The Cutting Edge

Modern samurai cuts speeding bullet in half (video)

August 6, 2011 / Tim / 4 Comments

It’s simply amazing what can be done with a good sword.

Isao Machii also known as the modern samurai has such control and connection with his sword that he can cut a speeding bullet in half. That’s right, a speeding bullet.

A friend told me about Machii’s bullet-cutting abilities, but I found it hard to believe until I watched the video below.

Machii was featured on the television show Stan Lee’s Superhumans, which highlights people with real superhuman abilities. In one episode last year, they focused on Machii’s sword-wielding skills. In one of the first segments, Machii impressively sliced a baseball in two clean pieces, but the major feat was cutting the BB shot from a gun.

In order for him to do something like this, he has to really connect and feel his sword rather than simply look at the BB approach.

Check out this clip and be amazed. Just remember, don’t try this with one of your samurai swords.

Bid on a Buck knife and support the American Knife and Tool Institute

August 4, 2011 / Tim / 4 Comments

The American Knife and Tool Institute, one of the leading organizations protecting knife-carrying Americans, is holding an auction for a Buck knife to support its ongoing work.

The auction features a Buck Model 119 Special fixed-blade hunting knife – one of Buck’s most popular knives. This knife, which measures 10-1/2” in overall length, is ideal for outdoorsmen who need a durable, reliable stainless steel blade and features Advanced Edge2x™ blade technology.

Enter your bid before 11:59 ET on August 31, 2011. The highest bid received will win the auction and will be notified after the auction closes. All proceeds go directly to AKTI’s legislative work to promote the responsible use of knives throughout the United States.

Knife Depot’s ultimate guide to buying a pocket knife

August 2, 2011 / Tim / 0 Comments

Every man should carry a pocket knife. It’s a primal right of manhood, up there with NFL football, beer and buffalo wings. Yet, picking out a pocket knife is harder than all three of these fundamental man-skills.

Why is picking out a pocket knife so tough?

Because the pocket-knife market is filled with thousands of different models in a dizzying array of shapes, sizes, blades and brands.

There are clip-point blades, tanto blades and drop-point blades, stainless-steel blades and carbon steel blades, serrated blades and non-serrated blades, not to mention Swiss Army knives with enough tools and attachments to aid your escape from a maximum security prison.

What’s a knife lover to do?

Well, aside from buying every knife you see (not a bad idea if you have the dough), the best approach to finding the right pocket knife is to know A TON about them. Since you don’t have time to do that research, we did it for you.

Below, you’ll find the link to Knife Depot’s “Official Guide to Buying a Pocket Knife, which includes a wealth of information on pocket knives, including chapters on:

pocket knife blade materials
pocket knife models
pocket knife blade shapes
pocket knife locks
pocket knife handle materials

We’ll be publishing excerpts from the guide on the blog over the upcoming week, but click the image below to check out the whole thing.

Guide to buying a pocket knife

Challenge Bear Grylls and win 10K

August 2, 2011 / Tim / 3 Comments

Whether you find his feats of wilderness survival awe-inspiring or his heavily-accented narration downright irritating, Bear Gyrlls is undoubtedly a survivalist star.

Back in April, we ran a contest in which our readers were asked to give Bear a hand in a sticky situation (he was stuck on a rock in the Amazon River) in order to win a Bear Grylls signature Gerber multi-tool.

Now, the folks over at Solo (it’s a lemon soda, in case you didn’t know) are holding a contest in which you can face off with Bear for a chance to win 10k.

The contest rules are pretty simple. All you have to do is find something you can do better than Bear and challenge him on the Solo website. Users will vote on the best challenges and a handful of winners will eventually be chosen to face off with Bear in Sydney, Australia.

The man above (Tom) is a gymnastics instructor who will be going one on one with Bear in a gnarly handstand competition.

The contest is only open to Australian residents, but there’s 10k on the line, so if you’re thinking about expatriating, this is probably the time.

Things not to do with a knife: Remove your own hernia

July 30, 2011 / Tim / 8 Comments

There are a wide variety of things people know you should never do with a knife. For example, everyone knows you should never attach a knife to a rooster’s leg as one unfortunate man found out.

And, one California man reminded us of another thing you shouldn’t do: don’t plunge a butter knife into your stomach to remove a hernia.

Yes, a 63-year-old man from Glendale California was so fed up with his protruding hernia that he grabbed a butter knife in a futile attempt to remove it, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Not that I condone this type of behavior, but you’d think if he really wanted to remove it, he’d use something sharper than a butter knife (don’t try this at home!).

Police found the man lying naked on his front porch, and after he created the hole in his stomach, he shoved a lit cigarette in the wound.

SUPER FM 1

EOD and tactical knives from Les George

July 29, 2011 / Tim / 4 Comments

“You can do everything right and still get killed.”

That’s what knife maker Les George had to say about working as an explosive ordinance disposal (EOD) expert in Iraq. As an EOD team leader for the Marines, he oversaw over 300 EOD responses, disarmed 114 EODs and had four detonate on him (he suffered only minor injuries).

Based on his experience, George has designed a new model of EOD probe, which he currently supplies the Marines with, and a EOD combat knife.

A knife maker from an early age, George made his first knife from scratch from instructions in a book, after his parents refused to buy him one.

He made knives continuously until he joined the Marines in 1997, where he worked as a heavy-equipment mechanic and an embassy guard before beginning his career in explosive removal.

George, who was previously deployed in Laos, Thailand, North and South Korea, Peru, Mozambique, South Africa, Iraq and many other locales, returned stateside in 2007 and began manufacturing knives full-time.

He said that the EOD tactical tools that he constructs are just a small portion of his business, the majority of which comes from his heavy-duty tactical knives.

Check out a few of his designs below and on his website

EOD KNIFE

SUPER FM 1

ROCKEYE SERIES

What’s your favorite knife?

July 28, 2011 / Tim / 14 Comments

Just like your kids, it’s hard to pick your favorite knife. However, there’s always that one knife you can’t go anywhere or do any job without.

To get this thread started, one of my favorite knives is the Schrade Old Timer because of its classic appearance, big personality and rugged versatility.

So, what’s your favorite knife?

Knives Save Lives: Pocketknife saves girl from seatbelt

July 27, 2011 / Tim / 1 Comment

The latest addition of our Knives Save Lives series reports on how a young girl in New Orleans was nearly strangled by her seatbelt, before a passerby used a $5 pocketknife to set her free.

According to an article in the New Orleans Times-Picayune, Evelyn Saenz was riding in a booster seat in the back seat of her parent’s car, when somehow the seat belt became wrapped around her neck. Evelyn’s mother, Kelly, said that her daughter was being strangled and there was little she or her husband could do.

“I’ve never seen anything like it,” Kelly said. “It was like (the movie) ‘Christine.’ It just locked up and, no matter how hard we pulled, we couldn’t undo it. It was like a noose and it just kept getting tighter and tighter. It was strangling her.”

The couple pulled over into a convenience store, where Evelyn’s father, Joseph, retrieved a box cutter, but it failed to cut through the belt. Meanwhile, little Evelyn was turning blue.

Weird Knives: The Bloody Kitchen Knife

July 27, 2011 / Tim / 2 Comments

This is the second post in a series bringing you some bizarre knives we come across in our research.

Bloody Kitchen Knife If you’re looking for a good gag knife, you have a number of great options, including the knife disguised as a key.

However, if you’re looking for something more cringeworthy and confusing, nothing beats the bloody chef’s knife.

This very weird kitchen knife aims to convince people you’re a serial killer who doesn’t wash his or her weapons before slicing bell peppers.

The chef’s knife comes with a fired-on, food safe blood design made to look like it has just plunged through someone’s body. If you have an additional interest in making people believe you are odd, the knife also comes with an evidence tag, so it looks like you just took the knife from a crime scene.

Renowned knifemaker Blackie Collins killed in crash

July 22, 2011 / Tim / 8 Comments

Knifemaker and all-around knife innovator Blackie Collins died in a motorcycle accident yesterday, according to Blade Magazine.

The 71-year-old was killed after his Triumph motorcycle veered to the right and struck a guardrail. Even though he was wearing a helmet, the crash was still fatal.

If you’re not familiar with Walter Wells Collins, aka Blackie, he was internationally known for his contribution to the knife world.

Here’s Blade Magazine’s description of his work:

Blackie was known for any number of different knives, knife materials and knife mechanisms, including the assisted opener, the first use of thermoplastic for knife handles (Gerber LST), the Bolt Action lock and much more. He also invented a number of sheath mechanisms for the diving knife industry.

Since Blackie was a young boy in school, he always wanted to make knives and guns. In fact, he used to recall an incident at his elementary school when his teacher asked each student in the class what they wanted to be when they grew up. Unlike the other students who wanted to be doctors and lawyers, he said he wanted to make guns and knives, much to the chagrin of his teacher.