Endless streams of new knives flood the cutlery market every year, a wave of needless - or is that pointless? - designs gushing with "improvements." If it's not some revolutionary locking mechanism featuring the all-new GatorBite Technology, then it must be the world's first titanium needle-nose seat belt cutter. If new knives are riding a wave, then multi-purpose tools are cresting a Tsunami. The original Leatherman tool was a great idea, but some of these combo gadgets go completely over the top. Coming soon: a spark plug wrench/gut hook/sprinkler head remover. Most knife companies introduce new knives solely to satisfy that uniquely American craving for novelty. Not just new, but the Very Newest. No where else in the world do schmucks line up to pay $10,000 over sticker for one of the first new Thunderbirds or Hummers.

And don't think it's a matter of utilitarianism. Knives are not computers, where a faster CPU can make an appreciable difference. In the knife business, a new model doesn't actually have to work better, it just has to be new. This is a fact: over 30 percent of all knife sales in the cutlery business are new products. Needed or not, consumers demand new models every year, so dutiful knife companies scramble to add a few serrations here, change a grip there. One SKU down, nine more to go.

Of course no new knife is complete without the latest steel du jour. First it was ATS34, then BG52, soon it'll be strontium 147. Of course they're all the Best Thing Since Metallurgy Began. It makes you wonder how we ever managed to hunt and gather for a few million years with only chipped flint. But it's new, so it must be better. Unfortunately, that's not often the case. The result of this clamor for new knives is a rash of uninteresting and unnecessary "innovations" whose main attribute is a catchy name. Did the marketeers who came up with Griptillion™ for a knife handle actually keep a straight face? Given that the knife business is awash in a sea of mundane new designs, that's the last place you would look to find a company like SureFire whose entire focus is on boldly engineering truly innovative new technologies. Or, perhaps, that's exactly where you would hope to find a company like that. After all, how exciting was a flashlight until SureFire came along?

Scorning the very idea of foisting just another new knife on the hapless consumer, SureFire recently opened its Edged Weapons Division with a rather blunt mission statement: to provide uncompromising purpose-built edged weapons for professionals. Eschewing political correctness, SureFire openly confesses that its not making folders or tacticals or collectibles or hunters or campers or any other categorization to obfuscate the reality. SureFire knives are extremely sharp; they have designs made for piercing or slashing. With razor-honed edges, the blades are specifically designed to maximize the ability to inflict grave bodily injury or death. They are weapons, edged weapons.

Evolutionary Imperative
Let's get one thing straight. Man, using his enlarged cranial vault and disproportionately large brain, fought his way to the top of the food chain. The club and sharpened flint he used as a tool-making animal were so much clutter on the savannah floor until an intelligent being made use of them. A spear is neither cunning nor ambitious. A sharpened implement - any sort of edged weapon - possesses no moral character, no inherent goodness or evilness. SureFire edged weapons are what they are, and calling them tactical folders or whatever euphemism seems the least offensive does not change their design or application. Only the behavior of the man wielding the tool determines its use.

And so it is that SureFire refused to mince words - the knives are edged weapons. SureFire has always served armed professionals by providing them with the best tools to prevail in a combative encounter. The company specializes in tactical illumination tools for low-light environments, many of which are designed to attach to firearms, weapon-mounted lights. Additionally, SureFire is licensed to manufacture sound suppressors for the M4 rifle. The sole customers are military and law enforcement professionals, again revealing the company's emphasis on providing serious tools for serious purposes. The knives are like the suppressors and the lights in that regard. Obviously, an edged weapon can serve a professional in a tight situation. If there is a better tool that can increase an operator's ability to dominate and prevail, that's something SureFire is all about. Granted, a firearm is your primary weapon in a low-light CQB environment, but there are certain applications and situations in which an edged weapon is preferable. Your primary can jam or become entangled. It can run out of ammunition. It can be wrenched out of your hands. Often a secondary firearm, typically a pistol, is slower to access in extremely tight quarters than a knife. That's when you need a purpose-built edged weapon. And there are those times when a firearm is not available, like when you're on vacation in New York City. Then your only defense is a good defensive knife, an edged weapon.

Three Motivations
SureFire decided to produce edged weapons for three reasons. First, the company already had the most important asset of any knife-making venture, a proven designer. Steve Ryan, a longtime product specialist in SureFire's Technical Support division of the Customer Service Department, is a well-known custom knifemaker whose designs are renowned for their radical form. SureFire had the knife-making know-how. Second, SureFire possessed an engineering and manufacturing capability that could translate Ryan's daring designs into production-feasible products. Technical drawings could be executed and manufacturing technologies could be exploited. SureFire had the means. Third, SureFire's believed strongly in the concept of developing a line purpose-built edged weapons to give professional operators a better tool to prevail in a combative encounter. SureFire had the commitment. With the resolve, the capability and the knowledge necessary to launch a new knife, the only thing remaining was to settle on a series of designs. Ryan was more than up to the task. Ryan is renowned among custom knife connoisseurs for his radical blade designs, one-of-a-kind handle perforations and oversize geometries. His handmade custom pieces command premium prices by avid collectors who wait as long as two years for a Ryan creation.

Recognizing the appeal of Ryan-inspired knives, SureFire wanted to lend its high-tech manufacturing expertise and engineering prowess to produce custom- quality knives on a limited edition basis. This is not new to the knife business. Several other knife companies offer factory-made knives as collaborations with well-known custom makers. The key difference between SureFire's Ryan designed knives and collaborations of other knife companies is that Steve Ryan hand-assembles and hand-sharpens every knife. The components are made with state-of-the-art manufacturing techniques, but every knife still passes through the hands of the custom maker himself.

Exotic Steel
SureFire utilizes the best steel available for edged tools, a product known as CPMS30V. This, the most advanced steel of its kind, is manufactured exclusively by Crucible Steel, a U.S. manufacturer of specialized steels with metallurgical properties desired for knifemaking. Abbreviated as S30V, it's the most rust-resistant material currently available and the preferred steel of custom knifemakers like Mick Strider and Ryan himself, "Custom knifemakers have always used exotic steels. Your basic knife steel for mass produced knifes is 440C stainless. The exotic steels are way more expensive and harder to work than 440," Ryan explained. "The first of the exotic steels was 154CM which came out back in the '80s. It was the first cool, really bitchin' steel. The Japanese ripped it off and made ATS34 which became the industry standard for high-end tool steel. "Crucible Steel saw what was happening and started making high-end steels like BG32 to compete with the Japanese. The latest and best exotic is Crucible's S30V which is what all the top custom knifemakers are using." S30V is made from powdered metal that is alloyed under intense pressure and heat, in a vacuum. The result is an even distribution of carbon throughout the substrate, which results in superior metallurgy for things that are important to knifemakers, like edge retention and rust resistance. "Crucible reinvented the way we make knife steels," Ryan said. Laser cut from a solid sheet of S30V, SureFire blade blanks are mil-spec heat treated to 59 on the Rockwell C scale. The blanks are CNC ground and hand sharpened by Ryan.

Each Ryan-designed knife from the SureFire Edged Weapons Division will be a limited edition, serial numbered. Two to six new designs will be introduced each year, all named from the military phonetic alphabet. The first two models for late 2003 introduction are the Alpha and Bravo models. Charlie, Delta and Echo models are slated for 2004 production. Retail prices will range from $300 to $400, depending on the complexity of manufacture and cost of materials. Not just another new knife maker, the SureFire Edged Weapon Division offers serious tools for serious professionals.