My camera is 35mm and not digital, and I have only snapped 2 pictures so far.
This is my first Blade and first all knife show in general. It's amazing and overwhelming at the same time. You can find anything from a $3 POS pakastini folder to $20,000+ customs.
I have a 17 second attention span, so I haven't seen much of the show, as i just keep wondering around going nowhere. I have met a lot of great people including several forumites. Tons of amazing stuff to see.
Hossom, Mayo, Onion, Simonich, and the Strider guys had a friendly contest about who could make the best combat knife. Ken Onion's was absolutely gorgeous. My favorite was Mick Strider. The blade was anadoized titanium with a stellite cutting edge. The handle consisted of mastadon and carbon fighter. It is a beautiful piece of work. These 6 knives are the 2 pictures I managed to stop drooling long enough to take.
I got to hanlde the Scott Cook integral frame lock folders. That is one amazing piece of work. I can't even imagine the ammount of timeit must have taken to create this beauty. He has introduced the first 25 in a numbered series (3 of which remained when I saw him this afternoon) at an incredible price. The non-numbered run will be even cheaper!
Mike Obenauf had one of his frame-locks there to show off. Very well done. I also got to see and handle Kit's collaboration with Tim Herman. This was truely the most beautiful piece I have ever seen. It was simply breath taking. I am still stunned at the pure beauty of that piece.
I didn't hear many of the awards given out, but did manage to hear John Fitch won the best hunter award. I haven't heard or seen the other awards but will be able to see them all in the display case tommorrow.
Went to the ABS auction this evening as well. Couldn't afford what was being offered but had a blast bidding when the prices were low. Wally Hayes offered an incredible piece that used a chunk of steel from the WTC towers in the gaurd. It was truely amazing and inspiring.
All the seminars start up tommorrow, and there are several I plan on catching this year, including the knife/hawk throwing semminar by Bobby Branton and custom trend semminar with Les Robertson and Bob Neal.
Overall, it's been a blast. I have spent way too much and simply don't care
I will attempt to get some photos taken off all my aquired knives tommorrow and get them to a 1-hour photo place and hopefully transfered to disk.
For anyone who has never been to Blade, I highly reccomend it. You can see any knife you can imagine and meet some truely wonderful people. I am having a blast!
JR
) and are planning to soak up everything vicariously thru the reports here.
