Radcliff store seeks Guinness World Record for 6,000-pound pocketknife

RADCLIFF, Ky. (WAVE) - You may be surprised to know that in 2018, Kentucky lawmakers approved a joint resolution designating Radcliff as the "Knife Capital of Kentucky."

But why?

WAVE 3 News learned Friday that not only does Radcliff lay claim to the Kentucky Museum of American Pocketknives, it may soon hold a new Guinness World Record.

In 2018, Red Hill Cutlery made plans to open up a pocketknife museum and store on its property off KY 313 near Dixie Highway, but up on a hill, the Basham family owners were trying to figure out how to get people there.

They figured it out.

"It's a little over 6,200 pounds," Red Hill Cutlery Vice President Jason Basham said, pointing up at what looks like a huge store sign outside the business. It's actually a working steel pocketknife that can open and close, with the help of a crane.

“To be outside, this is about as big as you can get,” Basham said.

From the comments staffer Robin Leonard is getting at the store, the plan was a sharp one. She said she remembered what the last customer said: “We were driving by and saw your big knife.”

“The idea kind of came up from a dare,” Basham said.

Friends wondered if the Basham family could build the world’s largest pocketknife, and if they built it, would people come?

People driving on Interstate 65, that is?

The company already owns the Kentucky Museum of American Pocketknives with pieces dating back to the early 1800s. First, they looked up the current world record for a pocketknife.

“It was 17 and a half foot,” Basham said.

It’s located inside a mall in India. Red Hill Cutlery wanted to go big.

“The largest piece of steel you can get is 20 foot,” Basham explained. With help from Modern Welding in Elizabethtown, they carefully made a 20-foot long handle and a 17-and-a-half-foot sharp steel blade, slicing India’s little record in half. Leonard’s friends are still in disbelief.

“I’m like, ‘Yes, we are going to have the biggest knife in the world, the largest,’ and they’re like, ‘What are you going to do with it?’” Leonard said.

“We have been watching and waiting for (the store) to open,” shopper Marquitta Killensworth said, adding that she’s thrilled to see the largest pocketknife in the world.

“Is it like for the jolly green giant?” she asked.

They’re used all the cutting humor about the knife in the store. And very quickly, it’s becoming a landmark spotted more than a half mile away. With record-breaking merchandise on the shelves, now they just wait for official word. The company will find out this month or next if they’ve officially got the world record.

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