I will probably catch a little flack for this from the Bossman, but Reuben was a really great person. I only knew him tangentially, but his passing had an outsized effect on many in my industry friend group. Typically, the only Blade Mag things I will share are the Cutlery Hall of Fame announcement, and the Atlanta Blade Show awards.
Making a third exception. I wrote about it when he passed. But this is a full article. I felt like passing it along.
There was a bitter note to BLADE Show 2026. Reuben Bolieu passed away on June 7 in Livingston, New Jersey, after a battle with pancreatic cancer. A staple of BLADE Magazine over the past few years, his name should ring a bell with readers.
Born January 7, 1976, in West Covina, California, Reuben brought an authoritative voice to all his knife reviews, particularly when it came to bushcraft knives. His writing dropped blatant hints he was a well-traveled outdoorsman, with allusions to knife use from the wilds of South America to isolated corners of the Adirondacks. This love of backwoods adventure made him a fixture in both the knife and bushcrafting communities.
Read the whole thing..
https://blademag.com/featured/remembering-reuben-bolieu-blade-writer-left-mark-on-industry
If you missed my piece, it was largely an assemblage of social media posts from folks I knew were closest to him…