Television Knives

Crime drama and knives, they are like bacon and eggs.  Seldom do you find one and not the other.  If you’re a police/CSI/crime show fan, it’s not too unusual to recognize one or another.  “Burn Notice” almost always featured a knife of the month.

Many shows solicit props from many companies.  Did you note the new auto sampler on the duex ex machina that solves the problem for the good guys?  They didn’t buy it, they asked if they could borrow one from some scientific instrument maker.  

I especially love that orange column Zeiss Transmission Electron Microscope in the back of Dexter’s lab.  I know what I use a TEM for, but what a blood splatter analysis does with it, that beats me.  I’ve seen it in other crime labs since Dexter is off the air.  I wonder if shows fight over who gets to use it next?

Spyderco usually provides knives for the movies, but they request the knife is used by a good guy.  That doesn’t seem to happen and Dr. Lector ends with the knife in the shadows.  It appears other companies also provide knives.

Last week I found an Emerson CQC-8, I believe, in the hands of a killer on CSI-Las Vegas (Under My Skin).  The Emerson wave was very obvious.  I’m not sure having a killer use your products translate into sales.  Did “Dexter” generate increase sales in Saran Wrap and duct tape?

A little later I caught an episode of NCIS: New Orleans in which wound measurements identified the murder weapon as a “Benchmade steel knife.” That must be an amazing database.  I can’t even begin to imagine what kind of calculations and measurements you would need to identify the knife brand based solely on cuts in elastic flesh

So, I also got out my Benchmade catalog, and discovered, all their blades are made from steel.   It’s good to know they don’t makes blades out of glass or ice.  I might order the wrong type.