I may have written about this before. It is something that really bugs me.
“I was going to respond to your email, but I’ve been too busy. I was going to call you but I had stuff to do. I was going to stop over and see how you’re doing but time got away from me. Let’s schedule a time to get together, when I have time, later. I’ll let you know when I am available. It would be great to get together, sometime.” I was going to write a new blog but I got busy doing stuff.

It goes on and on! The busyness factor that lets you know where you stand in the pecking order. Right at the bottom. Now, I have a number of people who ask for my counsel on cultural and theological subjects. They have asked some insightful questions, and I feel like maybe we have some sharing and learning going on. But busyness gets in the way. They ask a “meaning of life question” and I take the time to write a thoughtful reply. What do I get in return? “I haven’t read your email yet, but I plan to.” (it was more than a 6-8 sentence text message so requires too much effort on their part.) Wow! Thanks for gracing me with a short moment of your precious time. Luckily, I didn’t have anything better to do with MY time.

Mind you, these are not usually strangers, but people whom I have known most of their lives. How many people do you know who will suck up your time only as their needs require and then blow you off when they have other “stuff” to do? Growing up, I tried to never ask my elders useless questions on things of no value. Because I have always valued the time people spent helping me, answering questions, offering guidance, I was often taken under the wing of wiser people.  

Here on my blog I often get questions on knives, what type are they and what are they worth? Sometimes the questions are nicely put. Other times they are demanding and rude. The thing is, I don’t think those people even know how their communications come across. We are a people inundated with communications beyond imagination and yet fail to understand how to properly inquire or request information in a civil manner. The more advanced our technology gets, the more primitive we become as a culture. In fact I question whether we have any culture left at all. Don’t fall victim to the culture of busyness and forget to make time for friends and relatives.

This knife, rather than answering my questions, created a conundrum. One of the down-sides of having created my website is the exposure of so many rare knives to the general public. The majority of visitors to the site are content to just look at the knives. Some people have abused my site to create fakes. Most of these copies are being made in Pakistan, as I have previously written. This knife came from Poland. The seller said it was purchased at a flea market, and he believed it was British made for OSS agents. You will note that my website intentionally does not give any specific dimensions of these knives. The reason is to make it harder for counterfeiters. Had I realized the size of this knife I probably would not have bought it. For about $160 it was worth taking a chance.
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As you can see, it is clearly oversized for an Agents dagger. So, what do I have? Is it a clumsy reproduction based on one of the originals shown on my website? Is it a reproduction made during WW-II, in Poland or France? I will never know for sure. It is well made. The blade is professionally ground, although of too thin stock to be a British piece. The steel guard is perfectly symmetrical and of heavy gauge steel. It has several bumps and dents that could indicate use over time. Most often forgers use thin metal for the guards to make it easier to cut the slot for the tang. One of the things I was basing my purchase on was the “R” stamped into the guard. It is deeply and cleanly stamped, probably before assembly. The grip is turned and nicely knurled brass. There is no top nut, so the tang is likely threaded into the brass itself.

​Either the sheath is quite old, or it is cleverly made from old leather. It has the smell and patina of old leather. The knurling of the knife’s grip has left its imprint in the leather frog. If I had found this knife anywhere else, I might have thought it originated from India. Who knows the truth, maybe only the seller. Is it truly from a flea market, or a forger’s workshop? As a final note. The mini in my collection, with an “R” stamped into guard, is one I have ascribed to the Polish forces based on its grip shape. Your thoughts?

I had just commented in my last blog that I had never asked for a refund on a book, and now I have. I ordered a used book from Amazon. It arrived within two days. As I removed it from the envelope my first impression was how filthy it was! Second impression was that it was curled up like it had been in riding someone's back pocket. The pages were battered and dozens of then half-folded down. There were marginal notes and underlining. This is a small pocketsize book and the seller charged me $38 for it. Some pages even displayed damage from either sweat or water. I immediately applied for a refund, and Amazon just as quickly approved it. So I cannot fault Amazon except maybe they need to review this sellers account to see how many other trashed books he has sold. Ninety percent of the charges on my Visa card are to Amazon so I am a pretty reliabe repeat customer. 

Now, regarding the book I issued a refund for. It arrived back looking as if it had not even been looked through. I'm glad it was undamaged but I am still dissappioiinted that it did not satisfy the customer. He never responded as to why it did not. With all the humility I can muster, it is the premier book on the topic on the market. The title "Clandestine Knives of WW-II" could not be more descriptive of the contents. The buyer never bothered to explain his change of mind, or even acknowledge my refund. As I said before, there is one i every crowd.

​There’s one in every bunch. I just got an email from an unsatisfied customer. It was a pretty terse and snotty email which said the book; “didn’t suit his collecting interests.” Seems to me the write up and illustrations on my website are pretty descriptive. Of course this man is a lawyer, and he implied some sort of consequences with a veiled threat if I did not give him a “refund in full ASAP”. I don’t have any refund/return policy on my website, I am not Amazon. But, I want people to be happy with their purchase. Over the years I have bought many books that didn’t quite fit what I was looking for, but I never blamed the author for my poor choice. If a book was defective or had a broken binding etc that would be different. When my daughter was growing up I told her to marry whomever she liked, as long as it wasn't a lawyer or an insurance salesman!

This is only the second negative response the book has gotten so I guess I shouldn’t let it bother me too much. Many of you have sent warm responses regarding my book and even carried the heavy overseas postage costs with grace. Thank You! Now, here is a man who could most easily afford the book and who squawks the loudest about getting his money back. Of course, I inscribed the book to Jim thanking him for his purchase, which makes it a little awkward. I really wonder what is behind his dissatisfaction with the book. Looking at the possible causes I am reminded of the only very nasty review it got. I am not going to name Ron but maybe there is a connection here and that is why the lawyer decided to return the book. He probably won't have the gumption to tell me the truth. C'est la vie. See if you can find another book anywhere that has so many beautiful full color photos of very rare knives. 

PS I have a WW-II Agents dagger coming from Poland that will reinforce the legitimacy of these tiny knives. Hopefully it will be here in a week or two. Check back for a review of the knife.

When I was a youngster my uncle and I built a toy town in the sandlot near the house. We used to play there with our toy trucks and road equipment. One day we were extremely agitated to discover our town had been taken over by a nest of bumble bees! They ran us off quite smartly. My uncle and I conspired how to rid ourselves of these unwanted guests and came up with an idea. The next day we stealthily approached with badminton rackets in hand. Soon as the bees swarmed out, the battle was on. We swatted away fiercely, killing many of them, somehow without getting stung. The bees relocated and we all got along after that.

That’s how I feel about the plethora of Pakistani knife makers swarming Ebay™ with copies of knives, advertised using my photos. I have written both the makers and Ebay™ about the impropriety of this, but it is useless. Ebay™ doesn’t care, why should they, they are getting paid.  The overseas knife makers politely apologize and just keep on doing it. There are no copyrights or patents on Commando Knives that I know of. But the use of other people’s photos with the maker’s marks of other makers is at the very least disreputable activity. The problem is, most of the makers are producing fairly good quality knives for ridiculously low prices and they will sell.

To explore this burgeoning market I ordered a knife, clearly and inappropriately advertised, as a “Randall Guardian”. I entered an offer of under $100 dollars and “won” the knife. Communication from the seller was good and the shipping time was acceptable. The knife I received is of impeccable quality and identical to a Randall. Now, Randall lists this same knife for over $400. A third-party dealer will sell you one for over $600, if you don’t want to wait for Randall. Now who are the crooks here? Greed has driven the stampede to the black-market and I totally understand why people are buying the counterfeits.
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Pakistan (previously part of India) has been a cutlery center for centuries. It is no wonder they can crank out good knives at such low costs. When I take my car for service the dealer charges me $150/hour! I don’t think the wages in India/Pakistan are comparable. Worker’s benefits? Seriously! Insurance and retirement? I think we all know why everything costs so much “Made in the USA” and so little coming from other countries. It comes down to what the market will bear. It’s the old supply and demand thing we learned about in high school. So the moral of this story is; I am going to stop trying to swat the proliferation of Pakistani knifemakers and get on with other more important things.

​If you scroll down some you will find a blog about the difficulty I had recovering my email account. That pales in comparison to what my daughter and I went through to recover my website. It all started when Weebly and Square merged but it didn’t become an issue until my login credentials expired and my domain name also expired. Wow, what followed was a week of emails and countless hours spent on the phone with both Weebly and Square. It was an epic merry-go-round. I will tell you this, whenever you change passwords keep the old one for reference. Do not erase it or dispose of it because it may be needed later and who actually remembers these things? I have a damned address book ½ inch thick of nothing but usernames and passwords. New years eve, and day, were both spent on the phone again trying to resolve the problem. Only today, Jan. 2nd is it finally working. I hope I never go through that again! Being hard of hearing and talking with people with foreign accents did not make the process any easier. I gave my name, Address, login info, IP address, etc etc so many times I was hearing it in my sleep. I was really beginning to wonder if it was worth it. But we persevered and are back online, thank God and some lady name Lizzy somewhere in cyberspace. Wishing you all of a safe New Year, because it is not starting off well.

As usual time has flown by and I have not posted a blog. I was in Idaho for three weeks enjoying time with my kids and our grandson. He is a stitch, bright as can be and even at 16 months is developing an identity and personality. 

I want to discuss something less savory though. That is the flourishing knife trade in reproductions of WW-II daggers. I should be flattered that many of them are copies of knives from my website, but I am not. For example the maker who has copied this miniature dagger made by Travis Evans,even down to stealing my photos with Travis' initials on the knife. I realize these are people trying to make a living, in Pakistan mostly. BUT that does not make me feel any less taken advantage of. Many of these makers fail to mention their wares are reproductions of WW-II knives. Is this intentional or not? I have to wonder how many new collectors are fooled into thinking they are getting a rare knife for a really good price?  

I have posted this particular knife photo on my homepage because it is the most egregious case of fakery. I guess if one is stupid enough to think they are buying an "Iconic F?S..... that is brand new" thinking it is an original, maybe it is a good lesson in critical thinking. This sort of fakery is why I do not publish the actual dimensions of rare knives on my website. There are only three people whom I have shared this information with. They are Peter Parkinson, Paul MacDonald, and Travis Evans. So if you buy from them you are getting knives that are correct. They have also done their own homework and research to make sure their knives are correct. 

I am not saying not to buy from Pakistani makers... just be aware of what you are getting and know that some things like steel composition, heat treat, dimensions, etc may not be the equal of the knives made by other (original) makers. If you are willing to accept that then fine. Have a Happy and Safe Thanksgiving holiday. 

I love this time of year. The earth is slowing down, readying itself for the winter's sleep. The downside is I realize how many things I didn't get done this summer. I gave up my dojo space because after 25 years renting it the new Mayor wanted to quadruple my rent. That was a bummer, but not unexpected. Everything is about the money today. I never charged for lessons so the raise in rent was more than I could afford or justify. Maybe it was that time in my life. Of course just last weekend I met a man who wants me to train him in kenjutsu. Geeze where was he a month ago, right? I sold him a sword and a copy of "The Sword and the Mind." We'll get together somehow if it's meant to be.

In the span of one weekend I met several amazing people. A woman from Angola who is a spiritualist, a man who does security training and has all the same interests I do. A young woman who has cancer, whose beautiful face and piercing blue eyes now haunts my days and nights. A man who was in Army Spec Ops and doing much the same work my father did. Its like friends I never knew were popping out of the woodwork, and people who needed to be seen. Maybe they are people I knew from another lifetime. Life is such a spider's web of interactions and human inter-connections, physical and spiritual.

I had my 76th birthday last weekend. Wow that's really old! I was at a powwow and one of the ladies came up to me and said the people are waiting for the "elders" to get their food first. First time I have been called an elder. It was a sign of deference and respect which is mostly lost on today's generation. No I am not an Indian or Native American. I am a Scots Highlander. Both are tribal warrior peoples and recognize that in each other. It's like a couple weeks ago I spent some time with the local Amish. They recognize me as an elder also, and they were pleased I was not English! My friend said they would not accept you if they didn't trust you, you would be ignored. Instead I had a nice conversation with an Amish farmer/carpenter/husband about, of all things, religion. We openly contrasted and compared our faiths and felt at ease doing so. To me that was quite an honor. I couldn't have had that same conversation with my neighbors across the street, without fire shooting out of their eyes and ears. LOL 

Maybe there are some slight advantages to being old. (Very slight) At least I am going to operate on that presumption. My 78 year old Seneca friend had a heart attack 2 weeks ago and he is recovering. Now he is more conscious of his age too. He is the one who helped nurse me back to health last year. He invited me to the Powwow, and introduced me to the Haudenosaunee, which means "the people". I never once talked about guns, knives or swords but we didn't run out of things to talk about. Just like this blog. I haven't talked about any guns, swords or knives. Surprisingly I do have other interests. A person needs breadth as well as depth and that partly comes with age. One man was remarking on how his grand-daughter seemed capable of picking up and doing anything. Languages, musical instruments, technical skills, etc. No doubt this is not her first time around. Such people have acquired these lessons and skills through many lives not in just her 20 some years. Ahh well I hope I have not bored you with these ramblings but not everything in my life is weapons oriented. Hoping you have a wonderful Fall season. Be safe.

With all of the hype about AI (Artificial Intelligence) taking over our lives and ruining them, is this a realistic threat or just hyperbole? As you have seen on my home page my hotmail got blocked due to someone trying to access it. Fine, I love security. But, I have been trying for 4 days to get back in and verify that it is really my email account. When I tried to "contact" someone at Microsoft it says to login. I can't log in. When I try to use a chat room it says to sign in. I can't sign in. I finally got into the chatroom using my wife's log in. The chat is all AI driven, no human interaction. There is no phone number to call support for help either. Just endless chains or strings of robot Q&A. Would I ever buy another piece of Microsoft software? HELL NO!

I have all of the emails from those of you who want to buy my next books stored in that account and now I cannot access them. BIG PROBLEM. So when is AI not intelligent? I hope that Bill Gates rots in some sort of cyber hell with his billions of dollars for making his creation so incommunicado. I have opened a gmail account for those of you who want to contact me. That new address is: [email protected]

Thank you for being patient with me as I work through this cock-up and try to get back to some normalcy. I also see this morning that someone has hacked 2.9 billion pieces of data from Social Security accounts. Think of the irony, "Social Security." This can't end well.