Knife magazine, what is everyone reading

B

Brad Lilly

Moderator and Awards Boss
I have been thinking about adding a knife magazine to my reading. So the question is what is everyone else reading? I used to get blade but I lost interest in it. A knife making magazine would be even better
 
same here with Blade. I signed up for a year, got about 5 issues and then a string of "time to renew" notices. I want to support fellow knifemakers, but Blade is seriously lacking in content.
 
There was a time when I subscribed to just about ever available knife magazine. There was a time when the magazines were worth it to me....when they actually contained relevant content about custom knives. These days I don't subscribe to any of them. Why? One day, when walking back from the mailbox, I was thumbing through the latest issue of a particular one, and realized that all it contained was factory/production knives. That prompted me to give the magazine a call and ask the question..... "What does it take to get a photo in your magazine?" The response was... "How much money did you spend over the last year advertising with us?" Long story short, I learned that their policy was to give the most ink, to those who spend the most in advertising. During the conversation I even made the comment... "Oh! So it's more or less blackmail? If I spend a ton of money advertising, THEN I get some ink?" The response: "Yep! That's the way it works."

To be fair, I understand their need to generate income, but because of that information, and the fact that there is little to no custom content, for me, it's a waste of money.
 
I have never found it difficult to get knives into magazines. I have never paid a dime to advertise in any of them either.

If you want a good chance of getting in one, find the editorial schedule that they make for advertisers. They publish a list of the upcoming articles about a year out so that people can advertise in relevant issues.

So look at that list and figure out where you fit. If you specialize in left handed knives and you see 6 months from now there is an article about left handed knives, get some good pictures of your left handed knives and end them to the editor. Tell them, hey I see your going to do an article about left handed knives soon, thought you might be able to use some pics. Let me know if I can help, anytime.

Sure people that spend money get more play, I don't think that's unfair. I also think they get more play because they develop a relationship.

All that said, the magazines don't wield the influence they used too. They are always a couple months behind the forums and other internet outlets, just due to the nature of their logistics.


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I subscribed to a couple of them for many years but don't anymore because I find them to be approx. 10 pages of content and 90 pages of ads. I found that I would only come across an interesting article once every 3-4 months. Just not worth it any longer.
 
I wish there was a good knife making magazine. I still subscribe to Blade, but I'm not sure it's worth it.
 
At the risk of getting banned. There are lots of members here who could write articles. Knifedog quarterly has a nice ring to it. Since I'm such a nice guy I would even buy the first issue.:biggrin:
 
I subscribed to Blade for a number of years, but recently let my subscription wind out. Like the rest of you, I really wasn't finding too much worth reading in between all of the ads. I also got really tired of every other knife I wanted to look at, getting printed right in the smack dab middle of the page fold. I mean, how hard is it to stay within a single page template for pictures? I figured that stuff out in my highschool yearbook class. :D

Other than that, it was kind of the same old tired content over and over again. I get much more out of podcasts and knife forums.

I was kind of hoping to see James Nowka's Knife Journal take off, but it looks like that was just a one time publication, apart from the podcast, which likewise has all but ended.

I'd certainly subscribe to a quarterly from this group.
 
A knife making magazine would sure be great. If it were somewhat structured like this forum you would have traction with the regular Joe that just likes knives AND the skilled guys. In every issue it would be neat to see articles on:

Knife making for the beginner
heat treating
forging
profiles on master/advanced builders
profiles on new builders
abrasives and grinding (this could be a whole magazine...lol)
Historical profiles of knife makers and Companies that are no longer around
bios on production companies
new materials and methods
humorous or insightful stories from various makers


anyone submitting articles gets 3 issues of free 1/4 sheet ads. Ads in general need to be limited to a specific number/ratio. I don't buy knife magazines cause the content versus ads is embarrassingly out of balance.

a magazine is a wonderful thing to have when you are waiting for your kid to get his braces adjusted, etc,etc...

Have a good day guys...
 
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