Edged Weapons...

Edged Weapons. Even the name captivates me. My fascination has been primal and organic for as long as I can remember. It was my junior year in high school when my parents went to Europe on a cruise with friends and asked what I wanted them to bring back as a present for being a good boy in their absence and staying out of jail. My only request was for an Italian switch blade knife. You’ve seen them a thousand times in cheesy gangster movies, all shiny pointed blades that jump out of their frames with the push of a button. They’re crappy knives, cheap as hell, but they were the gold standard for “sinister” back in the day. “No way” was my mother’s first reaction to my request, but my irritating promotion of the idea teamed up with her considerable guilt at not taking me along, got me what I wanted. 

Of course, Mom was afraid, despite my constant reassurances that I would lock it away and never even look at it, someone would get stabbed. She was right. I was that someone. My dear older brother, Kenny, borrowed my switchblade and stuffed it down his back pocket just prior to deciding to see for the 1,000th time if there was any way in hell that I could out-wrestle him. I never initiated those matches, simply doing my best to survive. He always won, but that particular time it was by stabbing me. Unintentionally, yes, but the blade buried itself about two inches into my right thigh when the push button got pressed during my desperate contortions, sad attempts to get the fuck out of some kind of sleeper hold.

Mom found out and smashed that particular knife on the garage floor with a sledgehammer the next afternoon. Thanks, Kenny. You penis head.

These days, it’s all about utility for me. Jeweled knives with gold inlays that are more works of the jeweler’s art than down and dirty fighters, leave me cold. From spears to fixed blades, long knives or close fighters, I look for great steel, heat treated and cryogenically processed, with embraceable, practical designs. Tactical folders are my favorites, with automatics at the top of the list.  

Thirty years ago when I first started a serious collection, custom knives were kings. “Production” or “manufactured” knives were still too crude and old-school to stand out. They were stuck in a time warp, doing the same things that they always had done with little innovation. That stagnancy gave rise to the custom makers who did everything themselves from design to assembly. Tolerances were tight, scales fit frames with the closest precision, blades deployed with the quality of the opening and closing of the door on a Ferrari 458.

As with cars themselves, manufacturing techniques evolved. Now, with laser cut blades and frames, carbon fiber and other sophisticated materials, manufactured knives offer the same great quality as custom, at a quarter of the price. See that knife on the far left? It’s new. Designed by my favorite custom maker, Alan Elishewitz, but produced in a collaboration with a high-end manufacturer, Hogue Knives. A 5" folder with a black finish G-Mascus red lava G10 frame, perfectly fitted to a 154CM Stainless Steel upswept blade that has been Cryogenically treated and bathed in an extremely durable, non-reflective, black Certakote. It’s a total thing of beauty, flawless and sharp as hell, that would cost every bit of $1,200. from Alan himself but is less than a quarter of that from Hogue Knives.

I know I said that automatics are my favorites, but now I’m thinking about one-handed openers, and some sweet neck and ankle knives I have. Oh well, they can wait until the next “show and tell”. The bottom line is that as is true with so many things that evolve, personal use tactical knives have come a long way, baby.