Knives Australia:
Australia's own quarterly for
the knife-minded
24 pages packed with information and photographs!!
Back Issues available
Issue 7
Winter 2002 ~ released 24 October 2002
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Cover pic:
A faithful replication of the historic Australian Gregsteel
Bowie of 1944, benchmade by Zane Darcy-Shaw; a sharpening steel hadncrafted
by sharpening steel specialists , the Ballment brothers of Queensland;
a model 41 pocket knife (circa 1950) maufactured by Whittingslowe of SOuth
Australia; top quality leather stockmans belts manufactured by Miller &
Gibbs of New South Wales; and SICUT pocketknife pouch marketed
by Matrose Agencies of Western Australia.
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Edge-itorial: Editor
- Keith Spencer
In my capacity as Principle of the Australasian Knife Collectors
Club (founded 1990) I was recently invited to write a discourse for the
American Knife & Tool Institute (AKTI) by the Communications Coordinator,
Mr David Kowalski, on The Results of Legislating Against Knives in Australia.
That discourse is reproduced for your benefit.
Australian Knife Laws
Two sets of laws relating to bladeware are in existence
in Australia, one that is applied by the Australian Customs Service (ACS)
and the other that is applied by the states and territories. The ACS laws,
known as schedules, concerning the importation of bladeware, have remained
relatively without change for several decades. However, laws as they apply
to ownership, possession and carriage of bladeware in individual states
and territories underwent dramatic reform between 1996 and 1998.
Whereas prior to 1996 each state and territory
applied separate laws dealing with ownership, possession and carriage of
knives, from 1996 under the auspices of the Federal Attorney General’s
office, a state police minister’s council decided to make their respective
Weapon’s Acts more uniform. At that time, state and territory Weapon’s
Acts to do with bladeware ranged from laws in place in two states, Victoria
and South Australia that were patterned in the vein of the ACS schedule,
to no knife laws at all in Western Australia, Tasmania, Queensland and
the Northern Territory. In most states police were already empowered to
apprehend and search anyone they reasonably suspected may be carrying a
weapon of any sort on their person, in their car, and so on, so why the
need to impose specific laws targeting bladeware?
....... continued Knives Australia, Spring 02 edition,
page 3 |
This issue features:
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Regular columnist Glenn Waters
"Our man in Japan"
New York Show Post 911
I have to admit I was a
bit concerned about attending the ECCKS (East Coast Custom Knife Show)
after September 1I, not just from the possibility of terrorism but also
from an economical point of view. Would many people attend? Would it be
the great show that I know and love? Would people be spending? Would the
planes, airports and city be safe? Would I have any trouble because I was
carrying knives? These are just some of the questions that I kept asking
myself without having the answers.
Finally, I decided what the heck, I have two knives to
deliver so I can’t afford not to go. Having made the decision, I checked
the airfares and found that prices had almost returned to normal. Gone
were the US$250 return airfares that could be had in November and December
2001, but I still managed to save US$50 off last year’s flight cost. |
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Spectre Inspection
Spectre – a visible incorporeal (non-material) spirit,
especially one of a terrifying nature. Does anyone bother to look up the
dictionary when they name knives? There is nothing intimidating about the
Gerber Spectre.
The Spectre is not a phantom folding knife that should
strike fear into the heart of the viewer, ...
Dewey Working Knives
A mechanical engineer with marketing expertise, Rob Dewey
began a family business supplying commercial cutlery to the hospitality
industry about twenty years ago. R.K. Dewey & Associates was the Australian
distributor for Gustav Emil Ern cutlery of Solingen in Germany for many
years until the Ern firm went bankrupt in 1986. .... |
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A Cool Collection
Ask any writer who researches old artefacts and they
will tell you, there are more goodies stashed away in the sumps of museums
around the world than ever see the light of day in displays and galleries
at ground level. And it isn’t altogether easy to gain entry into the dungeons
of museums: you need to have a valid reason and make a proper application
to the relevant authorities to ‘tap the cellars’.
One October day in 1989 I was blessed with an opportunity
to venture into the subterranean labyrinths of the Western Australian Museum
for the first time. George Trotter was assigned the task of showing me
the hidden mysteries of blade artistry locked away in the lower levels
of the old building. These days George is best known for his studies in
the field of Japanese swords. ..... |
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Micro Knives - Macro Potential
You can stand at one end of the workbench and watch as
the custom knifemaker measures, scribes, saws, files, grinds, and drills,
skillfully crafting and building a knife before your very eyes. Ask questions,
share a story or two, just don't get in the way.
But the world of miniature making is an entirely different
realm. As the maker adjusts his magnifier, his surroundings blur and fade.
He enters his place for one, a microcosm of the full-sized world around
him. With vision now enhanced and centred on the once miniature objects
before him, and all else out of focus, concentration intensifies. Alone
in his tiny world, the maker painstakingly builds his creation, piece by
piece.... |
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Big 'N' Beefy 'N' Bloody Good!
The Type D British Survival Knife
It weighs in at 530-grams without its sheath, has a 6-mm
thick X 40-mm wide blade that is 180-mm long and has an overall length
exceeding 300-mm. A chunky piece of British defence force bladeware for
carriage on a soldier’s webbing. Civilian survivalists know it as the jungle
survival knife. ... Designed with the view of providing an all-round knife/tool
combining the characteristics of a machete with those of a regular sheath
knife, this hefty hybrid proved to be equally serviceable, whether in the
arctic ice or in the jungles on the equator. .... |
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VC Commemorative Knife
We ran a story in the Autumn issue of KA, JOB For The
Team, which featured knifemaker Jack O’Brien and the special limited edition
knives he is making to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the Australian
Army Training Team Vietnam (AATTV), often referred to as ‘The Team’. We
have an update.
... We were privileged to attend the presentation
of a specially prepared 40th anniversary knife by Jack O’Brien to Keith
Payne, the only surviving recipient of a VC ... |
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Lloyd Harding - Elder Statesman of the Knife Industry
A meticulous man, Lloyd has dutifully recorded his experiences
in life in photographs and moving images. A decade or so ago, he transferred
many photos, along with black and white 8 mm ‘home movies’ he had of himself,
family and friends on hunting trips and around the family farm, into video
format. Lloyd also recorded lots of knives, including the Sheffield-made
hunting knife with an upswept blade and stag handle he has kept as his
personal knife since the 1930’s. It is in remarkably good condition, but
then Lloyd knows how to look after things. |
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The Series continues:
Regional Bladeware - by Keith Spencer
Malay Harvesting Knives
Malaysian-born Adrian Hew appeared in the second issue of
KA (Winter 2001) demonstrating the proper usage of the modern-made Parang.
Adrian also provided a number of other modern-made Malay rural knives designed
for special applications in gathering and processing fruit and vegetables
for shoppers in the village markets.
The Durian Knife is a forged heavy-duty short cleaver
that is 6-mm thick at the back of the blade and 9-cm wide at the front
of this razor-sharp chopper. To the untutored this edged tool looks like
a pretty rough and ugly chopper that appears to be devoid of any design
technology. Wrong! This pierce-chop-slice device has been carefully conceived
and skilfully produced to do a specific job... |
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Blades They Call Bowies
‘Jack Adelaide’ lives in South Australia. His name is
not real, for he prefers to remain anonymous, but ‘Jack’s’ bowie knife
collection is indeed very real. What makes the collection special is that
all the knives are old and they were collected in Australia: that only
a few in the collection might have been imported for sale by old-time merchants,
so most of the bowies would have been carried to Australia by their original
owners. For the benefit of those unaware of the bowie knife legend
it goes something like this: James (Jim) Bowie was born in Logan County,
Kentucky-USA in 1796 and he died during the famous defence of the Alamo
in 1836. ... |
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No, I didn’t spend a weekend hunt’n an’ fish’n with living
knifemaking legend Murray Lanthois, but we were locked up together for
two days…that is, we worked adjacent tables at the Adelaide Knife Show
held in August. Never a dull moment. Murray is as fit as a mallee bull
and chock-full of vitality and his fertile survival-mode brain is forever
pumping out new blade concepts. I mean, what other knifemaker would think
of transforming a T-bone steak bone into a push-dagger. .... |
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Ballment Custom Steels
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Brothers Steve and Darren Ballment of Queensland present
recycoled steels for the meat industry that lloki goos and work better
than the original! |
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Fitting Inlayed Resin Handles
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The next lesson in a series of how-to's by NSW knifemaker
Peter Bennett.
This is a slightly more demanding type of handle to fit
than most other types, but it is well worth the trouble to do. .. |
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Across The Tasman:
2nd Auckland Custom Knife Show
It surely can’t be. A year has transpired passed since
the inaugural knife show held in Auckland. I’ll check the calendar…it’s
true…jeez, time flys, as they say, when you are having fun. And my spys
tell me they’ve structured a knifemakers guild in New Zealand, but
more on that in the next issue of KA. Norman Sandow reports ...
Nikl Knives of Distinction -
We revisit Bill Nikl's uniquuely decorated outdoor edgeware,
scrimmed by Wendy Munro. |
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Another breath-taking array of bladeware from Australian
makers :
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Alistair Bastian (SA),
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Ray Mende (VIC)
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David Winch (NSW),
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David Brodziak (WA),
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Mike Peteren (NSW), and
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John Suraski (WA),
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For Further Information: email, phone
or fax
Email: spencer@knivesaustralia.com.au
PO BOX 149 CHIDLOW 6556
WESTERN AUSTRALIA
TEL: (08) 9572 7255 FAX: (08)
9572 7266
International callers:
TEL: + 61 8 9572 7255
FAX: + 61 8 9572 7266
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