him, got to improvise a little bit, got to actually act, had more than one line, and had a little character part to do. I had some interaction with him. That made my day.”

So what was Eastwood like as both a person and a director?

“He was pretty much what I was expecting only because I’ve heard so much from other people who’ve had the privilege of working with him,” Drescher said. “He knows his stuff backward and forward, totally in charge, quiet, yeah, he’s the man.

“He never yells at you and from what I gather that goes all the way back to his days on Rawhide [the hit 1960s TV show]. Clint said the director would yell ‘action’ and it would spook the horses before they would start the scene, so Clint got that out of his system and said, OK, real quiet, and the next thing you know you’re doing the scene, you don’t even realize the cameras were rolling. Clint would say ‘cut’ and everything was respectful and really quiet and to the point. I’d heard that he shoots really fast. He did a couple of takes of our scenes, got different angles and got the dialogue right that he wanted. It was a pleasure of an experience for me, a highlight of a career that’s pleasurably been full of a lot of highlights.”

Editor’s note: This article originally appeared in the August 2003 issue of BLADE magazine. You can read more from BLADE‘s archives with this extensive collection.

When I first heard of The Messenger, the 1999 movie version of the Joan of Arc story, I thought it best to ignore it. It just didn’t sound very good. However, I caught a trailer on HBO about the film—directed by Luc Besson and starring Milla Jovovich as Joan and John Malkovich as The Dauphin—and was quite impressed.

According to the trailer, the producers spent an enormous amount of time researching the era in which the story is set, including the armor and weapons. They also researched Joan and reportedly would present a different portrait of “the Maid of Orleans.”

On this basis, my wife, Toni, and I journeyed to the theater prepared to see the new portrait, and to appreciate the research into the clothing and the arms and armor.

What Went Wrong

One of the most notable things about the movie was the popcorn. It was really fresh and delicious. The drinks were well mixed, and, as usual, the price was sky high—but the popcorn was worth it.
I regret to say, however, that I have a weak stomach. Oh, scenes of carnage don’t bother me, but really bad acting, directing and outright falsehoods in a movie have a tendency to make me want to heave!

Nonetheless, I’m not a coward. I walked to the restroom, threw some cold water on my face, steeled my nerves, and went back to try to watch the rest of the movie.

I failed.

I made it through the fall of the Tyrell and the relief of Orleans. About 10 minutes later, though, my stomach quailed at what I watched on the screen, and Toni and I had to leave. Meanwhile, a couple of my friends braved the whole film. They told me that as the time approached for Joan to be burned at the stake, many in the audience were shouting, “Burn her! Burn her!”

Not Falling for Those Cheap Movie Swords

If the producers paid for research on The Messenger, they should get their money back.
All the armor looks as if it’s straight out of some cheap fantasy movie, and the same goes for the swords and other weapons. However, the war hats look pretty good. As for the fighting, it’s more ludicrous than anything else.

After the fall of the Tyrell, the camera pans somewhat lovingly over the scene of “carnage.” There’s one severed foot, a “tastefully arranged” group of what might be entrails and, I think, an arm lying about. In short, it’s the most unrealistic battle scene since the Saturday serials.

Actually, I would be willing to overlook a lot of the flaws and errors if the movie had anything else going for it, but this one doesn’t.

The Hundred Years War helped create a time of deep cynicism that co-existed with a profound and strongly held religious belief. Whatever one’s opinion of Joan of Arc—and whatever the reality actually was—she was able to lead and inspire many men, those sincere in their religious belief, as well as those quite cynical.

On the other hand, this movie’s version of Joan could, and did, inspire an exodus from the theater. Don’t waste your time with this one. For one thing, I doubt that you’ll be as lucky with the popcorn as we were.

Better Swords, Better Movie: Joan of Arc (1948)

After we left the theater from watching The Messenger, I promised Toni that I would show her the definitive film version of Joan of Arc. Produced by Walter Wanger in 1948, Joan of Arc remains one of the most stupendous epics ever produced for the silver screen.

As Joan, Ingrid Bergman had a positively ethereal beauty that really hits home in the movie. She was also a tremendous actress and comes across as a confused peasant girl, driven by forces she only partially understands but in which she fully believes.

La Hire, one of Joan’s great battle captains, is well played by a bluff, tough Ward Bond. Since I always liked what I read about La Hire, I was pleased to see him played so admirably.

The Dauphin, a somewhat feckless and timid person, is well handled by Jose Ferrar. I could go on and on, as everyone in the movie does a superb job and each is quite believable in his/her role.
The primary battle in the movie is the capture of the Tyrell and the relief of Orleans that’s besieged by an English army under the command of Sir William Gladsdale. This is one of Joan’s first battles and in it she’s wounded by a crossbow bolt.

She regains consciousness and insists on leading a final charge against the Tyrell, which falls in the ensuing battle.

This is one of the best siege battles ever on the big screen, and is worth the price of the movie rental alone. You see arrows flying from crossbows and bows, and the horrors of trying to storm walls—men fighting their way to the top of the ladder only to have it hurled down or being speared from the top.

As the Tyrell falls, La Hire climbs over the wall and shouts for Gladsdale, and the two meet in the center and fight with two-hand swords. La Hire drives him back and, rather than surrendering, the Englishman falls into some burning debris.

Getting the Two-Hand Swords Right

The two-hand sword was just beginning to become popular at that point in history, and for two knights in full plate armor it was a handy weapon to have. Certainly, you can’t cut plate armor with a regular sword but you can crush it.

The movie is well acted and well done, but even more impressive is the costuming, right down to the haircuts of the men. The hair is worn thick and cut into the shape of a bowl. This was done at first to provide extra padding under the helmet but also became the fashion for the dandies, even if they never fought. The armor is accurate and so are the many swords, pikes, fauchards, pole axes and battle axes.

See this one. It’s fun and a good movie as well.