Backup100BLK

Two beautiful pieces added to Nordic Knives. CF-3932: A Stag with Bolstered Guard Classic Tanto Fighter. Cf-3933: A Stag Bolstered Tanto. As of this post, the Fighter is still available.

Nothing like a new eBay listing to light up the Inbox. Happy holidays. That is indeed a Field Grade Tanto, but would be more accurately identified as a Temple Guard. Part of the NorthWest Knives exclusive. If you search for Temple Guard, you'll see that there are three in this collection. And the price is very reasonable for a custom Lum. Should make for a great holiday present for someone.

They're now showing up in the usual places. Happy hunting.

Nordic Knives just listed a very rare miniature Deluxe Tanto with Fossil Walrus Ivory scale.

Newly listed today.  In Canvas Micarta, with a kydex sheath. Unfortunately, not sure if the sheath was made by Bob. Good hunting. Update: and it's sold, with an undisclosed Best Offer. Congrats to the new owner.

Looks like Spyderco will be doing a Sprint Run of the Lum Tanto Fixed Blade with Green and Black G-10 sometime in 2014. Keep your eyes peeled.

Hope everyone had a good Summer. My Inbox today had multiple inquiries on a "Bob Lum Custom Tanto" listed on Ebay. To avoid answering the same questions multiple times, a new post: 1) The model is called the Temple Guard (not the smaller Envoy), made as an exclusive for NorthWest Knives in the 1990's. 2) #3 would be the serial number for that unit, making it the third knife in the series. 3) There were less than 20 NorthWest exclusives made (combined Temple Guard and Envoy). Which means Bob did not make anywhere near the 90 as claimed. The "90" would indicate 1990, the year the knife was made. 4) The sheath is sole authorship by Bob. 5) Can't tell by the pictures, but the finish is consistent with that model: bead blasted with polished tip. Good luck to all the bidders. Here's a picture of the three Temple Guards in my possession: http://100lums.blogspot.com/2009/09/temple-guards.html

Model # FB03BRGP : Lum Burgundy Paperstone Micarta Handle To differentiate it from the last run, (aside from the new handle material), they added a small Spyderco trademark hole in the spine, located behind the logo. Steel is VG-10. Includes the same style leather sheath as the original run. MSRP is at $379.95. Happy hunting.

A Large Field Grade Tanto Fixed Blade was recently sold on Ebay. It was listed at $2195, but was sold with an accepted best offer. Congrats to the new owner. A couple of interesting notes. It came with a leather sheath that was made by Bob. More interesting is the angular tip, as compared to his standard hamagiri tip.  This would most likely place the tanto to around late 1990's. When Bob was intrigued by Massad Ayoob's theories of blade tip penetration, and made his tanto tips more angular. And in some cases, longer. I had gotten a couple of emails asking about the listed blade length of 6", wondering if it wouldn't then be listed as a XL Field Grade Tanto. Given that 1) the overall length was listed at 11.25", 2) Bob's Large Field Grade Tantos could have blade lengths as long as 5.5" (from the standard 5"), it's likely that the seller added the length of the choil to the total blade length. As such, I believe it is in fact a Large Field Grade T...

A Lum 4" Tanto fixed blade with Walnut scales and steel bolster recently sold on Nordic Knives for $995 (CF-2725). Site indicated the knife was made in the late 1980's, and given the squared shoulder of the walnut scales, that would be appropriate. Bob preferred to contour his handle scales for a more comfortable grip. Congrats to the new owner.

Spyderco will be releasing a Sprint Run of 1200 pieces of the Lum Tanto Fixed Blade with Burgundy Micarta Handles in May/June 2013. MSRP is $379.95. Given how collectible the last run of the FB Tanto was, you may want to get your pre-orders in with your Spyderco dealer.

Ebay Item #130788718550. Just ended with asking price of $899. Serial #007. The Envoy is the smaller brother to the Temple Guard.

Spyderco will be releasing a Sprint Run of the Lum Tanto Fixed Blade this year. New will be Maroon handles and a small "Spydie" hole in the blade near the tang.

Very surprised it sold for only $1200 after being relisted again. That is a very good price for a Deluxe Stag Tanto. Bob's table price for something like it would be in the $800 to $850 range.

There was a Small Deluxe Tanto with Stag handle scales and steel bolster listed on Ebay recently. It was listed at $1500 with a BIN price of $2250. Unfortunately, it did not sell. The seller has re-listed it at a lower bid of $1300 and a BIN price of $1900. Hopefully someone would be able to score a great piece of Bob's work.

Bob has told me that he made about a dozen miniatures. He doesn't like making them, because they take almost as much time to make as it would a full size knife. But for me, he made three throughout our friendship: a Mini Darn Dao with Ivory scales; a Mini Darn Dao with Blackwood scales; and a Miniature Tanto with Blackwood scales. Through the support of a good friend, I was able to score the Miniature Tanto that was offered on Nordic Knives earlier this week. And I am forever grateful for his generosity. In my earlier post, I mentioned that the hamagiri tip and the tapered tang were two of the design elements that point to this being a Bob Lum original. Now that I have the piece in hand, I can add two more: the bolster shape and the angled spine treatment.

Looks like Spyderco will be releasing a Sprint run of their Folding Tanto model later this year. A prototype of the unit was shown at the Amsterdam Meet in March. The model will have a grey handle with VG-10 steel blade.

Here are the comparison pictures promised of the new LFTi as compared to the previous iteration, the Blackwater Folding Tanto II. I was able to obtain one of the R&D Prototypes to judge the development of the knife to it's current release. As you can see, aside from the hole treatment/pattern in the handle, the three major changes made to the LFTi are 1) a new lock bar, 2) change of placement of the clip, and 3) the addition of the Lum Chop logo. Otherwise, the folders are identical. Interesting item to note is the shape of the tanto tip from the R&D Proto to the released BW Folding Tanto II. The tip became more angular. Not sure what prompted the change. However, the tip, just like Spyderco's Lum Folding Tanto, lacks the Appleseed grind commonly found on the custom models. For the Spyderco model, the cause was a lack of manufacturing ability to replicate it. I suspect that may be one of the reasons that also limited the Benchmade models.

Benchmade released a version of the Lum Folding Tanto II for 2009. The model is 760BK LFTi. This is a Benchmade branded variation of the Blackwater Folding Tanto. When I obtain one of the Blackwater versions, I'll post a comparison.

Twentieth and twenty-first in the series: ten Deluxe Tanto in Stag.