Frag Out! Magazine
Issue link: https://fragout.uberflip.com/i/1150145
It was no different in this year's edition. Unfortunately (or maybe "fortunately"?), there was so much new stuff and so many companies that it would be impossible to describe at least a half of it in a single issue of FRAG OUT! Magazine, yet alone in one article. So, the things I will show here are my subjective choice and – I will be honest – a bit of a coincidence (sometimes, the stands were so crowded, it was simply impossible to take pictures while sometimes the companies did not allow taking pictures of the prototypes). The IWA includes both American companies that have their own booths and even their own catering area, as well as representatives of the Middle Kingdom. However, people who think that the Chinese part of the fare was only about junk and gimcrack are simply wrong. Companies such as WE Knives, Kizer Cutlery or Bestech a company that is becoming stronger on the market, have been efficiently gaining new customers in an increasingly better way. Of course, there is a whole bunch of smaller or larger companies from Europe (and companies that are such large players like KAI, which has gone through a lot), Russia, or Central America, which, for example, is the home for Condor (Salvador), a company that each year presents lots of novelties and has very peculiar products. There were several representatives from Japan and, last but not least, knifemakers and designers themselves. The stands of US companies presented lots of new stuff, including not only new projects of well-known designers, but also lock mechanisms or technological solutions. Benchmade showed the much-awaited novelty, which is the modernized version of the puukko knife. It is an old and very traditional design but the new version has a full, rubber hand grip on a tang going through its whole length. Puukko features perfect convenience of the grip, a great amount of "spare power" (for such a small knife), and the well-recognized 3 V steel, which is usually used in the production process of more expensive knives. Benchmade is known for perfect and legendary steel processing so this type of steel at such a price is a guaranteed success and bearing in mind the pace at which the knife is sold at stores, the producer hit the bull's eye. The presentation also included small folding knives with a slip joint lock mechanism. The knives were named "proper" – here, we had a time travel back to the old-school "grandpa's" pocket knife but in a modern version, made of top-quality materials, but typically without a brace clip, stud, or bearings. What is interesting, many companies have recently started producing such "grandpa's pocket knives" and it seems that it is possible to "invent the wheel" anew. CRKT showed lots of novelties but probably the most much-awaited product was its new lock mechanism for folding knives, developed by Flavio Ikoma from Brazil, and presented on the example of the SEISMIC knife; it really makes a good impression and – what is interesting – it is very simple yet durable, so I really wonder how come nobody else had not though of this solution earlier. If only the company manages to use the locks with interesting designs of folding knives, it may be a great offer on the market, on which it is difficult to come up with new ideas. Another anticipated novelty is a kerambit with an absolutely innovative www.fragoutmag.com