On the Edge…An Adventure.

It was one of those snowy, blustery winter nights Cleveland is so well known for. On such a night only the mad or foolhardy venture outside. I had already decided to spend the night at the Explorer’s Club.

“Why not?” I thought. “My wife is out of town, the club’s larder is well stocked, as is their bar, and the small member suites are more than snug and comfortable.”

Don’t bother trying to find us. We don’t advertise. The outside of the building looks like an abandoned building complete with nine-foot rusty chain link fence. The only membership requirement is a life of exploration and adventure. If your idea of adventure is Grand Theft Auto III, don’t call us; we’ll call you.

The chairs were arranged in the Members’ Reading Room in clusters. Of course, conversations were discouraged in the room according to club by-laws. I found both a book I had been meaning to read and an overstuffed chair just the right distance from the roaring eight-foot fireplace. At my signal Butterling, our majordomo, brought my standing overnight order which he quietly placed on the end table I shared with another club member. He was politely and quietly ensconced behind a foreign newspaper in the other chair.

I had just relaxed and began to luxuriate in the warmth of the fire when one of the members, taking a shortcut to the door, noticed my two double brandies and cleared his throat in disapproval. His rude behavior was not lost on me.

“You know, two is one and one is none,” I foolishly snapped back at him.

The rude member was already out of earshot and if he had heard me, chose to ignore me. Unfortunately, my neighbor behind the newspaper choose not to.

“Yimminy, that’s so true.” It was Sven Olsen, perhaps the oldest and most gregarious club member. He folded the newspaper and placed it on his lap.

“Did I ever tell you how I invented that saying?” he said, raising his voice over the crackle of the fireplace.

This created a dilemma. We were in the reading room and I was loath to surrender my chair by moving to the conversation room. Sven was a prolific storyteller and he was setting up to spin a yarn. While I doubted the whole cloth of his stories, I had previously done enough research to verify many of his tales.

“No, you never did,” I said, throwing caution to the winds. What kind of adventurer would let a few rules stand in his way? I said the fatal words. “Tell me more.”

“It was summer 1955, and I was between classes at the University of Helsinki.”

“I didn’t know you had a degree, old man,” Rodger interrupted. “What was it in?” One of the newest members, Rodger had not learned proper manners and most likely never would.  I still regretted not blackballing him.

Sven paused to take Rodger in. “It was a non-degree program. I was pioneering independent study. Later they gave me an honorary degree in…. but that’s another story.” Sven paused and got back on track.

“With the summer free and troubled by a significant lack of funds, I was casting about for employment. Word reached me that the CIA was looking for….”

“You worked for the Central Intelligence Agency?  Rodger interrupted again.  “What? We didn’t have any spies that spoke Swedish?”

“What your spies can or cannot speak is of little concern to me.” Sven’s accent flared up as he lost his temper. “Nor did I know they were the CIA at the time. I was a bright young man aware of world events. I suspected it was some government agency, possibly one of Britain’s MI groups.”

“Since the cold war was heating up and the Nordic communities had no love for the Russians, I took the job. On the surface it was a simple job.  I would ski from various base camps to specific points in northern Greenland where I would place explosive charges and set them off at specific times. Someone, somewhere collected measurements for some purpose.”

“It was an adventure, my friends.” His accent faded again. I often wondered about Sven. He spoke several languages without accent.  Even old agents have to retire somewhere.  “There was no GPS, no apps for your cell phone; just you and your dog team, a chronograph, slide rule and sexton.”

Olsen demonstrating his Igloo building skills for BBC journalists

From the Cleveland Explorer Club Archives

Sven looked over to Rodger, whose investments had tanked when the housing market stumbled. He was attempting to get a government jump-start loan for a new business.

“For two weeks at a time,” Sven continued, “you lived on what you and the dogs could carry and by your wits. Independent, free and living on the edge. There was no bailout if you made a mistake.”

“It was a harsh, cold, white landscape filled with beauty that could surprise you and turn on you at any moment. I spent many nights watching the Northern Lights pirouette across the dark skies.”

“There were other teams, but I was the most successful, reaching specific locations by specific deadlines and it became a matter of pride. I carried few extra supplies, reasoning my mobility and success depended on selecting only the most important items. I chose carefully.”

“Besides the technical equipment, I needed dried fish to feed the dogs and myself, a small stove, a double-bladed smatchet and, of course, a short barreled shotgun set up for slug.  Polar bears….” Sven gave a little involuntary shiver. “Nasty little javlarna.”

By now Sven was in his element and most of his accent had vanished. His tale had captured our imaginations. Several of the other members gravitated to the growing knot of listeners. I even caught sight of Butterling hovering on the outer edge of audible range. Even Rodger knew better than to interrupt the yarn.

“What I didn’t take was a tent. Instead I planned on making what Americans call an igloo. I used the smatchet to serve as a snow cutter and spatula. With a little practice I was able to cut and place rings of snow blocks to make a passable shelter in less than 30 minutes. The dogs, born and bred for this; simply curled up in a snow cave I’d carve for them. This system worked remarkably well. At least until I made a mistake.”

Smatchet reported to belong to Sven Olsen.
From Cleveland Explorer Club Archives







“It was my third trip out. The employer was more than happy with my notes and placement of the explosive charges. Noting how well I handled the long and arduous treks, they asked me to travel even farther north on longer trips. I was happy with myself for earning both their confidence and the increase in hazard pay.”

On my third day of the last week out, a storm closed in almost without warning. I barely had time to get the dogs sheltered, watered and fed before the storm was on me.”

“It was white-out conditions and the wind stung like a whip. I started cutting snow blocks, but the storm and gusting winds made work all but impossible. Yet I couldn’t stop. I had to finish. The igloo meant survival. Freezing and in the dark I was working more from memory and force of habit. I cut the last block, dragged my sleeping bag in and pulled a snow block in behind me. It was like corking a bottle from the inside.”

“I sat for a few moments in the darkness listening to the storm grow worse and pondering my fate. Tired and exhausted I crawled into my sleeping bag and shivered myself to sleep.” Sven paused and look deeply at each of us. “I didn’t know if I would wake up or not.”

…………To be continued 

Will Kydex be illegal in New York? Stay tuned...

Pressing On

I decided my sheath-making activities needed a press; a real, honest-to-God working, Kydex-shaping, fully functional press. I didn’t need to juggle six components (count ‘em: two lids, two foams and two clamps) while trying to compress the foam and get the clamps on it. I had reached the limits of human tolerance, pressed beyond all reasonable expectations and … and … well; I saw a neat design on YouTube and knew I could copy it.

Kydex press waiting for hot plastic and one C-clamp.

Not my design, but I’m pretty proud of it. My wife found the green high density foam at Marc’s. They had garden kneelers cheaply priced, less than 2 bucks each. I already had the hinges and double sticky tape to hold the foam to the plywood.

I also bought smaller, 1/8-inch pop rivets and small number 6 brass washers for spacers and was ready to give it a go. And go I did.

Somehow, I kept thinking Kydex sheaths had to be shaped like fitted leather sheaths. I picked an oval shape, laid out my Kydex. I spent more time measuring this time, but you know the old saying, “Measure twice. Cut once.”

Me too, but I didn’t realize the backing washer was larger than the rivet flange. This put all the washers too close to the blade and because of my fugal Kydex ways, too close to the edge. I trimmed the sheath on a metal cutting band saw and sanded the edges with a little sanding drum on my drill press.

Shaping the rivets with a block of metal and a ballpeen hammer was both easier and more enjoyable than I thought it would be.

The empty sheath was the first go, but beginner’s luck found me on the second try.









For my second try I cut a little more Kydex (about 3.5X the blade width). I elected to go with a square edged sheath with rounded corners.

A square helped me place the rivets better and I used small brass spacer rivets to float the belt loop off the knife sheath. I remembered to take into account the size of the backing rivet as well. The other big change: I taped the blade with two layers of painter’s masking tape.

I used a hunk of iron cut to size to make belt loops and I heated the metal a little to help keep the Kydex flexible while it’s stretching and shaping in the press. Belt loop making is a separate function and still under review and revision.

The sheath worked out better this time.

“The dark blue Kydex doesn’t go with the turquoise knife handle,” my wife said. I asked for her opinion and got it.

“I know, but I bought this color because it was cheap. Nobody else wanted it and I knew I could work and play with it without too much guilt.”

Kydex takes light coats of spray paint quite nicely… hmmmmm. Color matching may not be too much of a problem.

On The Knife Front.

New York, New York, why would I want to live there? Please don’t tell me Times Square.

The New York Times, June 17, 2010:
“At least 14 retail stores in Manhattan — including major retailers like the Home Depot, Eastern Mountain Sports and Paragon Sports — have been selling illegal knives,….”


http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/18/nyregion/18knives.html?_r=2&ref=knives

What are these illegal knives? They appear to be any knife you can manipulate to open with one hand.


“What makes these knives so dangerous is the ease with which they can be concealed and brandished,” said Mr. Vance (spokesperson from the prosecutor’s office).

Well I looked at the picture of these dangerous knives and noticed Emerson, SOG Spyderco, and Smith & Wesson brand knives. All of the knives are consider tactical knives because they open with one hand, lock open and can be clipped to stay where you put them. I think of these knives as safety knives because the blade doesn’t un-expectantly snap shut. But you know it’s not about protection for police, firemen or other New Yorkers. It’s about money.

The Times glosses over this and reports the fines have reached 1.9 million greenbacks.(!) NYC gets almost 1 million of it, the state gets 0.19 million and the rest, 760 thousand dollars goes to unidentified “law enforcement agencies.” Could that be the District Attorneys Office?

And what happens to the 43 knives purchased as part of this sting operation to protect New York citizens? I bet the nicer ones will end up in someone’s pocket.

Future Sharp

Bad news, my computer is sick, perhaps terminal. While smoke did not pour out the back, I kept getting notices of physical data dump in progress every time I went to use it. The IT guys are trying to recover my data, but I think I’m on my way to a new laptop.

However, the international brotherhood of blade spies was able to e-mail one last tid-bit which I was able to follow up on before the computer incident.

For those of us following the introduction of the five-bladed disposable shavers, I have astonishing news.


Thanks to the Freedom of Information Act, I have discovered an unnamed company has been developing a 7-blade disposable razor which will truly be revolutionary and provide an impossible close shave by anyone’s definition.

The company, whose identity was redacted in the report, provides scientific technical support for CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research. During the search for the Higgs boson, CERN has produced small, but stable amounts of condensed matter typically existing only at the heart of collapsed stars. This material has been named Collapsium, for the strong gravity field it produces.

I’ve discovered plans that call for the incorporation of Collapsium at the edge of each multi-razor blade. The dense material will create gravitational anomalies causing microscopic shifts in time during shaving. This will allow you to shave, before they grow to the surface of your face, tomorrow’s whiskers today. Under normal use, your beard will never produce stubble, leaving your face baby-butt smooth. Why any man wants a baby butt for a face is beyond me, but I do know a few butts.

The classified document was obtained from the EPA because of an environmental disposal problem. Frankly, the physics and quantum mechanics were too advanced for me. I was able to connect, thanks to Facebook, with Professor Ian Michal Mountebank PhD, retired, of the University of Barsoon, who explained the problem.

I M (as he likes to be called) suggested the main difficulty is the disposal problem. While the blades will never wear out, since they are cutting tomorrow’s whiskers, they will be thrown out in favor of a newer novelty. The collection of such powerful time distorters in a landfill will cause a temporal rift connecting past and future razors.

This rift or wormhole will cause the future blades and surrounding garbage to be (have been, are, were – English has such difficulties with time travel) sucked back to the present. The paradox of having the same razor twice in the same time frame will exacerbate the rift causing more future and past razors and garbage to continually build up in a vicious cycle. Finally, sufficient Collapsium will collect in each landfill and the resulting gravitational influence will overcome electron cloud repulsion of normal matter.

You are entering the black hole zone.  Please fasten your seatbelt!

A black hole the size of Cleveland will form and end all life on earth in a matter of hours.

The company is seeking an exception from EPA landfill regulations.

Gun's N' Knives

GUNS
It’s been a busy week. One of the clubs I shoot at had a monster-sized bull’s-eye match. It’s called a 2700, which means you shoot 270 rounds each with a maximum value of 10 points. The targets are concentric circles on paper and you plink away at 50 and 25 yards. One handed, please, with no external support the way Roy Rogers and Tom Mix did it.

How big? Very big! So big the Army, Marine and All-National Guard shooting teams bring their armorers in semi-trailers. We even had four people from Australia come shoot with us.


Each day starts with a bang, provided by a black powder brass cannon the English captured during the Crimean war, which is immediately followed by raising the flag and the National Anthem. It’s a heck of great way to start each day!

On Sunday, some of the shooters, having way too much fun the night before, wadded the cannon with their undies. I’ve never seen a bra fly that far before!


Me? No, I didn’t shoot. I displayed knives, yakked with the shooters about life, liberty, safety and self–reliance. The topics seem to roll around to knives quite often.



KNIVES
I’ve been working on a knife a friend gave me. He started making knives by stock removal and it was one of his early tries. It’s very nice and I’ll make a Kydex sheath for it. (I just purchased almost a FULL sheet of 0.048inch thick midnight blue Kydex to work with!!!)

The finished edge on its future sheath

I didn’t care for the knife’s edge angle, so I got out my Lansky sharpener and three sessions later I had a nice 20 degree edge. From there it only took an hour to sharpen it down to the fine stone.


Everyone should at sometime in their life; preferably earlier than later; change the edge of a medium size knife by hand. It’s good for your character.  It’s not the work, even though that’s a good thing.  It’s not the new appreciation of a well turned edge, and that’s a better thing in itself.  No, it’s the sense of accomplishment you get from finishing what you start.


That’s one of the reasons I’m interested in sheaths.

Knife Sheath - Two

My first attempt with Kydex didn’t turn out too good. And no, I don’t have any images to show for it. I was unhappy with the foam thickness in the press. The low density foam needed to be compressed so much making the press almost impossible to use. Plus, it didn’t transfer the force to mold the hot Kydex sharply around the knife.

So I cut the foam in half.

Because of my design I wasn’t able to get the entire strip of Kydex in the toaster oven. This was complicated by the rack in the toaster oven. I knew from previous attempts if I left it in there too long I’d get parallel stripes on the Kydex. Those lines look good on a strip steak, but not on a knife sheath.


I started with two sheets of tactical black Kydex. Tactical means they can charge more than if it was pink. Both sheets were 0.095 inches thick. One piece was about six inches longer than the other so I could turn it into a belt loop. I used two little brass decorative rivets to hold the pieces in registry and placed the sheets in the oven.

As soon as the plastic was floppy, I pulled the hot pieces out, slipped the knife in and slapped everything into the press. Two squeeze clamps held everything together while I placed C-clamps on either side of the knife handle.

Now the hard part………Waiting.


Let me get in a plug for Ansell HyFlex gloves. They are yellow Kevlar gloves with a thin black rubber coating on the palms and finger tips. They take all the hesitation out of grabbing hot Kydex. (http://www.ansellpro.com/hyflex/11-500.asp).


By now the sheath has cooled. Still didn’t get that high definition impression of the knife in the plastic I wanted. Maybe it wasn’t warm enough, maybe it is too thick, maybe the low density foam is too soft. Next iteration, I’ll make changes.


I used a number two pencil (brings back memories of test taking in school – make sure you completely fill in the box with your number 2 pencil….) and drew the outline I wanted. I marked where the decorative faux rivets would go and set up my drill press. I soon had the rivets where I thought I wanted them. Next step: cutting it out.

In my excitement of actually making a sheath, I kinda forgot that I don’t have a band saw. My original plan was to use one at work during my lunch hour. That also was forgotten. I grabbed a coping saw and started cutting. Time for sanding.

I bought a set of little sanding drums for my drill press and before I knew it I was rounding the edges and shaping the sheath into not what I wanted, but by my placement of those damn rivets.

I used a piece of wood with rounded edges to act as a belt template and heat gunned the excess Kydex in to a belt loop. Two 7/32-inch holes for my Chicago screws and the sheath was finished.

I didn’t like it. The brass rivets looked hokie and I was concerned about their holding ability.

Online I found pricey black aluminum pop rivets, but I wanted to keep the cost down on this experimental project. I replaced all the brass rivets with aluminum pop rivets with backing washers. (They popped right out with a pair of side cutters so maybe my concerns about them were valid!) I peened the back of the rivets down with a ball-peen hammer using a bar of polished steel as an anvil. This worked well.

Front side- Yes, there is a knife in all that Kydex.

(back side)
So, there it is. Not quite what I wanted, but it’s a functional sheath, holds my knife securely, and protects me and the blade should I take a tumble with the knife on.

Not quite the form fitting I had in mind

I’m going try thinner Kydex, maybe a combination of thickness: thick to form the back of the sheath, thin to mold the knife. And I’ve got to replace the grill in the oven. I need to plan rivet placement more and I need to find a better way of belt looping it. I’ve seen the new Tec Locs, but I’m not sure about them. I want to keep the overall cost low. It is, after all, just a hobby.

I do like the new Tec-Locs, the locking bar is no longer a seperate piece, but built in

Oh yes, let’s not forget the foam in the press. My wife found what I think is the perfect foam. It even has a cross-hatch pattern.

Kydex – Close Encounters of the First Kind

It’s hard to imagine all the materials used to sheath knives. I can imagine a by-gone craftsman carefully fitting pieces of wood to create a protective pocket around an edge. He had a few different options on how to bind the two sides together. Plant fibers or hair could be twisted to create cord and then wrapped around the two sides of a wood sheath. The discovery of glue opens up many possibilities: glue the two wood halves together or use it to create build-up layers around the sheath. I’m sure glued impregnated paper or cloth was the micarta of the day.

Animal skin is an obvious solution. It could be sewn with other animal parts even as we speak of using cat gut or deer tendons today. It could also be decorative. I can see my fixed blades with a coyote or skunk fur sheath, especial with the skunk’s white stripe. It says something about the man carrying a blade in a black and white fur sheath. What, I don’t know, but it says something.

Once we learned how to tan hide, leather became even more useful. We still value leather as a sheath material. I have friends who carry Ka-Bar fighting knives while hunting. They want the silence of leather in the bush.

Metal seems to have been reserved for sword and other thin blades. Many art knives sport thin metal sheaths, but few of us would carry an art knife out on a picnic much less to a caribou hunt in Alaska. They seem to have fallen out of fashion. I don’t know of any factory produced fixed blade knife in a metal sheath. Is it weight? Maybe it’s concern about corrosion? Or are we just worried about dulling the edge every time the knife goes in or out of the sheath?

Kydex seems to be the answer. Wears like iron, isn’t harmed by moisture and sweat like leather and it doesn’t corrode the metal. It can be a little noisy in the field. In an urban environment the background noise out weighs the little ‘zith’ the blade makes slipping from the Kydex.
Since it’s moldable at low temperatures everyone with an old toaster oven or heat gun is trying their hand at it. YouTube is filled with how-to videos to initiate you into the secret brotherhood of Kydex workers. Why shouldn’t I be included in this group?


So I bought foam to make a press, bought Kydex, Chicago screws, leather working rivets, plywood to hold the foam. I already have a heat gun, an old toaster oven, an assortment of clamps, hammers, metal straight edges and drill bits. The sky’s the limit. My first target is an original Blackjack fixed blade I found at a gun show. It cleaned up nice and is very collectable, but I want that poor man’s Randall for my days in the woods.

I cut the Kydex to the size I wanted and with a heat gun folded the plastic sheath and pressed it flat. Hmmm. I didn’t get the flat fold Murray Carter shows in his video.

I reheated the folded Kydex and the crease goes away! It’s now cooked-noodle flexible and I’m trying to the position the knife and the floppy Kydex in my foam press. I found stiff thick foam, but not the high density foam recommended. I’m hoping that a nine and a half inch thick foam press will compress enough to flatten the foam and shape the Kydex. It’s harder than it looks.

I stand on the press and my body weight proves to have enough force to compress the foam. Unfortunately it’s very hard to apply the large wooden handscrew clamps from that position. What am I going to do?
About that time my wife sticks her head out the door and enters the Kydex fray.

“Well, got any fruits of your labor yet?” she says.

“Say,” I said, “why don’t you give me a hand.”


I quickly move the press to the plywood and saw horse work table I have set up in my summer workshop, AKA: driveway. I had the wooden screw clamps and while she’s opening the jaws, I press down on the press only to have the plywood teeter-totter up on me. She reverses course, pushes the table down and I reposition the press.


The first clamp goes on without too much trouble. We’re both conscious of the Kydex cooling off in the foam press. I pick up the press, do my imitation of Hercules crushing a phone book and she slaps the clamp on the press and my finger.

Before I can say anything she starts tightening the clamp.


“Not my finger… Not my FINGER… NOT MY FINGER!”   This seems to be the only intelligent thing I can say.

“Oops…Sorry!”

That crises out of the way, we get the press closed and let it cool. Twenty minuets later the press comes open, and I understand how a baker feels when his cake fails to rise. The fold in the Kydex has bulged, the knife is at an angle to the sheath and the Kydex has parallel lines embossed into the surface. Oh…from the toaster oven grill. And I don’t know how I’m going to attach this sheath to a belt.

Still I’m encouraged. Easier than wood working and it doesn’t have the odor that skinned skunk pelt has. More on this project later!

Hell's Angels and Boy Scouts

Oh! Those wacky folks on the other side of the Atlanta Ocean.

I just found an article from June 16, 2010 about attacking Hell’s Angels with a puppy. Now I just finished a book on the Hell’s Angels and frankly siccing a puppy on them would not be my weapon of choice. Unless a puppy is what you call a baby dragon. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/germany/7830524/German-throws-puppy-at-Hells-Angels-bikers-then-flees-on-bulldozer.html


It turns out a German student, possibly with a death wish, mooned and then flung a puppy at a group of Hell’s Angels. He then tried to make his get away on a stolen bulldozer at 3 miles an hour. One can almost see the youth holding his pants up with one hand flogging away at the dozer with other hand, shout

“Faster!  Faster you fool. They are almost upon us!”

The paper didn’t report if he moved the dozer’s blade up and down in the menacing manner. The Telegraph reports he made good his get-a-way. He was later arrested at home. I can only surmise the Angel’s were laughing too hard to chase after him.

Last September Great Britain’s Boy Scouts were advised not to carry their pen knives, even when in uniform. An English newspaper, The Guardian, reports that “Scouts are so closely associated with pocket knives that the term Boy Scout knife is a synonym for penknife.” Bad news from the nation that once carved out an empire so bold, so large, the sun never set on it and is now afraid of Boy Scouts. It must have been that deadly combination of folding blade and can opener that was more than anyone could take.

In a related story, it was reported the whirring noise reported by so many Britons was identified as Lord Baden-Powell spinning in his grave. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Baden-Powell,_1st_Baron_Baden-Powell

April Showers And All That Jazz

“April showers bring May flowers that bloom in June...” singers croon, but we know they bring grass. Healthy, tall growing, vibrant, green grass that has to be cut on a regular basis.

I popped off the blade on my grass cutter to give it a much needed sharpening. I’m always amazed by rotary mower blades, only the tips are sharp. I always thought they would be more effective if the entire blade was razor sharp.

Not so, grass cutter man. Only the tips of the blade need to be sharpened. More on that later.

I use to take my blade into a mower shop where I envisioned a skilled certified technician (in a white lab coat, of course) who would carefully grind and polish the blade with a set of water cooled stones at some precise angle dictated by the blade manufacture. Careful to take only an equal amount of metal from both blade ends, he would constantly check the blade’s balance so it will spin true.

Not so, grass cutter man. Some guy eyeballs the edge while passing it over the course grind wheel. Sparks shoot out the back of the grinder and maybe he makes a second pass to see more sparks if he missed the fireworks last 4th of July.

I hate it when reality collides with my imagination! So I bought a disk-shaped stone with a plastic collar/guide that fits my cordless drill and now I just clap the blade in a vice and grind it myself. Then when I’m done, I can use a fine carbide stone to polish up the rough spots.

I was thinking while clamping it in the vice, how fast does the edge move? I took a measurement from the blade axle center to the leading and trailing edge. The back of the blade is 4.5 inches from the center while the leading edge is 9.5 inches. Since the blade spins at 3600 rpm that means the blade is spinning at, ahh, let’s see, 3.1415 times 0.375, carry the 7…

Wow, the front of the blade zips along at 101 miles per hour while the back of the blade is loafing along at a measly 48 miles per hour. The blade is only five inches long, so if I’m mowing an inch a second, (as a trivial exercise to the reader I let you calculate how fast I’m walking), a one inch section of the blade spins 60 revolutions over that one inch of grass.

Speaking for myself, cutting grass has a new dimension of fun!

On the Road from Atlanta

The Monday after the Blade Show was a travel day. As predicted by Nostradamus on my last blog entry, it was a long day.
On behalf of 100,000 drivers I want to acknowledge and thank the unofficial pit-stop of America. They are clean, well lit and air-conditioned. Thanks McDonalds! I never would have made it home without you.

Some people think trips are fueled by gasoline. My trip home was fueled by McDonald’s iced-coffees!

Now comes the work of filing all the literature, business cards and notes for future blogs. My parting lines come from the music world, but pertain to knives and many aspects of daily life: C sharp or B flat.

On the road to Atlanta: Day Five

This was the final day at the Blade Show. The show officially ended at 3:00 but the vendors start packing up earlier. In some cases earlier meant yesterday by being willing to negotiate better prices. Everything you don’t have to pack-up and ship home is a savings in both money and effort. Others started packing up this morning, organizing boxes; making sure things were ready to repack. I can’t help wonder if there might not be a flea market mentality at 2:30. Especially with custom makers who needed a few more sales.

I finished at noon. For me, today was a seminar day. I wanted to see Historical Sword-fighting Techniques by the Reinhardt Legacy Team. Hank Reinhardt started Museum Replicas years ago because he believed people had an interest in sword and sword fighting. As he tried to duplicate medieval combat he discovered or re-discovered the techniques contemporary fighters wrote about. Hank has passed on but his students carry on. Watching them fight explains a lot about both knives and swords.

A Hit!  Good thing the tip is padded!

Ready! SET! FIGHT!

CUT!

Titanium Knives are both the bane and Holy Grail of knife making. Strong, light, non-magnetic, resistant to normal oxidation -- this wonder metal has a serious draw-back.

Is it toxic? Nope, we implant titanium in the body all the time. Too expensive? Price never stopped a custom knife maker. Do people laugh and call us girly-men for carrying titanium blades? Well, yes they do, but it’s not because of the blade. The metal can only be hardened to Rockwell 40ish unless you’re NASA. Soft metals don’t stay sharp. Why? Well, it has to do with the metal's shifting grain boundaries and how micro-crystalline strain fields resist movement.   Enought to know that hardness is related to strength and strength means edge retention.

What George Lambert has done is find a way to use a Rocklin spark deposition machine to place a thin layer of tungsten carbide (with a Rockwell value of 74) which provides a self-sharpening edge caused by the erosion of the softer material.
Sounds like a pipe dream, but nature does it with beaver’s teeth and welders do it to digging tools by layering hard face on one side of softer material.
George claims you can take cheap steel which gives you 20 hemp rope cuts and by using only this treatment, can increase it to 400. So you can make flexible knives that perform like the hardest. WOW!

My high spot was the Victorinox build-a-knife machine. I pictured a large computer controlled machine with pre-loaded polymer pellets ready for injection and clam shell-like dies that spit out a knife every time they open.

The machine

Dan Carpenter pulled a fellow from the audience and with a little hand-operated press, a repair block, a pair of nippers and a machinist hammer, he built a Victorinox Spartan pocket knife. Having seen this done, I understand knife repair so much better.

tap! Tap! TAP!  Finished!

There will be more comments and images later. The Blade Show needs to be reflected in the mirror of time. Too many things happen at once and a little distance is needed. Tomorrow is the trip home and a return to the world. It will be a long day.

On the Road to Atlanta: Day Four

Do you know these people? I found them wandering by the Spyderco booth in good spirits and having the time of their lives. More of the WRCA gang from northeastern Ohio. Next year we’ll have to plan a WRCA dinner. It’s way too hard to keep meeting in hallways.

 

 

I bought a Swamp Rat fixed blade today. I like the thickness and the micarta handle. What I find hard to believe is - a sheath doesn’t come with it. I’m planning on ordering one from Bud Brown Ind. What’s very cool is he accepts PayPal, and claims it has bumped his business up. Stands to reason, click a button and the funds are on the way.

 

There are so many things to experience at the Blade Show. I attended Ernest Emerson’s presentation on surviving mortal combat. It was eye opening and motivating and a bit alarming all at the same time. I’ve heard him before and I’d go out of my way to hear him again.

Ernie tells about surviving urban mortal combat

If you asked him who he is, he would tell you he’s a fighter. He’s trained his entire life and continues to train. He just happens to own a knife company. He’s got a lot of good stuff on his website. Check out his must read book list. I’m proud to tell you I own several of his recommended books and I agree with his ideas on preparation and readiness.

 

 I met with Joyce from Spyderco and got to talk knives with her. Big changes in Spyderco knives are on their way. Most of them will pass unnoticed because Spyderco constantly improves. They call it C.Q.I. or Constant Quality Improvement. Frankly, having worked at three major international companies, you can take it from me, you either continue to improve or you will wither on the vine.

 

Here’s a partial list:

• Flat grind blades for Delica and Endura, with colored handles,
• Manix2 as a test platform for new steels and more precision manufacturing,
• Improved Para-Military 2 with better opening smoothness and top lock,
• So many new designs, the Spyderco collectors better warm up their credit cards.

 

Two of my favorite Blade Show ladies:

Karen from Knives and More and Joyce from Spyderco.

PS: Keep your eyes open for the Spyderco Balance. I know people who have fallen in love with it at first glance.

 

 

 

Ed Fowler has been both an anchor and windsock in the knife industry for 30 years. When knife makers need help and find themselves adrift, they turned to Ed. If you want to see the direction custom makers are headed, well you should also look to Ed.

 

 

 

 

Ed Fowler, one of a kind. A modern cowboy.  And no, he's not holding a spare hat!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ed spoke about the need to see and understand the needs of the customer and reflect them in the knives you make for them. Every new steel or change in manufacturing should have destructive testing associated with those changes. How far can I bend a knife and will it break? How much force does it take to bend? Will it chip if I drop the knife tip first on a concrete floor? He sees every knife as a survival tool. It may be chopping a hole in an ice covered lake to refill your canteen or chopping through a plaster wall to escape a fire. I like that philosophy. Knives are tools and while many, many knives are great works of art, at the core, a knife should be a tool.

The show ends tomorrow.  I have two more days of  "On the road..."

 

 

 

 

 

 

On Road to Atlanta: Day Three

The VIP check in window opens at 10 AM and we’re in line at 8:30.


“Excuse me,” I say to the three people standing at the edge of the booths. “Are you in line?They were and now the line has five. We were soon joined by two more in back of us and the line was seven. The five people around us formed a Busse fan club. I have to admit, they had some unusual knives. Busse designs and produces specific lots of knives, swords and hatchets. And then they are done! Finished. Never to come again!

They will, however, revisit, tweak, alter and modify the design, steel or handle. The five around us were real fans of Busse; it was their favorite topic of conversation. It’s the tweaking that makes the knives so collectable.

By 9:30 we spy the WRCA contingency. Mikes actually finds us and walks up to say hello.

By 10:00 we got our passes and the advance opening is at 12:00. I’m trying not to get caught up in Busse fever, but it’s not easy.

The doors opened up at noon to VIP pass holders. If you didn’t get a VIP pass you paid too much and they were almost as common as mosquitoes in summer.   By 2:00 we had covered almost a third and by 4:30 two-thirds of the show was done.
Initial impressions? There are a lot of custom knife makers and frankly, after awhile the knives all start to look alike. Yes, I know it blaspheme, but they do. The really distinctive knives, the art knives were out of reach for many of us. They are the pearl of great price for which you will sell everything to buy. I’m just not will to give up everything for one knife.

Private collection, but for the right price, well everything is negotiable

$1000 for a knife? Yes it beautiful. I suspect it will hold its value, and yes you better get insurance on it. Still, it’s stupid money range. If you have it to spare, hey, go ahead and spend it and pump up the economy. I did my part. I bought a giraffe bone handled dagger from Bossie knives for under $200.

Daggers, not just stabbin' olives any more

Do you know these people? I found them hanging around the entrance to the show.

They look happy now, but wait until the end of the day when their shoes are off and their feet are up in the air. I know, ‘cause I stopped early and put my feet up.








I ran into Grant and Gavin Hawk. I’ve watched them for years and I got to see their new prototype knife with the Hawk lock. It’s incredible. The knife opens so smoothly and the lock, accessed through an opening in the side of the handle is so smooth. It’s incredible. Am I repeating myself? I should, it is the most ingenious design I’ve seen at the show. I would have bought the prototype in a heart beat, but it was already in near stupid money range.

Proto-types - before any of the knife mag get 'em

Rumor has it that Kershaw will be factory producing them. When? My sources tell me that a prototype has not been delivered yet, so it may be a while.

The Road to the Blade Show: Day 2

“Sir,” the Georgia State Trooper said standing carefully behind me. “Do you know why I stopped you?”
“Well, Officer, when I saw your lights in my rear view mirror I looked down at my speedometer and saw I was doing 73. Isn’t this a 70 mph zone?”

“Exactly, sir. (We both knew “sir” stood for simpering imbecile retard). I also noticed you using your turn signal, moving out of the way for merging ramp traffic and surrendering the passing lane to faster traffic.”

I wasn’t sure where this conversation was going. I was quite certain he wasn’t about to issue a good driving certificate.

“Your driving is confusing the other drivers. I had to stop and help a driver who drove off into the median strip after you used your turn signals to signal a lane change. You left him totally confused and mesmerized. Since you’re from out of town, I just going to issue you a warning this time, sir. Stop driving with caution!”

That was my introduction to Georgia traffic.

I arrived at the Renaissance Waverly Hotel, HQ for the Blade Show. The show is actually north of Atlanta. The advantage of staying at the hotel is the close proximity to the exhibitors. I don’t have to move my car; I can return to my room anytime, and I don’t need to get up at the crack of dawn to be here early.

The rooms are arranged around the perimeter of the hotel so that each has a walkway in front of the room door that allows you to stand and look down to the first floor. A bank of glass-sided elevators whisks people between floors.

By 8:00 pm the lobby is filled with people, glasses and knives

From the birds-eye view I can look down on people and watch them show off their knives to each other. I see a lot of large fixed blade knives, but I can’t recognize the types from the twelfth floor. Should this occur in any other hotel, I’m sure hotel security would be asking those people to leave or marshalling the troops in anticipation of a knife brawl.

I can sign in tomorrow morning at 9:30. I expect the line will be rather long. I wonder if anyone is going to camp out to be first in line. I don’t think my wife would let me be that guy.

On the Road to Atlanta: Day One

The Blade Show starts Friday, 4 June. I’m somewhere in Kentucky held up for the night. I may or may not have wireless connectivity. A bad storm has passed through the area and I’m lucky to be somewhere that has power.

I’m excited. The Blade Show has national and yes, international publicity and appeal. I’ve been to the Shooting, Hunting, Outdoor Trade (SHOT) Show which is also an international show, so I’m no stranger to large crowds surrounding little nuggets of famous people.

The Blade Show is a little different. It’s all about knives. Mostly custom knife makers, but the big knife companies will be there.

I’m looking forward to several seminars. Ernie Emerson on dealing with the mindset of surviving battle. Titanium blades are well known in the diving community, especially with divers dealing with magnetic sensitive infernal machines (magnetic mines for those of you not use to the purple prose of yesteryear). But they don’t hold an edge very well. New (?) techniques to introduce carbides to harden and stabilize the edge which are applicable to other steels will be introduced.

There will be cutting, fencing/dueling and forging demos. I want to see it all, but can’t. I’ll report back on things I see and do.

A lot of knife related activities and opportunities to cover in 2.5 days. Now all I have to do is find internet connectivity.

The Edge of Random Violence

Unfortunately what appears to be random violence isn’t. The victim’s perception of random violence is seldom shared by perpetrator. Peyton Quinn in his book “A Bouncer’s Guide to Barroom Brawling...” suggests that unprovoked violence is the result of the victim being too happy. The perpetrator loaded with misfortune, unhappiness, locked into a dead-end with no conceivable way out, finds a target that seems too happy. So the theory goes.

Usually the targets are weaker, less able to defend themselves. The attack comes at some moment controlled by the aggressor, usually when the target is the weakest. With perverse logic, the more helpless the victim the better the target, so who could be a better victim then children? This seems to be the pattern we see reported from China, where depressed, failed business men attack grade school children.

In a dictatorship, were it is unlikely, impossible and inconceivable a private citizen could obtain a handgun, knives and even hammers are used.

What I find surprising is the success of these attacks in land considered the sun-source of martial arts. With the martial art tradition of China, how can one man with a knife, assault several teachers and manage to harm children? Where is Kwai Chang Caine when we need him? Well Mao took care of him. Outlawing traditional martial arts, Mao promoted something called Wushu. No matter what you read about it, any fighting style in which the entire blocking surface of the forearm is replaced with the palm in a rising block is the art of the dilatants.

The latest attack seems different.

http://editicnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/05/19/china.knife.attack/

CNN reports that 5 or 6 men rushed a college dorm in the pre-dawn morning attacking anyone in their way. Armed with knives and meat cleavers, nobody was killed, but several were injured. One student hand his hand chopped off.

The story makes me wonder. Was someone caught red-handed in the cookie jar? Maybe trifling with someone’s daughter or broke some taboo? I suspect the news media for their lack of veracity. How should I evaluate the Chinese government controlled news media?

It is especially troubling to see knives fall into the category of favorite tools of children killers. Every time I read about these incidents I feel knife collectors and admirers take a right hook to the face and get a collective shiner. There’s no beef steak for this shiner either. I wonder how long it will be before somebody gets the idea that maybe knives should not be sold out of hardware and department stores to the general public.

Changes: The Only Constant

Dale Warther lost his battle to cancer. I don’t know if you’ll recognize his name. I don’t think he ever won an award from Blade Magazine. He was never on Celebrity Apprentice or WWF. Warther knife designs haven’t changed significantly in years since master carver Mooney Warther. Each knife comes with old fashioned quality and value, pride of workmanship and an understanding that form must be a handmaiden to function. With a little care on your part, they are the knives you’ll leave to your children.

Dale was part of the knife world foundation. I met him through a knife club and he always had a good word and time to talk about knives. He will be sorely missed.



Saturday was shaping up to be an exciting weekend but a turn of events raised the table stakes. Not all excitement is a good thing and sometimes change brings mixed blessings. My mother-in-law needed to taken to emergency with the blessings of her cardiologist.

Thankfully it wasn’t her heart after all, but she experienced a drop in hemoglobin while in the hospital. Hemoglobin is an iron based molecule in red blood cells that transports oxygen and carbon dioxide in our bodies. I vaguely remember studying its biochemistry. Microscopic changes in the body’s acid concentrations cause the molecule to exchange oxygen and carbon dioxide. It’s another knife edge the body maintains.

We had to take the long way to the hospital because the expressway was backed up. I found myself at a T-intersection at University of Akron. (So now you know where I live…) The light was red for me and apparently red for the car on my left. It was also the only other automobile at the intersection or visible is this small part of the universe. Mom’s in the back seat and she’s as well as can be expected, but I need to get her to the hospital. Let me explain need.

It’s quite indescribable. Strip way the veneer of civilization, no matter how thick or thin. Then expose that inner primal creature with a single thought. That thought needs no justification or explanation; it simply exists to make a single demand. Last Saturday the demand was to get to the hospital.

So given this barking, gnawing, demanding creature locked in my soul, I gave serious thought to blowing the light. One little brain cell kept telling me that if I ventured into the intersection against the red, that would be the exact second the other car would also decided to blow the light. Knowing this is one thing, but the creature kept flapping its bat–like wings demanding that I do SOMETHING.

I was about to hit the emergency flashers and horn when the traffic light resolved the situation and we proceeded into the intersection under the green light.

Later in the emergency waiting room I realized we live on a knife edge. Some days it’s a little dull and the footing more relaxed. Your mistakes can slide you forward or backward and you can noodle around with impunity. Other days you’re unknowingly and precariously balanced on the wire edge and a mistaken breath will push you off the edge and into the abyss.

Knives in the Net

It’s been an interesting couple of days for knives. I started searching online for news about knives, mostly in preparation for attending the Blade Show and found a link in the New York Times to a South American knife maker. http://www.artisanalknives.com/index.html


He specializes in Damascus steel with a traditional look that results in folding different steels onto themselves over and over…Did I mention you need to fold it over again?

I wish the website showed better images of his knives. The New York time suggest Damascus knives run about $150 an inch but Artisanal Knives charges significantly less. From the few images I saw at the website, I liked the simple, clean lines that give his knives elegance.

The UK is in the grip of weapon frenzy. Crime and violence continues to skyrocket. A recent news report recounts the tragic death of a youngster at the hands of a gang. The gang or mob (as they should be called) attacked him with baseball bats and knives. This adds to the growing tally of violence and death from crime in the UK. Of course pocket knives are a great bone of contention and are viewed by the English justice system as offensive weapons with no redeeming purpose. That little Case canoe the boys of your Scout troop gave you as Scout Master could get you hard time in England.

Concerned about UK’s problem of offensive weapons British scientists have warned the population about knife wielding robots. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/7692660/Danger-robots-with-knives-could-attack-humans-accidentally.html

It seems that these tools could be armed with other tools that could be used in an offensive manner injuring humans.

Somebody, please anchored them to ground before these bubble-headed ideas make them float away. It appears the scientists were not talking about autonomous Cylons bent on destroying their human masters in an orgy of knife fighting.

No, this is more of if robots-were-using-knives-to-cut-something-and-you got-in-the-way, or if they ran into you, you might be stabbed. There wasn’t any discussion of what could happen if a 250-pound robot runs into you at 45 mph, or if a metal arm weighing 30 pound whips into you at 100 ft per sec. If you are wondering, just a few words to help: bones break, metal bends.

I must kill-kill-kill...and vacuum the floor!

I don’t know. Maybe we should be worried. My robotic floor cleaner, Rhoomba, has been hanging around the kitchen knife drawer a too much for my comfort.

Tools and Intentions

We drop our pocket knives in our pockets and sometimes forget how these tools can be used. I try to remember what Mas Ayoob told us about knife attacks every time I gear up. To paraphrase: “Imagine the smallest, most gentle woman you know standing with a 6-inch kitchen knife in her hand. Now imagine that person with a wild, distorted grimace on her face and swinging that blade like she was a Waring blender. Now, who wants to take it away from her?”

Recently Deputy Clay Grant Jr. was doing a little off-duty shopping at Target (the name suggests what’s going to happen) in West Hollywood, California and ran into a woman wielding a knife in each hand. http://www.kxxv.com/Global/story.asp?S=12419226
Fortunately it ended up okay. If by okay you mean injuries are acceptable but nobody died.

That wasn’t the case in the Big Apple, AKA New York City. The Akron Beacon Journal reported in the May 3 issue that Hugo Tale Yax from Guatemala attempted to assist a woman in the Big Apple. I don’t have the details, I don’t know who the woman was or why she was attacked, but in the end someone knifed Hugo. Hugo was a homeless man, but he felt the need to risk all he had, his life, to help this woman. The Beacon reports that security tapes show New Yorkers walking past his still bleeding body without any attempt to help him, much less call the police. I don’t have any real comment. The story says it all.

On the whole, neither New York nor West Hollywood has any really attraction to me as a destination.

I was looking in the employment ads (What! Don’t you ever wonder if there isn’t a better job waiting for you?) from last Sunday. Tucked in among the rest of the ads I found a little something of interest. A private bank, (that’s the way they described it) is looking for a financial officer with the usual and at least one very unusual criterion. They want someone with an underground degree in finance.

Did they want a deep rock miner? Or can you get a covert degree, one that no one will confirm or deny? Is this the handiwork of some secret financial task group working on the edge of international legality?

You tell me - IMF: International Monetary Fund or Impossible Mission Force?

This blog will self destruct when you are done reading it.

Laser Knives, Not Just for Luke Skywalker Any More!

In a CCW class I had a student with a laser sight on his handgun. It’s the first time I’ve seen one like his. Most are under the barrel or off to one side, but this one replaced the rear sight. This placed it above the bore.

The battery and on button were on one side and the laser on the other. You push the battery side once to turn it on and a little diode glows telling you and anyone behind you the laser is turned on. The fellow had a little trouble with it. After couple shots it would turn itself on. While some might think of this as a labor saving device, I like the idea of making my own mistakes and not leaving it to a faulty switch. Still the laser did give me an idea.

I’m surprised that someone hasn’t incorporated a laser in a knife handle. Sears has them in cut-off saws. The saw draws a laser line where the blade is going to cut, saving you from cutting something you don’t want to cut. Like your fingers.

The Bosch-5412L-12-Inch-Dual-Bevel-Slide-Miter-Saw-with-Laser-Tracking . Oh boy!  How many knife blades do you see on it?

That could be done with a knife. A couple diode lasers and the knife could show you the direction the blade will go if you push it. If the laser is on your fingers or your other arm, that’s the knife’s way of telling you to reposition something out of harm’s way.

Diode lasers use milliwatts of power. They are very efficient and just sip power out of a battery. If, or when we get the beam up to around a watt you wouldn’t need a knife. You’ll just blast through the object.

When that day occurs, I wonder… will there be laser collecting clubs?

Swiss Army Knife

It’s hard to imagine not owning a Swiss Army style knife. I keep a few around including one with a bent knife blade tip, the results of flicking it into a wooden seat. The straight blade screw driver and bottle opener have proven in valuable to me!

The original knife was actually built by two different companies, both of which shared the Swiss military contracts. Why two companies? Here lies the tale of romance, competition and intrigue. But I’m going to leave that all out.

In 1890 the Swiss Army was supplied by a German company. This caused Karl Elsener a patriotic Swiss citizen, to start a Victorinox to provide the Swiss Government a knife made in the homeland. Later, his general manager, Theodore Wenger started a different company. I think you can guess the company’s name.

Hummm…the plot thickens!

The two companies were located in different parts of Switzerland, each with their own regional dialogs. In an effort to stay neutral, the Swiss government split the military contracts down the middle.

Eventually it was for naught, Victorinox now owns Wenger, but swears the two lines will remain separate and whole.

As a side note, Wikipedia claims “The term "Swiss Army knife" was coined by US soldiers after World War II, presumably because they had trouble pronouncing its original name, "Offiziersmesser.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swiss_Army_knife

One additional note: I asked Victorinox rep at the SHOT Show if they were ever considering the tactical knife market. At the time they said no, largely due to price considerations. Their studies suggest $30 was the best price point for their markets and they worked to stay in that neighborhood.

WIRED Magazine’s website thinks the Victorinox’s Presentation Master is one gadget no truly self respecting geek should be without. www.wired.com/reviews/product/pr_victorinox_pm_knife

It has the normal tools plus a few more. I don’t need to detail them for you, follow the link and find out for yourself. Just let me say 16 gigs of computer memory and a Swiss army knife for a $240 is quite a difference from $30.

You’ve come a long way, babe!

Eyes of the Beholder

A recent knife club meeting proved what we already knew: There is no definition of beauty. It also showed, quite to my surprise, there is agreement on ugly.
Each participant in the show-and-tell had either a Barlow style knife or an “Ugly Knife” to show off.  It’s the presentation of the knife and its story the club members find so delightful.

There are times though, you wish the raconteurs would either:
A) get to the point,
B) stay on the path to the subject.

Despite the wandering story paths, it is amazing to see the excitement and enthusiasm that knife owners generate over their knives.

What’s a Dodo?

The dictionary defines it as:
A large flightless bird that tasted like chicken to hungry 18th century sailors;
The pet named “Pickwick” owned by Spec Ops agent Thursday Next www.thursdaynext.com/index2.html or;
A single bladed knife made by Spyderco, but now out of production.

Spyderco’s Dodo was the bainchild of Eric Glesser. Designed with a bird beak, full belly blade and a handle of blue G-10, the knife was a proof of concept of a ball bearing lock design. It had a limited production run. The G-10 handle was almost impossible to slip out of your pocket. While there wouldn’t be any fast draws you didn’t have to worry about losing it either. Four years ago this Dodo went extinct too.

Recently one surfaced on eBay. e-Bay is quite un-predictable. The right person sees the item and the price can skyrocket. Other times the rocket has a fast fuse and blows up in your hand. 

The right people were on line for this Dodo. It started at 99 cents and 38 bids later the Dodo went for $222.50!!! The winning bid sniped it in with 7 seconds to spare. His winning eBay bump? $2.50.

Today’s Rumor
Sal Glesser is rumored to be designing an updated Dodo. Big deal…You all ready knew that, didn’t you.

Conterfeit Randalls

I don’t buy old knives. The guy at the table next to me did. The conversation went:

“Do you buy knives?”

“Sometimes,” said the vendor.

The seller unzipped a Randall Guardian with stacked leather washer handle and concealment sheath. The blade looked good and the leather looked likes it was handled a bit, but well taken care of.

“It’s a nice Randall. I’m not very good with Randall prices.”

“And you call yourself a knife dealer! WHAT’S WRONG WITH YOU? You should know what its worth.” The seller was getting more than a little cranky.

Every once and a while you get a prickly customer and I could see the vendor had dealt with this before.

“What are you asking for it?” The vendor asked politely. After all there is no sense in burning bridges.

“Well.” The seller drew himself up another three inches taller. “I know what it’s worth, but I’m not telling you. And you call yourself a dealer.”

“Well, okay, let me see the knife again.” The seller handed it over and the vendor produced a small, but powerful flashlight. He carefully studied the Randall stamp, looked at the edge and felt around the leather washers and silver cap.
“Well the edge is very straight and it doesn’t appear to be resharpened.”

“That’s right.” The seller leaned in to see what the vendor was inspecting.

“It’s too straight. These were hand-made and this edge is machine. Look at the fine polishing parks on the edge. Randall used a courser edge polish then and I think the stamp is too dark.”

It was obvious where the story was going. I just sat there hoping a customer wouldn’t come to my table and prevent me from hearing the end of the story. The owner stood dumb struck, so the vendor kept going.


“Well, there are some nice counterfeits coming in now, but ten years ago phony Randalls were the rage. Some were so good, well, they were very good. So buddy, here it is. If you paid more than $80, you got taken.

“I suppose” the seller said condescendingly, “you’d like to buy it for your fake collection?”

“No thanks, I got enough junk.”

The seller stood there riveted to the floor, slowly turning red. I swear his eyes started to bulge. If he had been a boiler, I would have hit the ground and prayed the safety valve would open before it blew.

“But Jimmy might. He’s usually at that end of the building,” the vendor waved toward a distant corner, “but I haven’t seen him today. He might give you 80, maybe 90 bucks for it.”

The seller grabbed for the knife, but the vendor pulled it back.

“Hey, watch the blade.” he said. “It may be junk, but it’s sharp junk.” He put the knife down and the seller snapped it up and was last seen jamming it in his case as he stormed off.

I looked at the vendor. “That was a counterfeit? Sure looked nice.”

The vendor looked at me and shrugged. “What do I know about Randall knives? That guy was an orifice. They I know about.” He went back to looking something up and I returned to hoping for customers.

American Switch Blade

Rumor has it…………..

I understand Schrade is making a limited production run of an American made retro switchblade. I hear it will be under 1000 total production with three different bolsters.

An American Retro Switch Blade!?!?!?!!!!!    Tune in for more.

Sharpening the Edge

All knives get dull. Thats not true.  You know that’s a lie.

All used knives get dull and that’s the truth. So it was no surprise I needed to sharpen my Spyderco Salt I. I use that little serrated blade all the time.

The blade is made from H-1 steel which is completely rust proof. No really, it is. I made a paste of table salt and water and coated my blade with it. I tried to keep the paste moist, but I’m sure sometime during the night it dried out. No rust. A little discoloration on the steel blade, but no rust.

The H-1 steel carbon content is very low, only 0.15%. That leaves all the chromium available to form a nice chrome oxide film which resist oxidation or rust formation.

I like sharpening knives. It’s my own little Japanese Tea ceremony. The counter gets wiped off, several layers of newspaper a placed on the surface. I slide the stones out of the Spyderco Sharp-maker and inspecting each one. Each stone deemed dirty gets scrubbed with a mild cleanser to remove oxidized metal, dried and returned to the black plastic base. The dark medium grit stones are put in place first, then the brass protective rods.

The sharpening starts with downward strokes on both side of the blade. I let my mind go blank and just feel the stone and steel abrading. At some point I test the knife by cutting newspaper. Satisfied, I wipe the blade clean and replace the stones with the white fine stones.

The fine stone grabs the edge differently and the steel sings a different song. When I’m ready, I start running the blade upwards from the stone’s base to its top. This draws the wire edge out. There’s an element of symmetry here: The stone receives the metal from the blade and give the blade its sharpness.

When it’s time the blade is tested. Does it shave? It does. The blade gets wipe down and the pivot gets a drop of oil. I thumb the knife open, test the lock and slip the closed knife back in my pocket.

The sharpener is returned to its container. The newspaper is rolled up and placed in the trash. There is symmetry to the entire process, all of which turns on the exchange of metal.

You don’t sharpen a knife to use it: rather you sharpen because you have used it.

Edging into Trouble

It’s all a bad mistake and it’s getting worse. You got off at the wrong exit, the bar wasn’t what you thought, and the address said north not south, the neighborhood changed. There are a thousand reasons you’re in deep sh*t, but all you want is to go home in one piece.

They wanted more than your money and you knew they‘ll kill you and get your address and keys. While you were toe-tagged John Doe, your wife and daughter would be desperately checking hospitals. They would never know until too late the mad dog predators stalking them.

So you ran from them. They split up and chased you and by now you’re surrounded. Safety lies in the direction you came, but at least one thug is following you, driving toward the rest. They’re smart, organized and vicious.

You have a plan too. It’s not your best plan, but it’s your last plan. You’re going hide behind the dumpster with your closed knife in your hand and hope they pass. If not, you’re going to lure one in close. It’s important he doesn’t see the knife, so it’s got to be closed. When you stepped over toward the closest one you’d hold your wallet up and step even closer.

Your last move would be a surprise. A fast step, grab the thug and pump the blade in and out of his stomach eight or ten times as fast and hard as possible. If there was a second thug, you’d turn on him with the blade. It’s a terrible plan. It’s all you have.

Trouble is; your cold, bloodless fingers can’t hold the side opening auto knife without dropping it. And forget about the assisted or manual openers, fine if you can open them before you need them, but what if the person in the alley isn’t the thug? Did you really want to step out of the shadows with an open blade? What you need is an OTF.

I saw nice, clean out-the-front Piranha Excalibur at work. It’s a cool knife. A fellow could hold the knife firmly in this hand wrapped around it and push the button to open it. The double edged blade flies out the front. You don’t hold it with a partial grip like the ProTech out-the-side autos. Heck, that grip is already half way to losing the knife.

My opinion: A real combat knife needs to be either fixed blade or out-the-front auto. Assisted openers and manuals have their role in CQC, but out-the-front has them beat.

Guess What I Have In My Pocket

I was at a gun show this week-end and heard the best reason to own more than one knife:

“I carry a knife everyday and I get tired of the same one.”

Of course what I mostly hear is: “I’ve carried the same knife for forty years. And I don’t understand….” They always reach into their pocket and pull out –
(Choose one)
A- a one and on half inch long two bladed Schrade trapper with 50% of each blade sharpened away;
B- a dull Victorinox Classic which has never been sharpened and has a bent blade from trying to cut string.
C- a small bone-handled Italian stiletto switchblade with a bolster release and a carefully polished razor edge.

“…why I can’t find another good one like this for $12!”

Answer: I’ve never see C, but variations on A and B are common. These are the same folk who don’t understand that a $12 knife when gasoline was 35 cents a gallon is roughly equal to an $85 knife to day.

Well, I hope I live long enough to be like them someday.

WRCA: Knapping One Edge at a Time

At first thought it’s hard to see the connection between a flint knapper and a knife show. The differences are obvious. Knives use modern metals, plastics and production processes. Knapping flint arrowheads calls for rock, antler and another rock which you press together. Total different. Right?

Still, I’m sure the second, maybe third tool man ever used was an edgy rock. I think the first was the hammer stone. It seems obvious to me. Pick up a rock and smash something. The tie for second and third place goes to fire and sharp edges. I suspect it was sharp edges followed by fire.

Inventing knapping went something like this:

She: “My sharp rock is dull again. Go find me another one.”

He: “I just got you that one. Those things don’t grow on trees.”

She: “Well, unless you want fur on your meat, you better find me another one just like this one.”

She passes it, he butter-fingers it and the stone tool breaks on the cave floor.

She: “Now you’ve done it!”

Picking up the damaged stone tool he cuts himself on the newly sharpened edge and an idea takes root.

He: “Here. I’ll be outside talking to Uglar. Call me when supper is ready”. He walks off acting like he had planned it.



The seed of knapping was planted. You can chip stone to create a sharp edge.

The knapper holds the stone in his left hand and strikes it with a copper bar with his right.  It's art in motion, a skill once in great demand now on dispay at the Western Reserve Cutlery Association's Knife Show








I had a chance to watch a flint knapper explaining his art to during the Western Reserve Cutlery Show. He explained how flint has very fine grain. We call it cryptocrystalline and it has no cleavage planes. When force is applied with a soft tool, like an antler, or rounded copper nail, a conchoidal fracture, called a Hertzian Cone forms and material flakes off. By skillfully applying this principle the knapper can flake off material to form an incredibly sharp edge.

That’s the connection. Knife, sword, axe, and arrowhead: It’s all about sharp edges.
He explained that he wasn’t using flint but chert. Flint is a rock that forms in chalk deposits. Chert is a sedimentary rock that forms in any deposit.

Chert? Sounds like what a Rocky Balboa bird would say: “Hey! CHERT!”

Western Reserve Cutlery Association Knife show

I had a lot of fun at Western Reserve Cutlery Association annual knife show. This year it was held at the Dover Armory. Nothing can beat the atmosphere of the Warther Museum, but the Armory had a lot more space.



Parking was crowded, but at lot of us parked down the street and walked back to make more room for customers.

I meet a young man who bought a Boker ceramic bladed folder with a Titanium handle at a flee market for $10.00. It’s a little worn, but the new list price is $285. He was hoping to find a good deal at the show, I doubt it , but you can never tell.

Surely, there must be a treasure in this display.  Actually there was.  I fould a spatula knife marked "Arthur Thomas Co." (A famious name in scientific equipment)  At $80 it was out of my price range.

The hall was packed with vendors and potential customers, as well as a few tire kickers. I sold quite a few Rough Riders, chiefly Sunfish and Elephant Toenails as well as CRTK new Ken Onion design Ripple. I was planning to keep that one, but someone wanted it too badly.

                                                                 My favorite table

I’ve heard a lot of questions over the years. “Who makes that knife?” “What’s the steel?” “Who are they? I never heard of them before?” One I hear and dread is “Where’s it made?” For many people it is less of a matter of the company reputation as it is not-made-America. I usually remain polite, but I stop trying to help the customer.  They are usually after inexpensive non-existant American knife.

Of course, American made knives tend to be expensive.  Benchmade is now made in America as more and more of Buck. The prices go up. High prices aren’t epidemic only to made-in-American companies. Spyderco, who I think has some of the best knives around, come from Seki-City Japan. They are excellent quality but the prices are hitting new highs.

It’s not often I can be surprised, but I heard a question I never heard before. The vendor next to me sells only high end knives. He had a custom made knife from South Africa, with warthog ivory inserts and an anodized blade. The prospective customer heard Africa and wanted to know if a black man made the knife. I’m still amazed by that question.