I would assume that a Blade Show award for a factory knife would go, not to a concept knife, but to a knife that the company expects to have in at least early production by the time of the next SHOT show, though we know that "Murphy" works at a lot of knife factories, even the best.
This is like giving a "great software" award to a beta test version, or maybe an alpha test version.
The knife that inspired my comment was in fact the Kershaw-Onion Random Task. Last year it won a trophy, not as an actual factory knife, but as a prototype, hand-made by Ken Onion, which Kershaw was publicly committed to producing. The knife that won the award had a hand-rubbed finish, and I was amazed that a factory would do that.
Well, it turns out that factories don't do that, not for less than the price of a William Henry that is, and the first production knives had a mechanical glitch or two. Bitten fingers. Ouch.
Now Kershaw and Ken Onion have made changes here and there in the knife. The last one I got in the door locks up solidly, doesn't wobble, and opens with a snap. That's the version I'd like to see submitted for judging in the factory knife categories.
Maybe there should be two categories for factory knife awards: Product Introductions and Products Introduced Last Year, now in production with some end user experience.
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- JKM
www.chaicutlery.com