Is there any chance such a display would be visiting the Blade Show, or National knife museum (Tenn.) in a distant future date?
David
Absolutely no chance -- the only way to pull together an exhibit of this magnitude is with the funding, staff, and facilities of a large museum -- in this case the state museum of Arkansas which is of course publicly funded. There are a large number of very valuable objects here, and the insurance and transport issues have been extremely complex. Onsite, the objects have very stable climate control, custom designed mounts and casework, and 24-hour security with cameras everywhere and a direct line to the police. In short, this is a serious museum exhibit created by a serious museum that is interested in knives. A really rare opportunity.
I would love it if an exhibit like this could do some traveling. We didn't really try to push that idea here -- it would take the interest of other serious museums (many of which aren't very keen on knives) and of course the funding to transport everything, and usually this sort of thing needs to be planned a few years in advance. And it's no small exhibit -- we're completely filling a 2500 square foot gallery. My hope is that the exhibit draws enough interest to perhaps generate more opportunities down the road.
I'm a big believer in the National Knife Museum in Sevierville -- in fact I was involved with its startup and first years of operation in its current location. It's a really great thing for knife lovers, but they are just not able to handle an exhibit like this -- in terms of security, space, funding, or logistics. And at a knife show? Not a snowball's chance in hell.
Honestly, this is in all likelihood a once in a lifetime exhibit -- either you travel there to see it, or you don't. The museum was very accommodating with regard to scheduling the exhibit to be open during the Arkansas Knifemakers Association's show in February -- if you need more reason to come, come then!
Mark Z
The Shively looks pretty good, and the execution is great, but it's not all that interesting. Looks like a nice kitchen knife, and I see more interesting kitchen knives from the makers on this forum almost daily.
