Blade Show reports

Kevin

That's good to know - hopefully they can review the tapes. Never been to Blade, but I don't think the NY shows have video

Bill
 
The winners of the 2008 custom knife competition winners for this year are as follows:

Best In Show- Ken Steigerwalt, Best Fixed Blade - Ken Seigerwalt, Best Damascus - John White, Best Art Knife - Arpad Bojtos, Best Fighter - Shawn Ellis, Best Bowie Knife - Jason Knight, Yvon Vachon Best Miniature - Yosho Sakauchi, Best Handle Design - Bill Tuch, Best Tactical Folder - R.J. Martin, Best Utility Hunter - Lin Rhea, Best Folder - Larry Newton, Best Innovative Design - Joe Caswell, Best Knife Collaboration - Hank Knickmeyer and Chantal Gilbert, Best Sword - Paul Jarvis, Best New Maker - Steve Gatlin, Best of the Rest - Todd Begg
 
REALLY enjoyed meeting a LOT of you for the first time. Actually "enjoyed" is not the correct work, it was spectacular.

Another thing I really love about going to the Blade Show every year is being able to examine the same maker's work each year.
There are maker's who frequent this custom forum whose work has really improved over this last year. And that's not implying their work wasn't VERY good last year.
I won't mention names as I fear leaving someone out, but you guys have to know who you are.
 
I handled that Knight "bush sword" and was surprised at how light it was considering that the thing is HUGE!!!!!!!! Jason is one of my new heroes after getting to talk to him a bit. With his success at the last two Blade shows, he has clearly announced that he is the new 400 pound gorilla in the room. I was also very glad to see that Adam Derosiers is back in the game again. Someone posted on the makers sub-forum that they thought that this was the worst attended Blade show that he had seen. I"m not sure which parallel universe he was in...lol. There were so many people in the hall that the crowd noise made it difficult to have a normal conversation. Of the Krazy Kollectors in here, I only got to see STeven and Roger. I heard that Kevin was running around like a man with his head on fire taking care of association bidness. I bought some stag, ironwood and 15N20 and Coop is in the process of "glamourizing" my homely little ST24 copy.....pretty pics to follow:D All in all, a great show. I got to spend time with some great folks. Matt Roberts (who married WELL above his station...lol) was there in his little blue sport court showing some samples of his new mid tech knives. They seemed to go over quite well. Even a guy from Swamp Rat came by and "coon-fingered" them on Sunday. Unfortunately, I was not able to meet Russ Andrews and Paul Long, wh I had wanted to catch up with. Hopefully next year.
 
Joe, don't know how we missed seeing each other? Was looking forward to seeing that ST-24 too.

Saw Roger's BIG bowie he made At Dan's. Was throughly impressed with it. Only his third and difficult considering it's size.
 
I would call that a short sword rather that a knife, It does look very cool. You would have to strap that thing to your back to carry it around.
 
Kevin Jones said:
Joe, don't know how we missed seeing each other? Was looking forward to seeing that ST-24 too.

Saw Roger's BIG bowie he made At Dan's. Was throughly impressed with it. Only his third and difficult considering it's size.
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I don't know how I missed Joe either. :confused: Thanks for your comments on the knife, Kevin - showing that off to everyone I could tackle was a lot of fun. Dan and Matt - you have some bows to take - the comments were very positive indeed.

Roger
 
RogerP said:
Dan and Matt - you have some bows to take - the comments were very positive indeed.

Roger
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Good to hear! I'd love to hear what some of the negatives were, too... always helps to have the scrutiny of others!

Glad to hear you had a blast, and made it home safe-n-sound.
 
Can't really add much, but this was my BEST show ever. Thanks, guys!!!

And a very special thanks to: Jon, Riad, Walt, Gabe/Anders, Jeff, Kevin and a couple others whose names I didn't get.

Blade is the best!
 
It was a great blade show for me as well couldn't have asked for more. just wish i would have got to meet a few more people I missed Roger i guess they said he was by the table but i was off buying handle material. Joe it was great visiting with you hopefully we will both have some good luck next year in the JS testing.
 
RogerP said:
I don't know how I missed Joe either. :confused: Thanks for your comments on the knife, Kevin - showing that off to everyone I could tackle was a lot of fun. Dan and Matt - you have some bows to take - the comments were very positive indeed.

Roger
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You didn't........I acosted you in the lobby Friday morning...lol.
 
Matthew Gregory said:
Good to hear! I'd love to hear what some of the negatives were, too... always helps to have the scrutiny of others!

Glad to hear you had a blast, and made it home safe-n-sound.
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Negatives? Too LOUD!!!! lol. But seriously........Blade sent out a survey asking whether they should get more tactical folks and maybe set up a seperate section. My response was they should take that other room down by the courtyard because they show has pretty much outgrown the current space. Things are pretty tight and they have a wating list for tables. The ABS section could handle at least another couple of rows of tables I would think. They are also creating "booths" from tables for a lot of the suppliers. They would be better served by having true booth space on the walls or in the aisles I would think. Also, the amenities, such as food and beverage are somewhat limited.
 
Dammit Joe - post a pic of yourself already so I can uncloud my addled brain. If you had shoved that ST under my nose, perhaps I would have made the connection. :o

Roger
 
This was the best show I've ever had. Blade show is great. Need sleep.
Mace
 
Stole this from Roger's thread so it would be in a couple of places.

New Journeyman Smiths

Fuad Accawi (Peck Award)

Karl Andersen

Ronald Boydston

Dan Cassidy

Carlton Hallenbeck

Steven Kelly

David Sylvester

Brian Thie

Daniel Warren


New Master Smiths

Russ Andrews

Bill Burke

Sean McIntyre (Hughes Award)

J. Neilson

James Saviano

Henry Torres
 
jdm61 said:
Negatives? Too LOUD!!!!
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Hi Joe,
I was actually referring to negative comments about the Mojo bowie that Roger and I collaborated on, as this was the first public appearance for it!:)

...I'd likely agree with you, though - big loud crowds are usually too much for me!
 
This was the best show ever. Blade just keeps getting better and better. It's like a big family reunion. The air conditioning and sound system are the only things that I see that could be better.
Don
 
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