Blade – September 2019

16 BLADE SEPTEMBER 2019

production balisong, Craig Camerer has

a mid-tech balisong, and Hom Design

and Squid Industries were set up with

back-to-back booths and were doing

pretty well with their balisongs.” Added

Mike Vellekamp, “I noticed balisong

knives becoming increasingly popular

with the younger crowd.” (Editor’s note:

Some younger folks were seen fl ipping

balisongs in the show’s aisles, a dangerous

practice that will be cracked down on at

future BLADE Shows.)

In materials, Robertson said he saw

more plastics for handles, including pine

cones and corn cobs set in the material.

Crenshaw cited a comeback of David

Boye’s dendritic cobalt steel. Terrain 365

has a proprietary dendritic-cobalt “super

alloy” it calls Terrravantium™ and uses it

on the Invictus-AT folder. “I like what’s

being done with it,” Crenshaw wrote.

According to Terrain 365, the material

is “100 percent rust proof, non-magnetic,

requires no heat treating and will hold an

edge longer than virtually any blade steel

and stainless steel alloys.” Crenshaw also

praised Walter Brend’s grinding prowess

in Carpenter’s XHP steel types. “Steel

has become an Internet marketing tool,”

he opined. “Find a steel no one has heard

of and pump it up in social media and

forums.  Some of it lives up to reputation

and some doesn’t.”

THE PRICE IS ...

Knife pricing and patron spending habits

appeared to be aff ected by the shift ing

winds of change as well.

SHOW RECAP^ |^

A.G. ILPS Mike Crenshaw described the new Interrupted Lockback Pivot System (ILPS™) on

the Sunfi sh2 from A.G. Russell Knives as “subtle genius.” The system allows the knife’s large

3 1/8-inch blade to sit in a slot (lower right) in the lockbar and the space normally occupied

by the lockbar pivot pin. Blade steel: 8Cr13MoV stainless. Handle options: stabilized blue

oak, black G-10, smooth white bone and brown jigged bone. MSRPs range from $94.95 to

$125 depending on handle material. (A.G. Russell Knives images)

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