Category: Knife Stuff (page 5 of 10)

NYC Helicopter Crash Victims Trapped by Seatbelts and Poorly Briefed on Knives

March 13, 2018 / Tim / 1 Comment

Shortly after 7:00 p.m. on Sunday, a helicopter in New York City plunged into the frigid waters of the East River.

Stunned onlookers watched as the Eurocopter AS350 slowly landed on the water — where it quickly flipped upside down and started sinking.

The pilot was able to escape the downed helicopter but the five other passengers were killed in the water or shortly after.

Here is a brief video someone captured on their phone of the crash:

@cnn @FoxNews just witnessed a helicopter crash into the East River .. hope everyone’s ok. Caught it all on tape! pic.twitter.com/saHOMTLR69

— JJ Magers (@JJmagers) March 11, 2018

It’s an extremely sad story that once again calls into question the safety of helicopter tours that take private passengers around the city for photo opportunities.

Ontario Blackbird SK-4 – Badass Knife of the Week

March 12, 2018 / Tim / 0 Comments

When designer Paul Scheiter created the original Blackbird SK-5, he made sure to strip it down to the necessities. He also said, “I believe the more complicated a product becomes, the more likely it is to fail when your life depends on it.”

The resounding success of the Blackbird SK-5 led Scheiter to expand the line to include a smaller version of the knife better suited for a wider range of tasks. That knife is the latest Badass Knife of the Week.

The Ontario Blackbird SK-4 is a compact version of the renowned SK-5 and subscribes to the same ethos of function over gimmicks.

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The SK-4 isnt just a shrunken version of its larger brother. Instead Scheiter reworked the design to ensure it performs well and feels good in the hand.

Three New Badass ‘Knife Depot’ T-Shirts Now Available

March 4, 2018 / Tim / 1 Comment

You asked for it and we answered.

Instead of hiding your love for knives deep in the recesses of your pockets, now you can express your love for knives with one of three brand new shirts.

Here’s a quick look at the three shirts.

“Knife Depot” T-Shirt

When you want to read some fascinating stories about knives or want to buy one of your very own, there’s only one place you should go: Knife Depot. This shirt has our logo surrounded by three knives.

“Never Lose Your Edge” T-Shirt

I’m pretty fond of our tagline because of its multiple meanings. We not only like to keep the tagline in mind when we’re talking about our knives but also when we’re talking about our approach to life.

Cold Steel Announces Move From CTS-XHP to S35VN Blade Steel

February 27, 2018 / Tim / 4 Comments

For some reason, Cold Steel still gets the label as a company that only makes products for mall ninjas. While they still do make those ridiculous proof videos, that simply doesn’t capture the whole image of the company.

Cold Steel has made huge strides the past few decades and have heeded the call of customers while putting out some truly awesome knives.

First they brought the great Andrew Demko on board (who brought the Tri-Ad lock). Then they updated their steel from AUS8 (CRKT could take a page from this). But best of all they are always communicating with their customers.

Kershaw Clarifies Warranty for Discontinued Knife Models

February 20, 2018 / Tim / 3 Comments

Kershaw makes some mighty fine knives. But, like anything you buy, an issue may arise.

Fortunately, all Kershaw products are covered under a Limited Lifetime Warranty against manufacturing defects. This includes defects in material, construction, and workmanship. For example, if the lockup is not up to par or the blade centering is off, Kershaw will happily take care of it.

However, unless you have some of the timeless models like the Leek or Blur, chances are your Kershaw will one day be discontinued.

Gateway Knives for Each Brand

February 13, 2018 / Tim / 6 Comments

There is an old theory called the stepping-stone hypothesis that claims using mild drugs will lead to the usage of more potent and addictive drugs. This phenomenon became more widely known as the concept of the “gateway drug” in the 1970s.

I am not here to argue the merits of the claim, but the term “gateway” has now become a catchall for an introductory item that leads to a greater obsession.

I was curious to learn more about how people came to the obsession of knives, so I set out to find the most common “gateway knives” for every brand. These are the knives people first got that made them more interested in a brand, slowly consuming them until they had bought up as many knives from the brand as possible.

I thought I’d focus on the 20 top brands. I’ll include a secondary choice at the end.

Benchmade Mini Griptilian

The first brand up is Benchmade. Benchmade is already a brand known for higher-end knives, so it’s not likely a person’s first knife will ever be a Benchmade. However, for those interested in trying out the brand before they make a long-term commitment to its more expensive offerings, there’s the Mini Griptilian.

This knife is an icon and still represents the best of Benchmade. The Mini Griptilian uses 154CM steel on its sub-3-inch blade and Noryl GTX scales. After this knife, you shouldn’t be surprised to see someone upgrade to the premium version of the Mini Griptilian and maybe even try out some other Benchies like the Barrage or Infidel.

Secondary Choice – Benchmade Griptilian

I was tempted to choose the Benchmade 940 as a secondary option, but it’s about $182. So the larger Griptilian seems like a better option.

Boker Kalashnikov Automat 74

Of all the brands, I had the most trouble finding the perfect gateway knife that could get people hooked on Boker. The problem is that there are so many models — not to mention several different brands under the Boker umbrella. I ultimately decided on the Boker Plus Kalashnikov Automat 74.

6 Reasons for Tip-Down Carry

February 8, 2018 / Tim / 23 Comments

There is no right way to carry a knife — unless you ask the millions of people who carry knives. Some will insist that the only true way to carry a knife is clipped to the pocket so that the blade tip is pointing up.

A smaller but still vocal minority say that’s preposterous and that one should carry a knife in the pocket with the blade pointed down.

The truth is that it’s simply a matter of preference.

According a survey in Knife News, 64 percent prefers tip up and 19 percent prefers tip down while 15 percent don’t care and another 2 percent prefer no clip.

This post isn’t to persuade anyone to carry a knife a certain way but to enlighten those who don’t carry their knives tip down.

So if you can’t understand why anyone would carry a knife tip down, here are a few reasons.

Better Positioning for Larger Knives

One of the main advantages of carrying a knife with the tip up is that you can slid your thumb into your pocket, pull out the knife, and already be in the natural position to open it. This is true… for most knives.

Larger knives — like those with blades longer than 4 inches — are a bit trickier.

When you slide a larger knife like the Spyderco Resilience out of the pocket when it’s tip up, you won’t be in a natural position to open it. You’d end up need to adjust the grip a little to open it effectively.

Canada Customs Bans Import of Nearly All Folding Knives

January 17, 2018 / Tim / 27 Comments

What is going on?!

Just a few months after Canada joined the rest of the world (except the United States, of course) in allowing small knives on planes, it announced a sweeping change that essentially bans nearly every type of folding knife in existence from being imported into the country.

On January 5, here’s what the Canada Border Services Agency wrote on its website:

In accordance with subsection 84(1) of the Criminal Code and the CITT’s recent decision in T. LaPlante, the CBSA resolves that centrifugal knives will be classified as prohibited weapons if the following conditions are met:

a. a knife has a blade that opens by centrifugal force, when the blade is released from the handle into the fully ejected and locked position with a simple and brisk outwardly flick of the wrist; and

b. it includes knives that require some preliminary or simultaneous minimal manipulation of either a flipper or other non-edged parts of the blade.

Knives that can be opened with the flick of your wrist are prohibited. This could include those knives that also use a flipper or other non-edged parts like a thumb stud.

If applied broadly, that pretty much covers the vast majority of folding knives — whether it has an assisted-opening mechanism or not. While slipjoints are safe in theory, you could probably open most of them with centrifugal force if you tried because this includes non-edged parts of the blade. (Hold the spine of a blade on your Swiss Army Knife and it’s not hard to see how you could do it.)

The ZT0350 was the subject of other CBSA disputes.

If you think I’m being a bit flippant, just take a look at how a similar law was implemented in New York City. The laws there are very vague and police have taken advantage of the vagary to classify pretty much any folding knife they want as an illegal gravity knife.

Needless to say, the takes have been brutal.

The Curious Case of Knives Clipped Outside the Pocket

December 27, 2017 / Tim / 55 Comments

Anyone who carries a knife will tell you just how to put a knife with a clip in your pocket. You slip it into your pocket so that the clip is facing outward and the knife itself is tucked into your pocket.

That’s the conventional way… but not everyone likes to follow convention.

Some carry it like this:

That’s not how this works. from knifeclub

In this method of carrying, the carrier will clip the knife outside the pocket — leaving it exposed and very visible. I haven’t reached out to Sal Glesser from Spyderco (who pioneered the pocket clip on the knife in the original Spyderco Worker), but I don’t think this was the original intent.

And if you think this is a very uncommon method of carrying, think again. A fair amount of people have reported seeing others carrying knives this why.

So, why would someone carry a knife this way? Let’s take a look.

They’re new to knives.

I would argue this is one of the biggest reasons why people carry a knife this way. They are gifted a knife for the first time and clip it to their pocket on the outside, assuming that’s the accepted way.

For most, a simple whisper of “Hey, it’s better if you clip it inside the pocket” is a good way to inform them.

Their pockets are too small.

As a man, I have large, deep pockets that can carry a Cold Steel Recon 1 XL without much problem. Unfortunately, for women or those men who prefer tighter clothes (no judgment), pockets tend to be significantly smaller or simply for show.

If a knife doesn’t fit inside the pocket, the only way to carry it is clipped to the outside.

Locked-Down Region of China Tracking Knives with QR Codes

December 22, 2017 / Tim / 1 Comment

Think knife laws in the United States are a little too strict — I mean why aren’t switchblades legal federally? Then I recommend avoiding the Xinjiang Province in China at all costs.

Not only is the region devolving into a police state but it is also requiring your name, ID number, ethnicity, and more to be lasered right onto the blade of every knife you own.

So how did this happen?

The province, which is an autonomous region in the northwest portion of China, has been experiencing a rash of knife attacks (and attacks in general).

In September, five police officers were stabbed by separatists in a knife attack. Earlier this year, eight people were killed and 10 were injured by three assailants with knives.

The reason for some of these attacks are somewhat unclear, but rights groups report that the violence may be caused by the government’s oppression of a religious group called Muslim Uighur.

The Xinjiang Province of China is in red.

I’m probably getting too deep into the woods here, but the use of knives have given the government the bright idea of tracking people in every way they can, including tracking their knives with QR codes.

Here’s how the knife tracking works, according to The Wall Street Journal:

The Cutting Edge

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