Blade July 2023

Rhea Named Living Treasure ABS master smith, BLADE® contributor and past BLADE University and BLADE Show seminar instructor Lin Rhea has been named the 2023 Arkansas Living Treasure by the Arkansas Arts Council. At press time, Lin was to be honored at a reception Saturday, June 17, 4-7 p.m., at Little Rock’s Historic Arkansas Museum, where he also demonstrates bladesmithing for school groups and museum visitors. The reception will coincide with the grand reopening of the museum’s knife gallery, which includes several of Rhea’s knives. “I’ve gone back and looked at other videos the [Historic Arkansas Museum] has produced of the other Living Treasures and I know one or two of them personally, and I’ve known them for quite some time,” Rhea said. “But to be associated with that group…

Designed by award-winning knife-maker Bill Harsey, the Spartan Blades Harsey Fighter (page 24) features a flat-ground blade of black-powder-coated 1095 CroVan carbon steel. The handle is a black G-10 laminate. Overall length: 11.5 inches. The MOLLE compatible sheath is a black polymer with a nylon belt loop. The Tactile Knife Co. Maverick (page 64) is a Richard Rogers design and won the award for Best Factory EDC at the recent BLADE Show Texas in Fort Worth. The 3.5-inch blade is flat-ground MagnaCut stainless steel and secures via the Cross Bar Lock. Handle: Micarta®. Closed length: 4.7 inches. The TOPS Knives Devil’s Claw 2 (page 32) has a 3-inch hawkbill blade of 1095 carbon steel with Black Traction Coating. The blue-and-black G-10 handle sports contrasting red fiber spacers at the tang.…

When BLADE Magazine Cutlery Hall-Of-Fame® member Dan Dennehy joined the Navy in 1940, there was no U.S. custom knife industry. A handful were making non-production knives in America—Hoyt Buck, John Nelson Cooper, John Ek, Harry Morseth, David Z. Murphy, Frank Richtig, Hall-Of-Famers Bo Randall, Rudy Ruana and William Scagel, and a few others—but that was about it. Unbeknownst to Dan, he was about to join their august company. In 1941 he made his first knife while in the Navy, where he learned about an amazingly tough material called Micarta® he found ideal for making knife handles. The next year, with World War II raging and while stationed in central Florida, he thumbed a ride to Randall’s knife shop in Orlando. When Bo learned Dan had thumbed to get there, he…

Since BLADE® Magazine went to press for the first time 50 years ago, there have been wars and rumors of wars. Even in peacetime, the U.S. military has stood ready in defense of freedom around the world. When service men and women have deployed into harm’s way through the years, their knives of choice have been by their side, sheathed or strapped, buckled or pocketed, or carried in a duffle bag. From Vietnam to Iraq and Afghanistan, service personnel have taken their chosen tools abroad and put them to use for a variety of chores. BLADE field editor/knifemaker Kim Breed spent nearly two decades in the Army, serving with the 10th and then 5th Special Forces Groups. His experience in the Gulf War included a mixed bag of available knives…

SPEC CHART NAME: Professional Precision Adjust Knife Sharpening System SHARPENER TYPE: Angle adjustable model FEATURES: Metal construction, a digital angle indicator and seven abrasive grits for rigid, repeatable, precise sharpening SHARPENING ANGLES: 15° to 30° ABRASIVES: Assorted and easily interchangeable 1”x6” abrasives: 220-, 320-, 400-, 600- and 800-grit diamond coated, a ceramic honing plate and a leather strop, and a ceramic rod for serrations HARDWARE: Non-marring V-Block Clamp™ repeatably secures the knife; weighted base provides safe, stable platform that allows rotating the knife without removing the knife or clamp; small table attachment sharpens small penknives down to a 15° angle COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: Parts made by a variety of offshore companies, primarily in Vietnam, and assembled, calibrated and quality checked in Ashland, Oregon MSRP: $299.95 COMPANY: Work Sharp, attn: Kyle…

When the Gulf War took off in Iraq in the early 1990s, the knife industry took off, too, and a steady stream of tactical fixed blades has surfed the wave ever since. Needless to say, there are military fixed blades aplenty in the cutlery industry with no single design or manufacturer having a chokehold on today’s market. This has given knife users an abundance of choices, from pure fighters to utility users and everything in between. A diverse quartet of the genre includes the Condor Fighter Knife, Emerson CQC-7 Fixed Blade, KABAR/John Ek Commando Short Clip and Spartan Blades Harsey Fighter. To determine their strengths and weaknesses, the first order of business was a common test for penetration. I set up a heavy-duty corrugated-board box with a 1-inch Styrofoam™ liner…