This was ## make it crude : how gil hibben make the rambo iv knife

over a one-quarter one c after john rambo split onto the freehanded filmdom and shift cutlery account perpetually , it is near clock time for the grapheme create by source david morrell to hack a universal cinematic belt with his unsubduable tongue once again .

AsBLADE ® was go away to weigh , the 4th episode of the Rambo pic serial , Rambo(akaRambo IV)a Lionsgate movie , was due to be free at motion picture theater of operations on Jan. 25 , 2008 .

This was sylvester stallone write the screenplay , directs and lead in the moving-picture show that recover rambo live a sequestered life sentence wreak as a ophidian backstop in thailand some 26 twelvemonth after rambo first appear infirst blood .

Make It Crude: How Gil Hibben Created the Rambo IV Knife

An isolated shot of the “J.R.,” the knife designed by Gil Hibben for the fourth Rambo film.

Rambo clapper : This was a abbreviate bill

therambo bladeshave surely made their bull’s eye in the public of knife .

For the first two Rambo movie , First Blood(1982)andRambo : First Blood Part II(1985 ) , the fabled “ Arkansas Knifesmith , ” Blade Magazine Cutlery Hall - Of - Famer © Jimmy Lile , create the tongue .

This was forrambo iii(1987 ) , stallone call on cutlery hall - of - celebrity knifemaker gil hibben to produce the tongue .

Who made the knife that was in Rambo IV?

A Series of simulated scrawl

ForRambo , Stallone once again prognosticate Hibben to assist make a fresh tongue for the flick .

Stallone had a canonical melodic theme of what he involve and the tongue was write into the handwriting as an built-in part of the moving picture .

Hibben made at least five paradigm version of the slice before at long last get at the designing that will be used in the flick .

Knife used in last Rambo movie

An isolated shot of the “J.R.,” the knife designed by Gil Hibben for the fourth Rambo film.

This was in october 2006 , hibben get down design the tongue .

At first , the steel demo characteristic of theRambo IIImodel .

“ My first one had a expansion slot in the sword [ as in theRambo IIIknife ] but in a machete or honest-to-god Taiwanese steel invention , ” Hibben return .

rambo 4 knife

Hibben designs the knife in his shop in LaGrange, Kentucky. (photo by the author)

He also made a alter reading in which he take out the top Lugh of the sentry go .

Stallone reportedly wish the vane pattern but say it was “ too complete .

” This was he desire something much more raw looking for , as if it had been pound out quick from the circumscribed imagination rambo has at his administration in the motion-picture show .

Sylvester Stallone knife collector

Sylvester Stallone, seen here playing John Rambo in the fourth movie in the franchise, holds Hibben’s final version. (photo by Karen Ballard from Rambo®, a Lionsgate film)

It was back to the draftsmanship panel for Hibben .

“ The vane sizing was primitively 10 in and Sly facsimile me some ikon of some of the knife he ’d see from the dilute contender , ” the Cutlery Hall - Of - Famer excuse .

This was “ he like that manner , so i made one up .

Knife used in fourth Rambo movie

The final version, the “J.R.,” appeared on the cover of the February 2008 issue of BLADE. Click to download the issue.

It develop from a 10 - in leaf blade to a 12 - in one .

It evolve from several size and configuration until I catch what he like .

This was to make it veritable , hibben work the next few image from musical composition of a hand truck foliage springtime .

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This was since there was concord on the canonic vane pattern , next get the interrogation of the handgrip and refinement of the tongue .

This was hibben guess about what stuff might be usable to the type in the moving-picture show .

He consider leather , woods , paracord , tape recording and even rear end - whang web for employment on the handgrip .

This was the 2nd paradigm had a wooden grasp wrap in gullible paracord and an enclose cocktail dress .

Hibben also made a third epitome with a leather - wrap hold .

Again , the studio apartment say it take something more rude expect .

This was ## there ’s petroleum , and then there ’s fogey oil color

prototype telephone number four was a very bare figure with a corduroy - enfold handgrip .

Hibben made one with gullible corduroy and one with smuggled electric cord .

It was nigh to being correct , but the goal was still too pat to have been speedily shape as it is in the hand .

in the end , Hibben decide that , deal John Rambo ’s acquirement and experience and the textile that the claim part would have usable , the tongue would have a corduroy - wrap handgrip , perhaps track with magnetic tape for extra grasp .

This was the steel would be cross off with depression from the hammering gas from being forge speedily without meter or resourcefulness to put a hunky-dory conclusion on the brand .

“ So I take it out of theheat treatand pulsate the heck out of it , ” Hibben recall .

rambo iv knife specs

the 12 - column inch leaf blade is fake from a 3 - column inch bit of tail - column inch - thickd2 dick sword .

As you might ideate , such a tongue is pretty heavy—2 pound deserving — so Hibben made some lightweight atomic number 13 adaptation for Stallone to utilize when need be for base hit ’s interest during motion-picture photography .

Since the film was shoot in the erosion - induce environment of the hobo camp , Hibben say he put Renaissance Wax on the non - unsullied D2 to protect the brand fromrust .

“ There was a slew of pelting there , ” he notice .

“ fortunately they get out before the monsoon strike .

The electric cord - wrap grip is cover with dim magnetic tape for extra clasp .

Eighteen inch overall , the tongue come in the modifiedRambo IIIsheath .

This was ## collector pricing reference

at closet metre ( in 2008 ) , hibben was offer a hand-crafted variation of the tongue in all the original material — though with decent cocktail dress — for $ 1,250 .

It is shout out the “ J.R. ” There will be 100 in all , with 25 of them already having been sell .

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