Kohai999
Second Degree Cutter
- Joined
- Jul 15, 2003
- Messages
- 12,554
Went to the Southern California Blades Knife Expo at the Pasadena Convention Center this past Saturday: www.scblades.com
Had a trade show in Anaheim starting Thursday morning, that ended at 1:00 PM Saturday, got checked out of the Disneyland Hotel at 1:30 and was on the road in 10 minutes. Took me almost 90 minutest to go 38 miles. It's been said before, but L.A. traffic sucks eggs!
Parking was somewhat tough at the convention center, for some reason the last two times attending the Knife Expo(2005, this one), there has been a cheerleader tournament. Place is overrun with JonBenet Ramsey lookalikes-absolutely bizarre!
Once parking was squared away, had exactly 2 1/2 hours to "do" the show. The compelling reason that I made the trip was to procure a Harald Moeller Viper II throwing knife. Got one gently used from Bobby Branton last year, and was using it as a letter opener. Sent it to a knifemaker friend to polish, and he lost it. Done a LOT of favors for me over the years, so couldn't beat him up too bad, he feels like crap anyway. Harald HATES making these anymore, so am very fortunate that he agreed to do this one. Mirror polished. www.hmoellerknives.com
After concluding business with Harald, walked the show for a bit. Stopped by Bob Glassman's table, he always has some pretty knives to look at. www.customknifegallery.com
After that, said hi to Dan Favano and Scott Moore. Dan has a site, www.iqknives.com, and Scott is a big dealer/collector of tactical knives, specializing in Al Mar, and Chris Reeve, also has a bit of Strider.
Got to meet Mike Lovett after a fair amount of time, he had a large sampling of the Loveless-Lovett Connection knives, not for sales, but for show and tell. Mike is going to see Loveless later in the week, and is really looking forward to the visit. Louis Chow was a tableholder, and had his usual top quality selection of Loveless knives, and many others. We did some show and tell.
Visited with Mike Vagnino , J.P. Holmes and his lovely wife Karen for a short bit, J.P. is a good friend, and a past holder of a table next to us at the OKCA knife show in Eugene, OR. He has started to make folders, and he is doing a great job. www.jphknives.com
Stopped by and said hello to Jack Alvarez. He is well known to many on the Forums.
Barry Gallagher decided to do this show, for some reason. We sat for a while, and chatted about health problems. Getting old and busted-up really sucks! He had the "Dragonfly" knife on his table that was on the cover of one of the past Blade issues. What an absolutely stunning knife! He said that it took 33 days to complete, and you can totally see that when you handle it. http://www.gallagherknives.com/damascus_folders_frame_set.htm
Barry asked me to check out a new maker's table, Gordon Smith. Gordon is a renowned maker of museum quality glass paperweights, and is branching out into custom knifemaking as a hobby. The knives were nice, but the paperweights that he had were amazing! www.gordonsmithstudios.com
Jerid Johnson was a table holder, and had customers at the table, both times that I stopped by. Blades look excellent, and when he starts moving into fighter guards, will have my rapt attention. Serious up and comer, he had an integral knife on the table that looked very well done. www.jeridjohnson.com
As I was getting ready to leave, I stopped by the RECON1 www.recon-1.com table, and met Sevag Tankian, and his friend Ken, who I had chatted with previously, at an adjoining table. Sevag had a nice table full of Randall Knives, and is the younger brother of System Of A Down lead singer, Serj Tankian. Really, really nice guy, I must have seemed like a freak from another planet, but have been really digging on Hypnotize and Mesmerize lately, and shared that info with him.
On that high note, I split, and spent another 35 minutes in traffic, moving at 15 mph, until passing Anaheim going south.
This is a show that has been attended by some greats in the past, and still is. The crowd was pretty heavy, but reports were that not much spending was done. Bill Ruple sold out in his usual record time, and there were other makers that had nothing to sell on the table when I got there, like Richard Rogers. If you have the ability, I highly recommend making this show at opening on Friday, I will next year!
Best Regards,
STeven Garsson
Had a trade show in Anaheim starting Thursday morning, that ended at 1:00 PM Saturday, got checked out of the Disneyland Hotel at 1:30 and was on the road in 10 minutes. Took me almost 90 minutest to go 38 miles. It's been said before, but L.A. traffic sucks eggs!
Parking was somewhat tough at the convention center, for some reason the last two times attending the Knife Expo(2005, this one), there has been a cheerleader tournament. Place is overrun with JonBenet Ramsey lookalikes-absolutely bizarre!
Once parking was squared away, had exactly 2 1/2 hours to "do" the show. The compelling reason that I made the trip was to procure a Harald Moeller Viper II throwing knife. Got one gently used from Bobby Branton last year, and was using it as a letter opener. Sent it to a knifemaker friend to polish, and he lost it. Done a LOT of favors for me over the years, so couldn't beat him up too bad, he feels like crap anyway. Harald HATES making these anymore, so am very fortunate that he agreed to do this one. Mirror polished. www.hmoellerknives.com
After concluding business with Harald, walked the show for a bit. Stopped by Bob Glassman's table, he always has some pretty knives to look at. www.customknifegallery.com
After that, said hi to Dan Favano and Scott Moore. Dan has a site, www.iqknives.com, and Scott is a big dealer/collector of tactical knives, specializing in Al Mar, and Chris Reeve, also has a bit of Strider.
Got to meet Mike Lovett after a fair amount of time, he had a large sampling of the Loveless-Lovett Connection knives, not for sales, but for show and tell. Mike is going to see Loveless later in the week, and is really looking forward to the visit. Louis Chow was a tableholder, and had his usual top quality selection of Loveless knives, and many others. We did some show and tell.
Visited with Mike Vagnino , J.P. Holmes and his lovely wife Karen for a short bit, J.P. is a good friend, and a past holder of a table next to us at the OKCA knife show in Eugene, OR. He has started to make folders, and he is doing a great job. www.jphknives.com
Stopped by and said hello to Jack Alvarez. He is well known to many on the Forums.
Barry Gallagher decided to do this show, for some reason. We sat for a while, and chatted about health problems. Getting old and busted-up really sucks! He had the "Dragonfly" knife on his table that was on the cover of one of the past Blade issues. What an absolutely stunning knife! He said that it took 33 days to complete, and you can totally see that when you handle it. http://www.gallagherknives.com/damascus_folders_frame_set.htm
Barry asked me to check out a new maker's table, Gordon Smith. Gordon is a renowned maker of museum quality glass paperweights, and is branching out into custom knifemaking as a hobby. The knives were nice, but the paperweights that he had were amazing! www.gordonsmithstudios.com
Jerid Johnson was a table holder, and had customers at the table, both times that I stopped by. Blades look excellent, and when he starts moving into fighter guards, will have my rapt attention. Serious up and comer, he had an integral knife on the table that looked very well done. www.jeridjohnson.com
As I was getting ready to leave, I stopped by the RECON1 www.recon-1.com table, and met Sevag Tankian, and his friend Ken, who I had chatted with previously, at an adjoining table. Sevag had a nice table full of Randall Knives, and is the younger brother of System Of A Down lead singer, Serj Tankian. Really, really nice guy, I must have seemed like a freak from another planet, but have been really digging on Hypnotize and Mesmerize lately, and shared that info with him.
On that high note, I split, and spent another 35 minutes in traffic, moving at 15 mph, until passing Anaheim going south.
This is a show that has been attended by some greats in the past, and still is. The crowd was pretty heavy, but reports were that not much spending was done. Bill Ruple sold out in his usual record time, and there were other makers that had nothing to sell on the table when I got there, like Richard Rogers. If you have the ability, I highly recommend making this show at opening on Friday, I will next year!
Best Regards,
STeven Garsson
Great reporting,excellent review.
