The Spyderco Story is now available at the Internet Archive

[SpyderEdgeForever]

By the way if you can reach out to Ken about reprinting his book on Amazon, can you please suggest he add an update section with images of the newer models like Endura 4, Military, etc? That would be greatly appreciated.

[Michael Janich]

Twenty-plus years of updates is not an easy task. That's not an update, it's a re-write.

Stay safe,

Mike

[spoonrobot]

Although not the same, the Spyderco Byte carries on the tradition quite well, IMO

I was surprised at how many people I talked to at the Blade show this year who weren't aware of the newsletter.

https://www.spyderco.com/resources/byte-e-newsletter/

[Michael Janich]

Dear SpyderEdgeForever:

Yes, I remember that book. One of the interesting things about Paladin was that, for a long time, Peder was the only subject matter expert/enthusiast in the company. When it came to choosing authors, the Editorial Directors weren't particularly astute and they ended up publishing some books written by "less-than-authoritative" sources. I consider Duncan Long among that group. Some of the stuff he wrote was just sketchy.

Knife-wise, Paladin did some interesting books that never got the credit they deserved. "Knives at War" was an attempt to copy the spirit of M.H. Cole's classic works and "Allied Military Fighting Knives" was surprisingly good. If they had been sold by Blade magazine or a similar knife-centric publisher, they could have done really well.

Ragnar Benson's "Switchblade: The Ace of Blades" sold really well, but information-wise, fell way short. I convinced Peder and Ragnar to allow me to rewrite it and shoot decent photos for it. It did even better, until the whole company declined.

Back in the day, anyone interested in knife self-defense gravitated to Paladin, Delta Press, Loompanics, SOF magazine, David Steele's "Secrets of Modern Knife Fighting," and Mike Echanis' infamous "Black Book." That's all there was. Even if it sucked, we bought it...

Stay safe,

Mike

[Naperville]

Thank you for all of this information Mr @Michael Janich.

You are an encyclopedia of knowledge for areas that I am very interested in. I'd love to go to the Blade Show one day and get to meet all of you.

I would say to get an autograph and a photo, but they are not forever like memories. In May of 2024, I lost all belongings that I had accrued since birth.