How was this years Blade Show?

Tom Lewis

Tom Lewis

Joined
Feb 24, 2000
Messages
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I used to go to the Blade Show, but it's a long ways from New Mexico, and I haven't gone the last few years. Still, I am interested in how it was this year and maybe seeing some pictures.
 
It was great for me!
The crowd was good, and the dealers I spoke with had a good show.
I don't know about custom makers.
 
The crowd was definitely better than last year, most of the makers I know personally did well. There were some really high dollar sales.


Also the best batch of Mastersmith test applicants pretty much ever. Phenomenal level of quality and all passed, which is nearly unprecedented.


I never get a table there, but always go to help/support my friends, drink too much, and go into debt buying ivory. I will say that I've really seen a decline in supplies the last few years in a row. This year was no exception. Less suppliers, very little ivory to choose from (although I did see some of the nicest ivory I've ever seen, and bought one exceptional piece of walrus), a fraction of the ironwood I saw last year and obviously from the same stock. Very little stag other than Culpepper's supply. Less pearl, less everything frankly from a materials standpoint.


I still managed to spend all the money I brought, plus all the money I made. ;)
 
It was a great show. Big crowd lots of spending. Fun time.
 
This was only my 2nd Blade, but I did enjoy it. It was so crowded it was hard to tell which was most crowded, last yr or this year. Did seem to be good crowds both years. There was some VERY nice mammoth ivory, but really nice prices also. I purchased very little mammoth - just very small stuff to cut up into folder scales.

Wife says we're going back next year - she enjoys Blade!!

Ken H>
 
Jason Fry said:
From what he's posting on instagram, he's got a hot new girlfriend who enjoys the outdoors. Not many knife pictures lately.
Click to expand...

I haven't signed up for that so I can't subscribe, but I had a look.

I agree, that's a distraction of the best kind.
That explains everything.
 
I had a great show, and learned a lot about how to better set up for next year. I made some good friends, sold lots of forges, and discovered that my son is a wheeler-dealer. He sold a friend's tuxedo collection for $150 more than he was asking, in about 20 minutes. I didn't spend hours walking around, but it seemed that there were fewer flashlight dealers than last year. Maybe people discovered you can buy the same $30 Cree LDE flashlights on eBay for $6.
 
It was my first time attending Blade. It was great to be able to thank some of the Bladeforum contributors in person! Seeing such awesome craftsmanship up close and personal was really amazing. I was impressed by how far some of the guys traveled, there were some makers from Japan and even one from South Africa.
 
I actually had very little sales but I feel like that's due to my lack of marketing my knives this year.

I was COMPLETELY focused on getting my JS knives up to snuff. figured I could find a way to sell em later ;-)
 
I took nine and came home with one.

(Nick has a new girlfriend?)

Regardless, don't concern yourselves with his absence. He'll be back. ;)
 
I didn't go ( again) but just talked to Brad from Peter's HT and he said it was a great show.
 
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