Blade Show 2022 Day One

 The Blade Show 2022 opened with its usual whimper.  Neither Cobb Galleria nor the people from Blade are unable to figure out how to handle the crowds.  The Customer Appreciation Passes were not available until 10 am this morning, and the Show opened to us at 11:00 ~ a LONG line to get in the building and then another line (they called out last name letters alphabetically!) to get the actual badge!  It would have been much simpler if the CAP passes were available Thursday afternoon/evening, then anyone could have picked them up at their convenience.  

This was the line in front of us, and we were 1.5 hours early!

The line standing in the Georgia sun would have been much more manageable.  Still, I was able to pick up my pass and make it to my 10:30 class on Cryo-Quenching.

The class was run by Larrin Thomas, a Ph.D. in metallurgy who works in the automotive industry.  Perhaps more importantly, he is the inventor of MagnaCut, the new hot steel everyone is going crazy over.  

Larrin and carbide grain sizes with SEM

I have a lot of notes, but perhaps the most interesting is the rate of converting austenite into martensite occurs at the speed of sound.  It isn’t a chemical diffusion process, so it also happens at liquid nitrogen temperatures.  After an hour of graphs, images, and explanations, I’m still a little confused.  It reinforced how complex carbide size and location, metal crystal phase, and time is to temper a steel blade.  I’ve said it before, the heart of a knife may be the blade, but the soul is the heat treatment.

Many foreign companies were in attendance this year, Covid restrictions have lessened and countries are allowing overseas travel.  One of my favorite overseas visitors is Grace Horne.  She’s been making scissors for the last couple of years, and she sells out almost instantly.  Fortunately, some of the buyers let her display some of her scissors so you could see them.

Perhaps the most exciting news for me was the release of Rick Hinderer’s new automatic knife, the XM-18.  I’ve waited since April of 2021 for this hot puppy and it is finally here.  Rick is celebrating his 35 years as well. 

Here are a bunch of photos for your consideration.

Hinderer's new auto Just released at Blade Show

Santa Fe Stone Works

CRKT's new SPEC   I really liked the handle!

CRKT's Curfew   The white portion of the handle has an Ivory feel, but it is not

Engraving

Not every knife is what you call practical

This Chili Pepper is coming home with us - by Kizer

Winkler Knives

Italian knives from MKM designed by Jesper Voxnaes

The last two from Grace Horne  Who says scissors are boring?

Mickey's Knife

 In an effort to get ahead of my summer fitness cycle, I have started walking with a 15 pound backpack.  I chose a single sling pack from Maxpedition with my special attachment, one of Boker’s collaborations with Mickey Yurco.  It is called The Pocket Knife.  The Ulticlip allows you to clip it inside a pocket making it easy to carry and access a fixed blade.

Boker's Pocket Knife on my pack

I like the knife.  The elongated egg-shaped handle is depressed by about 26 degrees from the center blade line.  This allows the knife to be held in a neutral wrist position.  This is perhaps the strongest, most stable position for your wrist when holding a tool.

The blade isn't quite so long, all due to accidental camera angle magic

Two knives held in the same position with my wrist at the neutral angle. The Boker extends outward more aggressively

We are, after all, tool-bearing mammals and a knife is just a tool.

The blade is a graceful saber grind drop point blade tapering to a point made from 440C stainless steel.  It is 3.3 inches long with a 0.15 inch thickness and the overall length of the knife is 6.8 inches. 

The handle is constructed of black G-10 and has a slight palm swell making it easy to grip.  The finger detent in the steel and the palm swell make gripping this knife easy and comfortable.  It is in the running for the easiest and most comfortable using knife I’ve ever owned.

The Kydex sheath

The Kydex sheath secures the knife upside down and close to the body.  I don’t have to worry about bushes or brambles plucking at my knife in an effort to detach it.  The Ulticlip lets me clip the knife on the padded shoulder strap about the middle of my chest.  This is just about where a surprise or fear reaction instinctually brings the hands to.  The clip allows almost instant removal should I need to move the knife and sheath to a different location.

Why a knife?  Because sometimes I can’t get to a firearm fast enough.  If I had a dime for everyone who told me they would simply draw their blaster and shoot their knife/club attacker I would be a rich man.  While a subject for a different blog, attacks are usually done by surprise, without warning, and with a high level of violence.  Awareness is the key to survival, followed by having a tool and skill with the tool.

The Ulticlip allows you to move the knife and sheath from location to location quickly.  

If you are not familiar with Boker, or only think of the lower spectrum of their knives, think again.  Boker makes some very high and middle-level knives at reasonable prices and excellent quality.   Mickey has at least two knives in the Boker catalog.  I find the Yurco Pocket Knife one of my favorites.

Magic!

I recently picked up a Boker Joule. The name interested me. A Joule is a unit of energy or work. What’s a Joule, you ask? It’s the classical physics definition of the work you do when you lift a medium-size apple one meter off the ground. In other words not much. That’s not true of this knife.

Boker Joule

The design is by Michael Reinhold, whose designs are seen in several high-end companies like Boker and Spyderco. Michael is a part-time knife designer set up in Crooked Lake, Indiana. He started making knives from old circular saw blades and fell in love with bladesmithing. 

The 2.4-inch D-2 blade is a flat-grind Wharncliffe blade. The blade sports Michael’s maker’s mark, a stylized hummingbird. Why a hummingbird? I don’t know. Perhaps the mark doesn’t know the words. 

The handle is black G-10 and stainless steel. I like the reinforced lanyard hole and the frame lock. And that’s where the problem lies with my knife. My Joule doesn’t always lock open. It’s not uncommon. The tolerances required to allow the frame lock to come about halfway across the width of the tang square end are tight. Many knives require you to open the blade forcefully so the blade flexes slightly past the fully open position. This allows the frame or liner lock to fully engage.

I'm pointing to the partially engaged frame lock

 I could have sent the knife back, but I always need something to blog about, so let’s try fixing it ourselves. 

 I took the clip off to get it out of my way, removed the pivot screw, and then… It was at that point I noticed the knife was working perfectly. The frame lock slipped nicely across the square tang end like it was designed to. 

Fixed!?!

What could I do? 

I put the Joule back together and called it a day. All I can say is it must have been some tension distortion I relieved when I removed that screw. 

It’s a nice knife. The removable clip lets me carry it the way I like to, tip-up in the right pocket. You might want to get one for yourself. It’s a nice urban/office/going-to-church knife. Boker has it for $59.95, but you can search around and find a better price.

Doctor, Doctor

I'm a big fan of doctor or physician knives.  They usually come with a spear point blade and a spatula.  The knife butt, on the best of them, is a solid flat end cap used to grind medications and materials.  There was a time when doctors would make house calls, especially in the more remote parts of the country.  Sometimes they need to open their black bag and formulate medication by absorbing a liquid into a solid and solids to ointments.  This called for a spatula and a way of grinding materials.  Hence the doctor’s knife. 

Rough Ryder's Doctor Knife

“…this was entirely done by hand. The pill mass was rolled into the form of a cylinder, placed on a graduated tile and divided by means of a spatula into measured lengths calculated to contain the required amount of active ingredients. These were then rounded between finger and thumb to give the final product.”  Hong Kong Medical Journal 2015.

Of course, the blade was needed to lance boils and carbuncles.  Medicine in the early 1900s was not for the faint of heart.

I’ve always been fascinated with spatulas.  As a chemist, I used a variety of sizes to weigh out chemicals and unknowns.  Then I turn around and see a chocolate maker use the same tool.  Take a step and you’ll find printers keeping the ink in the printing bank mixed and evenly spread out with spatulas.  You’ll find them in kitchens, paint and pigment stores, in labs and pharmacies, but you’ll seldom find them with doctors.

I don’t see too many doctor knives around, especially the older ones, so I was happy to find one from Rough Ryder.  Yes, they changed their name from Rider to Ryder.  I don’t know if it was the condom association or Teddy Roosevelt.  Perhaps the change was just a public relations move to get more notice.

I think of that blade as more of a sheep foot blade, but there is a high degree of freedom in naming blades 

The knife is 3.6 inches closed and has nickel silver bolsters.  It has a spey blade and the traditional spatula.  The handle is malachite and pearl from Stoneworx.  The knife has brass liners and the two blades are separated by brass as well.

All and all, it is a really nice doctor’s knife and I really like it.  Rough Ryder has an upscale group of knives, and this is one of them.  It is a nice example of knife art at a reasonable price.  You can buy one for the princely sum of $26.00.

I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!