The Amazing Virginian
Gold Member
- Joined
- Feb 24, 2010
- Messages
- 9,881
Here are my quick impressions. Please feel free to post your own (which may be quite different from mine!).
1) Loveless-style makers did well. I know of four such makers who were sold out by early Saturday afternoon, and others who had sold several knives by that time. One maker sold 12 knives and I believe another maker sold 10. And they were taking orders for more.
2) There seemed to be more knives, and less "tangential" items like scissors, beads, etc.
3) The "Living Ready" Expo (ready for what?
) seemed to take up the space that the tangential stuff might have occupied in the past. Not sure how all that fit in with knives, but I spent some time walking through that section and I got a chuckle out of some of it.
4) Traffic and sales (at least for custom knives0 appeared to me to be up in general. And there were (IMO) many, many high quality custom and art knives displayed and/or available for sale.
5) It is NICE to got to a show and actually see knives. Unlike NYCKS, several makers at Blade who had no knives for sale at least DISPLAYED their knives so attendees could see actual knives, instead of just pictures-of-knives. I stopped at the table of one well-known and excellent maker who, unsurpisingly given his reputation, had no knives available for sale. But he still had a half dozen knives displayed and available for inspection. This is a welcomed practice.
6) There are still too many makers who sell their knives out early (e.g., on Friday) and then leave their empty table behind. An empty table all day Saturday and Sunday . . . as an attendee, I do not like it.
1) Loveless-style makers did well. I know of four such makers who were sold out by early Saturday afternoon, and others who had sold several knives by that time. One maker sold 12 knives and I believe another maker sold 10. And they were taking orders for more.
2) There seemed to be more knives, and less "tangential" items like scissors, beads, etc.
3) The "Living Ready" Expo (ready for what?
) seemed to take up the space that the tangential stuff might have occupied in the past. Not sure how all that fit in with knives, but I spent some time walking through that section and I got a chuckle out of some of it.4) Traffic and sales (at least for custom knives0 appeared to me to be up in general. And there were (IMO) many, many high quality custom and art knives displayed and/or available for sale.
5) It is NICE to got to a show and actually see knives. Unlike NYCKS, several makers at Blade who had no knives for sale at least DISPLAYED their knives so attendees could see actual knives, instead of just pictures-of-knives. I stopped at the table of one well-known and excellent maker who, unsurpisingly given his reputation, had no knives available for sale. But he still had a half dozen knives displayed and available for inspection. This is a welcomed practice.
6) There are still too many makers who sell their knives out early (e.g., on Friday) and then leave their empty table behind. An empty table all day Saturday and Sunday . . . as an attendee, I do not like it.
