Blade Show West

JTknives

JTknives

Joined
Jun 11, 2006
Messages
8,651
Any of you guys going this year. I’m allmost positive the wife and I are going this year and getting a table. Would be fun to see some of you there. Salem might be there to if I can kidnap him and stuff him in the trunk along side the stacks of 15n20 and knives.

Anyone know of a good place to stay while down there that’s not crazy pricy? I put the wife in charge of all the logistics and she asked me the other day how deep the tables are. I think thy said thy are 8ft long but I’m not sure on the width, any one know? Hope to see some of you there
 
Yeah October 5th to the 7th in Portland Oregon. There used to be a blade show west years ago but it was cancled. But with the surge in knife popularity thy decided to bring it back. Here is the info
http://www.bladeshowwest.com/
 
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I have wondered that myself . I can tell you that Portland has very different politics than the rest of the state. My wife and I were thinking of moving there. I asked a local about the ultra liberal culture vs the rest of OR that is more conservative than either WA or CA. It boiled down to the western "so long as you leave me alone do what you want " philosophy . I know that the whole west coast has a lot of interaction with Asian markets. Buck has a factory in Idaho not far from Spokane. It might have something to do with Taxes and low cost labor pool in the North West. Buck going to Idaho had something to do with tax incentives that WA couldn't legally compete with .
 
I'll be there. Never been in that part of the world, have no advice. I'm looking forward to it, though! :)
 
Stop by and say high. I will be bringing loads of 15n20 just a heads up to anyone wanting some.
 
I did this show plus the knife forging demo every year that it was in town 2005-2009. I know for sure that I will go to it but not sure if I will invest in a table. Hopefully it will be a huge success!
 
I'll see yall there. I'll be with Cascadia Cutlery, and I may have hinted to the people on the FB page about the potential for me to do a sword swallowing demo there as well. I might also sneak in some custom knuckles and stuff too.

Also another Portland knife company is Coast.

The weird thing is, Eugene custom knife show is next weekend, and the only major knife company that goes there is Spyderco.
 
JohnnyMayhem said:
I'll see yall there. I'll be with Cascadia Cutlery, and I may have hinted to the people on the FB page about the potential for me to do a sword swallowing demo there as well. I might also sneak in some custom knuckles and stuff too.

Also another Portland knife company is Coast.

The weird thing is, Eugene custom knife show is next weekend, and the only major knife company that goes there is Spyderco.
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The Eugene show is great. Met Sal Glesser and Wayne Goddard these one year.
 
OK, I understand that it's the "factory made" knife capital of the world, overtaking Solingen, Germany. Are there enough custom makers in the area to have a show worthy of being called "Blade West", or is it going to be overwhelmed by factory knives? I'm not trying to be an ass, really. I can only judge by how many forges I've shipped to a state. Oregon isn't very high on the list, Washington has good numbers, as does Idaho. Are makers from those states likely to travel?

PS For those interested, I've sold the most per capita to NC and Arkansas.
 
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I just sent in my application today. Will have skinners, filet, camping/hiking, and full line of kitchen cutlery. The only problem I see is all the factory knives.
Tim
 
Skillgannon,
Portland politics can be summed up by: We're weird so we are wonderful and the one I love: I've never been out of the State of Oregon and I'm dammed proud of it.
Tim
 
An atlas forge does not a knife maker make. I hate to say this and I don’t mean any disrespect to your product. Most likely any knife maker that’s buying your forge is either a newb or so shop pore that $300-$350 for a table is way out of the question. You make a great forge don’t get me wrong. It’s just not a forge that an experanced bladesmith that prices his blades ending in 2-3 zeros is likely to use. You have to think about all the surrounding areas. Washington, Idaho, Oregon, California, Wyoming, Utah, Montana, Nevada, Arizona. How far do people drive to hit blade show in Georgia. I’m not saying it’s the same size show but it carry’s the name and holds over some clout from its sister show. I think it will do good. Plus it’s only 200 tables and booths so I see appeal for us becaus you have a lot less saturation. Plus we got Bruce bump on our side :)

P.S. keep up the good work on the forges
 
I'd be there with a table but we have a week in Hawaii and airfare already paid for. Just have to do with Eugene.
 
JTknives said:
Plus we got Bruce bump on our side :)

P.S. keep up the good work on the forges
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Why didn't you mention Bruce first? That would have ended the debate. I'm just trying to gauge the knifemaker community in the NW and crunch numbers as to whether it's worth going to.

I realize that I'm mostly hitting the entry-level market. I'm fine with that. It sells lots of forges, and saves them money compared what was available before I started selling them. That's good for the knifemaking community overall, probably even good for my competitors. Oh, and that doesn't mean that some of those I'm selling to now won't be JS quality soon. . .
 
guys
i grew up here in Portland and yes the local secret is getting out .. We have lots of knife factories here lots of custom makers too, a few are known many are working on it .
many makers here at some time worked at a factory,then moved on to their own thing.
i honestly think if they get Advertising out in advance this show Could be Huge!!
as with many things Success/Failure depend on effort.
if any of you want Advise like where is ok to stay??
just P.M me ,happy to share my "Home Court" advantage.
 
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