I'm particularly fond of a new folding knife designed by a company called "Cold Steel."

Normally I steer way clear of these guys, though they are good craftsmen. Why? Mostly because they cater to a demographic I find particularly nut-driving. That whole ninja-wannabee set, tactical assholes who consider themselves urban warriors. Actually Cold Steel marketing is a riot. Their main designer, a martial artist and knife-fighting expert named Lynn Thomson, often demonstrates various knife designs of his by hanging a slab of brisket or a rib roast in front of him, and stabbing and/or slashing at it. Very subtle. Not. But I find it a strange mix of hysterical and creepy. If you go through their web site, you'll see his videos here and there. They're good for a laugh.

Cold Steel is the place you go if you want a modern functional SAMURAI STYLE SWORD at a reasonable price, made from modern and traditional materials. Japanese style swords made with time-honored techniqes and folded steel, traditional fittings, can cost thousands of dollars. Cold Steel makes theirs with modern high carbon or stainless steel, and you can get one for a few hundred. But it's not garbage. It's a good thick piece of good sharp steel. So if you really needed to chop a man in half or disembowel him for some reason, you could. They also sell crap like throwing stars, higher end martial arts knives, and various nasty-looking push knives.

Most of their knife designs have had these kind of goofy, fantasy-weapon kinds of vibe. Attractive, but not really less-is-more, or functional. More about playing pretend assassin.

But they stumbled on a design recently, inspired by a gifted knife designer named Barry Dawson, which they call The Spectre which is a bona-fide hit. Not only with knife aficionados, but with me. I'm always a fan of well designed tools.

Of course, they're trying to sell the thing as a tactical weapon... but actually, to me the design resembles more of a 19th century european fruit knife than anything else. A fruit knife is something an orchard-owner would carry around and use on freshly picked fruit, to test it and eat it to determine the best time to pick.

The slightly hawkbill shape of the blade makes it less of a stabbing weapon... more of a utility or slashing knife. I took one look at it, and thought: now THERE's the perfect trout and bird knife for hunters and fishermen. If you gut a lot of fish, you know that you want a knife that has a recurved point like that, to slit open the belly without slicing into the entrails. You need a kind of surgical precision to unzip fish, birds, and small game... and this blade is exactly the shape you need.

This first production run is limited edition, and HANDMADE in Japan. Which is the time to buy a knife. Just because the fit and finish will tend to be a little better, more hand-tuned looking. With some of the best qualities of a one-off knife, but without the super-premium price. Normally these guys take a new design and throw a limited production run out into the market, and see how it hits. If it does (which the spectre will), They may take this one into full production in Taiwan or China, and lower the price. The street price on this knife is now $220 or so. That's actually pretty low for a handmade of this quality. If the knife goes into mass production, look for it to be about half that.

But what happens at this stage, usually, because the Chinese aren't dopes... they'll intercept a good design, and reverse engineer it, and flood the market with counterfeits. As Coldsteel's reputation for quality craftsmanship and durability grows, they've been particularly targeted by counterfeiters. You have to be pretty careful say, buying their most popular designs on ebay.

I got this one, and it's really beautiful. It's sturdy without being overbearing. Strong where it needs to be strong. A good smooth action. Thumb stud for one-handed opening. Nice positive click-in to lock. Nice sharp knurling on the blade spine and the liner lock. Nice big spacers which are going to make it easy to clean. There are not many nooks and crannies that will get gunked up with guts you can't simply rinse off. Titanium bolsters and leaf spring which give it a sturdy but light feel.

Feels great in the hand. Nice balance. Not too heavy, but definitely substantial. I like a nice long somewhat slim handle. I love the big beefy blade that's 5mm at the spine, which gets zero ground to the edge, which is razor sharp. Again, perfect for trout-and-bird. Now I SUPPOSE it'd also be OK as a fighting knife... the blade isn't so clawlike that you couldn't stab with it... but it's really designed for ripping and unzipping. Whether it be animals, birds or fish... or ripe fruit like Apples and pears. Cutting concord grapes from the vine. But again, the blade is not so recurved that you couldn't slice yourself a nice slab of your Grafton Cheddar with it too.

This is one instance where I'd say don't listen to Cold Steel's warrior knife-fighty bullshit. This baby is probably the nicest GENTLEMAN'S KNIFE that I've seen. I see it more suited to the picnic basket or the game bag than I do in any kind of tactical capacity. It's a beauty.

It's just being marketed totally wrong.

Their main designer, a martial artist and knife-fighting expert named Lynn Thomson, often demonstrates various knife designs of his by hanging a slab of brisket or a rib roast in front of him, and stabbing and/or slashing at it. Very subtle. Not. But I find it a strange mix of hysterical and creepy. If you go through their web site, you'll see his videos here and there. They're good for a laugh.

Reminds me of the dude who sprays lighter fluid on his newly-waxed car and sets it on fire to show how good his brand of wax is. Well, next time I have to drive through a circus hoop-of-fire, that brand of wax could be useful. But how does it hold up to UV rays and real-world stuff like that? But sure makes for a good show. And we love a good show. Nothing proves to me that we are apes newly come down from the trees than those infomercials where the crowd goes nuts over some minor features. "And if you turn this knob you can raise the heat level from 4 to 5!!!!!" And the camera pans into the crowd and there are people almost in rapturous tears at the brilliance of this newfangled feature. They cheer as if Christians were being thrown to lions. "Set it and forget it!" which is pretty much what we've been doing with light switches for decades now. But the crowd exults.

It's a good thick piece of good sharp steel. So if you really needed to chop a man in half or disembowel him for some reason, you could. They also sell crap like throwing stars, higher end martial arts knives, and various nasty-looking push knives.

What's amazing is how deeply genetic the love males have for weaponry probably is. I'm speaking the obvious so go ahead and cheer as if I had just told you that "That's not all…you can also put waffles in it and toast them!" But we were made for war. Some animals have a season for it and often, like the big-horned rams, it's become mostly bloodless. It's a test of strength and dominance. The object isn't to kill. But we make war as a way of life. And that's not necessarily depressing, although it's horrible. It just means we can have even more awe for the real peacemakers of the world. And, ironically, but logically, some of them are the ones carrying the biggest and best weapons of all. You have to.

but it's really designed for ripping and unzipping.

You just wrote the tag line for the infomercial: "Just rip it and unzip it." [Crowd goes wild. Starts ripping up the seats in the studio and throwing them on stage. A couple fights break out. Several women have fainted in the front row.]

This is one instance where I'd say don't listen to Cold Steel's warrior knife-fighty bullshit. This baby is probably the nicest GENTLEMAN'S KNIFE that I've seen. I see it more suited to the picnic basket or the game bag than I do in any kind of tactical capacity. It's a beauty.

We need Jane Curtin and Dan Aykroyd to recreate their skit: "It's a weapon. No, it's a utensil. It's a weapon! It's a utensil." And then in walks Chevy Chase, of course, to tell them they're both right. But you do like expensive, well-made items. $400 for a knife is too rich for my blood unless that one button on the side turns it into a light saber.

Hahaha, oh yeah. You said it, there's a love of weaponry in males. And it extends to tools, power tools, and pocket knives... which I guess are kinda both.

I suppose you could use a revolver to hammer nails, but guns are a more weaponry-love. To me folding pocket knives don't really have me dreaming of my ninja adventures and getting into knife fights like ol' Lynn.

Knife fights are the A#1 most brutal, messiest, and most uncivilized things you can imagine. Most mall ninjas, when they carry their fancy tactical knives, don't really think in terms of what's involved in a knife fight, or close-contact hand-to-hand fighting with edged weapons. Being sliced to ribbons, butchered, while alive HAS to be unpleasant.

It's not, stab a guy and he falls down. First of all, if you stab a guy, living muscle tissue, suction, and bone grips the blade, so it's almost impossible to pull out. You have to turn it and wriggle it to even get it out. Meanwhile, your attacker can take nice chunks out of you, slicing through things you actually need to survive and function, like veins, arteries, and nerves.

One good deep slash in your arm (where the majority of knife fighting wounds are), and you can't even HOLD a knife, much less feel anything below the wound. Then what? Change hands? Most people haven't trained in weak-hand fighting.

Take my word for it, DON'T google knife fighting wounds unless you have a strong stomach. England has a particularly bad knife violence problem. I say it's because their gun laws are too strict. People end up having to defend themselves with knives. Which is pretty medieval. There was a reason most gentlemen preferred swords. It put some distance between you and an attacker. They saved daggers for stealth killings, or to finish somebody off.

Personally, I will never bring a knife to a knife fight. Always a gun. If you're an armed citizen, and somebody comes at you with a knife, you shoot them. It means they're trying to kill you. Nobody lunges at you with a knife to give you a pedicure.

For me, a knife would be a weapon of last resort. I've taken self defense classes, know some basics of knife fighting, and all that did was scare me silly into never wanting to get into a knife fight. If you DO ever have to defend yourself with a knife, the best advice is to try to remain conscious as you're losing blood... You will start going into shock and will tremble like a leaf. EXPECT to be wounded, so use your weak forearm as a shield... and learn the parts of the human body that are most vulnerable. Where you can stab or slice to open up the biggest arteries, biggest bundles of nerves, or hit an essential organ like the heart or lungs.

That's the reality of knife fighting. I frequently carry a knife, but not really with protection in mind. A man needs a knife for dozens of other tasks. It's our most primal, essential tool from time immemorial. I don't care who you are. Have you ever tried to open a clamshell package with scissors? Wrong tool for the job. We need to open letters, packages, etc. Cut rope, string, clean fish, rabbits, whatever. I think pretty much everyone picks up some kind of knife every day. I normally carry a little Spyderco Ladybug, which has maybe a 2" blade. It's like the size of one of your car keys when closed. But it's great for opening stuff up. My problem is that they're so small, I keep losing them. And when I put it on my keyring, it becomes more difficult to use.

They're about $20-$30 now, which makes Spyderco kind of like the Apple Computer of the knife world. Overpriced con-the-yuppies stuff. The quality is excellent, but these are mass-produced, not handmade. They used to be much cheaper, then Spyderco got wildly popular. Now Spyderco is trying to get back the low-end market with another line of "Byrd" knives, which have a different shaped opening hole (not as ergonomic)... but are priced more realistically.

I dunno, I MIGHT have paid $400 for the Spectre. That's the MSRP, which is probably about right for a handmade... but the street price on these, like I said, is about $220, which is more like what I paid with shipping and a coupon. I'd say it's definitely a $200 knife as far as quality, fit and finish goes.

If you don't clean game, fish, or eat picnic lunches in the park with fruit, bread, and cheese... then this probably isn't for you. I of course, being a culture-snob, do all those things, lol. It could of course be used as a weapon... as supposedly it was designed. An arm for you to keep and bear. Certain somebody could LOSE an arm if you started carving into them with this. The blade is quite thick like a fighting knife, and tapers down to the edge all the way from the spine. That triangular cross-section gives the blade stiffness and supports the point and edge. This would be easier to pull out of somebody than a flatter-profile knife. There are those who'd say the blade is too thick at the spine for food, which made me think of it as more of a fruit knife, where you're cutting good sized wedges off, or unzipping peel. A thick, stiff blade wouldn't be appropriate for carving paper-thin slices of roast beef, or filleting fish, for instance. This is definitley more of a fish CLEANING knife, game dressing knife, where you need a bit more sturdiness and do more rip-cuts.

The scales are micarta, a sort of popular old-school knife-handle material. Related in a kind of oblique way to Bakelite, an early plastic. Basically it's an absorbent woven linen cloth or paper, that gets soaked with thermosetting plastic and baked under pressure. It's similar to fiberglass in that a cloth-like material is soaked in a resinous material. But micarta is baked under pressure into laminate sheets or blocks, used in a wide variety of applications. It's a preferred material for electrical insulation. For knife scales, it can be polished to a high lustre, and is traditionally white or black... the white turns yellow over time like ivory.

Here's a YouTube video in italian that gives you a good look at the knife, how it fits in the hand, the thickness of that blade at the spine, a look at the mirror finish, the spacers. A good view of the toolness. You'll see why I love this design.

quote:

Knife fights are the A#1 most brutal, messiest, and most uncivilized things you can imagine. Most mall ninjas, when they carry their fancy tactical knives, don't really think in terms of what's involved in a knife fight, or close-contact hand-to-hand fighting with edged weapons. Being sliced to ribbons, butchered, while alive HAS to be unpleasant.

It's not, stab a guy and he falls down. First of all, if you stab a guy, living muscle tissue, suction, and bone grips the blade, so it's almost impossible to pull out. You have to turn it and wriggle it to even get it out. Meanwhile, your attacker can take nice chunks out of you, slicing through things you actually need to survive and function, like veins, arteries, and nerves.

One good deep slash in your arm (where the majority of knife fighting wounds are), and you can't even HOLD a knife, much less feel anything below the wound. Then what? Change hands? Most people haven't trained in weak-hand fighting.

Take my word for it, DON'T google knife fighting wounds unless you have a strong stomach. England has a particularly bad knife violence problem. I say it's because their gun laws are too strict. People end up having to defend themselves with knives. Which is pretty medieval. There was a reason most gentlemen preferred swords. It put some distance between you and an attacker. They saved daggers for stealth killings, or to finish somebody off.

That's extremely interesting. It reminds me of something I saw on the History Channel the other day. It was about Medieval swords and how they made them and actually used them. They showed a couple guys who had studied ancient fighting techniques with heavy swords. Not much Errol Flynn elegance and subtlety involved in that. It's pretty straight-forward and vicious, although there certainly was a lot of skill and strength involved in that.

quote:

That's the reality of knife fighting. I frequently carry a knife, but not really with protection in mind. A man needs a knife for dozens of other tasks. It's our most primal, essential tool from time immemorial. I don't care who you are. Have you ever tried to open a clamshell package with scissors? Wrong tool for the job. We need to open letters, packages, etc. Cut rope, string, clean fish, rabbits, whatever. I think pretty much everyone picks up some kind of knife every day. I normally carry a little Spyderco Ladybug, which has maybe a 2" blade. It's like the size of one of your car keys when closed. But it's great for opening stuff up. My problem is that they're so small, I keep losing them. And when I put it on my keyring, it becomes more difficult to use.

I don't carry a pocket knife with me anymore. Frankly, there's just not a lot of room left in there with all the keys, thumb drives, and what not. But I used to have one with me all the time when I was a kid. Although you certainly weren't supposed to take it out and play around with it at school, it wasn't a situation where the SWAT team was called out if some prissy teacher caught sight of it. But that's what we've digressed to. Instead of punishing bad behavior (and that might indeed amount to disproportionately targeting some gang-oriented ethnic groups), we simply put up metal detectors. What a horrible world liberals are building. It's not more safe nor is it more fair. But it sure looks nice to those who like to think themselves benevolent rather than the cowards and sell-outs that they are. Just like Muslims are the worst victims of Islamic terrorism, blacks and other minorities are the main victims of the violence from people of their own ethnicity or religion. And we do nothing but salve our delusions by trying to turn this into a problem of weaponry rather than a problem of culture. We need to start acting like adults, not children, and start holding all people to a high and fair ethical standard regardless of color. And we shouldn't be such cowards or so stupid and zealously ignorant to make this all a matter of eliminating weapons. Good god, they have people confiscating nail clippers before you get onboard a plane. This is an insane mindset, but it's one that certainly saves us from the trouble of having to actually target the real problem.

This would be easier to pull out of somebody than a flatter-profile knife.

Well, there. You sold me right there. I'm always annoyed by the resistance and the sucking-sound. But I think I agree with you. Knives scare me more than guns. I'd rather be in a gun fight. But, seriously, that's obviously a very nice knife. And it's wonderfully useful and kind of old-fashioned to carry one around. I remember all my uncles always having a pocket knife. Anyone of the older generation (we're getting there) has one. I guess it's a badge of non-wussville that a conservative or classical liberal really should wear. I wonder where that old pocket knife of mine is?

A beautiful knife, thalo. I've always liked pocket knives. When I'm in a store and they sell knives, I always look them over and want almost all of them. I carry a very small and light pocket knife one on my key chain. I need it for cutting the strings that are round packets of newspapers.

Yeah, when I had my paper route, back in medieval times, I always had a pocket knife for cutting the strings. Then they changed strings to these plastic bands which you could zip off, but which I still cut because it was faster.

My favorite knife was a swiss army. Actually I think I still have that knife, though it's pretty busted up. I used it all through art school to sharpen pencils, take staples out of canvas, open cans of paint or solvent.

These days, the swiss army has been all but replaced by the multi-tool with mini pliers. I always keep a multi-tool with me in my fishing vest, and one in the glove compartment. Those are handy little items. I use the wire-cutters and screwdrivers on those all the time. Certain tools on a multi-tool I've never really touched, like the SAW.

I think the best companies for multitools are SOG, Leatherman, and Gerber. Each design has its strengths, but for less-is more, the fact that it comes in black, and because I like the way it closes, my favorite is this one. But there's a new model coming out for Christmas called the "PowerAssist" that looks pretty cool in black too.

Not too many knives excite me these days. That is, except some high end minimalist designs that I can't afford.

One of the best small gentleman's pocket knives, very well designed, is the Al Mar Osprey it's a diminutive knife, the whole thing is under 4" opened. And they come with a variety of sexy materials for the scales. Stainless, Cocobolo wood, White or Black Micarta are probably the cheapest.

I remember when you could get one for about $35. Now it's double that. And when you see how small the knife is, it seems way overpriced. But the quality is superb. I have a couple in the collection, but I don't carry them. If I'm going to lose a mini pocket knife, it might as well be the cheaper Spyderco. If you lose a nice Osprey, it's going to hurt much more.

I have only ever owned one pocket knife. I bought it for wood carving. It is made by Schrade Cutlery. It is model 233B. I still have the box it came in along with the care instructions.

Those are some nice knives. As I rarely use the one I have I would rather spend the extra bling on new lenses.

Slit it and forgit it?

Slice it and don't think twice it?

Cleave it and just leave it?


I'm all ready for the infomercial for the knife, as you can see.

Here is something interesting:
Stone knives of modern design

This takes stone-age materials like obsidian, and precision knaps them to the shape of modern hunting-knife blade shapes, then adds marble handles.

There are a variety of places that still knap flint, chert, or obsidian into blades and projectile points. It's quite a skill. I tried my hand at it, but with copper billets rather than more authentic antler-horn knappers.

Here's more modern designs, but with a more old school feel. And I'm talkin' REALLY old school.

Stone knives of modern design

Flake it and stake it!

Stone it and debone it!

Chip it and grip it!

Can you tell I'm having fun?

Oh god, I need to hire you for copywriting on web sites I design.

Chip it and grip it... hoot!

I find the whole idea of bringing back stone age crafts totally fascinating. When you see some of the real artifacts, and how carefully they are wrought, it's amazing.

Did you see some of the knives they knap out of colored glass? Although I don't think I've ever seen one out of clear glass. That would be cool. Imagine going back in time and giving a caveman a beautifully knapped blade of crystal clear glass. They'd think it was from the gods.

A material that's totally cheap and abundant for us.

I guess for that matter, a 59 cent stainless steel steak knife would have made you a god, too.

Here's a modern-day Fruit testing knife... it's actually quite lovely, and much cheaper than the Spectre. But this one would be more picnic basket than fish or bird cleaning. Because of the bluntish point.

Here's a gorgeous Peeling/Garnishing Knife that has the recurved blade like the Spectre, but only fifty bucks, and more of a kitchen handle. Still, this would function great for cleaning trout too. You could probably get a sheath made for it and carry it.

Here's Messermeister's take on the Fruit Testing Knife has a little folding fork in it too. Very sleek and slender, in Stainless Steel. Reminds me of Jon Ive's Powerbook aluminum designs. Again, would probably be another great picnic knife.
Still another, stag handle... from Orvis. $90

Did you see some of the knives they knap out of colored glass?

I saw that. Very creative and striking.

I like Russell's fruit testing knife. I don't need one, but how absolutely less-is-more utilitarian.

"Russell fruit testing knives: So sharp you might cut yourself and bleed all over the apple causing your girlfriend in the seat of the rowboat next to you to stand up so suddenly from squeamish fright that she falls out of the boat, hits her head on a rock, and drowns. Now that's a quality edge."

You can put my copywriting check in the mail whenever it's convenient.

LMFAO, you got the gift. No doubt about it.

I keep thinking what it must have been like to spend 96 hours painstakingly pressure-flaking a fine edge on a stone knife, only to drop it on a rock while being chased by a bear or a mammoth and have it shatter.

And really, with every knap, as you're roughing out a stone blade, you risk having it break.

Here's the painstaking process, speeded up

I keep thinking what it must have been like to spend 96 hours painstakingly pressure-flaking a fine edge on a stone knife, only to drop it on a rock while being chased by a bear or a mammoth and have it shatter.

I saw this very interesting show one time that went into some detail on how rocks were flaked into arrowheads, axes, blades, and whatever. We're talking a combination of patience and skill that is remarkable. And there must have been some blood involved in the process now and then. All that work and, as far as I know, it could all be lost near the end of the process if something cracks or chips disastrously wrong. But it's just astounding how sharp a piece of obsidian is (and many other types of rock) when you get them to flake. We're seeing something that was not only high-technology for the time, but it surely might have been something with more than a little art and even spiritual significance put into it and surrounding the process. We just had so few video cameras set up back then. It's hard to really know.

But just the look of those glass or obsidian knives gives you a glimpse into our past. It could very well be that what drove the evolution of the dexterity of both our fingers and our minds was the usefulness of making weapons. Imagine one monkey among many who simply can effectively brandish a stick, let alone a pointed one, possible with a fire-hardened tip. Of course, that's what we see in the Tarzan novels. A long spear is very effective against tooth and claw merely because of the reach. It's not that teeth and claws aren't effective, but warfare is always about hitting the other guy before he can hit you, whether you're talking about a spear (or arrow) verses a wild animal or two high-tech fighter jets, one that can detect the other first and fire first. It would be fun to be able to go back and see humanity's first tries at technology. We see a little bit of that in the way monkeys craft and use simply technology such as anvils to crack nuts and sticks to gather bugs. While crude, you have to start somewhere. It would be interesting to see some of our early efforts. I would imagine we can gain a lot of clues from chimpanzees. They shake branches and will even throw sticks at an enemy or predator. Think about the quantum leap in effectiveness from simply being able to throw a rock effectively, let alone craft spears and knives. You can see that chimpanzees are almost there.

You would think that just one sub-species of one of these apes could rule their world in a heartbeat if they could learn to craft weapons. But the story I've read (and I think the details are still very sketch) is that we were probably still not a species in great numbers even when we had the ability to make tools. We were still hunted by other animals regularly. We might have gone extinct. I mean now, yeah, we're kicking ass and taking names as a species and it all seems so obvious that this should be so. But apparently at one time we were in small enough numbers, and for a very long time, that we could have easily gone instinct and you'd still have all these species of apes, just minus the one species that is us.

A great movie would be about how some species evolved a survival advantage over US. Something that really put us at their mercy, like tools did for us. Viruses are pretty much there, but I was thinking more of higher creatures.

The interesting thing about glass-like or chert-like rocks, is that before we could knap them into beautiful knife blades or arrowheads, even the castoff flakes are sharp and useful.

If you are not a flint-knapper, and you were in a castaway situation without a knife, you'd probably try to hunt down a piece of obsidian or flint... just knocking off a few flakes would give you simple, and razor sharp cutting edges.

These were in all likelihood our first blades. Enough to scrape a few calories off of a scavenged carcass or hide.

I watch a lot of food network, now that I'm trying to diet (food porn)... and I think the reason things like bone marrow and offal-related dishes are such delicacies, and coming back with such a vengeance in restaurants, is that it's all high-calorie, high-fat or protein food that marrow was probably some of the first meat we ate. Liver, and entrails, with its livery/gamey taste were in all likelihood the prize cuts when we first started HUNTING meat for ourselves.

Something like a liver could give a human a blast of calories, fat, vitamins that let them grow big and strong.

When we could COOK this stuff with fire, and make it easy to digest (not to mention golden brown and delicious), we probably got to another level of survival advantage.

Screw every vegetarian out there, you want to be big and strong: eat meat. The Neanderthal's diet was probably something like 90% meat and look at them. They were much, much stronger than homo sapiens, heavily muscled. They could endure temperatures on the cold end that would probably kill most of us, like they were nothing.

The tools were surprisingly sophisticated, but like all humanoid stone tools, they seemed to GROW in sophistication over time. The most important technical development you see is the development of blades. That required pretty good sophistication in choosing rocks. The best rocks for producing long thin flat flakes are called "blade cores"... and you have to either find them or make them from a full river-cobble made out of a flinty or chert-like stone or glass. If you think of a stone the size of a basketball, you'd have to whack off (hehe) a lot of excess stone to get to a kind of roughly cylindrical mass that would have been north pole to south pole on the original rock. That's your blade core.

If the rock is fairly homogenous, you can then start peeling long thin slabs off of the core. Pictures of clovis blade cores can be found at that forum site.

Notice the long flakes that go the whole length, or almost the whole length of the stone. That's the sign you're dealing with a blade core. Some people would say, oh, must have been some kind of a hand axe. Well, yeah, possibly, but usually you find some edge modification on hand axes... blade cores were too precious to be bashing like axes. The more roughly triangular the core is, the better it is for projectile points, like spear heads and such.

But a long thin flake struck from a blade core is like a straight razor, even if you do little to it.

Technology grew from those simple flakes to blades and points of amazing sophistication.

And we need to remember that this stone technology was still in use in the Americas when Europeans came to the New World.

Here in New England, you frequently find arrowheads in freshly plowed fields. Some are quite valuable to collectors, depending on craftsmanship and condition.

Here is my Schrade pocket knive with a stone tool I found in a farmers field in South Jersey. I was burning scrap wood from a house being built. I had a hose with running water out in a field away from the house. The running water unearthed the stone.

Doing a little research Schrade Cutlery now only imports their stuff from China. The one I have the blade is stamped Schrade NY USA.

A lot of those knives thalo linked were made in USA.

I watch a lot of food network, now that I'm trying to diet (food porn)... and I think the reason things like bone marrow and offal-related dishes are such delicacies, and coming back with such a vengeance in restaurants, is that it's all high-calorie, high-fat or protein food that marrow was probably some of the first meat we ate. Liver, and entrails, with its livery/gamey taste were in all likelihood the prize cuts when we first started HUNTING meat for ourselves.

I've never tried bone marrow. Might be good. Certainly there is an advantage for any animal to tap that resource. I think hyenas and a few rare other animals can break into some of the thicker bones, but I think most animals can't. Simply brandishing a rock effectively would have been extremely useful for any ape. We probably were that ape. Who knows what thing or things propelled us on our way to our upright posture, hand-eye-coordination, language, and big brains? But surely it must have been a few things like this. Obvious the ability to use stone tools and throw spears was just a capability waiting for someone to take advantage of. There have been some interesting documentaries (highly speculative, I think, but also based on logic and evidence) that went into the life of the Neanderthals, Cro-Magnon, and other early forms of man. Neanderthals were the Hulks of the human lineage apparently. Nothing subtle about their physique, at least. They were brute force machines on two legs. So walking on two legs didn't automatically mean delicate, but extremely dangerous, hunters like modern humans are (compared to these Neanderthal brutes and other very powerful animals). But eventually there was a line that gave up brute force for the most part relying totally on technology (and the long memory of culture) to survive. Of course, we see now that our technological prowess and ability to work tightly together was turned also (and perhaps mostly) on each other. Wars are a human way of life.

Yes, fire must have surely been a tremendous advance. That, along with the ability to make clothes (I'm not sure than anyone really knows for sure why we lost our thick coats of hair) allowed us to live about anywhere on the planet. As you said, fire made certain foods much more palatable, at it also was a way to stay warm and probably to stay safe from wild creatures of the night. This was probably no small factor either. I mean, just look how much the invention of the light bulb has changed our lives. Having light and warmth on command is huge.

And that one show I saw speculated that the Neanderthals, although they were hugely well-armored and hardy, died out because of the efficiency of the gate of the lighter humans who could follow game much more effectively. Sounds plausible. And I'm not sure where the DNA analysis is on this. It could certainly potentially resolving this, but it's even possible that Neanderthals simply intermarried themselves to a distinctive death.

Interesting stone tool, Rico. I wonder how old it is. Anyone know any good books on this general topic of early man and his tools?

That's a great pocket knife. And a great stone hammer. I love how there's a sharp side and a blunt side, for different jobs. That's an old artifact. Could be really REALLY old, or could just be old enough to be before the Europeans came. Stone hammers were probably among the first thing to go during the cultural revolution of the white man invasion.

Most knife makers send a design to Taiwan, China, or Japan for manufacturing. Japan is definitely the best of those.

Schrade was born right in upstate NY. In Ellenville, which is West of Poughkeepsie. Everyone in my family had Schrade pocket knives.

A knife like yours, brother Rico, is highly collectible. Any of that style, the Old-Timer, Uncle Henry. Here's a site where you can find your knife model and its original retail price. I see a 233 but not B. Value would depend on whether your scales are delrin or Buffalo horn. You may have a rare collector's item there. Schrades were always very reasonably priced. Even moreso now that Taylor Brands bought them, and ships all the work out to China.

So you can get a cheap shit Chinese Shrade knife for ten bucks, sometimes less. It might be the way to go for just a beater picnic knife. Here's their nice large Sampler Knife (aka Fruit Knife, like I've been showing you) for cheap. Here's the small. But made in the USA is long gone.

I like the Ladybug. And it's more in my price range. Looks like a good all-purpose knife. And, yeah, the Paratool is neat in the way it compactly closes. And although I'm sure the quality of those more expensive knives is there, that ten dollar Shrade fruit knife doesn't look all that bad.

I carry that ladybug all the time. Easy to open with one hand. I get so many UPS and Fedex packages, I'd go nuts without a knife with me at all times. The worst thing, though, like I said, is when I reach into my pocket to get my trusty ladybug, and it ain't there. They're so small, when you put them down, they disappear. I actually re-found one of my old lost ones about two weeks ago. I was vacuuming under a radiator, and hit something hard... I must have dropped it and it bounced under there. Sometimes I get the serrated, sometimes the straight edge.

There was another good small Spyderco, who's name I can't remember right now... something like the joker or the jester. I think it's discontinued. Let me check. Yep. Gone. It was the Jester. A good cheap source of ladybugs is here. I used to shop online at savsonswordsandknives.com, but something is up with them, I think they've gone tits up. Ebay is also good. But I wouldn't pay more than $26 for one. This place has the serrated for $24.

Right now I can't find my knife. I just had the damn thing. It's probably under some clutter on the desk. I have to really make a point to put it right back in my pocket when I'm done. And to move it along with my keys when I change pants.

Yeah, I sort of eye roll at Chinese quality, which isn't the best. But at the price of that fruit knife, you could buy ten and just chuck them if they break. The only problem with REALLY poor quality knives, is that they can injure you. Especially if you push them too far. I'd probably only use that one for eating an apple. It's not a lockblade, so there's not much stopping the blade from closing on you if you're using it past what it's capable of. A good knife should stay open as if it's one piece with the handle, until you close it. Pocket knives with wobbly blades, or ones that "break" (start to close) when you're withdrawing them from a hunk of cheese or something, aren't really worth a damn.