So, knifecenter.com's newsblog email alert is never deleted from my inbox. They hold a special place in my heart, as they were the first online retailer I ever bought anything from. It was way back in 1996 or 1997, I was just young lad of maybe 19 or 20 and I ordered a Cold Steel Tanto Voyager; the menacing 5 inch blade combo edge one. That was one of my favorite knives, traded stupidly somewhere along the way. Since then I have ordered from knifecenter countless times, even back while I was working in retail cutlery at a mall and got a 40% employee discount, there were times when knifecenter.com beat that store in price and selection. I'll leave readers to do their own shopping but I can say that the site in question has one of the web's best knife selections and while there are slightly cheaper sites, their customer service is top notch on the rare occasion I've had a question for them. Plugs for "old favorite" web retailers aside, it was their newsblog email alert that led to my excited discovery of Spyderco's Barong folder. Barong is a loose term for a very old Filipino short sword with a leaf shaped blade. Having spent a year and a half supplementing my martial arts experience, training with Ryan Greene and Chris Turla's LESKAS, a unique Filipino MA club, I was quite interested in the new Ed Schempp design. Ed Schempp is local, relatively, at least to Aeric and myself, he's just on the other side of our native Washington State. I understand that Mr. Schempp is a wheat farmer and a talented custom maker. I own Spyderco's Schempp Persian folder, I mentioned using on trout in August, way back in my first inaugural post when we launched this blog. Schempp has a knack evidently for turning "ethnic" cutlery themes into awesome tactical folders, there's a kriss design by Spyderco also. I'll leave you with images of the new knife, some taken from knifecenter.com and one found in an image search.
I'm stoked on this design, as will likely be anyone who's spent any time training in knife and stick arts from the Philippines.
It sports a hefty-looking 4" blade of VG-10, a stainless that I've had good luck with, in Spyderco, Al Mar and other knives.
click here for more info
Spyderco's OTHER new Ed Schempp design is the folding Khukri. I may have to find an excuse to buy both of these killer-looking folders. They are reasonable in price. So far, my foolishly traded Spyderco Military, also foolishly traded-away Bob Terzuola Starmate and my Schempp/Spyderco Persian are my 3 favorite Spyderco designs to date...these 2 might have to find a place in my collection soon.
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