Guild Show Thoughts & a Knife

Win Heger

Win Heger

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Joined
Feb 29, 2000
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I went to my first Guild Show and had a great time. It seems with so many other shows going on that his one has suffered a little. I go to quite few shows and tell you that the quality of the work here is as good as it gets. If you're looking for the latest in tactical hardware this is not the place, here is where pearl, ivory and Stag rule.

Let me tell you the Guild knows how to put a show on! The Thursday night gala is for Guild Members, including Honorary. They had great food, open bar and a band. All as a thank you to supporting members. Guys and girls get ahold of Steve Johnson and join this fine group. Dues for Honorary members are only $10.00 a year! Contact me if you want and I'll have Steve get you an application.

Knifemaker Bob Doggett was inducted into the Guilld as a voting member. This is no small feat and he is to be commended. He sold out all except for his one tactical piece. Pretty cool that his logo is Doggett but on the tacticals it's Dogman.

Got to meet an old friend for the first time, Bobby Branton. You won't meet a nicer guy and he had some pretty nifty Japanes influenced blades on his table, real bargains!

I've become a firm believer in buying knives from people I like, money is too hard to come by to waste it on makers that don't perform! One of the truly good guys is John Young, a nice soft spoken gentleman from Utah. I've been able to get a couple of Young fighters and was looking for more! Well, John and Steve Johnson are so popular that they are having lotteries for their knives, gives everyone a fair chance. I got picked in the Thursday evening lottery at the gala and got this amazing fighter.

Handle is Mammoth Ivory, 5 1/4" Blade. Lousy photo, with reflection.

Win
 

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Good stuff Win;
I would love to make it to that show, but too soon after Blade to travel that far again.
I havn't met Bobby Branton, but I really like his knives. He is also close with my good friend Jason Knight, who told me about the Japanese pieces he was working on. Sorry to have missed it.
Adam
 
Nice to hear some good vibes coming from the Guild show. There's enough cranky people out there who like to bash it. I hope it grows larger once again. Good on you for scoring that fighter. Lucky you, too... :)

Did anyone participate or view the NON-ABS cutting competition?

Coop
 
Haven't been able to make it down to the Guild show yet - but it's not for lack of the members promoting it (a positive sign for the Guild). So far, folks I've talked with who were actualy there this year had a great time.

Win - You mentioned Bobby Branton and I wanted to echo your comments. In June of '04, at the BLADE Show, I watched Bobby demonstrate his throwing abilities at one of the scheduled demonstrations out in the parking lot next to the hotel. He was great with the crowd, engaged and encouraged everyone including the kids that were there, was humble and not afraid to miss the occasional throw etc. He seemed like a very nice guy. Here's a picture I took of Bobby in action:
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Dang Buddy, You should have taken my picture this year. I was 50 pounds lighter this year and threw a lot better. ;)You have to honest with people, everyone drops knives when throwing them. Some of us have better days than others. I was one of 11 in the cutting competition. It was my first such event and I just got my first cutting knife finished two weeks before the contest, but did not get to practice and it showed. I did good in a couple of events and bad in the others. But, at least I tried. I am writing a small article that I hope to get published in the Guild newsletter about my first cutting competition. I hope they publish it. Stay tuned, I am hooked now.

BTW. I'm going to Warren's cutting school in December :D
 
Hi, Win.
It was good to see you again. I'm not very good at doing my knifemaker duties at shows. I spend more time wandering around looking at all the awesome work and talking to folks than I do at my own table.

I kept picking up that John Young NY Special pearl boot at the Denton's table thinking it was a Loveless or a Johnson - it was that good.
 
Great report Win and as you said, Bobby is one great guy. You sure picked up a great looking SR. Congrats on that as well. :)
 
knifeman7 said:
Great report Win and as you said, Bobby is one great guy. You sure picked up a great looking SR. Congrats on that as well. :)
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John Young made the knife pictured. Am I the only one concerned by a diminishing number of buying attendees at the Guild Show? It seems to me that if they cannot get paying buyers in the door for the show, that membership is going to drop off right quick. Remember, Voting Members are mandated to attend, every two years, if I recall.

I am a firm believer in the Knifemaker's Guild, as an organization, I feel that they can move mountains.

Best Regards,

STeven Garsson
 
Steve, I'm not sure what more the Guild can do to get people there. They have made a concerted effort over the last couple of years and still the show lacks buyers. World class makers such as Kressler, Velarde, Johnson, Young, Osborne, Pease and many others believe in the Guild and support it.

I believe voting members are required to attend every four years, now. Next year it will be in another hotel and hopefully fans of the custom knife will choose to attend. The foreign buyers were not there and that certainly takes away from the show. Maybe the AKI being this year has hurt, too.

Hi, Mike, good to see you here. That was a Young, as Steve pointed out. Bob Doggett mentioned that Denton had a terrific Young on his table, they are very much believing that John is the next great maker!

Good to see this post drawing some interest.

Win
 
Win Heger said:
Steve, I'm not sure what more the Guild can do to get people there. They have made a concerted effort over the last couple of years and still the show lacks buyers. World class makers such as Kressler, Velarde, Johnson, Young, Osborne, Pease and many others believe in the Guild and support it.

I believe voting members are required to attend every four years, now. Next year it will be in another hotel and hopefully fans of the custom knife will choose to attend. The foreign buyers were not there and that certainly takes away from the show. Maybe the AKI being this year has hurt, too.
Good to see this post drawing some interest.
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Of course this post is drawing interest. You gave a concise and clean rundown of what happened at a prestigious show.

I have a few ideas what the Guild can do, and picking the brains of people like Jerry Fisk, Phil Lobred, Dan Delavan and Steve D'lack would be a start. Maybe that has already been done, I don't know.

I seriously doubt that the AKI being this year has an impact. Last year, it was the Evening of the Cutlery Arts. There will be at least one highly upscale show every year, until someone stops doing it like that. This year there will actually have been two, the Tactical Invitational, and the AKI. I will let everyone know how the AKI goes. Will you be attending, Win? It would be nice to meet you.

John Young is ONE of the new hot makers. Everyone has their own take on that, but I think his work is phenomenal. He could stand some self marketing, and a presence on BladeForums, for the icing on the cake, but that is just my opinion.

Other super-duper, up and coming makers are Bailey Bradshaw, Burt Foster, Chuck Gedraitis, Adam DesRosiers, Mike Lovett, and Nick Wheeler. Some people know all of these guys, others, maybe just one or two, but for my $$, Gedraitis and Young could do superb things for the Guild, in the same way that DesRosiers and Wheeler are doing for the ABS.

Best Regards,

STeven Garsson
 
Steven - That was well said! Upon reading it my thought was, "Wow, I feel like I'm gorging at the banquet of custom knives and makers, and I've never even been to a Guild show."

I saw on-line that Ed Caffrey, ABS mastersmith, said something like, "Forged blades are in." I think he's right. It's the natural cycle of things, to ebb and flow, in favor - out of favor. And it's probably hard to influence what's happing now - what's 'in favor.'

All anybody can do is keep spreading the word in as positive a way as is honestly possible. Like I said above, it's positive when somebody brings up the Guild in conversation. Over the longer term, that has to be the core strategy of the Guild's membership because without that, nothing will happen. The Guild's day will come again, as it has in the past.

I would think about adding the ABS "Reno" show every January (this will be the 4th year, coming up) to the short list of "highly upscale" shows above. All I can say is, if you've been there, you know, and if someone hasn't been to the Reno show, I certainly understand. The trough is big and full. There's just a lot of great stuff happening out there in the world of custom cutlery. Who can possibly take it all in?

That's where the influence of the internet can be seen - collectors and enthusiasts communicate and share often very different types of blades and knife-related interests, with pictures of course, which is really where the internet shines. There has never been a time like this in the history of knife-making. I have no idea what might happen next and I guess I'm naturally suspicious of those who think they do.

I heard that for too long the top names in the Guild world wouldn't have tables in the show! If that's true then that's a simple case of cutting your own throat, busines-swise. I'm not saying that it's true, I just heard it a lot.

People say, "Yeah, well you're really missing out by not checking out these guys in the Guild." Duh! I know that - there's just more out there than than I have resources for. Somebody said, "You makers have more knives than I have money." Well, that's for damn sure!

Then there's the matter of the 'foreign buyers.' I agree that's a big enough part of the knife-buying world that when that market ebbs and flows like any other, people are gonna feel it (in their pocketbooks).

Even with all of this I bet most knifemakers who love what they're doing will keep
doing it, part-time most likely, full -time if they're fortunate. They'll be ready when the tide shifts. In the meantime, pass the biscuits and gravy, if you know what I mean!
 
Part of the problem is that the show circuit is getting diluted. In the period of just a month or so, you have the Blade Show, the Guild Show, the Central Texas Show and the Chicago Show. Very few makers produce enough work, or can aford to go Blade-Guild-Chicago, and that is just for this period. Makers are having to alternate shows. There has been a few times where you have multiple shows on the same weekend.

At the same time, internet sales are becoming a large part of the steady income for knifemakers. You don't have go to a show, sell off there and take orders to keep you going until the next show. You also don't have much overhead like plane tickets, hotel room and food.

It can definitely be argued that you can become a knifemaker and built a customer base strictly on internet popularity. On the same token, you now have knife collectors who learned about custom knives through the internet and but their knives over the internet, so now you have a pool of makers and collectors that are not a part of the show culture.

The downside to that is you have a lot of folks that don't see knives beyond 5 years back, as evidenced by the many "who'se your favorite maker" threads that are dominated by makers that hang out on that particular forum. You also do not get to compare knives, styles and quality through the internet alone. Even the best picture will not show you a folder's action or if the grinds on a fixed blade are symmetrical. If you can't compare, how are you going to know any better?
 
Great looking knife Win. Congrats both you you and BD.

As far as Bobby Branton, I feel he is an honest to goodness treasure to the knife community in every way I can imagine.

Like Coop it was good to hear that the show went well and was enjoyed. It is just my opinion that the Guild leadership including the show chariman are making strong and capable efforts to bring this show to the levels that it has enjoyed in the past. Some of the more obvious things they have done are the "gala" and cutting competition and I am sure there are a lot more that are not so obvious. They already have seen things they will implement in 2006 to make this show even better.

I am curious to find out if consideration is being given to Bob's thoughts on the timing of the show. Having it close to other major shows is tough on the makers and also has an effect on the availability of funds (at least for this collector.)
 
Very nice knife Win and it was good to meet you in Orlando.

Alot of very good points being made here, interesting thread.

I enjoyed the Guild show, I visited with old friends and met new ones, bought killer handle material, fossil walrus ivory and the nicest stag I've seen in a long time and even sold a few knives :D I was a little concerned about the attendence but it was a good time.

I'm one of the makers who did Blade, and Guild and is getting ready for the Chicago show, also getting orders out between shows. I'm just about burned to a frizzle but I love what I do and will continue. I started doing the Blade show 10 years ago and never did the Guild because it was too close to Blade and Blade was too good to me. Now with the NEW Chicago show being so good, it's going to be hard for me to continue to do all three and Chicago was a great show last year. I also do the St.Louis show in January and ECCKS in February. On top of all this I have a website with no knives available for sale and a list of people waiting for knives. So I don't know what the answer is, but I will have to cut a couple shows next year to keep from going crazy. But hey, it's all fun.

The internet is great for custom knives. Shows are great for custom knives.

I believe this is my longest post ever :p

Don Hanson lll sunfishforge.com
 
Win:
Nice score this is a very nice knife!

Bob:
Congrats on making it into the Guild.

Bobby B. is definitely one of the good guys and he did a good job on his first cutting competition.

For those who came out to the show, on behalf of the Guild: Thank you! I hope to see you and more knife fans next year. We are actually scheming on new things for next year but I won't let the cat out of the bag yet.... ;)
 
Anthony Lombardo said:
The show is in Orlando, which is a great place to take kids.
It is a lousy place for a knife show, IMO.
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So very true.

Venue and timing will be the key to success......................

Gorgeous knife Win!!! You have great taste
 
The 2006 Guild Show awards are:

Most Innovative: Bertie Rietveld
Best Overall: Wolfgang Loerchner
Best Bowie: Jerry McClure
Best Tactical: Dietmar Kressler
Best Folder: Jack Davenport
Best Art Knife: Warren Osborne

A lot of great knives were entered in the competition. Congratulations again to the winners! :thumbup:
 
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