Hey guys!
I wanted to share a really awesome experience I had at Blade Show West yesterday.
I’ve made it a habit to try and develop hobbies with each of my sons as they enter their late childhood, early teen years. With my first son who is now an adult and living in Cambodia, it was off Roading, specifically jeeps. I’ve got a Jeep Wrangler that is pretty capable. Over the past several years, we have built it up, taking it out on some of the best offloading trails in the western US, and even build his own Jeep that he purchased with his own money as he got to driving age.
My next son is up now and he has always been interested in hunting, fishing, general outdoors, type things. He has a archery bow and I take him out target shooting. As soon as he can draw back 40 pounds I’ll help him get a deer tag and take him out on the hunt. It’s not something that I’ve ever done personally, but he’s very interested in it so we’ll make it happen.
In the meantime, he’s also very into knives. He’s a lot like me and that he tends to really take good care of his stuff, he values craftsmanship etc. So, over the past year and a half we have purchased knives together. We spent a lot of time ogling new items as they released, talking about taking a blade forging class, etc. He’s super into it.
Yesterday we went to the Blade show in Salt Lake City. I pulled him out of school early to go, and he was in absolute heaven.
By the end of the show I wanted to surprise him with a new blade. There are so many cool ones at these events. We found our way to the protech display. We’d seen the owner, Dave Wattenburg, interviewed about his 2025 show exclusives on YouTube (bladeHQ has a video out).
Well Dave ended up being the guy who sold us our knives. And let me tell you, he was such a nice, genuine guy!
My son wanted a show exclusives Mordax, so we got one for him. Unique blade finish, and exclusive colorway and button. Dave asked what serial # he’d like (if he could find it) and my son asked for #14 (out of 80)
I got a Cambria2, the show exclusive has maple burl inlay and a great mosaic pin. Dave hit the storage area and brought up a matching #14 for me. How thoughtful! Then he spent some time chatting us up reminiscing about starting his company with his father’s help. How his parents supported his interests and got him where he is.
He ended up telling his assistant that he wanted to hook us up with some shirts, and took a photo with us. Then he signed our knives. Finally he had the assistant give us her card and told me that if we’re ever in SoCal, he’d love to take us on a tour of their facility. We’re down there fairly often so will definitely take him up on the offer.
Those were our first ProTech’s, and I’ll tell you; they got a lifelong set of customers yesterday. Such a good guy!
I wanted to share a really awesome experience I had at Blade Show West yesterday.
I’ve made it a habit to try and develop hobbies with each of my sons as they enter their late childhood, early teen years. With my first son who is now an adult and living in Cambodia, it was off Roading, specifically jeeps. I’ve got a Jeep Wrangler that is pretty capable. Over the past several years, we have built it up, taking it out on some of the best offloading trails in the western US, and even build his own Jeep that he purchased with his own money as he got to driving age.
My next son is up now and he has always been interested in hunting, fishing, general outdoors, type things. He has a archery bow and I take him out target shooting. As soon as he can draw back 40 pounds I’ll help him get a deer tag and take him out on the hunt. It’s not something that I’ve ever done personally, but he’s very interested in it so we’ll make it happen.
In the meantime, he’s also very into knives. He’s a lot like me and that he tends to really take good care of his stuff, he values craftsmanship etc. So, over the past year and a half we have purchased knives together. We spent a lot of time ogling new items as they released, talking about taking a blade forging class, etc. He’s super into it.
Yesterday we went to the Blade show in Salt Lake City. I pulled him out of school early to go, and he was in absolute heaven.
By the end of the show I wanted to surprise him with a new blade. There are so many cool ones at these events. We found our way to the protech display. We’d seen the owner, Dave Wattenburg, interviewed about his 2025 show exclusives on YouTube (bladeHQ has a video out).
Well Dave ended up being the guy who sold us our knives. And let me tell you, he was such a nice, genuine guy!
My son wanted a show exclusives Mordax, so we got one for him. Unique blade finish, and exclusive colorway and button. Dave asked what serial # he’d like (if he could find it) and my son asked for #14 (out of 80)
I got a Cambria2, the show exclusive has maple burl inlay and a great mosaic pin. Dave hit the storage area and brought up a matching #14 for me. How thoughtful! Then he spent some time chatting us up reminiscing about starting his company with his father’s help. How his parents supported his interests and got him where he is.
He ended up telling his assistant that he wanted to hook us up with some shirts, and took a photo with us. Then he signed our knives. Finally he had the assistant give us her card and told me that if we’re ever in SoCal, he’d love to take us on a tour of their facility. We’re down there fairly often so will definitely take him up on the offer.
Those were our first ProTech’s, and I’ll tell you; they got a lifelong set of customers yesterday. Such a good guy!
