Celebrate Arnold Schwarzenegger’s 65th birthday today by reading about his Conan sword and other movie long blades in “Spirit of the Sword.”
Designed by Jody Samson, the Conan sword Schwarzenegger used in the 1982 blockbuster film captivated American movie audiences and set the stage for such subsequent film swords as those in “Hook,” “Princess Bride,” “Highlander III: The Sorcerer,” “The Mask of Zorro,” “Lord Of The Rings,” “Pirates of the Caribbean” and more, as well as the lucrative sword repro business entered into by United Cutlery, CAS Hanwei, Albion, Tony Swatton and others.
Frost Cutlery’s new retail knife store will host a Duck Dynasty celebrity Saturday, Dec. 14.
Frost Cutlery’s new retail store will host Duck Dynasty celebrity “Mountain Man” Saturday, Dec. 14. In addition to its own brand, Frost sells a wide range of brands, including Buck and others. This is the iconic Buck 110.
Tim Guraedy, better known as “Mountain Man” from A&E’s “Duck Dynasty” TV show, will be at The Knife Shoppe to meet and greet customers from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. The event is free to the public.
Mountain Man is one of several guests Frost will have in the coming months to help promote The Knife Shoppe located by the company’s headquarters and warehouse in Ooltewah, Tennessee. Boasting 9,000 square feet of space, the new store features a wide range of knives and knife brands—not only Frost knives but also those of Buck, Schrade and many others. Swords, hatchets, sharpeners and a wide assortment of other edge-related items also are on the menu.
Frost opened the story this past Black Friday. Company officials decided the store was long overdue to attract the millions of motorists that pass by Frost Cutlery on Interstate 75 each year.
Owned and operated by Jim Frost, Frost Cutlery generates $30 million in annual revenue, including $18 million from Cutlery Corner, a four-hour live knife show the company films and broadcasts four nights a week. The show reportedly reaches 90 million viewers in weekly replays. Frost Cutlery is known for a wide range of knives in its own brand, perhaps most famously the line of Dale Earnhardt knives it has done for many years.
The Knife Shoppe’s store hours are Monday through Thursday from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Friday and Saturday from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. It’s closed on Sunday. For more information call 423-305-6911.
For the latest knives, knife news and more, stay tuned to www.blademag.com.
Both Hibben and Holder are Cutlery Hall Of Famers. Each served multiple terms as president of The Knifemakers’ Guild. Both have influenced many knifemakers through mentoring, teaching and their knives.
Hibben, of course, is probably best known for making the knife used by Sylvester Stallone in the third and fourth installments of the Rambo movie series. Holder is perhaps best know for his “My Knife” hunter with a handle of stacked spacers of beautiful natural materials, including amber and others.
Holder was one of the original board members of the American Knife & Tool Institute, the oldest existing organization that fights for common-sense knife laws. Hibben made some of the most spectacular fantasy knives ever, probably the most fantastic of which were designed by Paul Ehlers.
In addition to the Rambo movie knives, Hibben also made the knives for another Stallone action vehicle, The Expendables. Holder designed a number of factory/custom collaborations, including the Toad for Spyderco and a number of fixed-blade hunters for Canal Street Cutlery. Hibben has designed a number of factory/custom collaborations, too, including many for United Cutlery.
The above only touches on the outstanding careers of two invaluable members of the custom knifemaking community. Please join us in congratulating them on a combined 109 years making knives—and what we hope are many more such years to come.
KA-BAR Knives will be featured on a new History Channel Show, What People Earn, Sunday, March 10.
Highlighted on the show’s premier episode entitled “Beer, Knives & Football,” the 115-year-old manufacturer will star along with American brewer Samuel Adams.
The March 10 issue of Parade Magazine will run a companion piece on the new show and KA-BAR.
The show will air at 10 p.m. EST in most areas, though be sure to check your local listings.
Of the 45 products that were in the KA-BAR line in 1996, only five still remain in line and one that is/was made in the USA: the 1217 Marine Combat Knife. There are now 85 products made in the USA by American cutlers stemmed in the KA-BAR tradition born in 1898. Among them is KA-BAR’s Zombie® Knives line, the Becker Knife & Tool line, a number of Bob Dozier designs, the TDI Law Enforcement line, Union and traditional KA-BAR knives including the Dog’s Head pocketknives, the Mule line of folders, and more.
For more visit KA-BAR.com or call 800-282-0130.
KA-BAR’s USMC fighting/utility knife, an industry icon.
Watch Nova on PBS tonight as Ric Furrer takes you through the creation of the legendary Viking sword known as the “Ulfberht.”
Specializing in the forging/making of steel via the ancient methods, Furrer has conducted seminars and demonstrations on how to make steel from sand at a number of venues, including the Batson Bladesmithing Symposium at the Tannehill Ironworks in McCalla, Alabama.
Little is known for sure about the legendary Ulfberht sword. Believed to have been made somewhere around the 10th century, the Ulfberht is described thus by the late Hank Reinhardt (pictured above in a photograph by Patrick Gibbs at a past DragonCon event) in his The Book of Swords:
“Sometime early in the 10th century, the ability to produce a large enough bloom of steel to make a full sword was developed … [The resulting] steel swords also had a slightly different shape [than their predecessors]. Instead of the edges being parallel, there was a defined slope to the point. The point was still rounded but the slope put weight closer to the hand, thereby making them somewhat quicker on the stroke and on the return. These new swords all had the name ‘Ulfberht’ engraved on the blades. It’s fun to speculate how this sword was developed and who this person was.”
The movie that inspired many legendary custom knifemakers to grind and/or forge their first blade, The Iron Mistress, will air on Turner Classic Movie Channel at 8 p.m. EST today.
Starring Alan Ladd as frontier hero James Bowie, the movie is about Bowie’s early years before he went on to die at the Alamo. It also stars Virginia Mayo as Judalon de Bornay, Phyllis Kirk as Ursula de Veramendi and Anthony “Tony” Caruso as “Bloody Jack” Sturdevant. It is based on the book of the same name by Paul I. Wellman.
Check out Bowie’s knife in the movie. Prop maker Arthur Rhoades made it and there were several versions Rhoades made for various scenes. Most if not all of the knives surviving from the movie are in the collection of Joseph Musso.
Shadowland is a documentary about a knifemaker who spent most of his career working in the shadows of other knifemakers and knife companies. He finally set out on his own and has made a success of it in these hard times of recession, nonetheless.
That fella’s name is Eddie White. We’ve been friends since we were in the Boy Scouts together and when he came home from the Navy he was looking for something to do. I had a custom knife shop and offered Eddie a job. On his first day I showed him how to grind a blade and as his dad says “and from there he went.” He was good at it and it wasn’t long before he was grinding 70 knives a day. Mind you that these blades were already profiled and just needed the blades ground, but still quite a feat.
He spent years repeating that process and knife assembly for various knife shops before striking out on his own. I thought it would be a good idea to document how he progressed in the custom knifemaking business and give an inside look at the challenges a craftsman like Eddie faces in keeping the business going. There is also plenty of footage of Eddie carrying a knife from start to finish. While not a tutorial it does give you an idea of how to make a knife and not work yourself to death. Because if anyone knows efficiency and economy of movement it’s Eddie White!
Please take a moment to check out the project on Kickstarter.
