I thought I would start a BLOG to let you all know about some of the Auctions that will be happening at the Blade Show.  YOU NEED NOT BE PRESENT TO ENTER.

Each Item will tell you who to contact with your bid and information.  These are not your everyday knives folks, take a look at the makers and who will be the recipient of the proceeds…

At both the end of January and the end of Feb this man was at the top of the leaderboard.  You have all seen his posts and his love of knives

Thank you to everyone for a successful first quarter this year.  New members, new content and lots of fun!

Congratulations to Mr. Craig Henry.  Choose your bumper sticker and let me know which one you would like to have…

Our Community is absolutely free to our members and I intend that it will always be that way.  I refuse to implement pages you have to pay to enter or any of the other gimmicks..  I know you have all noticed that we now have some ads to pay the basic needs of the community, Go Daddy and Ning.  Getting our name out there brings its own set of costs.  Recently I have been asked on several occasions recently if there is a way for the members that wish provide help.

Then an Angel…

I had never heard of this man and find it amazing that with as many knives as he sold there are only a few around.  That must mean they were used, not collected.  If he could only see them now!

JACK KNIFE BEN    

It isn't a knife; instead it is a piece  of knife lore. A March 1927 issue of The American Magazine had a great article

about Jack Knife Ben himself, written by a journalist named  Neil M. Clark. 



    Jack Knife Ben was really named Benjamin W.…

Thank you Tony for sharing this information.  I for one love the look of swedges but did not realize their importance to the function of a knife

I received a conversation copy.  I thought about making changes but decided that the conversation is the best way to introduce the pictures and the differences

Most customers are surprised to find out that there is a new 4% credit card surcharge when they pay with a credit card; online and in stores. Merchants are now legally allowed to charge customers up to an extra 4% for using their credit cards.

“Starting on Sunday, retailers will be allowed to tack a surcharge of up to 4% extra onto your tab if you want to pay…

Donnie never gives a knife without getting a coin in return, we all know the old saying about it cutting a friendship and that is just something we are not willing to risk

I was reading about it on the web the other day and here are some I knew about and some old wives tales that I never heard

If you cut hot cornbread with a knife, you'll cut your luck

It is bad luck to stir anything with a knife. "To stir with a knife, is to stir…

I like this knife.  Bare end is always good for me!

I don't know how I feel about a tradition like the Birds eye pins in a sodbuster being over looked though.  I am such a traditionalist and I have a weakness for the birdeyes so what do you think?…

Lets say your favorite manufacture has decided not not make knives any longer.  They tell you in January 2013 that they will only work through the materials they have on hand and when that is done they are going out of business.  This should take 8-10 months at the current rate of sale.  

They are not announcing it but don't ask you to keep quiet about it either.  If you tell your buddies, the rate of sale will escalate and they will be out of business sooner.  This means you may not…

In the early 1900's there really was a magic circle.

Less than 100 miles of two states held all the names we know and love and then some.  Competition was strong and only a handful would survive the test of time.  

While some of them were "jobbers" and not manufactures they were having their products produced within the circle.

In the 1920's the following companies existed in that 100 mile range

Union Cutlery, Olean, NY               Cattaraugus…

 Shot Show is one of the most featured outdoor hunting and shooting sector-related trade shows in the United states. The Shot Show 2013 is held at the Sands Expo Convention Center and is attended by more than 60000 visiting participants at each of its editions. Several topical seminar sessions are scheduled during the event, dealing with law enforcement, retailing and other related issues. The NSSF Shot Show gets its global feel from its participants, who hail from…

So what are the sum of the parts for a knife?

Steel

Nickel

Brass

Pins

Handle materials

Labor

Basically they all take the same materials. So whats makes one worth more than another to you?

I will tell you my answer…

SWISS ARMY KNIFE - SAK (example only)

The knife I call the ultimate in manufactured.  You can put 200 of them in your hand and each and every one of the will be identical.  They are machine made in mass quantities and have proven to be a reliable knife over many years.  Every knife collector I know has one in the collection.  Until iKC I did not realize the extent of the variables.  I did not know short runs existed.…

Statements I have recently heard include

"I dont know why people say the quality is inconsistent, I have never bought a bad one"

"I never should have listened to the bad reviews, I always knew them to be a good company with a good product"

"Everyone said it was close to custom quality"

What I hear when I read comments like that is :

"The internet effects what I purchase and why"

Recently we saw a case where a bad video…

Recently we have had some discussions in the chat about auctions and utilizing a buyers market to obtain that one special peice, or even just find it, in an auction site as big as ebay. Type in just knife and this is what comes up...388,097 results found for knife. Talk about a needle in a haystack!

Then they give us the way to beak it down.... spring assisted knife, throwing knives, hunting knife, gerber knife, sword, survival knife, pocket knives, knife lot, pocket knife. (well…

When Donnie started collecting you had to go to a knife show or travel to a dealer.  Your local hardware usually only carried a few patterns from one maybe two makers.  Of course as he became an adult, the area around Gatlinburg always had somewhere you could go see numerous brands and being from the South he went there as often as possible.

 When I became interested, we had a few dealers that were online.  They would tell you what they had and if you were interested, they would email…