Canadian Knifemakers Guild Show review

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Murray White

Joined
Feb 17, 1999
Messages
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CKG March 2005 Knife Show

This years event became even a more multi day affair than previous Spring shows have been. Thomas Haslinger, Publicity Chairman, in addition to contacting many media outlets and providing CKG info to many venues also arranged for CITY TV Breakfast Television to provide some coverage of custom knife making and collecting on the early morning show of Thursday, March 17 St. Patricks Day.

Thomas arrived early and had the room set up with lots of displays with knives, materials, tools and photos for the remote crew from CITY TV.

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The TV crew prepares for their interview with Knifemaker Murray St. Amour as the City TV interviewer thinks about questions to ask.

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Brian Russell and Thomas Haslinger had knives they created and Murray White and Rod Cook had many knives from their collections.

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Rod emphasized knives by Wolfe while Murray had knives from a number of Canadian makers.


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Interviews were done with Murray St. Amour, Eric Elson and Thomas Haslinger and about 5 minutes of the show was used on Breakfast Television.

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As is usual, the bar lounge at Days Inn filled with makers and collectors on Friday afternoon as many arrived from out of town for the 2 day show.

Matt Stocker Knifemaker, Kathy Stocker, Phyllis Barrett, Brian Muscat Tyler, Dale Tipert (collectors) listen attentively to Thomas Haslinger, Knifemaker from Calgary, Alberta.

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Collector/dealer Mike Mason chats with makers Paul Johnston and Ric Frigault

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Knifemakers Eric Elson and Kirby Lambert relax chatting about knives before supper.

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At 6:30 pm we gathered together those attending the evening dinner and sorjourn to our home and headed over to Tuckers Marketplace for a great buffet.

We were joined there by a few other folks including George and Carol Tichbourne, knifemakers and (someone who has requested his name and photo be removed)




Also joining us was Mike Mossington, knifemaker enjoying coffee and dessert with Brian Muscat Tyler and Thomas Haslinger. Eric looks pretty immersed in conversation in the background.

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All the way from Nanaimo, BC is collector Nelson Chung (web designer) enjoying dessert with Kirby Lambert and Eric Elson. I did not check to see if Nelson enjoyed some the the great Nanaimo Bars that Tuckers has on the dessert table.

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Oh, not much sleep and Sat. morning came too quickly or not quick enough as I was up at about 6pm and got ready to head to the show to be on time for opening. Always lots of folks to say hello to and we hardly got in the door when we were advised to take a look at knives by a new maker who was doing her second CKG show-- Barb Lorchner. Now if that name looks familiar, it is because she is married to Wolfe Loerchner's son and adjusted the name (the o has 2 dots above it in the traditional German spelling) for artistic flair.

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so far as I understand, she has done half a dozen knives but is creating work that is top drawer with her own artistic flair but with definite Wolfe influence. Phyllis and I looked at this fine piece and she decided that it had to become part of our collection. One just never knows who will have a new goodie at a show that fits perfectly.

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About 3 dozen tables were available to view knives and supplies for sale and the room had been reduced in size Sat morning to better accomodate the arrangement. Traffic was heavy and every makers table had a crowd around it looking at knives as is Brian Muscat Tyler at Thomas Haslingers table http://haslinger-knives.com/ .

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As usual, there was the CKG annual collaboration knife raffle


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as well as a silent auction for some knives to support the memorial for knifemaker John Freeman with the proceeds going to a hospital in his hometown of Cambridge, Ont.


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Next, we were told that our friend, Jose de Braga whom we have not seen at a show in a few years had a table with some knives available. Now that did pique our interest.

Jose is the current President of the Quebec Knifemakers Guild www.gcaq.ca

As many of you know, a couple years ago, knife collector/photographer/historian/doctor etc, etc, David Darom published a book about folding knives with some of the finest images and finest created artistic folding knives in the world. Well, he has done it again. This time the book is about Fixed Blades and Jose is a participant in this venture and had the book at the show as well as three of the knives with certificates that are in the book. All were available.

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In this image, Jose can be seen speaking with a collector about the knives and the book as his son and knifemaker looks on. I did not get a card from his son but think his name is Juvo but if not, I apologize.

The knife in the forefront attracted me as it was a wonderful hunter but I tend to favor tapered tang knives and perhaps at another time. This one did find a nice home with Holger Enge and hopefully he will post an image as it was gone by the time I was available to photograph knives in the afternoon.

Jose is well known in various sword forums and he creates many fantasy pieces of which this one is just a sample.

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In other threads in Custom there will be info and images of a couple of other knives that were available from Jose.

Jose's son had a very successful show as most of his knives found new homes.

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John Benoit of London, Ont., had a variety of knives and swords that collectors took very close scrutiny of.

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Knifemaker, Tom Hart who did not have a table this time, (middle man) takes a closer look at John's knives.

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Long time knifemaker, George Tichbourne http://www.tichbourneknives.com/

and his wife Carol have attended many CKG shows and as usual have a full compliment of hunting, kitchen and art knives available. Carol tells my wife Phyllis that she is ever expanding their store for knife and gift related products.

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Randy Doucette www.randydoucetteknives.com


and his wife chat with collectors including (one of the subjects has requested the image and name be removed)





Randy had a full table of knives and was able to take a bit of time away from the Sportsman show where he had knives for sale also.Here are a few of Randy's creations.

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Of course as usual, the knives at Wolfe's

www.wolfeknives.com

table always attract attention as do the photos and drawings of his knives. Rod Cook had a display of some of his Wolfe collection on hand also.

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Ric Frigault and Jim Downie take time to chat with collectors checking out their knives.

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George Roberts had two tables of knives with help from friends.

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Here George chats with another knifemaker whose table abutted his.

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As can be seen, George makes use of natural antler material to create interesting displays for his knives.

Paul Savage had a couple of knives that were interesting. The first is a fighter/bowie

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and the second is a nice bolstered hunter

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Toronto Firefighter, James McGowan, knifemaker shows some of his tactical blades to collector/customers. http://www.jmcgowanknives.com/

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Quebec Knifemaker Guild member, Antoine Marcal

www.lesforgesdelasalamandre.com

makes a sale of one of his knives.

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This piece by Antoine was very tempting but one can't own everything.

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Tom Hart discusses fine points of the forged blade with ABS Mastersmith, Christoph Derringer.

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Avid collector and world traveller, Holger Enge examines one of Eric Elsons knives as Eric discusses knives with another potential buyer.

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Congratulations to Eric for running a fine show with good crowds and nice selections of knives including these of his own.

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We close this review of the show with a knife by Darren Chard and his showing someone from the next generation of makers (his son) some of the finer points of a well made custom knife.

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I'm sure all who attended the show had a great time and many knives were purchased and some we added to our collection will be soon posted as well as one just received yesterday in the mail.
 
Terrific show review Murray! I had a great time at the show on Saturday and only wish I had more time to spend there. A few comments:

- It was nice to see the show getting some positive TV coverage and I thought Thomas and everyone else involved did a great job promoting the show and custom knives in general;

- The Barb Lorchner knife that Phyllis picked out is a very beautiful and elegant little piece of bladeware.

- It was neat to see Jose de Braga's eye-catching knives, at least 2 or 3 of which were featured in Darum's book which he also had on display. Some savvy collector snapped those up. ;)

- That Paul Savage fighter bowie was a very quick and well-balanced piece that tempted me severely.

- I can't believe you didn't get a group shot of those Wolfe Loerchner pearl-handled bowies. :mad:

- Did you set up a display for Sunday? If so, where are the pics of that?

Roger
 
RogerP said:
- The Barb Lorchner knife that Phyllis picked out is a very beautiful and elegant little piece of bladeware.

Roger
Click to expand...

Merely elegant? It is terrific! IMHO. :eek:

Murray GREAT JOB! :D
 
Excellent. . . .excellent. . . .excellent !

Thanks for sharing Murray !
 
Roger--did not do any images myself of the Sunday display but I think Holger got something so maybe he will post. I did a display based on the fact that I had knives from many of the makers in the Darom book. In fact, now I have two of the knives in the book but those are for another thread.

I had taken a lot more knives up and so what I did beyond the Darom book display was to have a revolving side display in which I rotated knives 5 times and still did not show them all so that people could come back to the table and look at knives they had not seen the first time. I was kind of busy doing this and talking knives to many people on the Sunday.

Hopefully, CKG will provide a further venu for collectors to display at up coming shows. I know other knifemakers were coming by a lot to check things out and collectors enjoyed return visits too.

I have a call into the Mississauga News with the hopes of getting the file of an image or so of what their photographer did at our table but he has not returned my calls at all and I hope the files don't disappear.

Will post if I can get them.
 
Murray, what a post!

I loved every image and bio. Well-written and engaging pieces.

Nahhhh, I didn't see much of Wolfe's influence in Barb's piece... ! :eek: :eek: :eek: I also may have pulled my checkbook out for that. Sublime!

Congrats to Thomas Haslinger as well, for his work and support pushing this into the forefront with media. This is good for all!

Thank you again and again. :)

Coop
 
Great Review Murray !

I really like to see what i missed when I am at my table .
Congrats on the additions to your collection . Wolfes' daughter in-law really makes a beautiful knife .

Take care .

James
www.jmcgowanknives.com
 
Fantastic job Murray.Thanks for taking the time and putting all the effort in.
 
Neither Brian (Tighe or Lyttle) nor Greg Lightfoot were able to attend this show. I'd think they may be back next year.
 
Murray

Great Review!!!!!
I allways look forward to seeing your show review!!!

I would also like to thankyou for "Sharing" you knife collection with all of us!!!
You have got quite an extensive collection!!!
We all know a picture is better then 1000 word, but there are no words to describe the look and "feel" of the clasic knives you brought to share with everyone!!

Again!!!! THANKS!!!!
 
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