The guy on the left looks like someone I've seen at school...

On the other hand, I'd love to fall in one of these...

I'd love to get one of these; I'd hate to fall.

 

Wadsworth Zane; Once a traveling Encyclopedia salesman during the post-war depression in America, now the sole benefactor of a distant relative from a backwoods town plagued with the supernatural. However, it appears as if Wadsworth is the only one aware of the strange happenings in the town, while he is compelled to follow his own OCD tendencies, his 'patterns'.

Now, together with Dr Klaus Angstrom and a young woman named Iris Bellweather, Wadsworth is thrust into the mysteries that tie Broodhollow's bloody past together-- all within a webcomic you can read here.

This is probably the best animation I have seen in the past few months. Very well done, so many feels.

The Reward Animation on Vimeo

Need a good laugh? All kinds of interests are catered to in a variety of funny ways at the Cracked Website.

I don't regularly watch comedians on TV, so maybe these guys are only funny to me because of how little someone professional tries to make me laugh.

Grand Theft Auto V came out a few days ago. Screw that, I want a more 'adult' Zelda title. Hey, I'm allowed to dream, right?

 

 Not quite what I meant... but I'll take it.

So maybe the hobby can be a tad strange

Some companies are a little over the top. Those companies come out with some really severe looking stuff.

The problem with making a good design

Sometimes, you hit the jackpot as a knifemaker. You've got your own brand name, a company, and a design which becomes amazingly well known and respected throughout the community! So well known, that another company takes your design, and bastardizes it for a profit. Huh?

Knife Lock Types

Over the years, we've moved from the traditional slipjoint to locking knives, first with a lockback...

the liner lock and frame lock...

As well as some more unique designs, such as the Axis lock.

Each has their own properties which divide knife users and enthusiasts alike, while new lock designs seem to come out ever year or two! There certainly is something for everyone.

Firsts in the knife world!

Spyderco, a production knife manufacturer situated in the US, was the very first company to feature it's knives with pocket clips, thus allowing quick access and carry. Spyderco also introduced the feature of an opening hole, something which enabled users to open their knives with one hand. This led to the term 'tactical' when referring to knives,which of course describes how the knife was at a tactical advancement in comparison to other knives at the time.

Balisong Knives

Whether it's because they're illegal, because of their swift deployment or due to their exotic nature, Balisong knives, also known as butterfly knives, have become black market items in much of North America due to perceived gang relations.

Traditional symbols of both spirituality and class, these Filipino-originated knives can be as beautiful as they are fun to flip. Trainers [knives with blunt blades that cannot be sharpened] are readily available, but few reach such a high quality as some true custom balisongs.

However, if you're mainly interested in the form because of it's structural integrity, Cold Steel, a knife company, produces a slip-joint version of a butterfly knife. Due to the inability to open the knife with centrifugal force, they're 100% legal where knives of a similar length are legal as well.

Want a quick way to spend a lot of money on a single object very quickly? Here's one option if you're looking to get rid of $12,500

A bit beyond my price range, I'd feel bad even using that beautiful damascus blade to cut anything.

This one of five collectors item certainly isn't something that I'd expect to see outside of a display case.

Customized Spydercos

One cool thing about modern folders is the ability to take most of them apart for cleaning. Of the many parts, the largest are often the handle scales, leaving lots of room for artistic expression. Take a look at this particular website for a good look at what a customized production knife can look like!

Why knives are not strange. An Introduction!

Probably the very oldest of tools used by mankind, knives have undergone an amazing transition from jagged flint stones to the keen edges used today, both pocket-sized and otherwise. While we've progressed as a species, our appreciation for art has long been a major characteristic of our being. Naturally this has led to the development of integration between tools with a specific function and items designed to symbolically show the status of a person, or to convey some level of thought past the 'need' of the tool. In specific, knives have survived in our now global culture because of not only their history, but because of their simple functionality. Cutlery being perhaps the most common category under which people are most familiar with knives, there are still a great many people who carry knives on a day to day basis, whether due to need of the tool itself or simply for personal enjoyment. I carry and use knives for both reasons, but there is a third very prominent factor that comes to mind; I deeply appreciate knives as functional art.

Whereas swords have basically faded from public use in modern countries, machetes and smaller blades are still part of society, albeit not to the extent they once were, mainly due to modern convenience. Things like multitools, Swiss Army Knives [SAKs] are commonly carried, but not much thought is given to the tool besides it's usefulness. Folding knives, on the other hand, have developed a culture of people who tend to be attracted to tools and machines, predominately males. These people, much like myself, tend to become collectors.

Something I've found over the years is that people don't really understand why I collect knives. I've tried explaining my interest in a number of ways, but most still have trouble really 'getting it'. Recently, I have found it easy to explain my love of knives when I compare myself to someone who collects expensive, powerful or rare cars. As an object people deal with on a day to day basis, they have something to relate to. Especially because of the fact people can easily appreciate the quality of a well built car, it becomes easy to translate that into an idea of how I look at knives in general.


After all, which would you rather drive; a brand new, top of the line Porsche, or a 1987 Yugo?

A Gerber Edge, or a Spyderco Caly 3 CF?

All images are property of their respective owners.