My day at the Central TX Knife Show

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donovan

Joined
Oct 4, 1998
Messages
1,100
My wife and I spent an enjoyable afternoon in Austin Friday. I finally had the opportunity to put faces with names of several forumites including Chris and Marti from Top of Texas Knives, George Tichbourne (who was adjusting very nicely to the Texas heat, but didn't bring any kitchen knives
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), Ray Kirk of Rakers's Knives who shares my interest in Native American flutes, Bailey Bradshaw of Whitewing Knives, Gene Osborne, and Pete Peterson who was kind enough to let me whip him mercilessly with questions about forging.

Highlights for me:

Whitewing Knives-these are very nice gentlemen's folders. 3V blades, my favorites were wharncliffe style with stag(very nice) or mastadon(oh, my!) scales.

Jason Jacks, Jack's Custom Knives-beautiful upscale folders, silky smooth action. See for yourself here: www.jacksknives.com What I would have brought home if I had been born rich instead of handsome.
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Richard Self Handmade Knives-very nice small fixed blades. Richard fileworks his blades, uses thin colored spacers and then epoxies the holes. The effect is very striking.

Terry Hearn-when I got to Terry's table he had already made his first sale. A nice little fixed blade made by his 12 year old daughter Ashley. This was a well crafted little knife and only her second attempt (she sold the first one, too). Dad stood at her shoulder, but Ashley did all the work herself. Very impressive.

We really had a great time meeting all the nice folks and the best part is that my wife discovered that she has fondness for autos.
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Jack
 
Thanks for the update, interested in one of those Whitewing folders myself....but with my trip coming up had to postpone the purchase, just hope I'm not too late.

Was anyone taking pics during the show?
Maybe they would post a few for us that couldn't make the trip?

G2

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"The Road to Hell is Paved with Good Intentions!"
Take the time to read your Bible Now, don't be left behind...

G2 LeatherWorks
 
I didn't see any picture takers, Gary, but today will probably be the big day. Things were somewhat in a state of flux yesterday. I think you're on the right track with Whitewing. The blades are thin. Add that with the inherent strength of 3V and you get an elegant pocket knife that should cut like crazy. I've never had an opinion on mastadon, but IMO, while the stag was nice, the mastadon was outstanding.

Jack
 
donovan,

Thanks for sharing the show with those of us who didn't get to go this year.
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Did Terry Hearn have alot of knives to sell? Anything with nice Stag handles? I have been "visiting" one of his knives that is for sale on a Collectors webiste and was wondring what other folks thought of his work??

Did George T. bring several hunting knives?

Thanks again for the report. Enjoy the big day.

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Marine Sniper Motto:
There's no use Running, you'll only Die Tired!
 
Terry did have quite a few knives, Hillbillenigma. I don't recall any stag and to be honest I didn't look at his knives close enough to offer a good opinion on quality, but at the prices he asks I don't think you could go wrong. George had a good selection, mostly hunters as I recall, including a couple that he had done some nice scrimshaw work on. Sorry I couldn't be more help. After a couple of hours my brain had gone into knife overload.

Jack
 
AAAAAAAUUUUUUUUUGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!

DAMN MY WIFE'S CAR AND ALL ITS PARTS. MASTADON, MASTADON!!!!!!!!

AAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGGRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!

Glad I got that off my chest.

What were the Mastadon scales running on the Whitewings?

-Sam.
 
I think you handled that very well, Sam.
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I'm hoping that someone else from the show will come along to bail me out on the price cuz I really don't remember. My recollection is that it was in the neighborhood of $325. My apologies to Mr. Bradshaw if I just drastically over or under valued his fine work.

Jack
 
Hey guys here is some of the info you might be looking for. Speaking of Terry Hearn, he won best folder at the show. Bailey took best handmade straight knife with an awesome dagger.And best of show with the same knife. Chris Christman has the neatest family I ever met. And I have sevral mastadon, Ivory and pearl handled Whitewings in stock at this time. If you need more info about the show or whatever just ask. I was very happy with the knife I picked up for my collection, a W.R.Case and sons 6392P long pull in near mint cond. Another person to check out is Dwayne Dushane his knives are great and his filework is the best I have ever seen. There is a link from my site to his.

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Chris http://www.members.tripod.com/ctexknife
 
Hey y'all,
Just a quick note about what a great time we had at the show. As you would expect with great makers like the ones that were at the show there were some knives to die for. I'd like to thank Chris Carlson and his wife, Michelle for all the work that they put in for the show and for providing their daughter as a playmate for our little girl.
We're fixin' to shut it down and go to bed. We're going to Six Flags tomorrow and will be posting more about the show when we get home. So stay tuned.
Chris
Top of Texas Knives
www.toptexknives.com
www.toptexknives.com/christman.htm

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Just got home to the frosty frozen north, about 8 or 10 degrees cooler than Austin.

The show was a lot of fun, meeting people that I had only met over the web and some that I have been reading about in the magazines and a whole lot of others.

Attendance was way down from the expected crowd because of major road closures that happened on Friday night so some people that I expected took a long time to find the place and some others gave up in frustration, real disapointing.

CL Wilkins made it on Saturday and wonders of wonders he got through the entire show and didn't cut his fingers once.

Got to get unpacked now, will follow up later.

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george
www.tichbourneknives.com
sales@tichbourneknives.com


 
In general the show was not a commercial success for custom knifemakers, some of the collectors claim to have to have dome well in getting some very desirable models.

I was pleasantly surprised to meet several of my customers and their families who made the trip to meet Carol and me. We spent the weekend doing the tourist thing with Chris and Marti Christman and family, loved the catfish parlour and the bats were interesting. Marti and Carol dropped George Bush's office to meet him but he was out of town.

One of the things that surprised me were the numbers of people who recognized my name from the magazine advertising and articles as well as the internet. Now I don't feel so bad about writing that cheque every two months to cover the ad costs.

I had some time to talk with some fine slip joint makers and picked up a lot of information. I will be working on some high end slip joints over the next couple of months with the lovely black lip pearl that Johnny Stout brought along on Sunday.

It is a crying shame that someone stole a knife off Bill Keller's table on Saturday.

Texas Knifemakers Supply showed up with a large box of Desert Ironwood, I helped him out by sorting through it as soon as it hit the table and putting aside some of the best for myself. I have some of the newest pattern Damasteel, darned if I can remember the name now, but it sure is pretty.

On the downside the lack of traffic made for a commercial disaster on my part, not a single sale unless you count the two chicken fork that Pat Osborne had ordered ahead of time. The upside is that I now have plenty of inventory for the Toronto Hunting show on the weekend after Labour Day.

Got to get ready to go back to work, the holiday is over.


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george
www.tichbourneknives.com
sales@tichbourneknives.com


 
Just wanted to say, "Hi!" and "Thanks, everyone, it was great to meet and talk with y'all!" To everybody that I met on Friday!

It was great, if not a little overwhelming, to be surrounded by so many folks with so much ability!

Dangit all, though, I fell in love with so many pieces, and I have so much absence of money...sorry that the traffic turned the show into a mess, guys. I'm gonna make the laughing-up-the-sleeve guess that all of the Liberal politicos found out about the Knife Show, and decided it would be a perfect time to destroy the easy and obvious point of entry to it!

Anyway, a big "Howdy," and my thanks to everyone who turned up and answered all of my questions patiently and kindly. I hope to catch a bunch of you at later shows, and maybe even get some of my stuff out there, too!


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Meddle not in the affairs of Dragons, for you are crunchy, and good with ketchup...
 
Any pics available from this show?

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"The Road to Hell is Paved with Good Intentions!"
Take the time to read your Bible Now, don't be left behind...

G2 LeatherWorks
 
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