God Bless America

I am going to pick on one of my friends who takes the time to post on my blog. He said that I am “in the privileged position of a collector.” I am indeed privileged to own some wonderful knives made by some of the best makers. But, that privilege has come at a fairly high price. If you consider money in the bank, or other assets, I am not a wealthy man. All of my wealth is in cold steel, kydex, leather, brass, etc. And for him I have included this photo of a nice Ron Gaston Tanto with elder burl handles.

Rather than a collector, I consider myself a Patron of the Arts. Part of my patronage extends to training and experimentation with many styles of fighting knives. Another aspect is writing this blog, and publishing my website on Fairbairn Sykes knives. It seems like my life is measured in lengths of steel. One of my first knives (age 12) was a Scottish sgian dubh. I still have that knife. When I went to Vietnam I carried a small German dagger. I sent three knives to my father during his deployments over there. One of them saved his life. I trained in Japanese kenjutsu and Iaido for 12 or more years. As many of you know I wrote one book on knife defense and have nearly finished a second one on knife fighting. For many years I taught karate, Iaido, and knife arts free of charge. Now I am 64 and my love of cold steel has not been quenched.

If you are celebrating Independence Day today (and well you should be) and you live in the freest nation in the world, please remember those men in uniform whom fought and died for your freedoms, and those still serving.

Confederate Style Bowie

The men who fought under the flag of the CSA were known to carry prodigious Bowie Knives. This knife is as close as I have to a Confederate Style Bowie. Hand forged by Brett Gatlin, this fighting knife is a monster with a hair-shaving-sharp, 13  x 1.5 inch flat ground blade. The back edge is fully ¼ inch thick. The gracefully sweeping blade leads to a nearly five inch, unsharpened, clip point. There is no distal taper so this Bowie is definitely tip heavy. This is a positive attribute for chopping but it does slow down back-cuts due to the inertia of such a long blade. The 6.5 inch handle is made from one piece of incredibly dense ebony. The well contoured handle is gracefully shaped with a large palm swell. The handle also has a stainless steel tube liner for a thong. My first impression was that the handle was too long aesthetically. Having worked with the knife some I have decided it is just fine. The extra handle length allows you to slide back on the handle for added reach if you so desire. Gatlin fitted a nice steel “S” curved guard backed up by a set of thin brass and a thicker steel bolster. Fit and Finish of all of the parts is perfect, typical of Gatlin’s workmanship.

 As with many of my knives, I bought this one used. It has obviously been well cared for. The massive Kenny Rowe leather sheath is well crafted and perfectly fitted. There is no easy way to carry a knife this large, but, if you were facing off with a criminal, (or a Damned Yankee soldier) you would be grateful for the ability to reach way-out and touch him. Overall balance of the knife is excellent. It is a powerful blade that could readily sever body parts or thrust completely through a body with blade to spare. It is hard to pick up a knife like this without humming the old Confederate tune “We are a band of brothers…..”

Great News from Ek

 GREAT NEWS: from the great people at Ek Knives. I spent some time on the telephone with Mr. Buerlein talking knives in general and he advised me of an upcoming replica of the first ever Ek Knife. This new Model One was going to closely duplicate the original model 1 which was so popular with fighting men in WW-II. He put me down on the list to receive a knife and it arrived a few months later. It is illustrated here. One of the first things to greet my eyes was a very nicely made walnut, glass-topped display case. The knife box itself came wrapped in a waxed paper. Upon opening it I was further amazed to see that the box was a reproduction of the original boxes that Ek Knives were shipped in.

 The attention to detail and quality has always been one of Bob's hallmarks. The box seemed to set the stage for the knife which was further protected by a white linen bag. Finally I pulled out the knife and was tremendously impressed with the finish on the blade, crisp etching, razor sharp edges, traditionally shaped and colored maple handle scales properly held in place with lead rivets. It is a superb collectors piece and fully functional fighting knife. I almost forgot to tell you about the reproduction sheath, made in the original style of heavy leather with a nice long tie down thong and reinforced with rivets. Kudos to the entire team at Ek Knives and Bob Buerlein for a quality job. Thanks Bob for the 007 serial number!

For your own copy of this famous knife contact them at http://www.ekknife.com/ or call (804) 257-7144