Blade Enthusiast or "Knife Nut?" Part II

Here are a few more knives, and a couple of straight-up cool new ones. Check-out the captions for the scoop on each:




A two-blade Barlow from my childhood (maybe the second knife I ever got; 10 years old?), a small Humvee-branded folder from a set of three of various sizes that a friend gave me, and an interesting Chinese gadget-- Why have just a knife, when you can have a mini spring-loaded key-ring knife that also has a laser pointer with several different selectible and projectible graphic patterns?



A couple of shots of a spiffy collectible folder I found about a decade ago.



A handful of views of some interesting Chinese/Fantasy versions of Japanese Tanto knives/mini swords.



Speaking of the current rage for "Tanto-style" blades, here's a brand new titanium folder with a Tanto edge that I just picked-up today.



Some of my "EDC" pocket implements; some CIA composite "ice scraper" tools, and a titanium tactical pen.



The piece de resistance-- my honey just returned from Kenya, and she brought me this Maasai fighting knife, a smaller version of the indigenous Seme (or Sime), a small sword carried by all Maasai warriors that acts as an everyday weapon and tool-- useful for fighting lions, for peeling fruit, as an all-purpose utility blade, and for self-defense. The sheath is made from wood that is covered in dyed-animal skin/rawhide, the steel blade is "full tang" that has been affixed with wood handles that are also covered in shrunken/sun-dried hide. I assume that they use goatskin (a pretty ubiquitous animal in the region), but I'm not positive. Cool blade! We are supposed to make a trip back to Kenya together next year, and I'd like to try and get a full-size Seme sword to match the fighting knife.

That's it for now; I'm looking at an M5A1 US Army bayonet (circa Korean War) that I might grab from CL this week, to help keep my Swiss Wenger 1957-Pattern chrome bayonet company (see picture in the last entry).

Injury Update: I went to the doctor on Tuesday. Of course, my knee was feeling much better, then started hurting again when I left the office. But she did poke around pretty good and she believes that I just have a strain/sprain, but I got a script for an X-ray to be sure. I haven't gotten the pictures taken yet, but I'll hopefully be able to get to the lab sometime early this coming week. I'm itching to get off restrictions and get back to full training. I'm going to fencing tomorrow, but coach Rob has some light-weight "chair exercises" for me to work on. I've also got to get both shoulders looked at eventually; seems like a trip to the Ortho-Doc is in order. I still have to have my left wrist carpal tunnel surgery fairly soon as well. Too much to do in life to spend weeks in a bandage with an 8 oz. weight lifting restriction though. "What a drag it is, getting old."

Next post-- Blade Enthusiast or "Knife Nut?" Part III, featuring the large training blades... Saber, Foil, Bokken, and Chinese Sword...

White Belt Out