If there is but one point I am content to provide ref: this thread it is this. The editor of a publication is responsible for its content, but only to the degree that he or she is extended this journalistic freedom by the publication's owner / publisher.
This is why I noted in my first post that beating up SDick for what appears in TK is pretty much for naught (guess some folks missed that). TK's editorial is - and always has been - driven by the advertising / marketing departments at Harris.
When TK was first considered by its publisher a number of knife makers and companies related to the cutlery industry were approached and asked what they would like to see in a new knife magazine, and one related to tactical / combat cutlery (in specific). This in lieu of the success of FK and follow on pubs, primarily one time specials, from folks like Guns & Ammo and Blade.
It is helpful to recall, or perhaps be made aware of for the first time, that although many in the cutlery industry have voiced their belief in there being a knife magazine that "told it like it was"...in reality that's a pretty tough pill to swallow when it becomes a reality.
FK did just that, to include engaging a nationally recognized metals firm to analyze and test the steel firms claimed they were making their knives from; putting knives into the hands of serious field evaluators who truly carried/used the product for what it was advertised to be capable of; conducting investigative journalism (the Randall King / Last of the Mohicans investigative piece is a very good example of this kind of cutlery journalism, as was the Bob Lum / Cold Steel "who came first" regarding the westernized tanto piece).
Historically FK published the first accurate series on the Vietnam SOG bowie and bolo aka Ben Baker, as well as the first and only interview on the VN Tomahawk with Peter LaGana. We were among the first ardent promoters of Spyderco knives and products, and the list goes on and on and on.
(To include an investigative piece on a start-up publication called Sporting Knives [as I recall] that was being ghost edited by Bud Lang, the former editor of Knives Illustrated - a competitor at the time. This while Bud was openly editing KI...sans that rag's publisher's knowledge about Bud/Sporting Knives. SDick played a significant role in FK's report - a report that shut Sporting Knives down much to Bud's unhappiness and discomfort).
The report kept the magazine side of the house honest but it was the kind of hard-hitting cutlery journalism the industry cringed at, and therefore felt more comfortable not seeing if at all possible.
In the end, as stated time and again, FK was meant to champion the end user or collector, not necessarily "the industry".
And because of this approach an impressive number of makers and firms benefited financially and reputation wise, as did those who made their purchasing decisions on the basis of what FK published. People trusted us and therefore supported those we covered and those who advertised. Pretty simple.
Certainly we made editorial corrections along the way (as is required in good journalism) and when we found out perhaps we'd been led down a dark trail...we went back and put some light on the subject.
With this in mind understand the industry as a whole was uncomfortable with this approach as literally anyone could find themselves having to suck up a negative eval, review, or have to fess up to perhaps liberal design "borrowing" and/or seeing a long held belief or record corrected.
It's easy to say you want a publication like this...but it's hard to live with one.
And I'm not throwing rocks - I didn't live in - nor did those who wrote for FK - a glass house. We had to overcome the ownership change from the very wonderful and decent Moore family to Larry Flynt, as did Denny Hansen at SWAT. We - and Denny - did so by doing the best magazine we could, and having a wonderful support staff to include the best ad gal in the business, Ms. Mary Card. The custom and production cutlery worlds soon dealt with FK on the basis of who WE were as opposed to who owned us. Having written for KI, BLADE TRADE, KNIFE WORLD, SOF, EAGLE (a Harris publication at the time), INTERNATIONAL COMBAT ARMS, GUNG-HO, and a host of other such magazines prior to starting up FK I was blessed to have a wide range of experience and exposure available to back me up where writing about bladeware, tactical bladeware, was the issue.
And I sought the best possible free lancers in the business to work the FK format and gave them journalistic freedom of expression they had never experienced with any of the other cutlery or cutlery related magazines. Steve Dick was one of these.
Now whether SDick likes Greg Walker or not is of never mind to GW. He certainly has never asked me to write for TK (yep, I've offered to), and he's never once said a kind word in any editorial or photo caption about Your Truly, or even given me or FK the due of proper and appropriate credit when doing stories on subjects and people we did years before and which were clearly used in research. Heck, to read TK's account of the KA-BAR Next Generation Fighting Knife when it came out you'd think it was the TK staff that helped design and field test that project...which is why I had to write a book through Paladin Press to set THAT record straight.
I am in agreement with Sal at Spyderco.
If anyone wants to help SDick gain perhaps a bit of say-so over future articles about rip-off knife companies and designers, they can sit down and either send or email SDick a note to this effect. It's not an issue of refusing advertising (unless the advertiser is known to be bad news at the billing department) to anyone. It is an issue of the publisher empowering the Editorial Department to either refuse to cover products it knows to be not in the best interest of the readership / industy at large.
Maybe SDick has this editorial authority already. I don't know. I'd like to think not. If he does and he's allowing editorial that ravages good and honest makers / designers original Work,and puts potential consumers at risk (as noted in an earlier post that they are by using inferior tactical / emergency / combat knives)...well, that would be a shame.
In any event I was pleased to send Steve a brief, handwritten note from Kuwait prior to the war. I'd read an issue of TK found at the mini PX on Camp Doha and offered some thoughts, and yes, even a few compliments in my note to Steve. Shared with him what I was seeing in the PX for knives (as I recall) and sent him one of the American flags we were having sewen on our uniform shoulders. I thought he might enjoy a note from overseas, and figured he'd appreciate the flag.
Pretty sure he got both although I never heard back from him.
So ya see, partner, I ain't such a bad guy after all
GW
PS: Sal - thanks for sending AG the FP Bowie. It is a sweet little bit of steel
G
