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In the upcoming issue of Knives Illustrated
B. R. Hughes introduces us to the nine newest Journeymen smiths of the American Bladesmiths Society. No one is better qualified to handle those introductions as he is one of the founders of the ABS. The other three were Don Hastings, Bill Bagwell, and Bill Moran.
When Abe Elias tests knives he doesn’t go to the brushpile in the back of a suburb, but goes into the Canadian wilderness, as he does when tested Gerber’s Gator Machete for this issue. He also tells us why he recommends the SOG Twitch for every day carry with a feature this month.
Few people will cut a rope 1,000 times to test the sharpness of a knife. Mike Black will, and he passes the test results of the Damascus vs. steel blades of Bear & Son within these pages.
Les Robertson is one of the few people in the world making a full time living buying and selling handmade knives in the aftermarket. He has to be right on picking the up and comers—and for KI readers he passes along his recommendations on two new makers for this issue.
Jerry Ahern is a novelist, has managed a gun company, and has a fascination with swords that he shares with KI readers. This time he takes a look at the favorite blade of the men who sailed the Spanish Main—the cutlass of the pirates.
Knifemaker Chuck Gedraitis tells us about some of his own knives, while Pat Casico delves into the Okuden knives of Brian Wagner.
Laurie Crater Battles examines the phenomena of the silver beads from Starlingear that are ended up on the lanyards of more than a few popular knives, and our KI staff tells us of an all new knife competition for knifemakers, vying for the title of “Iron Bladesmith.”
With the auction of 182 prototype club knives by the National Knife Collectors Association we felt it was time to review how the club knife thing originated, and the qualifications for the author of that article? He purchased the first NKCA club knife a few months after issue. When the 1976 NKCA club knife was issued as a part time job while in college the author helped Ben Kelley, Jr. serial number all 3000 of the knives. A year later the author would go to work for the NKCA—and would be sitting in the Board room when the club knife were selected, and many years later he would edit another knife magazine—Knives Illustrated. Your editor wrote this article because he was there when it happened!
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