2015 East Coast Custom Knife Show (ECCKS)

[RichART]

For me it was a very nice show. Even though my English is bad, I met a lot of great people. Shooting with Jim is always pleasant moments. Thanks all for the nice weekend.

Richard Tesarik knives

 

[Don Hanson III]

I'm confused...

What constitutes a good show? If there are plenty of knives left on the tables, then it's a good show for the collectors, and not so good for the makers.

If there are NO knives on the tables and the makers have even left, then they had an especially good show. (Not so endearing for the collectors.)

Today, all the makers are enroute home and exhausted from a long three day show. You won't get the 'fantastic show!' report from them. I saw no one grousing who had a table.

All the proven regulars sold out on friday. The energy was great. Bigger room, lots of people spread out.

Yes, it was mentioned the attendance wasn't as pronounced. However, there is a NEW Fifty/Fifty Productions show in a month (Miami International Knife Expo). I know I talked to more than one person who noted that this new show will attract makers and collectors from another. Hard to do both in 5 weeks.

Finally, for Susan and I we could NOT have been busier! I am exhausted. I have found this a barometer of makers and collectors having a good show.

At any rate, I'll soon have eye-popping and mouth-watering visions of knives which were sold during the show. :thumbup:

This glass is half full. Call me the ECCKS fan boi.... LOL!

Coop

Coop, a good show is when the room is full, most of the makers sell out (especially the ones with more than one or two knives), collectors get what they want, everyone has you shoot their knives & all have a great time.

 

[Cliff Parker]

I think all shows with exception of blade suffer a little from the past. when pulling up exhibitor list I only see 78 makers listed and 19 purveyors . 97 tables then I hear some tables were empty which tells me some of those listed didn't make it.
Collectors and makers alike will travel long distances if there is a good reason. If the collectors stop traveling long distances because there is a limited number of makers or knives there then the makers stop .
Don mentioned some makers only bring 1 or 2 pieces . These are the high end guys usually and with that there are the high end collectors that go with it. Believe this I wish I fell on either side of that fence. But it takes more than that to constitute a good show . The interweb is doing the damage to the shows more than anything I believe.

Cliff

 

[Kevin Cross]

I was there as a maker and from my perspective it was a good show. Here is what I saw: there were a few AKI level makers that only brought one or two knives. That being said, I have been doing shows for over ten years and they usually bring one or two knives so no change there. Most of the big name brought five or six at least. Doors open to VIPs at 11:00 am and these makers were sold out or maybe down to one by noon when the doors opened to everybody else. I have seen the same thing happen at BLADE and the Guild show. Some tables were open at the beginning of the show but filled as makers arrived late. Of course the sold out makers left early on Sunday. Attendance was off I believe, most notably after 3 pm on Friday and Saturday Friday there is usually a bump at this time when people cut out of work early for the show but we did not get it this year.

As has been noted, there is another show by 50/50 in Miami in five weeks. I do know some makers opted for that show. The Miami show is going to occur every other year.

Finally, I wold like to hear from some collectors. Some makers did bring a few knives with ivory on them. Do the New Jersey laws concerning ivory keep you way from this show? Do you prefer to call the makers directly or meet up with them at a venue such as BLADE where knives with ivory handles are not an issue?

 

[drrickso]

How bout for the custom knife buyer/collectors?

Here's my assessment... it was my first knife show of any kind and I consider myself a collector who previously went directly to the makers or online purveyors to acquire new blades.

I only was able to go Friday but showed up for the 11am opening... My friend bought a knife immediately from Tighe who only had about 5 folders in. My friend picked up the only one I really wanted from Tighe so I moved onto other tables.

New to me:
I saw a lot of very nice blades from some relatively unknown makers and lesser known foreign makers. A lot of the foreign makers seemed to have either super expensive jewelry type knives or similar designs of others I've seen before. I really liked the Thorburn knives and would have picked one up if I didn't spend all my cash on one knife.

Lottery:
The Lambert Knives and Elishewitz Knives which were my favorites were only about 5 or so in total and only available via lottery later in the afternoon... When I had attended the Elishewitz lottery I saw people there with several tickets towards the lottery and the first "winner" also won the second drawing which I thought was in extremely bad taste. A guy next to me who won and worked for one of the online purveyors immediately flipped the knife to another guy before even finishing his purchase. After no luck at the Elishewitz lotto, I went over to the start of Lambert's where my friends name was the first one called... since my friend had no money left he let me take his spot and I got the knife I was oogling at his table all day... there went all my cash lol- but I was happy and had no intention of selling it. The lottery system kind of sucks, because the odds are very much against individuals when companies are flooding the chances plus you have to wait around for them if you are already done with your searching. Luckily I unintentionally had a second horse in the Lambert race so I cant complain too much on that.

Purveyors:
What was upsetting were the few purveyors that had brand new models from many of the makers there that were charging absurd markups above what the makers themselves were charging for similar blades a few tables over. It was clear that they cherry picked prior to the show but asking prices were borderline insulting. One big name maker had admitted he had brought several more knives than his current stock at 11am suggested and they were sold prior to the show (and that seemed to be a theme for other makers as well). The bright spot in all of them was TNK who had a good selection of production blades (tons of Sebenzas) for sale at reasonable prices. Also, Arizona Custom Knives was there to promote their consignment business without displaying anything which was a much more tasteful approach than others took. I'd definitely do business with those two companies in the future.

Makers:
I had mixed feelings on some of the makers... some I thought were going to be DB's turned out to be awesome... other's that sounded cool were not my cup of tea, and some of the one's I had an idea about were spot on.
Olamic made a nice appearance there and Eugene was awesome. I already have an Olamic on order and it was nice to see and feel them in person. Mick Burger (Strider) was VERY cool... I've heard the horror stories, and he was one of the easiest to talk to guys there... same for Dwaine Dwyer. Lambert seemed quiet but we joked a bit and he was very approachable, as was Tighe who floated around in front of his table. Most were approachable and eager to talk about their work and answer questions.

Final Thoughts:
I'm glad I went... There was much less of a selection than I had expected, but it was very nice to see the latest designs in the industry from top makers as well as gain exposure to new makers I had never seen or heard about.

If you want to see the top knives and potentially buy something, go on Friday early (VIP)... but don't be surprised to see SOLD signs on a lot of the stuff when the doors open.

 

[Don Hanson III]

Thanks for the reports, guys! This is the type of info I was most interested in.

 

[Cliff Parker]

Thanks for the reports, guys! This is the type of info I was most interested in.

For sure

Cliff

 

[John A. Larsen]

I got an email from my friend and Finnish Knife Maker Pekka Tuominen. He said it was a good show for him and he plans to come back in 2016. John