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5 Undeniable traits of an ultimate knife warrior

October 18, 2011 / Tim / 1 Comment

This post is part of our Rambo Giveaway, scroll down to the end of the article or click here for details on how to win a signature-edition Rambo knife.

If you’re like me, you’ve undoubtedly wondered just what makes the quintessential knife warrior. That’s why we’ve taken the liberty of unscientifically analyzing all the great knife warriors throughout cinema history. In each of these knife-wielding heroes and villains, we managed to find five undeniable traits that helped them become great knife fighters. So, here are the five characteristics that make the ultimate knife warrior through the lens of cinema.

1. Insanity (ex. Die Hard With a Vengeance)

Let’s face it. It’s impossible to name a knife warrior from the movies who is completely sane and even-keeled. Everyone who wields a knife seems to have a few screws loose, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. To be an expert with a knife and fearlessly wield it, you can’t have the capacity to think too hard about its ramifications. The perfect example of insanity with a knife is Sam Phillips in Die Hard With a Vengeance. She mercilessly does ballet while slicing people in her path to death. Pretty crazy.

2. Experience in the art of battle (ex. Rambo)

It’s not usually good enough to merely be skilled at knife fighting, but a true knife warrior needs to have seen some prior action, particularly in war. Veterans not getting the respect or medical attention they deserve is a common theme in many movies and is seen most clearly in the first Rambo. John Rambo is a Vietnam vet who is pushed too far by a small town cop. It’s his time experience seeing too much war that pushed him over the edge. Here’s a little tease of Rambo’s knife.

3. Being badass (ex. Rebel Without a Cause)

Help Rambo escape a sketchy situation and win a signature-edition Rambo knife!

October 12, 2011 / Tim / 8 Comments

Rambo, as many of you are already aware, never fails at anything, especially when it involves combat. Throughout the First Blood series, Sly Stallone’s character, John Rambo, shoots, stabs, punches, kicks, head-butts, incinerates and terrorizes his foes, always with his trusty survival knife in tow.

How many bad guys does Sly slay? Only God knows, but as pointed out in our earlier post on The evolution of the Rambo knife, he wipes out a total of 236 evildoers in the fourth and final installment of Rambo.

Last week, we announced a Rambo-look alike contest to win a signature edition Rambo knife with second place pulling in a sweet-looking scorpion knife. Participation has been, frankly, a bit lame, with only a few worthy Rambos entering.

We figure maybe many of our fans don’t have their Rambo gear handy, so we’re offering another way to win.

Give Rambo a Hand, Win His Survival Knife

Rambo is always getting in sketchy situations, that’s just kind of the way he rolls, but he’s always getting out of them as well, due to his huge selection of badass weapons. Tell us how Rambo should dominate the following scenario by writing in the comment section below and you could win either a signature edition Rambo knife or a scorpion pocket blade (pictured on left).

How to fight effectively with a tactical knife

October 10, 2011 / Tim / 0 Comments

The post is part of our Rambo Knife promotion, in which we’re giving away a limited edition Rambo knife and more. Check out our kick off post for details.

Knife fighting is a primal, dangerous and beneficial skill to have. Not only does it help you connect with your tactical knife in new ways, but it also gives you some respect. In this post, we’ll be looking at some of the very basics of tactical knife fighting. With our usual warning, we urge you to be safe and don’t try any of this around another person. So, if you’re interested in fighting effectively with a tactical knife, here are some of the basic elements.

1. Get to know your knife

The first step before you do anything should be to become familiar with your knife. Learn its weight, shape and texture before engaging in any training. By knowing your knife’s quirks and intricacies, it will never surprise you in a real fighting situation.

2. Learn the grips

How you hold your knife is probably the most important thing to know when learning knife fighting because without a firm grip, you could drop the knife and find yourself in deep trouble. Unfortunately, there is no one universal way you’re supposed to hold your knife, so that’s why it’s important to get to know your knife. Some knives feel more natural in certain grip positions.

The grips can be separated into three broad categories: forward grip, reverse grip and unusual knife grips. Within each of these categories are a number of variations, including the hammer, saber and Filipino grips. According to a booklet on U.S. Marine Corps knife fighting tactics, the hammer grip is preferred over all others because it enables a variety of tactics. For a detailed description of each grip, check out Jay Fisher’s site.

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The Evolution of the Iconic, Badass Rambo Knife

October 7, 2011 / Tim / 4 Comments

This post is part of of our Rambo look-alike promotion. Learn how you can win a limited-edition Rambo signature survival knife, here.

While Sylvester Stallone has access to a seemingly endless supply of high-power gunnery in the Rambo series, it is his knives that have become icons. Each of the four movies has its own blade, which Rambo keeps for the entirety of the film. But at the blades don’t make the jump from one movie to the next. The Rambo knife undergoes a dramatic evolution throughout the series, growing from a relatively small survival knife to a machete.

First Blood

In First Blood, we meet John Rambo, a mentally unstable Vietnam vet trying to pass through Sheriff Will Teasle’s small town. With his stone-cold demeanor and no-nonsense blank stares, it probably should’ve been easy for viewers to deduce that a bizarre arrest for vagrancy would end with Rambo waging a one-man war on a Teasle and his town. With the best survival skills in the country and a badass blade as a sidekick, Rambo single-handedly beats the cops and the National Guard, until Colonel Sam Trautman, the man who trained him, convinces him to turn himself in.

Jimmy Lile designed the knife that showed the world what a badass knife was meant to be. Lile wanted it to contain everything a person would need to survive in the wilderness, and so he came up with what is truly a survival knife. The 9” long steel blade was sharp enough to cleanly cut through paper, so it obviously had no problem dealing with anything else Rambo needed to see sliced. In case he needed to chop down a tree rather than threaten Sheriff Teasle’s life, the knife’s spine had 14 saw teeth. The cross guard featured both a Philips and slotted screwdriver. In the rare situation that Rambo got hurt, all he needed to do was open the airtight handle and get out his first aid kit. The pommel also featured a compass so Rambo could navigate through the wilderness around Teasle’s town.

First Blood Part II

In First Blood Part II, Rambo has been sentenced to a labor prison camp because of the events of the first movie. Colonel Trautman visits him in camp and offers him release and full clemency. The catch? Rambo must return to Vietnam and search for American POWs. He is told to only take pictures of the POWs, but, of course, Rambo tries to rescue them. Marshal Murdock, the corrupt bureaucrat in charge of the mission, abandons him in Vietnam, and the North Vietnamese capture Rambo. Rambo escapes and then returns to rescue all the remaining POWs. Once he succeeds, Rambo leads them towards the American camp in Thailand, where he threatens Murdock with his knife and tells him to rescue other POWs from Vietnam.

The First Blood Part II knife was nearly identical to the original Rambo knife. The difference, of course, was the size. To raise Rambo’s badass aura, the knife grew to 15” in overall length, with the blade measuring in at 10”.

Rambo III

In Rambo III we learn that Rambo stayed in Thailand after his last mission and became a Buddhist. Colonel Trautman asks Rambo to join him on a mission to deliver weapons to the Mujahedeen rebels of Aghanistan who are battling the Soviets in the Soviet-Afghan War. Dedicated to his new peaceful faith, Rambo refuses to help. Trautman goes without his trainee and is captured and imprisoned by Soviets. Not one to see his friends in danger, Rambo sets out to save the Colonel. He does, of course, save Trautman and other prisoners. Together with the rebels, the American duo defeats the Soviets and kills the evil Soviet commander.

Enter to win a signature edition Rambo knife

October 6, 2011 / Tim / 3 Comments

Do you look like Rambo?

Whether you are a splitting image of a young Sylvester Stallone or simply a First Blood fan, you can enter to win a signature edition Sylvester Stallone Rambo knife. Second place wins a pocket knife with real scorpions trapped in Asia encased in the blade.

How do you win?

It’s easy. All you have to do is upload a picture of yourself in Rambo gear to our Facebook page before October 12. So grab your bandannas, dig your tank tops out of the attic and snap a photo of yourself and friends.

Need some inspiration? Check out our Rambo look-alike video below.

Good luck.

Knives Save Lives: A knife or death situation

October 1, 2011 / Tim / 1 Comment

It’s remarkably rare when someone is put into a situation where they need to make a life or death decision, when their life is literally in their own hands. It’s noble for someone to think they’d react rationally and calmly in a situation like that, but it’s always much easier to say something than do it.

Donald Wyman was one of the unfortunate few who was face-to-face with death. Amazingly, he did not buckle or back down.

To get the full scope of Wyman’s story, you have to start at the beginning. In 1993, when Wyman was 37 years old, the humble Pennsylvanian was working nights and weekends to build a house with his bare hands for his wife and son. According to an article in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, he had already built the first floor from foundation stone he’d acquired from razing barns.

His sister-in-law described him as a fighter, optimist and survivor. He apparently grew up with three brothers who knew what to do in any situation. However, his attitude and ruggedness was truly put to the test on July 20, 1993, when his life would change forever.

That day he had just cleared some trees from the mouth of a strip mine and wanted to get some lumber for the house he was building. According to People, it was around 4 p.m. when he started cutting into a huge oak resting on a hillside. Here’s how Pam Lambert from the magazine described what happened next:

Suddenly the trunk snapped back at him and fell, pinning his leg underneath. Because the top of the tree had been wedged between others it was slightly bowed; the cut released the tension like an enormous spring. “As many trees as I’ve cut, I should have known better,” Wyman says. “It drove me right into the ground. I didn’t, know what had hit me.” Seconds later, he knew. The trunk had rolled over his left shin about seven inches below” the knee, cutting flesh, shattering bone and burying his lower leg under an immovable weight of oak.

2011 Blade Show ‘American-Made Knife of the Year’

September 25, 2011 / Tim / 2 Comments

Back in June, BLADE Magazine held their 30th annual BLADE Show in Atlanta and there was a lot of action to report.

One of the traditions of the show is to give out awards to the best knives, knifemakers and more. While a lot of focus was on the “Overall Knife of the Year,” which was a very beautiful Zero Tolerance 0777, another notable award is the “American-Made Knife of the Year.”

This year, none other than the Spyderco Native 5 (Fluted Titanium) won the honors. As you can see from the prototype above, the Spyderco Native features an amazing design on its fluted titanium handle. Although I’ve never held this knife, someone from the Spyderco Collector noted that the pattern didn’t seem too sharp and had a great grip.

The weight of this knife compared to the previous models of the Native is similar, but the blade is made from CPM-S35VN steel. It also has a lockback locking system, a thumb hole in the blade and a 4 position clip.

It’s hard to find much fault with this knife and probably one of the best aspects is that it’s made in the U.S.A.

Here are some more pictures from the Spyderco Collector.

Which one of these new Coleman knives do you prefer?

September 20, 2011 / Tim / 2 Comments

Coleman products have always been synonymous with high quality and we’re excited to announce that we’re carrying a handful of new Coleman knives, all of which uphold the rich Coleman tradition.

Founded by W.C. Coleman around the turn of the century, the Coleman company originally sold lanterns, bringing illumination to thousands of Americans. The company soon expanded to carrying a variety of outdoor products, establishing itself as a staple brand for campers, picnickers, hunters and anyone who enjoys spending time in the wild.

Without further delay, here are three of our new Coleman models. Check them out and let us know which one you like the most.

Coleman Campfire Fixed Blade

The Coleman Campfire Blade combines cutting power with a genuine wood handle with natural beauty. The knife measures a total of 4.5 inches and also contains a hidden sparker for emergency fire starting capability and a great-looking nylon sheath.

Coleman Trekker Lockback

The Coleman Trekker II is a great carrying option if you’re looking for something sleek and light for a camping or fishing trip. This 2-inch blade has a nail notch for easy opening and a lockback mechanism that provides ultimate strength. Its nickel silver bolsters give it an elegant finish while the rosewood handle provides a classy touch. At only two ounces, this knife won’t weigh you down.

Coleman Hiker Swiss Army Knife

Carrying the Coleman Hiker Swiss Army Knife is like having an entire toolbox in your pocket. This 3.7 oz knife has a number of handy components such as: a full-size knife, saw, scissors, screw driver, bottle opener, can opener, fish scaler and degorger. All of these implements are stainless-steel, making them rust proof. This Coleman knife also features aluminum handle slabs and a spring lock mechanism, which make opening and closing it safe and easy.

So, what’s your verdict? Which one of these three Coleman knives would you prefer? Let us know in the comment section below and check out more of our selection of Coleman knives here.

Boston considering blanket restrictions on the sale of pocket knives

September 19, 2011 / Tim / 3 Comments

In events reminiscent of the gun control hearings of the 90s, council members in Boston are considering putting more restrictions on the sale of pocket knives to fight the high rates of knife crime in the city.

According to Knife Rights, which sent a representative to speak at the hearings, Boston lawmakers are thinking about licensing the sale of knives because there have been more than 1,300 knife attacks over the past two years. Instead of going after the criminals, the logic here is to go after the “weapon” and make it harder for people to get.

Here’s an excerpt of what Knife Rights representative and Executive Director of Gun Owners’ Action League Jim Wallace said at the hearing:

“I urge the City Council to review what it is about to do and reflect on the failures of gun control,” said Wallace. “Over a decade ago I had to testify before committees in the state house with grieving families in the background. Now I sit before you a decade later with grieving families behind me again. If you proceed down this path and get it wrong again, ten years from now we will likely repeat this scene yet again.”