what did you come away with??
Fair question, and since I didn't take photos at the show, and it would not be fair not to mention the makers I did buy from, Here's an addition:
Riccardo Mainolfi had this Loveless pattern City Knife and it just struck too many chords for me not to buy. It's an integral design, one of my favorite patterns, slim and not too big, with lovely green hand picked bone scales. The MOP inset in the bolsters was just different enough to wrap up the package. I will need to find someone to make a proper carry sheath for it though.
I also picked up a pocket steak knife from Paul Adrian Stahlwarenfabrik, a company that specializes in kitchen knives and that is not well know in USA but does good business in Europe. This knife was designed from their regular pattern steak knives, but as a pocket version because the founder got tired of lousy knives when he went to a restaurant and wanted something anyone could take and eat well with. They come with an assortment of wood scales (this one is olive wood) and are true slipjoints with a half stop.
So did you venture to Solingen solely for the show?
Yes I did. It was a decent enough day for a drive, foggy in the morning, cleared up some, and then raining in the afternoon. The fog slowed the autobahn down more than the rain, but it's about a 3 hour drive for me from where I'm at now.
I stopped and crawled around a old ruined castle for a bit on the way back to clear my head and get me out of the car for a bit. Here's a couple shots of Burg Olbruck. It's a fair climb up the hill, and i even climbed the tower (only to find the top deck closed off) but you can see a lot of country from up there. It's probably nicer when it's not raining.
