Sword Demon is an interesting place to browse around. They have a wide array of tactical knives and folders but they also deal in blades that are a little less practical. From movie replica blades to Barbarian battle maces, Sword Demon can get you what you’re looking for.

The fantasy blades are just for show, of course. It’s strictly a high-end street market or carnival type of affair, but that can be fun too. Most of the blades you’ll find here are more for fun than anything else, but the less-exotic offerings like the M-Tech Folding Knife Pakkawood for $7 or the Sword Demon brand 2 Piece hunting knife set for $20 can be good practical purchases.

Into the whole holiday knife-buying spirit? Here’s a Fourth of July 7” folder for $7. If you watch the “Knife Show” on cable it’s very similar, just in website form.

Sword Demon [Website]
Stiletto American Flag Folding Knife [Sword Demon]

When I was a Boy Scout, we were never allowed to carry an actual Swiss Army Knife for “safety” reasons. I ended up with this cheap, dual blade Trails’ End knife that I won from selling popcorn. Man oh man, do I wish that Wenger had been offering this Scout’s knife back then.

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Since I tend to drool a lot in actual knife stores, I do the majority of my blade shopping online. The Burnt Barnboard handles from Case caught my eye this week. The orangey/yellow colors and rough texture carved into calf bone look beautiful and rugged at the same time.

The Burnt Barnboard style is just that: a style. No smoked wood and no barns were harmed in the making of the handle material itself, but the effect is quite striking. True to the usual Case style, the material is fit to most of the popular pocket knife formats Case offers such as folding hunters, lock backs, Stockmans and toothpicks of varying sizes.

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Knives are pretty simple tools, but it amazes me how much variety you can get by changing just the slightest thing. Take the upcoming release of the Case Holstein Cow family of blades — bet you didn’t see that coming.

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You’re not going to break the tip of a Graham Razel knife — that’s because there is no tip.  Part chisel, part razor knife, the Razel or razor-chisel is all business.  Created by Jon and Josh Graham, the knives can be custom-ordered from Graham Knives, or if you absolutely, positively must have one now, Columbia River Knife and Tool manufactures a selection of folding and fixed-blade models.

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One of the best ideas I’ve seen in a while is the custom knife designer on the Buck website.  If you just have to have one of Buck’s Hunters a certain way, for yourself or as a gift to someone else, you can now design it online and have it shipped right to you.

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Case Knives has released quite a few gems in the last few years, and one of our recent favorites is the uncluttered 2009 SlimLock, an elegant twist on an old workhorse.

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Would you rather be sharpening your tools or using them?  Gladstone bets you’d prefer using their marking knife rather than sharpening it, so they gave it a ceramic blade that never needs to be sharpened.

Gladstone makes their marking knives in the USA using a material called Ceremax 80 — a material they claim is second only to diamond in hardness — for the blades.  Then they double-bevel the blade for either right- or left-handed use and cut two flat sections in the handle to keep the knife from rolling when you set it down.

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If you ever wondered if carrying a pocket knife was worthwhile, a story like this has to put it in clear focus for you.  Yes, it is worth carrying;  someone’s life may actually depend on it — a bit dramatically put, but in this case entirely true.

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Striker designed their new folding multi-blade to help drywall guys perform the normal steps for slicing up drywall without grabbing extra tools.  Striker thinks it’ll save some time on the jobsite — we’re not sure, but it certainly looks cool.

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Seems like everybody’s trying to redesign the ubiquitous utility knife.  Not wanting to be left out, Olympia Tools gave their TurboKnife X some features like tool-less blade-changing and ergonomic design, and they threw an X in the name to make their knife stand out from the crowd.

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Christmas is coming early and often for me this this year — trying to get families together at the same time has resulted in at least four different Christmas gatherings.  At the first of these many gatherings I scored a Craftsman folding utility knife with rosewood handle.

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Utility knives like this MaxiKnife are so commonplace around the shop, you’ll find about as many different kinds as Baskin-Robbins has ice cream — the trick is finding which one works for you.  And it better be sturdy, ’cause once you single out a model to place in harm’s way, it’s in for quite a beating.

The lightweight MaxiKnife features a crooked handle like many knives on the market now.  Blade storage is in the handle, and the blade slide feels pretty solid.  However we haven’t put one through its paces in the shop, and anyone can tell you that’s where the action’s at.

We’re curious to see if anyone’s tried one of these.  Did the angled handle work out well in everyday shop work?  How did it hold up against being dropped?  If you haven’t gotten ahold of one yet, how do you think it’ll do?  Let us know in comments.

Street pricing starts around $8.

MaxiKnife [Redback Tools]

We’re not sure the world needs another utility knife, but this model from Nack Products piqued our interest.  Instead of taking apart your knife to flip or change the blade when it gets dull, with the Nack knife you retract the blade, rotate the end cap, and slide a fresh blade back out in one of six cutting positions.

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The fat man in the red suit probably won’t bring me one of these $700+ R.B. Johnson custom knives — I don’t think I’m capable of being the shining beacon who would rank so highly on his Nice list — but a man can dream big if he wants to.

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What’s that you say?  You need a light on your box cutter for when you’re working in a dark warehouse?  A light for when you’ve climbed to the top of the stock bins where holiday merchandise is piled to the ceiling? I wish I’d had one of these during my stint as a stock boy — it would have meant less risk of management catching me where I really wasn’t supposed to be, and a lot less time spent trying to figure out why the computer says I have fourteen, but only one is on the shelf.

It looks like Sheffield put this together to be a good quality knife to start with, then added the kicker of an LED.  You know whether you need this, and whether you ought to be where you need it.

Lighted Utility Knife [Sheffield]
Street Pricing [Google Products]

Case is celebrating the tenth anniversary of their XX Select brand by releasing a few limited-edition blades, with handles made of some of the most popular materials.  Each knife features a surgical steel blade with a series-signature tang stamp and a special “XX” shield on the handle.

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