- Joined
- Aug 8, 1999
- Messages
- 5,094
Today, I also received a book from Krause publications, 100 Legendary Knives, by Gerard Pacella. This is a large, coffee table book with wonderful illustrations. That makes it worth the price. The problem, however, comes to those who read the book. First, the author makes some wide generalizations about areas outside of Europe that would make anyone from those places laugh. One example is description of Illinois as a sort of sportsmans paradise in section on Ron Lake. I'm not saying that you can't hunt and fish in Illinois, but no one will mistake the Land of Lincoln for Alaska or Wyoming. His section on African knives is also very vague and superficial.
The point, however, that irritated me the most was the author's description of lockbacks as "switchblades." The author does this numerous times, refering to the Ron Lake tab lock as a switchblade and saying that Buck popularized the switchblade in in 1963 (Buck 110). He even refers to locking Swiss Army knives as switchblades. In all honesty, I do not think that the author is at fault. I suspect he wrote this book in Fench and someone else translated it. I fault Krause publications for this because they publish enough knife realted materials to know the basic difference between a switchblade and a lockback. Some editor at Krause was asleep at the wheel.
The labeling of common lockbacks really limits the value of this book as an educational tool. It could too easily reinforce negative images of knives among non-knifenuts.
The great positive aspect of this book is its treatment of European. particularly French patterns. Like most Americans,my knowledge of these knives is very limited. As far as I know Pacella did a great job on these knives.
As for buying the book, I'll leave that up to each person. Just know that although it has great pictures and some good information. It also has some glaring and repeated flaws.
The point, however, that irritated me the most was the author's description of lockbacks as "switchblades." The author does this numerous times, refering to the Ron Lake tab lock as a switchblade and saying that Buck popularized the switchblade in in 1963 (Buck 110). He even refers to locking Swiss Army knives as switchblades. In all honesty, I do not think that the author is at fault. I suspect he wrote this book in Fench and someone else translated it. I fault Krause publications for this because they publish enough knife realted materials to know the basic difference between a switchblade and a lockback. Some editor at Krause was asleep at the wheel.
The labeling of common lockbacks really limits the value of this book as an educational tool. It could too easily reinforce negative images of knives among non-knifenuts.
The great positive aspect of this book is its treatment of European. particularly French patterns. Like most Americans,my knowledge of these knives is very limited. As far as I know Pacella did a great job on these knives.
As for buying the book, I'll leave that up to each person. Just know that although it has great pictures and some good information. It also has some glaring and repeated flaws.