Bladeforums origin?

Status
Not open for further replies.
Thanks for your hard work.

[video=youtube;8To-6VIJZRE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8To-6VIJZRE[/video]
 
I stumbled upon BFC in it's early beginnings, and have seen it grow from something cool to something amazing. I owe all of my knife knowledge to the people here.

Thanks!

I just regret that I was never able to see Spark in his pink tu-tu.
 
Wow Kevin, I knew most of the story but I didn't know of the of the rec.knives connection, I remember bein' a member of that early community oh so long ago.

Thanks for the time line.
 
Last edited:
What a great post for posterity, and for setting a couple of things straight. Love it!
 
Spark said:
I believe that it should be a resource for the knife community, and if the community is happy with it, the community as a whole will support it. I think it does ok, you guys are the ultimate judge in that regard.
Click to expand...

It is a wonderful resource Kevin and you run it BRILLIANTLY!

Bladeforums and Spark's influence on the knife world has gone global. Both Gajinoz and I have started our own forums for own own countries.
I modeled my forum, www.sablade.com after BF and specifically copied my rules and regulations from BF. (I did this with Sparks kind permission and blessing)
Everything I know about running my forum I learned from the structure and moderation of Bladeforums.

Bladeforums is a HUGE part of my life now. It got me back into knife collecting and got me onto the plane to visit Blade every year. Through BF I have met some of the most fantastic people I know, Blues, Bastid, Ken Erickson and the Busse crew to name a few.

All I can say is..........Spark.........THANK YOU!:)
 
Really interesting reading,thanks for the history of BF.
I stumbled across this thread while doing a search for metalmark and search took me to archived thread by Mike Turber looking for suggestions
for a name for his new balisong.I assume that was the Tacheyon since the thread is from 91.
anyway Kudos to BF
 
I'm very happy being a part of this community as well. I've met some really good people over the web, and hope that someday will have a chance to meet them face to face. So many people just take for granted the struggles involved to get where we are today. Thanks Kevin!
 
Spark said:
It's a long story.

In the beginning there was USENET, which had a knife discussion group called rec.knives that flourished for a number of years. Then the WWW revolution started, and Josh Burbank of PVK started a site called recdotknives.com which used one of the earliest forms of bulletin board software out there - wwwthreads.

Josh used RDK to troll people. At the time I was doing freelance webdev work and one of my customers was Earl Stewart of Central Florida Knife & Tool. He asked me to step up and help him defend Kevin "MadDog" McClung against various attackers both on rec.knives and recdotknives.com. I quickly realized that it'd be easier to control the territory the battle was being fought on than letting others dictate the terms, and knifeforums was born. Knifeforums quickly expanded beyond the capabilities of wwwthreads and was transitioned to Ultimate Bulletin Board software (UBB), which was much better (at the time). Mike Turber, owner of World of Weapons (WOW) was a moderator for the General discussion area of KFC and all of us were fighting the battles against the haters all over USENET & the web. Eventually Josh outed himself as using multiple profiles to fight back (IIRC he posted under the ID of Staples5 on USENET and like a dumbass signed his actual name to a post) and that pretty much sunk recdotknives.com - he got caught red handed doing the things he claimed not to do. After that, KnifeForums started to flourish.

Earl Stewart and I had a falling out because, quite frankly, he didn't want to pay me for my work. Rather than actually pay me, he decided to try to destroy my reputation, hoping I'd go quietly. McClung decided this was an opportune time for him to repay my efforts defending his sorry ass by stabbing me in the back repeatedly. Unfortunately, for them, I had friends who were also pretty pissed at both of these guys over other misc things, and they helped me out. Phone calls were made, and a battle plan was drawn... and, using the lessons learned from the RDK -> KFC battle, BladeForums.com was born. vB had just come out, so we purchased a lisc, set up BladeForums.com, and away we went. The original silent partner didn't like the way the KFC vs BFC fight was going and backed out of supporting, so Mike Turber stepped up and took over the financial ownership of BFC. I don't remember the exact details of the first battles, but the end game was that BFC won and grew, and KFC was left behind and stagnated.

I went to work for Turber and moved down to Jacksonville, Florida, doing web stuff for him and running BFC. Sometime after that, Stewart sold KFC to Nowka, yadda yadda yadda.

For whatever reason, WOW didn't do so hot for a bit, and Turber started 1SKS. Things continued not going so well and my paychecks started to bounce, so I grabbed my nuts and made Turber an offer he couldn't refuse - sell me 1SKS and BFC, or I'd quit, start my own sites, and he wouldn't be left with a business to sell. He took the paycheck. There were some other behind the scenes things, but they weren't important. Around 2002-3 I cleared out the last of my hurdles, had 1SKS / BFC owned outright, and moved shop back up here to Kentucky.

Anyhow, as soon as I had control over this site and didn't have to answer to anyone, I changed how it operated. I don't like using BFC as a sales tool for 1SKS - I believe that it should be a resource for the knife community, and if the community is happy with it, the community as a whole will support it. I think it does ok, you guys are the ultimate judge in that regard.
Click to expand...

Holy cow. They should make a mini-series. :D
 
I think we all agree that Spark is a super star and has provided an invaluable resource to the knife community :thumbup:; well done
 
That's a great trip down memory lane with some of the blanks filled in. Thanks for everything Kevin.
 
Thanks for the history lesson :) Bladeforums is a great resource and a fantastic community. Well done :thumbup:
 
That Spark has had an interest in knives since he was a youngster!!!:D

Boy-Sticking-Knife-Into-Socket.jpg
 
Ahh this brought back memories... I joined BBC in November 98... I think the site has been up for around a month at the time, after being on the USENET rec.knives

Gosh... I remember Turber trying to sell me some Internet money making masterclass selling products from his World of Weapons. The flame wars about Mad Dog Knives / McClung persist to this day!
 
There was a lot in there I remember and a bunch I had no idea about. It's been worth sticking around this long. I'm just now starting to make my own knives and it's truthfully been bladeforums that through the years made that dream a reality. I know this place comes with a lot of headache but I can't express how much I appreciate Kevin hanging in there and keeping this place as great as it is!
 
Daniel L said:
.... The flame wars about Mad Dog Knives / McClung persist to this day!
Click to expand...

I remember those. Probably the most acrimonious stuff we have ever had on these forums. It went on for months and eventually involved interviews with Mad Dog Knives factory employees, knife X-rays, knife testing and endless bickering. It made us all the better for it. We knew then that this community had matured enough to be able to claw past the hype to get good, well grounded, information out. It has been a while since I have seen any maker make the sort of outlandish product claims that people like McClung use to make, and that is all for the better.

n2s
 
I came over in 1999, but lost my original "bteel" username. I often drift away, but always come back.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top