Tactical Knives, the magazine

Status
Not open for further replies.
I don't think many printed magazines will last much longer. We are accustomed to getting stuff for free over the Internet. Even though I pay for BF the price is so low it is almost fee. I get more reading in 2 weeks of BF than a years subscription to any magazine. That said, a lot of my interest in knives was fuelled by magazines.
 
This is just sad news; Tactical Knives was the go-to mag for all of the new and interesting knives and related tools, to me at least.
Blade mag, Knives illustrated, etc. just don't seem to have the same thing going for them.
What a loss.
 
I used to subscribe to a couple of guitar magazines, and it was basically the same as what was stated about TK, especially with the curious review bias in favor of products advertised heavily in the same magazine. Not much credibility left at that point, and a magazine without credibility is of no use to me anyway. As far as knives are concerned, I think it'd be tough in this day and age to publish timely printed reviews that would be anywhere near as informative as what's available online, especially when you have guys doing serious hard-use videos on YouTube or posting their "real world" results on forums like this one.
 
I let my subscription lapse because the net was always faster on reporting the new stuff and having reviews. When SHOT or Blade happens we usually see the new stuff as it's announced while a magazine could take 3 months or longer to show it and for reviews youtube shows people actually using the item.
 
Wow. I've bought several of my favorite knives after they were on the cover of that magazine.

That one was my favorite of them all. Shame.
 
It's no April Fools joke.

Jeff Randall said the same thing a few days ago and he's also a big advertiser in the magazine.
 
AntDog said:
Price kept going up. When I was a subscriber I had issues too. Most of the time I would not get my copy until it had been on the rack at the store for over a month. My covers were always torn all to hell. Skipped a few issues here and there. I had to call and remind them to send it quite a few times. I was a subscriber for 2 years. After the problems I listed, I walked and didn't go back.

Their articles always had a "biased" flavor to them anyway. When a company produced a knife that was being reviewed they would always have tons of ads elsewhere in the magazine, etc. Seemed like a lot of favors were being made. I did get a lot of info from TK, and I liked the photos and articles, but enough was enough for me.
Click to expand...

Along with those problems they always seemed to have blurry print, ghosted images, and no proof reader..
 
Varg Lobos said:
It's no April Fools joke.

Jeff Randall said the same thing a few days ago and he's also a big advertiser in the magazine.
Click to expand...

Apparently it's not, I just called Harris Publications, and they confirmed it. I explained that I had already sent my renewal payment in, and they said it will be returned.

I cannot understand, if they were already notifying advertisers, why were renewal notices sent out last week????
 
suedeface said:
print magazines = rotary phones
Click to expand...

Maybe so, but there was something to be said for the old rotary phones. Much like magazines vs the net, rotary phones didn't stop working just because a the big fuse (transformer) in your neighborhood blew, or a storm took out a cellular tower. Some us us still enjoy reading in peace out away from things and not soaking up emp in the process. There just may come a day when people actually regret all of the magazines and brick and mortar stores being gone.
 
Last edited:
My rotary phone works fine for both local and long distance calls. Still is heavy enough to beat an intruder to death with. Neighbor boy had to ask me how to use it though :)

Tactical Knives was a disgrace to the world of publishing and writers everywhere. Some paragraphs must have never been read by a native English speaker. They reviewed products before they were marketed. They reviewed products that they never even used. They touted knives from multiple known scam artists where a quick internet search would have clued them in. I pick up a copy about once a year for a joke. Barnes and Noble used to carry all knife magazines, but not Knife World.
 
Mr. Brownshoe, and others,

Of my own knowledge, TK never reviewed one of my knives that they did not use, and abuse.

TK never asked for an ad to support a review, we advertised in TK because it worked and worked well.

Steven Dick is a man of integrity and would not do as you say.
 
I've been expecting this. Probably for all knife mags.
Started with Blade and as I got deeper into the hobby, I added TK.
Never could stand Knives Illustrated as it was all pictures and no content.

It has to be tough to come up with new knives in general.
I can't think of anything one can't do with the present knives on the market and even those don't seem to last unless they're OLD standbys that have been around for a long time.

Then add demographics and that most young people don't CARE what steel is in their knife and stir in some repressive legislation so you don't know what can be carried where and it just bodes bad for the whole industry.

Then add in the fact that a very large group of knife hobbyists WILL NOT BUY..knives from China.

IMO, it's a bleak outlook for such specialized publications for a small niche of hobbyists.

The computer age has taken over almost all information. :greedy_dollars:
 
I used to have a subscription (several years ago). But I found myself going the web - manufacturers' and e-tailers' sites, and BF, of course - for all my knife info and news, so I eventually stopped renewing (that was about 10 years ago or so).
 
A. G. Russell said:
Steven Dick is a man of integrity and would not do as you say.
Click to expand...

Agreed, I've been a subscriber for many years, and IMO it was about the only knife mag worth reading on a regular basis. I read and re-read mine a lot, and somehow must have missed all these horribly misspelled words and grammatical errors and poor quality mistakes.

I'm not happy about them sending out renewals when they knew they were shutting down, but I for one will miss TK, it was a great magazine.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top