An Artful Nuance: A John Gage Fighter

Artful Nuance:
"A very slight difference or variation in color or tone." This is one online definition of nuance from Dictionary.Com. Some knives are overtly aggressive in looks and attitude, like the ITAC knives. Others are more subtle, like this H.S.L.D. Fighter made by John Gage. When I asked John what the initials stood for he told me, High Speed Low Drag. Not truly being a man of the 20th century I had to look that term up on the internet. It means something purely functional with no fluff or irrelevant baggage attached. In some ways this description seems too stark for such a beautiful knife.
My first impression of the HSLD was that it had a strong Persian flair. Once I held it in my hands I could see that there was a definite Japanese influence too. The seven-inch, hollow ground blade, exhibits that artful nuance of colors and textures so reminiscent of Japanese blades, in fact anything Japanese. It is more than the presence of a vibrant billowing hamon. In the marginal area between the hamon and the shinogi lies a wonderfully textured surface suggesting a forged and folded blade when in fact it is a stock removal blade. The shinogi ji is satin polished and contains an etched JG logo. Although the back edge is curved differently than most tanto, it has the same peaked shape typical of an iori mune.
The handle profile is pretty basic, totally tactical, and with a single finger cutout in the ricasso area, makes the knife highly maneuverable. Covering the ¼ inch thick tang are four thin scales of green and black G-10. The scales are held in place by five pieces of tubing serving as rivets. The last tube also functions as a lanyard hole. I have never been a fan of lanyards on fighting knives. I figure if I lose my grip on my knife during a fight the last thing I want is to have it tethered to me where it can flop around and cut me numerous times. So when this knife arrived I removed its lanyard. It was actually more of a braided dangle, since there was not enough room to slip your hand through. As part of the man-knife bonding process I noticed that the point of balance is more blade forward than I generally prefer in a knife this size.
Experimenting, I decided to slip a silver Emerson Skull bead on the dangle and reinstall it. Bingo, the HSLD Fighter now balances perfectly at the finger cutout. For some reason I never thought of using a dangle to balance a knife, although many Chinese Jian dao (swords) are balanced by the application of sashes to their pommels. Would the dangle inhibit grip changes? It probably would but I don’t advocate messing around changing your grip during a fight anyway. John’s green and black leather sheath is functional and very well made but the sheath somehow lacks the excitement and inspiration of the knife itself. Hey I can live with that. Why did I buy this knife? Chalk it up to the fatal attraction of artful nuance and the subtle ways John blended lines, colors, and textures. Great job John. This is my first John Gage knife and it’s definitely a keeper!

(John Gage photo: )