Indholdsfortegnelse for November 2017 i Knives Illustrated

“THIS IS A TIME OF REFLECTION, PREPARATION AND SHENANIGANS.” Deer camp is a very serious thing. Sometimes. It’s that time of year when friends and family get together to return to our roots, spend some quiet time with nature, fill our freezer and sit around camp swapping lies about the one that got away. This is a time of reflection, preparation and shenanigans. If you have ever spent any time in a deer camp, then you know the types of hazards that can be present when your friends and family are involved. I remember one year that one of our cousins brought a huge blow-up mattress. It was queen size and about two and half feet tall. It’s not that the rest of us—who were sleeping on cots—were jealous, just…

“ IT SEEMS THAT THE BALISONG KNIFE HAS MADE A COMEBACK AFTER SEVERAL YEARS OF OBSCURITY. ” The renaissance is here! Anyone walking around this year’s BLADE show would have quickly noticed a rather large representation of younger conventioneers in attendance. Equally remarkable is that many of them were dexterously flipping knives—playfully spinning their blades in complicated swirls and tosses like it was a psychopath’s fidget spinner. The click-clack of these unique double-handled knives could be heard throughout the convention floor. It seems that the balisong knife has made a comeback after several years of obscurity. Resurgence “What we are seeing is a renaissance of the balisong,” says Ben Peterson of BladeHQ. “Knife manufacturers are waking up to this. Twenty years ago, if you wanted a balisong, you had Benchmade…

“ THE AM-3 USES A 3.1-INCH BLADE AND THE AM-4 USES A 3.5-INCH BLADE, BOTH OF 8CR13MOV STAINLESS STEEL …” I’m a big fan of collaborations in the knife industry. Often, they make designs that might be out of reach of the working Joe’s budget, but sometimes they make for interesting hybrids that wouldn’t exist if left with either maker on their own. Kershaw’s new line of Al Mar collaborations checks off both boxes by offering some great new designs that combine the classic lines and design of Al Mar with Kershaw’s own Speedsafe opening mechanism—at a price that will make you want to buy them all. The AM-3 and AM-4 Kershaw showed four different Al Mar collaborations at SHOT this year, and the AM-3 and AM-4 are the first…

“ THE EL CHETE… IS TOPS KNIVES’ FIRST OFFERING TO EVER FEATURE THEIR NEW ACID RAIN FINISH ” AND SANDWICHED MICARTA SCALES. The buzz was off the charts. This year, like every year, fans and collectors of TOPS Knives gravitate toward their booth at the SHOT Show and BLADE Show, hoping to peek at their newest edged tools. And the excitement was overwhelming at both the shows and online. El Chete, one of their newest offerings, almost shut down the internet with all the chatter. This is TOPS Knives’ first offering to ever feature their new Acid Rain finish and sandwiched Micarta scales. The size, balance, and aesthetics of the blade, combined with two different sheath options, has had the TOPS Knives Users Facebook page filled with so many positive…

“ THE ALCHEMY OF CHANGING A RAW PIECE OF STEAL INTO A QUALITY BLADE … IS NOT SOMETHING THAT IS MASTERED THE FIRST TIME OUT OF THE GATE. ” We’ve all felt it. Whether it was last month or decades ago, in our less grounded youth, we’ve all felt the innate, almost preternatural drive to render raw materials into something with a purposeful design. Some say it’s that drive to make tools and weapons that makes us uniquely human. I say what makes us truly human is not our drive to make weapons, but the romantic vision that these weapons are capable of holding inside them the best qualities of humanity. It’s that vision that stirs many lovers of the sharpened edge to begin learning the timeless art of bladesmithing.…

A friend recently contacted me and said, “Hey you need to check out a friend of mine, Jack Keith at Dunnottar Forge.” Well, when I hear something like that, my interest definitely gets piqued. After following the suggestion to check out Dunnottar Forge, I found myself in awe of his masterful work and was surprised he hadn’t come up on my radar before. The more I dug, the more I realized he had only been at this for two years. I am completely stunned at the level of quality he has been able to achieve in two short years. I can only imagine what he will be doing in another five years. This is definitely one knifemaker to watch. 01 The Gift That Keeps on Giving Back in 2015, Jack…

“ … IT CAN BE A LIFE-CHANGING EVENT THAT CAN DOG YOU FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE. ” Did you ever wonder what a day in the life is like for Knife Rights’ founder and Chairman Doug Ritter? We certainly did, which is why we approached the topic. We asked him what is the most common call or email he gets from knife owners, and he didn’t have to think long about the question. “It’s usually because of an arrest for carrying a knife,” he says. “Hardly a week goes by without such a contact and most weeks there are more than one.” While those callers are generally very unhappy over their arrest, Ritter notes, “all too often they have contributed to their problems by their statements to law…

“ IT IS JUST THE RIGHT SIZE TO SERVE IN MULTIPLE ROLES, ALLOWING YOU TO FOCUS MORE ON THE HUNT... ” Add hunting to its already impressive list of field uses. Recently, Fiddleback Forge released a new model, the Bush Hermit, to their popular custom and mid-tech knife lineup. Already popular with outdoorsmen with interests in camping and bush-craft, the Bush Hermit is designed to be an all-purpose field knife with a belly designed for slicing. Its overall configuration makes it well-suited for use as a hunting knife, as well as an heirloom-quality blade, worthy to be passed down for generations to come. I recently had an opportunity to test one of these blades and was not going to miss out on the chance to put it through the…

3.2 million years. That’s how far back records of man—and knives —go. That’s also how long man has attempted to perfect the cutting edge in order to secure an advantage in the age-old profession of hunting. It has only been in the last 100 years that man has perfected the materials which allow the finest knives in our long history to be put into the hands of hunters. In this story, we will delve deeper into how the hunting knife has changed and how it has affected the way we hunt throughout the millennia. A Deep History Historians prefer written accounts over oral history and Nimrod was the first recorded hunter in the Bible. He was the great grandson of Noah and the book of Genesis states he was “a…

“ I AM A FIRM BELIEVER THAT EVERY TASK HAS JUST THE RIGHT TOOL FOR THE JOB, AND THE BLACK FORK HUNTING KNIFE SET BACKS UP THAT IDEA.” – EJ SNYDER Knives play an important role when hunting season rolls around. Once your game hits the ground, the clock is already ticking against you as you race against time trying to beat the afternoon sun—even in the cold of winter it can be detrimental to your meat. The ease and speed with which you can dress down your game is super important, so when Tom Krein saw this need, he decided to design this triple-threat set, with CRKT, to tackle the problem and get you back to camp for some well-deserved rest. With their Black Fork Hunting Knife Set, CRKT…

“ THE FREEK EMPLOYS A MANUALLY OPERATED BLADE, UTILIZING THUMB STUDS ON EITHER SIDE.” What’s in a name? Benchmade makes some of the most highly regarded folding knives on the market. When a new model appears, it is sure to attract the attention of those who fancy folding knives—as I do. New this year is the Freek, a moderately priced folder that will handle almost any knife chore. I was not in the market for a new knife, but Rocky Mountain Sports in Sheridan, Wyoming was celebrating its 10th Anniversary and one of the attractions was that the Benchmade representative was on hand to embellish Benchmade knives with laser engraving. I could not resist. After handling a considerable number of knives, I chose the Freek and had a suitable inscription…

“ I HAVE CONSULTED WITH MACHINISTS WHO HAVE BEEN IN THE GAME FOR MORE THAN 60 YEARS, ENGINEERS WHO BUILT THE MARS ROVER, DESIGNERS WHO HAVE BUILT RACING CHASSIS. ” How do you get to space? By being well-grounded. This year, while at the 2017 BLADE Show in Atlanta, Georgia, I got to spend some time with Jake Hoback of Jake Hoback Knives. As we ate lunch and talked, I was immensely impressed with the vast wealth of knowledge Jake has about all things knives, metallurgy, folding mechanisms and other topics I can’t even remember enough about to comment on. But what really impressed me the most, was how humble he was, in spite of his near-computer-like brain. Or so I thought. It was when the topic turned to the…

“… THE EDGED TOOL YOU RELY ON IS ONLY AS USEFUL AND AS GOOD AS ITS SHARPNESS. ” This story is derived from a recent memory when my partner and I were deep in the Amazon jungle in Peru. I was amazed to notice that there were simply no rocks around the jungle floor or in the river. I was astonished that everywhere I looked, I could not find a single one, at least where I was. When you are out on an expedition, a mission, or a mere trek, the edged tool you rely on is only as useful and as good as its sharpness. So, what do you do if you need to sharpen your machete or knife and find your beloved whetstone or knife sharpener is missing…