My wife and I just went through this on the way 'to and fro' the Eugene, OR. (OKCA) show...coming from separate cities on the way there.
Following the advice from Les' post (or maybe it was something posted by John Hollister), we got to the airport(s) a little early, and asked that our baggage be hand checked and sealed by the TSA staff while we watched...
The process went something like this...
After receiving our boarding passes, we followed the airline agent over to the OCS (I dunno what that stands for, but that's what 'they' called it), where we were introduced to the TSA inspector.
We declared 'high dollar items', specifically 'collectible' knives, in sheaths (If yours aren't sheathed, let the TSA inspectors know before hand)...
In my case, the bags were opened and hand checked, then run through a large x-ray machine for examination. Upon exit from the machine, the bags were tagged by TSA, and zip tied closed. In my wife's case, the bags were x-ray'ed first, then hand checked, then tagged and zip tied closed.
The whole process on both ends took less than 10 minutes, and provided us with great piece of mind. All in all, it was a very painless and professional process. YMMV
Hope that helps,
Mel