2013 AKI - A Quick Update

The Amazing Virginian

The Amazing Virginian

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I am still in San Diego and it is late for me, but I thought I would post a very quick update before hitting the sack for my 6:30 AM departure on Sunday morning. I took a bunch of pix and will post a more extensive report maker-by-maker when I get back home Sunday night or Monday.

First, from everything I could tell, it was a VERY successful show. :thumbup: Lots of makers, lots of collectors, and lots of sales. Everyone with whom I spoke was very happy. I know that I enjoyed it very much. A couple of subtle changes were made that I think really did improve things, and I will discuss those in the follow-up report. I really have very little of anything negative to say at all. It was just a great show.

C. Grey Taylor won the Buster Warenski Award for the third time (second time in a row). I believe that he also had the top grossing knife at the show - I believe that his bid up knife went for about $63,000. But there were several other knives that went for north of $30K.

Emmanuel Esposito was this year's guest maker, and he also came in second place in the voting for the Buster Warenski Award - a very impressive (and IMO well deserved) accomplishment.

Two makers were not able to make it: Dr. Fred Carter and Dwight Towell. Both makers were missed by yours truly, and I am sure by many other collectors.

A few trends I observed . . . more push daggers than I recall seeing in the past . . . more really ornate and high end engraving, including exceptional artwork by Fricassi and Mr. Barry Lee Hands . . . and several knives, from various makers, featuring Damascus steel from Rob Thomas.

Anyway, I will follow-up with a detailed report later, with pics.

Anyone else who was there (or not!) please share your observations/thoughts!
 
can't wait for the goods! Greatly appreciate any reporting :)
 
Looking forward to your full review.

Someone sent me a photo of the Taylor bid up knife and it is an amazing piece.

Take care

Charles
 
Thanks for the quick report, I was surprised there was no "buzz" on here prior to the show. I know I'm looking forward to pictures and you letting us know what you acquired!
 
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Win Heger said:
Thanks for the quick report, I was surprised there was no "buzz" on here prior to the show. I know I'm looking forward to pictures and you leeting us know what you acquired!
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I was surprised as well, to the point I had to locate my invitation to find which weekend it was taking place. I'm looking forward to your review and even more looking forward to attending the show one year. I'm sure STeven was there and we will see a review from him as well.
 
Win Heger said:
Thanks for the quick report, I was surprised there was no "buzz" on here prior to the show. I know I'm looking forward to pictures and you letting us know what you acquired!
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Win, I'm not completely surprised with the lack of buzz. I'm sure I'm not the only one who has noticed a change on this forum. Unfortunately more towards the tactical and less and less towards the more ornate knives, but that is for an other discussion.

As for me I can't wait for reports on the AKI!!

Marcel
 
Though I was unable to attend, I do find myself, just this morning, with the catalog and price list in hand. As always, the catalog is drool-worthy, both in content and quality. I'm looking forward to attendees' summaries, but couldn't help but note that Julie Warenski's big sole authorship piece was a beautiful Main Gauche, with diamonds and rubies, ringing a rather familiar bell for me.
 
I also didn't know the AKI was going on this weekend?

Thanks for the 'quick' review, Ken! Looking forward to more.
 
STeven was there at 5:00 pm

I don't collect art knives, and over the years, while I have had an exceptional time at the AKI, I have also had some deep seated frustrations and it had become the commitment of an entire 3 days for the show, with guests from out of town and entertaining. I had a conflict so, this year was not at the AKI as it is.

Harvey Dean, his lovely wife Deborah, my wife and I had dinner at a very nice restaurant on Thursday night and caught up, smoked cigars and told stories.

I was in an invite-only handgun shooting tournament yesterday morning held at a law enforcement training complex(you have to be a member of a rather exclusive club, or a guest...I was a guest).....and did fairly well for a first-timer....looking forward to next year! The tournament ended at 1:00 pm and I went out with some fellow participants for much needed refreshment.

Got a nice chance to chat with Wolfe and Elizabeth Loerchner and the Lobred clan.

All I can say is that I took delivery of a John W. Smith F5 flipper in S35VN and light Arizona Desert Ironwood and had drinks with Matt Diskin and some other friends.

I missed a lot of the AKI and I got to see and do a lot of something that I would have otherwise been unable to do.

Life can be a compromise....and at it's best it should be a win-win for everyone with that compromise.

Best Regards,

STeven Garsson
 
I had three makers ask me to do work for them in September, before the catalog printing deadline. However, I was also asked not to post until after the show. Fair enough.

It must have been an incredible show! Here's a taste:

Ron Appleton
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Kaj Embretsen
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Looking forward to learning more. Open request: I'd LOVE to have a catalog for my ongoing records.

I'll bet I'll have more pieces coming my way from my clients. Of course I would show them.

Was there a knife photographer on duty this year? I never heard one way or another.

Ken, thanks for your input. I look forward to hearing more about this premier event.

Coop
 
I might have, um, oversaturated the forum last time around! lol
 
Kohai999 said:
All I can say is that I took delivery of a John W. Smith F5 flipper in S35VN and light Arizona Desert Ironwood and had drinks with Matt Diskin and some other friends.
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I love my F5 flipper and I can't wait to see what JWS had at AKI!
 
Just getting online after flying back home from the left coast and dealing with a bunch of family stuff that piled up in my absence. I have started writing a more thorough report and will post it tomorrow by hook or by crook!

Jim - I do not believe there was any photographer "on duty" (or otherwise) there. I really think it is a shame that there is not a complete collection of photos of every knife at every one of these shows. Of course I saw all three of the knives you posted. The Embretsen in your photo was my favorite one of his at the show. Ron Appleton's knives . . . well, if you shot them, then you handled them and so you already know. The level of precision is awe-inspiring.

To my mind, this show represents the pinnacle of custom knifemaking. Not to say that there are not some other makers out there who are also making knives at the same level, because IMO there are. But I am not aware of any show in this country which brings so many of the "best of the best" together in one place with so many knives in so many different genres which are actually displayed and available for purchase. If you love knives, and especially custom knives, and you ever have an opportunity to attend an AKI, then I strongly recommend that take advantage of that opportunity. Even if I did not buy a single thing, it would be worth every cent and every minute I spent to travel all the way across country just to see and handle so many remarkable pieces. As long as they allow me to attend, and as long as I am physically and financially able to do so, and as long as the show remains at the level that it was this year, I will never miss this show.
 
Coop- Pachi was set up in a side room as the show's photographer. I had a great time. Many of the knives were bidup/open bid only. Realistically this eliminates a good portion of the collectors in the room. There are many heavy hitters in that room and you need a pretty serious bank acct to compete.
All in all this show is the best. Best makers worldwide, bringing their best.
 
The Virginian said:
To my mind, this show represents the pinnacle of custom knifemaking. Not to say that there are not some other makers out there who are also making knives at the same level, because IMO there are. But I am not aware of any show in this country which brings so many of the "best of the best" together in one place with so many knives in so many different genres which are actually displayed and available for purchase. If you love knives, and especially custom knives, and you ever have an opportunity to attend an AKI, then I strongly recommend that take advantage of that opportunity. Even if I did not buy a single thing, it would be worth every cent and every minute I spent to travel all the way across country just to see and handle so many remarkable pieces. As long as they allow me to attend, and as long as I am physically and financially able to do so, and as long as the show remains at the level that it was this year, I will never miss this show.
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Couldn't agree more
 
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Well, I wrote a very detailed report and I have a bunch of kind-of-crappy cell phone pix all resized and ready to post, but even when I just try to paste the text into a posting box here, the site vomits all over it.

Yes, it is kind of long, but not THAT long. Seems I cannot post more than about a couple of hundred words before the little hamster who turns the little wheel to power this website runs out of gas. Pretty sad for 2013.

So it looks like I am going to have to break my review into like a zillion tiny pieces so I can post it here. What a PITA. Maybe we will join the 21st century before it is over.

Since this is going to take ten times longer than it should, and it is already late, I will post the first couple of installments tonight, and post more tomorrow.

The WORST thing about the show was that when I left home at O-Dark-Thirty to catch a flight to the left coast, I was in such a hurry that I left my camera at home. So all I had was my crappy cell phone camera. Every one of these knives looks 100 times better than my picture – the picture is only useless to give you a GENERAL sense of type of knife it was. I am sorry about that. There are some excellent pictures of some of these knives in the catalog, but without their owners’ permission, I do not have the right to post them here. Maybe some of the photographers will do like Coop did and post them here, or authorize me to do so.

The makers were: Ron Appleton, Van Barnett, Charles Bennica, Harvey Dean, Dellana, Rick Eaton, Kaj Embretsen, Virgil England, Emmanuel Esposito, H.H. Frank, Larry Fuegen, Tim Hancock, Steve Hoel, Steve Johnson, Dietmar Kressler, Ron Lake, Wolfgang Loerchner, Steven Rapp, Pierre Reverdy, John W. Smith, Juergen Steinau, C. Gray Taylor, Michael Walker, and Julie Warenski. As noted earlier, Dr. Fred Carter and Dwight Towell were absent.

I did not count the number of knives, but I would guess that there were about 150 knives.

What is amazing is how fast the show moves. Three hours just speeds by. I really did not even have time to see some of the makers at all and only looked quickly at the pieces from some others. So . . . there are some “missing makers” here. If anyone else who was there posts here, maybe they can fill in the holes. Without further ado, here we go . . .
 
For whatever reason, apparently I cannot paste any more of my review here at this time. The site throws up every time I try to even paste even a single sentence from my MS Word doc here. Maybe if I typed it all in again by hand . . . that is not going to happen. If anyone has any guidance, I would appreciate it. Very frustrating. :(
 
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