Knives Annuals

yitz

yitz

Joined
Mar 5, 2000
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435
I love the Knives annual series (I have the whole set.) The articles are informative. The pictures are awesome, and they really give you an overview into what and who is happening in the world of knives. Is there anyone else out there who is bugged by the changes since Ken Warner left? Both the section intros and the knife descriptions Have been giving less and less information and seem to be devolving into a lame attempt at waxing poetic. The following are the complete descriptions of a few of the knives pictured:
"The bird and trout is damascus, blackwood, and bronze, and those should be the materials the medals are made from at the next Olympics."
"Honed is the giraffe bone hunter and skilled is the maker."
"One knife so smooth, layered, engraved, sculpted and sensuous, it caresses black-lip pearl as if it's silk, not steel."
I hate being negative, but this stuff really bugs me. It takes the fun out of reading the books. Is it just me? Or, do I need to just lighten up? ;)
 
yitz said:
I love the Knives annual series (I have the whole set.) The articles are informative. The pictures are awesome, and they really give you an overview into what and who is happening in the world of knives. Is there anyone else out there who is bugged by the changes since Ken Warner left? .........
"The bird and trout is damascus, blackwood, and bronze, and those should be the materials the medals are made from at the next Olympics."
"Honed is the giraffe bone hunter and skilled is the maker."
"One knife so smooth, layered, engraved, sculpted and sensuous, it caresses black-lip pearl as if it's silk, not steel."
I hate being negative, but this stuff really bugs me. It takes the fun out of reading the books. Is it just me? Or, do I need to just lighten up? ;)
Click to expand...

I hate that stuff too, and have spread the word as well.....good on you for sharing your frustration. Kertzman means well, but his text reveals that he is more of an ass than many of us wish for.

Best Regards,

STeven Garsson
 
I loved the Annuals when Ken Warner was the editor. Since he left I have not cared for the later annuals. Too much hyperbole and works of art type knives for me.

RKH
 
The quality of the articles in the front of the book have also dropped way off since they fired Ken. Most look like stories that were rejected by Blade first.
 
RKH said:
I loved the Annuals when Ken Warner was the editor. Since he left I have not cared for the later annuals. Too much hyperbole and works of art type knives for me.

RKH
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I disagree about the "works of art"....I think Joe does a SUPERB job of editing the photos, grouping them, and the color photography adds a LOT to the experience...but his text generally sucks, imo.

Best Regards,

STeven Garsson
 
After reading this years Annual I've noticed a slight improvement in the descriptions. Slight but none the less. :D;) For me the texts are just a little bit less lame then in the previous books but there is still much room for improvement.

Marcel
 
I know it's a big job but there seem to be a lot of mismatched knives with makers' names. Also mispelled names (mine for one) are common and there is absolutely no excuse for that. Otherwise, I eagerly await each edition.

Cheers,

Terry Vandeventer (see, that's not so hard)
ABS MS
 
To me it's kind of like some other publications in that you don't necessarily buy it for the text. UU :eek: ;) :D

But seriously, I go other places for custom knife articles and information. I love the book for the beautiful photos, being brought up to date as to who's making what and what materials and elements are being utilized. And it's a pleasure to open it up and find knives you made or own depicted.

In addition, it's a GREAT reference book for the new collector who's trying to determine which type/style knives they are drawn to before starting to throw $$$ around.

Let's just enjoy and appreciate it for what it is. :)
 
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Kevin Jones said:
.....In addition, it's a GREAT reference book for the new collector who's trying to determine which type/style knives they are drawn to before starting to throw $$$ around.

Let's just enjoy and appreciate it for what it is. :)
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Sorry Kevin, but that one is not going to fly, at all.

See, if Joe started the Annuals, I figure that what you are saying would be about the only way to look at it......

He didn't....it got sold to Krause, Ken Warner left(got fired?), and Joe got handed a superb opportunity, which he turned into a joke. After years of being great, BUT in black and white, we swapped beautiful pictures for inane text.

Kertzman had an opportunity to make the entire product so much better, and instead, like a trained monkey, he hits the keyboard with random sequence, and baby talk pops out.

NO, don't just enjoy it for what it is!....Frikkin' mourn for the crap being put in front of your face..and bitch about it....unless you like eating it.

Best Regards,

STeven Garsson
 
My glass is half full.... :)

I see a magazine/reference book that has substantially improved the quality of the images and the quantity of knives and makers shown. It's never been a coffee table book.

Ken Warner had his own goofy writing style, too--don't forget that. I own all the Annuals to review as well.

Joe is not Ken, but Joe took other areas to the limit. I guess he is trying to make humor and light reading about repetitive descriptions. After all, there are so many more to make mention of.

All that said, I will steer him to this thread.

Coop
 
All that I can say about this yearly publication is that I would like to add a
little more than my usual 2 cents but feel that to be politically correct I
have to pass on this issue.... So I'll just say no comment....


All the best
David Darom (ddd)
 
I have all the annuals. I will say that the publication in general has degraded.
- The Pic text is decidely poorly written.
- The article choices and their content appear to be leaning toward the Mag related "sell more knives" type offerings rather than knife related education.
- The list of Makers, Importers, Service providers, Dealers at the rear has declined (though the Editor may own very little fault in this area)

The past three or four years I have noticed a tendency to feature the same few Makers in many different areas. This may indicate that;
- the Maker is extremely accomplished in many aspects and different styles
- dozens of photos were submitted of that Makers works (shotgun effect applies) - possibly due to Photogs submitting the currently popular Makers works they have shot in hopes of making the pages
- this is just another "follow the current popularity trend" mentality.

Terry you made an excellent point, here is a publication whose main purpose is to showcase Maker's works to their readers and often there are mislabled pictures/text.

Also under the no excuse heading - I have noticed that occasionally several of the same pictures are used in more than one year, for the Annual collector this is frustrating and a waste of space that could feature something else.



Now, with all that said, I will state that I do buy every one that comes out. Is that just to keep my collection complete? Or to enjoy the occasional new or undisclosed offeringings?
 
Kohai999 said:
NO, don't just enjoy it for what it is!....Frikkin' mourn for the crap being put in front of your face..and bitch about it....unless you like eating it.

Best Regards,

STeven Garsson
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My point is Steven, I enjoy the book and feel it serves a purpose for the reasons I stated above.

I don't necessarily need a 8-10 word description of the knife no more than I need 8-10 words of silly poetry pertaining to it.

I assume in most cases to get the caption you desire it would require a description from the maker, adding time, cost and complexity to the production of the book. Perhaps in an earlier time when there was fewer makers, fewer and less complicated knives this may not have been the case.

The color photos are excellent, creating a very good reference book and overall I much prefer it over the previous.

Things change and again we disagree amigo. ;) :)
 
SharpByCoop said:
My glass is half full.... :)

I see a magazine/reference book that has substantially improved the quality of the images and the quantity of knives and makers shown. It's never been a coffee table book.

Ken Warner had his own goofy writing style, too--don't forget that. I own all the Annuals to review as well.

Joe is not Ken, but Joe took other areas to the limit. I guess he is trying to make humor and light reading about repetitive descriptions. After all, there are so many more to make mention of.

All that said, I will steer him to this thread.

Coop
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Well said Coop.
 
Coop is right, Ken was goofy! Back in the 80's I had a few pics in the books, and Ken wrote some squirrelly captions. Had one friend call after reading one such caption and ask what I'd done to tick him off. I was going to get a cover shot, but since I didn't just offer the knife to him the deal fell through! Haven't bothered with it much since. I believe the last one I looked at was around 2001.

David Broadwell
 
I agree the captions suck, but contrary to some here maybe, I didn't find those of Mr. Warner hugely better - a little bit maybe.

I do find that the pics give me the impression that the editors simply gathered all the pics they received during the year, and didn't try to cross reference them, filter out too many pics of a given maker, etc.

With this said, at that price with color pictures, it's a deal every year and I'll keep on buying it.
 
I certainly don't have a whole understanding. That's what I usually say to myself... but it is just so frustrating when you really want to know about a knife and you read these irrelevant words. I'd rather no text...
 
I used to think that the Knives annuals-type captions were de rigeur in the industry. All I had ever seen were Blade and Knives Illustrated magazines. I assumed the captions and articles were worded such in an attempt to be distinct from the periodicals.

Frankly they piss me off and make the whole thing appear unprofessional. The photos are great (usually), but for this nearly-an-English-major, the text is unacceptably juvenile. Call me a humorless, crotchety old bastid--if you like.

I just received a few of Dr. DDD's books. They were a revelation. Please keep fighting the good fight, sir!
 
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