Knife and Blade Show

The knife gun show at Medina, Ohio was interesting.  While I sold gave away (almost) some old stock, a lot of the fun comes from watching the people.

I saw one man wearing a tee-shirt saying: Revolutionary War Veterans Association.  He didn’t look that old.  I found out later it seems to be a shooting society dedicated to remembering the more or less forgotten participants of the American Revolutionary War. 

I also told a friend I’d help him price several bayonets his buddy’s dad left behind.  To my surprise I found more than I expected about bayonets.

Both bayonets were Japanese type 30 from WWII.  One was rather crudely made and I expected it to be from production late in WWII.  I found out it was a training bayonet which were often made at schools and homes.  There was no interest in making a quality training bayonet as these were never expected to see combat.  They were often made from cheap, poor quality steel and came with equally shabby scabbards.  These were unsharpened.

WWII souvenirs

The other bayonet was a little gem.  It had the Jinsen Arsenal mark stamped on the blade.  This arsenal isn't rare, but is not considered common.  The best way to describe it I was told was 'un-common.'

The issued bayonet show quality workmanship.  The lower is the poor quality trainer. 

Unfortunately they were poorly taken care of.  Both scabbards were rusty and pitted.  The blades were in the same condition.  It’s hard to understand why dad didn't run a coat of oil on them years ago.  I brushed them down with a brass brush and a little WD-40 and took a lot of surface rust off.  I guess they were not important to him.

The stamp indicates its from the Jinsen armory.  The training bayonet doesn't have any kind of marking. 

Included in the bundle was a German fireman's dress bayonet.  Yeah.  You read it right.  Fire fighters dress bayonet. 

Fireman's bayonet?  What?  He stabs the flames?

The key was the polished blade and the absence of a mounting slot.

There’s no slot to attach the bayonet to a rifle.  That’s because German firefighters didn’t have rifles.

Now, I have no tolerance for Nazi collectables.  I hate those guys, but I’ll give the devil his due:  the Weimar Republic and Nazi Germany sure understood symbols and the trappings of power and how to use them.

I also ran into John from Shadow Tech.  He was at the Blade Show and my wife liked one of his damascus fixed blades with an ivory colored micarta handle.  She wanted a minor modification and John and Dave agreed to it.  We paid for it and they had it at Medina.  It’s a ‘double’ Blade Show knife for her.  She ordered it at Blade, but they had to buy ladder damascus from Alabama Damascus at the show to make it.  It’s a sweet knife and the faux carbon fiber kydex makes it pop!

Shadow Tech - My wife's new knife.

Keep your eye on Shadow Tech.  John told me they are going to be covered by unamed national magazines.  A collaboration between ST and Colonial knife is in progress.  I understand Colonial is getting some of Shadow Techs’s patterns and they are going to make some autos for them.

Dave and John from Shadow Tech at the Blade Show with a few good knives!

I can't wait to see their auto!

While not a lawyer, I understand that the Feds regulate shipping of autos and the states seem to decide if automatic (AKA switch blade) knives are legal.  It seems silly in light of the fact most states have CCW and more than one police officer tells me that if they arrest you even that cheap nail clipper with file in your pocket will be written up as a concealed weapon.  I keep running into a woman who swears her community made her take a 12-hour class and get a permit to carry a knife in the city limits.  I understand there was a fee for the class and ‘license process.’  

Speaking of government interference, the proposed ivory ban has people worried.  I’m told there are only 8 sources of ivory: elephant, mastodon and mammoth (both extinct), walrus, hippo, narwhal, sperm whale and warthog.

Here’s where it gets confusing.  We stopped importing whale products in 1986.  We stopped importing elephant ivory 30 years ago.  Nobody cares about fossilized tusk and mastodon tooth because the youngest stuff is 20,000 years old.  And currently wild boars are a problem.  So we should be okay on any ivory in the country.  Right?

Jim Hammond at Blade Show talking about the ivory ban and President Kennedy's love of scrimshaw.

Well, no.  See, the Chinese and Russia still have this unquenchable thirst for ivory.  So the U.S. and others think by punishing American ivory consumers and owners we’ll send a message to the rest of the world.  By not allowing the internal sales of legally obtained ivory, it becomes worthless.  

The government sees us as the bottom level of a vast Chinese crime syndicate. (If so, I need a raise!!)  By pressuring you to give up your source of illegal ivory, they can trace it back to Lo Fat Way or some other imagined ganister and terrorist.

Sandra Brady, scrimshaw artist supreme, at the Blade Show talking about the impact the proposed ban on ivory will have.

Your source?  That’s the Vatican cameo your grandmother left you, soon to be made worthless.  Uncle George’s ivory handled revolver from the Spanish American war - can’t sell it with those grips!  The possibilities go on.  This includes all those scrimshaw ivory handles that decorate knives, jewelry and musical instruments. 

Now frankly, it’s not too important to me.  I don’t own any ivory.  My family doesn’t own any ivory.  My retirement or future plans don’t revolve around ivory.  I just dislike the fact the government can seize your property on mere suspicion and you are forced to prove your innocence.  If you cannot, you may go to jail.  

In any case you’ll lose your property just to make a ideological statement to China, Japan and Russia that killing elephants for ivory is unacceptable.  Remember the world banned hunting whales, but Japan still takes about 60 whales a year for “research.”  

(In Japan's parliament last month, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said he would like the country to resume commercial whaling "in order to obtain scientific information indispensable to the management of the whale resources.")

The only one concerned with world opinion seems to be the U.S.

You want to save the elephants?  Great!!!!

Tell your government to send the money they would spend enforcing these ridiculous and un-American laws to the African agencies who are in the field protecting elephants from poachers.  That will make a difference, not confiscating ivory from an animal dead for 30 years. 

Oops!  Looks like rant mode was on!

Switchblades

Switchblades. Auto knives. Push button knives.  Flick knives.  No matter what you call them, fully automatic knives have an undeniable appeal.

They aren’t new.  The first ones were made in the mid 1700s.  Following the U.S. Civil War, knives became factory products made in quantity. 

Knife sales increased thanks to the internet of its time, the catalog and advertisement.   In 1892 George Schrade invented the first really practical auto knife.  We’re still re-inventing the auto knife.  The Blade Show featured the so-called dual mode and hidden auto which could be opened manually or automatically with a hidden release.

HK's dual mode Scorch.  Open like a manual knife or use the hidden release.  And it's made in the USA!

So far so good!

In search of more readership, Women’s Home Companion published an article in 1950 about switchblades called “The Toy That Kills.”  Did you hear that sound?  No, it wasn’t the click of a knife opening.  That was the opening shot of the war on knives.

The image of a hoodlum standing in the mouth of an alley smoking a cigarette, wearing a black leather jacket, and shockingly tight pants with an Italian switchblade in his back pocket and dating your daughter was too much for our legislators.  Especially when their wives began to think these Hollywood romantic bad boys were cute!

In 1958, The Switchblade Knife Act was passed making the sale of auto knives, but not possession, illegal.  Many states also passed laws banning autos, dirks, Bowie knives, short swords and butterfly knives.  The U.S. is not the only nation in the world that feels their citizens can’t be trusted with a knife much less one that opens by pushing a button. 

Traveling overseas with almost any of our ubiquitous knives could land you in jail.

Let’s zip forward to today.

Since then some states have passed knife rights laws to allow their citizens to buy, sell and own autos.  We have groups like Knife Rights and AKTI to thank for that.

Two of my favorite knife manufacturers package their autos with dire warnings about the proper documentation needed if you return your auto for service or warranty work.  With many states making it legal to own autos, I wanted to know how these companies would treat legal autos in need of service.

Spyderco requires a letter (on letterhead!) stating you are authorized to possess one of their autos and a restricted item return form.  They will not return your knife to you without all the paperwork.  They really don’t like autos and currently only carry one at the request of the U.S.Coast Guard rescue swimmers called the Autonomy.

This policy will remain in effect regardless of state laws, so if you own a Spyderco auto, unless you’ve got current paper, don’t bother sending it back.

Not that I blame them.  Several years ago when imported butterfly knives were banned, Spyderco was making them here in the U.S.  One part, that little latch on the bottom of the handle, was imported from overseas.  They had paperwork from Customs saying it was okay and legal.  All the lawyers on both sides were in agreement.  It was all good.  Then ICE decided the little latch was contraband, seized the shipment and all the other knives associated with the shipment.  People almost went to jail and fines were levied.  It wasn’t very nice.

I’m actually surprised they even make an auto given the complexity of the legal system.  We tend to think of the Federal government as a great monolithic organization.  It often acts as individual organization and has little if any interest in cooperating with other departments.

My next stop was Benchmade.  They make a fine line of autos 

Benchmade's AFO II.  They upgraded this knife two years ago and it really performs!

and this year have introduced more covert autos in which the blade can be opened like a manual knife, or pressing a hidden button springs the blade open.  Look at the gold class 7505 Sibert or the black class 5400 Serum if you’re interested.

They too have restrictions on sending autos back.  You cannot send it back via the post office and you must have or sign their Auto Opening Knife Acknowledge form available on their website.  Benchmade recommends you take your auto back to a registered Benchmade dealer and arrange to have them ship it back for sharpening and tune up. 

Just in passing they suggest you send any of your Benchmade knives in every two years for resharpening and overhaul.  You paid for the service when you bought the knife, you should take advantage of it.

It doesn’t matter if you have a CCW, or if your state allows autos or if your old unit/department passed them out like sticks of gum.  Each vendor has different rules that they think will keep them out of legal trouble.

Is this right?  Frankly what do I know about the law?  I don’t even write radio dialogue for lawyer commercials.  Find out what they want and work with them.

Still want an auto?  I don’t blame you.  I like them too.  If you carry one, just keep your wits about you.

Blade Show 2014

The 2014 Blade Show is over.

A sick laptop prevented me from reporting from Atlanta, GA.  Over the next couple of weeks I’ll review some of the highs and lows of Blade.

But here’s a taste.

While not the providence of the Blade Show, one has to reflect on the Cobb Convention Center.  I will say that if the standard of Atlanta is poor service, the Cobb lived up to it.  The adjoining hotel was overbooked, so everyone associated with the show had to check out Sunday morning because a new convention was arriving that day.  The breakfast area in the hotel, which was open only for a rather nice, but expensive breakfast, was torn down and under construction.  I don’t know where hotel guests ate breakfast.  I was lucky.  I stayed off-site and will again.

At the Cobb Convention Center, the escalator down to the poorly staffed and unorganized food court was partially broken.  You could get down, but not back up to the show.  The elevator for wheelchairs and elderly was also broken.  If there were stairs they were well hidden.  So you had to walk out of the building, around to the front, reenter the building and take the (soon to be also broken) lobby escalator up to the show floor.  Despite it being Friday, no evidence of workers was present.

The restrooms were poorly managed.  Several restrooms off the beaten path were clean and quickly locked once the staff discovered people were using them.  Fortunately there were no riots over toilet paper.  In the hallways there were no places to sit, except in the one-way food court, and most of the meeting rooms with chairs were kept locked.  Soon people sprawled on the floor and leaned against walls.  I spent so much time on my feet that they felt like sore marshmallows every morning despite icing them down in the evenings.

What about the Blade Show, or am I going to just bitch about the facilities?

The VIP line 3 hours before the show opened!

The first thing you need to understand is there aren’t many changes you can make to a knife.  A knife is basically a sharpened edge and a handle.  Normally some way of protecting the edge from the environment and your fingers is included.  The two most popular ways are a sheath and folding/retracting the blade into the handle.  Most manufacturers use one or both of these methods.  But not always.  Busse Knife Co. sells all their knives sans sheath.  Just a cardboard tube to protect you from the edge.

Given this basic concept it quickly becomes apparent that most if not all the tables have some variation on this, like everyone else.

The differences become apparent in the types of material used, the skill of the craftsman, the artistic vision and the execution.  Truly originally ideas are rare.

The next most exciting thing to see is the positioning of each company in the knife market.  For example:

Kershaw has purchased several designs from Emerson.  It’s always best to talk to people on Sunday at Blade.  By then they’re tired and often the true story, or at least part of it, is told.  More on that later.  Just know that:

• Emerson’s CQC-7 with Wave retails at $225
• Kershaw’s CQC-7K with Wave retails at $60.

Spyderco reports that more and more countries are banning friction folding knives as well as locked blades.  The slip joint market is growing.  New designs like Spyderco’s PITS (Pie in the Sky) by British knife maker Mike Read show promise.  Mike’s design is such that the more pressure you place on the spring while cutting, the harder it is to close the blade.  Was this a purposeful design feature?  I asked Joyce Laturi about that.  Joyce suggests,  “…People decide to do what they can within the letter of the law so they can carry a knife…”

Still waiting!  

Are you a criminal?  Maybe not, but you could soon be an outlaw.  The domestic ivory ban, President Obama’s directive 210 makes it illegal to sell ivory harvested before the 1980s ban passed by Congress.  While the directive is focused on elephant ivory collected after the ban, enforcement is given sweeping powers to declare you guilty and force you to prove your innocence.  While the US Fish and Wildlife service stated in Sept 2012, “...Illegal ivory in the U.S. was not significant,”  they are now working for the “virtual elimination of all commercial trade in elephant ivory,” according to Dan Ashe, Director USFWS.  You’ll being seeing more on this later.

CRKT Imported Knife of  2014.  It's a nice knife!  

I learned how to turn an impossibly dull knife into a workable dull knife with 'mud-on-a-stick.'  I'll have more on that too!

The Blade Show isn’t about knives.  That’s just the excuse.  It’s really about people and their knives.

A Fist Full of Cord

Can one of these spell the difference between coming home after an unplanned outdoor activity or being found a year later by someone's dog?

It’s hard to think of survival gear and not think of a knife.  No matter if we are thinking of late night in a dead-end-alley survival or where-the-hell-are-we lost, one of the tools we would like is a knife.

Certainly there are other items we might want.  It's way too easy to compile a most wanted list: handgun, compass, matches/flint, ‘space’ blanket, button light, cell phone, warm clothes, water, food.  The list seems endless.  Even intrepid TV survival experts would not survive for long in most environments without some equipment.

It is with some curiosity I see paracord survival bracelets 

being hawked at gun shows, websites and worn about town.  In agreement with my policy on true transparency I’ve got to say, I make ‘em, too.  I wear them as well.  It’s sort of a fashion statement that the wearer is committed to staying alive and has the rope to prove it.

Let’s take a look at this.

I put long brightly colored lanyards on tools like Leatherman, axes and some fixed blade knives.  To me that makes a certain amount of sense.  

Yeah, the tool is purple, because the diamond file only came in purple handles.  Still, put your thumb over the tool and see if you can find it.  I bet you can.

I drop something in the snow, mud, leaves or just put it down next to me and the cord helps me locate it.  In a water environment I could undo the cord and re-use it to tie the tool to my belt.  Any survival tool you lose when you use it has limited value.

A lanyard loop assures the knife will hang from my wrist when I need my fingers and will give me that little bit of extra security when I’m holding something by the very end to get a little more leverage out of it.

Lanyards, like the bracelets, also contain useable cord just in case.  In case of what you should ask?

My bracelets use about 6 feet of cord.  Much of it isn’t the classic 550paracord  containing 7 small lines with a breaking strength of 78 pounds each. (The kermantal adds to the strength too.)  Frankly, I think that breaking strength is urban legend.  Much of it looks like paracord but is filled with a one irregular, fluffy mass of fibers.  There’s no reason not to use this material if you just want to look cool or need a clothesline.  Just know what you have.

With 6 feet you could make a snare.  With your knife you could use a foot here and a foot there to secure the ends of an impromptu shelter.  Of course you could use it to tie someone’s hands and feet if you had to, but they better be unconscious while you unweave your bracelet. 

You could cut off about 3 feet and pull the inner core strings.  With 550 cord you would have 7 three foot long strings to tie into fishing line or to sew with if you have a stout needle or sharp thorn.  I’m not sure what you could use the kermantal for.  If you went with 750 cord, you’d have 11 strands! 

Using the entire cord you could tie several large branches together to make personal floatation aid or you could make a fire bow.  That’s a good tool to warm yourself twice with the same wood, once starting the fire and the second time burning the wood.

Still six feet isn’t a lot of cord.  So if you were to make/buy a belt 40 inches long you might have 24ft.  You’re not going to climb down much of anything with that unless you leave it behind.  A big log raft would still be out of the question, but you could make several personal rafts with more buoyancy.

What you need to remember is all knots degrade the strength of rope as does exposure to sun, moisture, dirt, and salt.  And what is a paracord bracelet, but knotted rope exposed to salty perspiration, water, sun, soap, dirt and other chemicals?  Maybe a survival bracelet isn’t the answer.

If you’re heading off the pavement pack a coil of 50

feet of 550 paracord

The bright metal strip is a 6 inch ruler in front of 50 odd feet.  You can rebundle 50 feet of cord in any shape you want.  Long to fit in your game or forager pocket, a ball to fill that empty spot in your day pack.  You could even run it back and forth like a yoke to fit in your jacket.

along with your knife, compass, handgun, and other accoutrements. The right tool for the job is always easier than makin’ do.

And take your survival bracelet.  I once used half of mine to replace a broken shoe lace.