Kohai999
Second Degree Cutter
- Joined
- Jul 15, 2003
- Messages
- 12,554
Hey all,
Been super busy. This new job has me working on 40+ish hours per week, but some days start at 3:30 am wakeup, and some run to 11:00 pm close/1:00 am bedtime, and my brain is still lagging most days. Today was a good day, function and execution are equal....good news is, I work with knives, generally 3+ hours a day, cutting meat or fish...bad news, most of them are stamped Sani-Safe knockoffs, but I have introduced a J.P. Holmes S90 Chef's(performs very well, holds sharp edge a long time) into the mix, as well as a Kai SG Deba(tip broke) and a new 10" Sanelli Premana Professional Line-Cook's Knife(edge geometry SUCKS so far, will probably reprofile)...so that is a lot of fun.
GIII was awesome...saw a lot of friends, talked to a lot of people. Met David Sharp of Sharpwerks who posts as David66 on BladeForums.....cat has big stones, big heart and a whole big pile of talent, and you can take that to the bank. He showed some Loveless style knives that were just the total heat....took him over to Mike Snody's table, and if I had the thoughts going, would have had Mike critique him....but my thoughts were pretty shot this trip...talked with Chad Nichols for a while, he was right next to Matt Diskin/Volcan Knives in the quad, and he does some real nice "manufactured steel"(his choice of words)....had some bars of steel that were well thought out, and extremely well executed, but I am still a Devin Thomas man, due to both a very longstanding friendship, and the fact that Devin makes IN MY OPINION, the best stainless damascus out there...when you can get it, and accepted that is regularly hard to do.....up at 4:30 am Friday morning, in Lost Wages by 9:00 am, out Saturday night at 6:30 pm...so the show is a blur.
Didn't purchase any custom knives there. Picked up two Microtech GIII specials, one with inlay, one without, a "tattooed" Spyderco Dragonfly, Spyderco folding subhilt by Butch Vallotton, a Pro-Tech Dark Angel Prototype and 3 flashlights-Strider Lenslight, and two titanium 4Sevens. Also got a really cool silver Shi kami bead, a set of magnetic titanium bracelet ends and some ti beads....in other words a gear show(for me, some friends scored excellent knives). I ORDERED a long sought-after Phil Boguszewski Cobra with jigged black micarta scales, orange peel ti bolsters, and an orange spacer for some color. Very excited about this, have known Phil for a long time and have owned three of his knives, but the Cobra is really the one for me, and aftermarket prices are still in the four figure area. Almost all manufacturers had some sort of killer show deal, which was SWEET for attendees, and everyone seemed to be having a great time.
Sold a Bob Lum Utility Tanto picked up at Blade with a Paul Long sheath to a buddy. Had a bunch of drinks with my buddy Tony Marfione Jr.(AKA "Little" Tony, about a foot taller than his old man) and his girl Jessica....always good times. Talked a long time with Joyce over at Spyderco....she suggested that I might consider writing for the magazines...now Joyce is absolutely as inscrutable as a dragon lady, but she did voice some of the same thoughts that others have about writing skills/passion/knowledge of the industry. There is a looming long term project that likely will happen, so it is something to consider for the future. Joyce also stated that I might tone down my general crudeness....but it is really hard....it's one of the reasons for my lack of much posting lately besides lack of time....not much nice to say.
I learned about knives studying the work of William "Gordon" Defreest, Ron Gaston, Royal Hanson, George Herron, Loveless, Bob Lum, Corbet Sigman, Buster Warenski......these makers have two things in common....they are all deceased, and they all made knives so clean that you could do surgery with them. Great fit and finish, superb blade-to-handle ratios, superior ergonomics....the knives looked really good.
Dead makers have little influence on the knife industry in general, save Loveless-we will not outlive his influence, not in this century....no, right now the makers influencing a very large part of the industry are the Emersons, Reeves, Striders and many custom makers who have taken that torch and run with it. Superior performance or the "perception" of superior performance and a lot of fellows buying into a cult of personality and thinking that having that next grey titanium or sculpted/blasted G10 or the worst of the bunch a titanium slab on one side and some G10 on the other will make these fellows cooler/happier/tougher....none of which is true outside of their sphere of influence. In my opinion, and with great apologies to these mentioned makers all of whom are friends or at least acquaintances, it represents a general "dumbing down" of the knife industry, and it makes me bitter and hateful. It shouldn't be this way, but there it is. A lot of the dealers of these knives are making the market, and would like to pretend that is not the case. If these knives were not all over the magazines in advertisements, there wouldn't be as many features on them, and there wouldn't be as much of a market for them.....I have mixed feelings about the entire situation. I like tactical knives, very much....but they are an aspect of my interest, not THE aspect. Guys like Jack Alvarez are getting fat off promoting these knives, and always have....you can see how conflicted this subject makes me....and I currently have few answers. There are aspects and elements of this whole issue that are very dark and ugly....for one thing, and certainly not at the Gathering, there seem to be folks attracted to the tacticool that should probably not own anything more dangerous than a nail clipper...a hazard to themselves and everyone else, and legislation bait if it ever walked on two feet.
After the show closed on Saturday, we all went back to our rooms, Matt Diskin, Dave Mirabile, Greg Lightfoot, Joe Paranee and myself. All but Mr. Lightfoot went to dinner at Rao's in Caesar's Palace. Also in attendance, Gavin Hawk, Steve D'Lack, Tom Hutton, Dave Ellis, Tony Marfione Jr. and Jessica, and Microtech's Sales Director, Jim. We had Clams Casino, some large antipasto, white bean and escarole soup, salads, lots of veal and great desserts.....KILLER place to have dinner, for sure, thanks for the rec, Dave Ellis! I passed out at 12:00 am, the boys were up past 4:00 am.
Saturday came, and I missed a breakfast appointment with R.J. Martin. As soon as I got to the showroom, found RJ and apologized. We wound up having lunch together, along with Tony and Jessica. Nice patty melt, very tasty fries. Tony picked up the check for all....he's a gem. R.J. and I had cigar and shot the bull for a while, went back to the showroom, said my goodbyes, and was home Garssonizing my purchases by 9:30 pm that night.
Bottom line for me.....GREAT show and a lot of fun, but not a lot of custom knifemakers there geared towards my areas of specific interest. You should go check it out for yourself and see if there is something that DOES speak to you. Either way, you will have a great time, and it is shaping up to be a show on par with any other legendary show...like Blade, the AKI, Jerry Fisk's Micro Show or Josh Smith's show.
Best Regards,
STeven Garsson
Been super busy. This new job has me working on 40+ish hours per week, but some days start at 3:30 am wakeup, and some run to 11:00 pm close/1:00 am bedtime, and my brain is still lagging most days. Today was a good day, function and execution are equal....good news is, I work with knives, generally 3+ hours a day, cutting meat or fish...bad news, most of them are stamped Sani-Safe knockoffs, but I have introduced a J.P. Holmes S90 Chef's(performs very well, holds sharp edge a long time) into the mix, as well as a Kai SG Deba(tip broke) and a new 10" Sanelli Premana Professional Line-Cook's Knife(edge geometry SUCKS so far, will probably reprofile)...so that is a lot of fun.
GIII was awesome...saw a lot of friends, talked to a lot of people. Met David Sharp of Sharpwerks who posts as David66 on BladeForums.....cat has big stones, big heart and a whole big pile of talent, and you can take that to the bank. He showed some Loveless style knives that were just the total heat....took him over to Mike Snody's table, and if I had the thoughts going, would have had Mike critique him....but my thoughts were pretty shot this trip...talked with Chad Nichols for a while, he was right next to Matt Diskin/Volcan Knives in the quad, and he does some real nice "manufactured steel"(his choice of words)....had some bars of steel that were well thought out, and extremely well executed, but I am still a Devin Thomas man, due to both a very longstanding friendship, and the fact that Devin makes IN MY OPINION, the best stainless damascus out there...when you can get it, and accepted that is regularly hard to do.....up at 4:30 am Friday morning, in Lost Wages by 9:00 am, out Saturday night at 6:30 pm...so the show is a blur.
Didn't purchase any custom knives there. Picked up two Microtech GIII specials, one with inlay, one without, a "tattooed" Spyderco Dragonfly, Spyderco folding subhilt by Butch Vallotton, a Pro-Tech Dark Angel Prototype and 3 flashlights-Strider Lenslight, and two titanium 4Sevens. Also got a really cool silver Shi kami bead, a set of magnetic titanium bracelet ends and some ti beads....in other words a gear show(for me, some friends scored excellent knives). I ORDERED a long sought-after Phil Boguszewski Cobra with jigged black micarta scales, orange peel ti bolsters, and an orange spacer for some color. Very excited about this, have known Phil for a long time and have owned three of his knives, but the Cobra is really the one for me, and aftermarket prices are still in the four figure area. Almost all manufacturers had some sort of killer show deal, which was SWEET for attendees, and everyone seemed to be having a great time.
Sold a Bob Lum Utility Tanto picked up at Blade with a Paul Long sheath to a buddy. Had a bunch of drinks with my buddy Tony Marfione Jr.(AKA "Little" Tony, about a foot taller than his old man) and his girl Jessica....always good times. Talked a long time with Joyce over at Spyderco....she suggested that I might consider writing for the magazines...now Joyce is absolutely as inscrutable as a dragon lady, but she did voice some of the same thoughts that others have about writing skills/passion/knowledge of the industry. There is a looming long term project that likely will happen, so it is something to consider for the future. Joyce also stated that I might tone down my general crudeness....but it is really hard....it's one of the reasons for my lack of much posting lately besides lack of time....not much nice to say.
I learned about knives studying the work of William "Gordon" Defreest, Ron Gaston, Royal Hanson, George Herron, Loveless, Bob Lum, Corbet Sigman, Buster Warenski......these makers have two things in common....they are all deceased, and they all made knives so clean that you could do surgery with them. Great fit and finish, superb blade-to-handle ratios, superior ergonomics....the knives looked really good.
Dead makers have little influence on the knife industry in general, save Loveless-we will not outlive his influence, not in this century....no, right now the makers influencing a very large part of the industry are the Emersons, Reeves, Striders and many custom makers who have taken that torch and run with it. Superior performance or the "perception" of superior performance and a lot of fellows buying into a cult of personality and thinking that having that next grey titanium or sculpted/blasted G10 or the worst of the bunch a titanium slab on one side and some G10 on the other will make these fellows cooler/happier/tougher....none of which is true outside of their sphere of influence. In my opinion, and with great apologies to these mentioned makers all of whom are friends or at least acquaintances, it represents a general "dumbing down" of the knife industry, and it makes me bitter and hateful. It shouldn't be this way, but there it is. A lot of the dealers of these knives are making the market, and would like to pretend that is not the case. If these knives were not all over the magazines in advertisements, there wouldn't be as many features on them, and there wouldn't be as much of a market for them.....I have mixed feelings about the entire situation. I like tactical knives, very much....but they are an aspect of my interest, not THE aspect. Guys like Jack Alvarez are getting fat off promoting these knives, and always have....you can see how conflicted this subject makes me....and I currently have few answers. There are aspects and elements of this whole issue that are very dark and ugly....for one thing, and certainly not at the Gathering, there seem to be folks attracted to the tacticool that should probably not own anything more dangerous than a nail clipper...a hazard to themselves and everyone else, and legislation bait if it ever walked on two feet.
After the show closed on Saturday, we all went back to our rooms, Matt Diskin, Dave Mirabile, Greg Lightfoot, Joe Paranee and myself. All but Mr. Lightfoot went to dinner at Rao's in Caesar's Palace. Also in attendance, Gavin Hawk, Steve D'Lack, Tom Hutton, Dave Ellis, Tony Marfione Jr. and Jessica, and Microtech's Sales Director, Jim. We had Clams Casino, some large antipasto, white bean and escarole soup, salads, lots of veal and great desserts.....KILLER place to have dinner, for sure, thanks for the rec, Dave Ellis! I passed out at 12:00 am, the boys were up past 4:00 am.
Saturday came, and I missed a breakfast appointment with R.J. Martin. As soon as I got to the showroom, found RJ and apologized. We wound up having lunch together, along with Tony and Jessica. Nice patty melt, very tasty fries. Tony picked up the check for all....he's a gem. R.J. and I had cigar and shot the bull for a while, went back to the showroom, said my goodbyes, and was home Garssonizing my purchases by 9:30 pm that night.
Bottom line for me.....GREAT show and a lot of fun, but not a lot of custom knifemakers there geared towards my areas of specific interest. You should go check it out for yourself and see if there is something that DOES speak to you. Either way, you will have a great time, and it is shaping up to be a show on par with any other legendary show...like Blade, the AKI, Jerry Fisk's Micro Show or Josh Smith's show.
Best Regards,
STeven Garsson
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Getting it set up for my preferences and prepared for longer distances...hopefully Blade next year.
