Winding Down

The legal battle on pocket knives continues in NY City. The current law defines a knife that can be flipped open as illegal. This means if you buy a knife which neither you nor the salesperson can flip open, it’s legal until you run in to the cop who can flip it open. It may be the first or the 23rd cop. As I understand it each officer has three chances to wrist flip it open. You can image the impact it has on any cutlery store in NYC!

The NY City DA is determined to resist any change to a more intelligent view (mine of course!) that the activity of the knife owner is more important than how the knife opens.

Closer to home:

Ohio knife laws are confusing at best, but Ohio State Senator Frank LaRose has introduced, Senate Bill 242, Knife Rights' bill to repeal Ohio's ban on the manufacture and sale of "switchblade, springblade, and gravity knives."

The announcement blurb claims: “While Ohio statutes allow for the possession and carry of these knives, but they cannot be manufactured or sold in the state.”

A check of Ohio state laws appear to take the position that a butterfly knife (for example) is both legal and illegal at the same time. Some of this confusion is from case law and it appears that a legal knife becomes illegal when you use it in an illegal manner. This makes more sense than the NYC wrist flip test.

Thus a steak knife becomes illegal when you chase someone down the street threatening to cut their ear off, but not while you eat a pork chop.

Please contact your state senator and urge them to support the bill. A nice note to the Governor wouldn’t hurt. Ohio has several knife manufacturers that currently must have autos produced out of state and it does represent lost economic power for Ohio.

http://www.knifeup.com/ohio-knife-laws/



On the upbeat side:

Buck unveils new knives, including their new auto, (I’ve handled the new Buck auto and the jury is still out in my opinion.)

Al Mar is working with both TOPS and Kershaw to license their designs
and
Spyderco releases their new 2018 catalog.


Have a Very Merry Christmas and a Happy, Heathy New Year.

Knifing Through The Sky

I finally broke down and bought one.  I’ve seen them for years and always wanted one, but could never pull the trigger.  My favorite dealer was down to one last knife, so I bought it.

The German Parachute Gravity Knife history seems to start at WWII, which makes sense.  That was the first war that used parachutist as troops.  The original knife had a wooden handle.  Later models had plastic grips.  I think mine is a Type IV FKm.  These knives were essentially a utility knife designed to help free a parachutist tangled up in a tree.  The spike isn’t for combat, it doesn’t lock open nor used for ice chopping.  It can be used as a pry bar of sorts, but chiefly to help with knots.  So much for the theory it was to chop up an ice block to better cool bottles of beer.  (I did see a similar knife made by Eickhorn that I swear had a bottle opener built in!)

You flip the toggle lever on top 180 degrees and press down.  This allows the blade to slide out.

The OD green handle has BUND molded into the grip.  That’s short for Bundeswehr or German Armed Forces.  I guess that’s no surprise.  With the blade open it’s about 10 inches long while the handle is just over 6 inches in length.  My blade is marked OFW, which is one of three listed manufacturers: OFW, OWF and the previously met, Eickhorn.

The knife is a little chewed up, but not bad.  This type was manufactured from 1961 to 1979 when it was replaced by the type V also known as the LL80.  It’s still in production.

I don't understand the legal prohibition against this knife.  It open slower than most assisted opening knives and is a lot noisier.  What can I say, old laws and a government too busy making new laws to remove the useless ones.

What surprised me is the weight.  It’s a very heavy knife (9.8 ounces!) composed of many steel layers.  For a knife specifically issued to help free a parachutist from trees, it seems poorly designed.  I would have expected a razor sharp hook blade.  That seems like the kind of edge I’d want if I was trying to cut my way free of risers and lines.  I’m not sure why I’d worry about knots either. 

Mine is also remarkably dull.  It will slice paper, but no better than a blunt letter opener and will not cut paracord at all.  I’ll fix that later.  I like all my knives, even collectibles to have an edge and sharpening this one will not lower its value.

While the knife is very cool, the advertisements for sales, especially the auction sites, are hysterical!  The knife is often listed, correctly as, Type IV and then described as a Special Forces Pilot Knife of very rare status. It sold for over $200! 

Knots?  I've landed behind enemy lines and I'm worried about knots?

Another site described the blade as laser cut 440A steel, ice quenched.  Well, the first operational laser was 1960 in California.  It was a synthetic ruby crystal powered by a flash lamp.  The lasers of this era were rated in Gillettes.  That’s how many Gillette double edge carbon steel razor blades a laser could burn through in a minute.  I doubt anyone was cutting out knife blades with lasers by 1979.  And I suspect if you quenched a red hot knife blade in ice water you’d get scrap steel.

As Mr. Barnum once said,  “There’s a sucker born every minute!”  Mrs. Barnum is reported to have replied “Oh, that poor Mrs. Sucker!”