Kohai999
Second Degree Cutter
- Joined
- Jul 15, 2003
- Messages
- 12,554
Hey all,
Thanks for the encouraging words about my Friday night review. Dawkwind asked about Jack, I'll mention some in a bit.
Saturday morning I woke up at 6:30 am, so I got about 4 1/2 hours of sleep. I am 5'6", and Thomas put me up in his 6 year old sons bed. Thankfully, the child is not a bed wetter. My legs still stuck off the bed by a foot. Thomas thinks this is very funny.
We had to hit the ATM on Saturday as well, and got the the show at about 9:30 am. Just as we are dumping stuff off in my car, Jack Alvarez pulls up in a newer white Ford Mustang. We have a few words, and he splits. He wanted to be the very first one in the showroom. Jack is Jack. I have known him for over 10 years, and he puts a whole lot of people off. I'll say this; In 10 years of doing knife deals, Jack has never screwed me.
The cafe at the hotel has great eggs benedict for anyone interested, and a very good tequila Bloody Mary. Some stupid, loudmouth yuppy dipstick female showed up at the end of breakfast, and acted like she owned the place. If I had not been slightly sleep deprived and was not still on a feel-good about Friday night, I would have doused her with some ice water. I did not want to get 86'd from the hotel, however.
The big deal for Saturday was that Ken Onion was having a drawing for the knives on his table. In other words, you had to compete on an even playing field to get his stuff. I'm not real crazy about the idea, but I understand it. The show opened at 10:00 am, and Ken drew the names at 11:00 am. Thomas wanted one of Ken's knives, so he asked me to put my name in, which I did. Long story short, my name was pulled as the second one, an $850 SpeedSafe with silver G-10, custom-made by Ken's own hands. Mitch Lum helped us choose it, which I will remain eternally grateful for. I have never had many words with him in the past, but he was very knowledgable, polite and sincerely interested in assisting with a difficult decision. The idea was to see if we could get the knife, and turn it, a while down the road. We had to borrow the money from a friend to pay for it (not enough $$$ brought with me, remember?), so turning it immediately became a priority. We did, for a profit, in 15 minutes. This was not fun, because a lot of people wanted it, and some were getting pushy. I really don't understand the phenomenon of Ken's knives being super hot right now, so if someone wants to explain it to me, that would be appreciated. The workmanship/fit/finish is excellent, and the mechanism is neat, but the whole concept of super hot tacticals (with the exception of Emerson) got played out years ago, didn't it?
After the drawing, I got back to doing what I had been doing before; talking with Bailey Bradshaw, who I did not mention in the previous posting, because my only interaction with him on Friday night was to drool over a damascus fighter that he made.
Bailey Bradshaw-Is probably one of the coolest knifemakers that I have met in a long time. This damascus fighter that he had was absolutely beautiful, with a carved, shaped wood handle that just looked like perfection. I will kick myself for years for not purchasing it. When I first started chatting with Bailey he was in the midst of selling most of the available knives on his table. We talked for over an hour about everything under the sun, including martial arts, which I study, as well. I look forward to meeting him again.
Scott Slobodian-As a Japanese martial artist, I had to check out Scott's work. I had specific questions about some of his manufacturing methodology that have been bothering me for some time, and wanted to get answers from the horse's mouth. He was honest, sincere and very humble. He spent more than an hour conversing with me, and I thank him for his time. I was about 80% towards going into hock for an aikuchi that he had with green stabilized tsuka and saya, and just could not bring myself to do it. I am looking for a tanto about 12" in blade length to wear with my katana, as is the style of our art (MJER Iaijutsu). All I could see this piece for was a study piece, and I have too many of them.
After saying my goodbyes, I left the show at 2:00 pm.
I would like to publicly thank Dan Delavan of Plaza Cutlery for putting this show together. It was first rate, top notch and probably one of the most fun shows that I have ever been to. I am still happy that I went.
I decided to write up the whole shebang to see if I could still write well, and to share the experience with all of you, as you have done for the rest of us in your postings. I also wanted to commit something that I enjoyed to posterity via the written word.
Best Regards,
STeven Garsson
Thanks for the encouraging words about my Friday night review. Dawkwind asked about Jack, I'll mention some in a bit.
Saturday morning I woke up at 6:30 am, so I got about 4 1/2 hours of sleep. I am 5'6", and Thomas put me up in his 6 year old sons bed. Thankfully, the child is not a bed wetter. My legs still stuck off the bed by a foot. Thomas thinks this is very funny.
We had to hit the ATM on Saturday as well, and got the the show at about 9:30 am. Just as we are dumping stuff off in my car, Jack Alvarez pulls up in a newer white Ford Mustang. We have a few words, and he splits. He wanted to be the very first one in the showroom. Jack is Jack. I have known him for over 10 years, and he puts a whole lot of people off. I'll say this; In 10 years of doing knife deals, Jack has never screwed me.
The cafe at the hotel has great eggs benedict for anyone interested, and a very good tequila Bloody Mary. Some stupid, loudmouth yuppy dipstick female showed up at the end of breakfast, and acted like she owned the place. If I had not been slightly sleep deprived and was not still on a feel-good about Friday night, I would have doused her with some ice water. I did not want to get 86'd from the hotel, however.
The big deal for Saturday was that Ken Onion was having a drawing for the knives on his table. In other words, you had to compete on an even playing field to get his stuff. I'm not real crazy about the idea, but I understand it. The show opened at 10:00 am, and Ken drew the names at 11:00 am. Thomas wanted one of Ken's knives, so he asked me to put my name in, which I did. Long story short, my name was pulled as the second one, an $850 SpeedSafe with silver G-10, custom-made by Ken's own hands. Mitch Lum helped us choose it, which I will remain eternally grateful for. I have never had many words with him in the past, but he was very knowledgable, polite and sincerely interested in assisting with a difficult decision. The idea was to see if we could get the knife, and turn it, a while down the road. We had to borrow the money from a friend to pay for it (not enough $$$ brought with me, remember?), so turning it immediately became a priority. We did, for a profit, in 15 minutes. This was not fun, because a lot of people wanted it, and some were getting pushy. I really don't understand the phenomenon of Ken's knives being super hot right now, so if someone wants to explain it to me, that would be appreciated. The workmanship/fit/finish is excellent, and the mechanism is neat, but the whole concept of super hot tacticals (with the exception of Emerson) got played out years ago, didn't it?
After the drawing, I got back to doing what I had been doing before; talking with Bailey Bradshaw, who I did not mention in the previous posting, because my only interaction with him on Friday night was to drool over a damascus fighter that he made.
Bailey Bradshaw-Is probably one of the coolest knifemakers that I have met in a long time. This damascus fighter that he had was absolutely beautiful, with a carved, shaped wood handle that just looked like perfection. I will kick myself for years for not purchasing it. When I first started chatting with Bailey he was in the midst of selling most of the available knives on his table. We talked for over an hour about everything under the sun, including martial arts, which I study, as well. I look forward to meeting him again.
Scott Slobodian-As a Japanese martial artist, I had to check out Scott's work. I had specific questions about some of his manufacturing methodology that have been bothering me for some time, and wanted to get answers from the horse's mouth. He was honest, sincere and very humble. He spent more than an hour conversing with me, and I thank him for his time. I was about 80% towards going into hock for an aikuchi that he had with green stabilized tsuka and saya, and just could not bring myself to do it. I am looking for a tanto about 12" in blade length to wear with my katana, as is the style of our art (MJER Iaijutsu). All I could see this piece for was a study piece, and I have too many of them.
After saying my goodbyes, I left the show at 2:00 pm.
I would like to publicly thank Dan Delavan of Plaza Cutlery for putting this show together. It was first rate, top notch and probably one of the most fun shows that I have ever been to. I am still happy that I went.
I decided to write up the whole shebang to see if I could still write well, and to share the experience with all of you, as you have done for the rest of us in your postings. I also wanted to commit something that I enjoyed to posterity via the written word.
Best Regards,
STeven Garsson
