Solingen Knifeshow '08 : review in 30 pics

[Patrick M.]

Here's a quick review of the latest Solingen Knifeshow, which closed yesterday.

First, the knife I'd like to come back with (if I only have... € 7.800 !) : Richard Hehn engraved large integral hunter.

Let's go ahead with Richard Hehn

Something new and unusual from Richard Hehn : these "combat fighters"

Again my favourites

Andreas Schweikert : I didn't know of him. Nice and very pure lines.

Gerhard Wieland, this knife really fits the hand !

Peter Herbst :

 

[Patrick M.]

Folders, with Kevin Wilkins :

I like this one :

Josef Rusnak (CZ)

Ralf Hoffmann : that's an art knife !

Sigfried Rinkes, german style integral hunter

Richard Spitzl

 

[Patrick M.]

Stefan Steigerwald

Richard Zirbes (horizontal tang, integral construction)

Alfred Mader :

 

[Patrick M.]

Karl-Heinz Koob (my photo of this particular knife was so bad that I took this one on Koob's website)

Alfred Dobner, damasteel and giraffe bone

Andreas Heinrichs : blank integral blades (not heat treated)

Helmut Klein

A knife to be finished with engraving if needed

 

[Patrick M.]

A last one, just for the innovative design (I didn't shoot the photo, but I handled the knife : just amazing!)

 

[Marcel54]

Patrick,

Thank you for the report. Very nice pictures and knives. I wasn't able to attend this year but this way at least I have an impression of what was happening.

Prices were even higher than last year ...at least that's what I've heard and so it seems. Come on ..... that Hehn is a very nice knife indeed but €7800 (that's about $12,000):grumpy:

How was the attendance this year?

Marcel

 

[jdm61]

Thanks for the pics. Is this primarily a high end art knife are show or did you just concentrate on the really fancy stuff?

 

[Patrick M.]

Lots of high end art knives... I focused on integral, which are quite expensive. There were also some high end folders (Jurgen Steinau just to name one). But you could find affordable hunters and folders too.

 

[clintg]

I've never seen Kevin Wilkins stuff before. I love those folders!

 

[peterinct]

Some great looking knives. Must have been a good time to be there.

Thanks for posting the pictures.

Peter

 

[Patrick M.]

Prices were even higher than last year ...at least that's what I've heard and so it seems. Come on ..... that Hehn is a very nice knife indeed but €7800 (that's about $12,000):grumpy:

How was the attendance this year?

Marcel

Hi Marcel, you mean visitors or knifemakers ? We only miss Dietmar Kressler as knifemakers. All the others were present. Not so much visitors, no crowd : you can walk between tables and talk with knifemakers very nicely. I definitely love the ambience on that show. Forge demonstration outside, ugly german sausage sandwiches ;-), beer... My favorite show (OK, I never attended an american show).

€7.800 for a Hehn engraved hunter ? Yes, a bit expensive. But this man is a legend in Germany. We always talk about Kressler as the "european Loveless". Maybe... I consider Hehn as a better maker than Kressler. Would you say it is overpriced if it would be a kressler's ?

 

[Marcel54]

€7.800 for a Hehn engraved hunter ? Yes, a bit expensive. But this man is a legend in Germany. We always talk about Kressler as the "european Loveless". Maybe... I consider Hehn as a better maker than Kressler. Would you say it is overpriced if it would be a kressler's ?

Patrick, I wasn't implying that the knife is overpriced ....I really think it's a great looking knife. I know not enough of the integral market to make that assumption, but because of the very very hard euro (against the dollar) it's really "painfull" to buy from a European maker.

Besides that......I know that in the "knife niche" I'm more familiar with I know what I can get for €7.800 from a maker like Arpad Bojtos or Roger Bergh or Johan Gustafsson or Scott Slobodian and so on.

Marcel

 

[Wolfgang]

Thanks a lot for the great pics, Patrick! :thumbup:

As I wasn`t able to make it to the show this year it`s nice to see what I missed :grumpy: .

I can really assure that Gerhard Wieland`s knives fit the hand nicely,

as I own the "twin brother" of the above

:thumbup:

 

[Lycosa]

I'm speechless, except for, Thank you!!

 

[jdm61]

I am probably going to get a table at the Gembloux show in November. It is not Solingen, Paris or Milan, but what I have seen of the pricing of knives at the European shows is very encourging. My stuff should seem like a screaming bargain to folks over there...lol.

 

[RogerP]

Thanks so much for the review. Some really beautiful and unique-looking pieces there.

Roger

 

[Patrick M.]

Patrick, I wasn't implying that the knife is overpriced ....I really think it's a great looking knife. I know not enough of the integral market to make that assumption, but because of the very very hard euro (against the dollar) it's really "painfull" to buy from a European maker.

Besides that......I know that in the "knife niche" I'm more familiar with I know what I can get for €7.800 from a maker like Arpad Bojtos or Roger Bergh or Johan Gustafsson or Scott Slobodian and so on.

Marcel

Anyway I have to agree with you : if the knife had been cheaper, I would probably have bought it ! That means I thought it was overpriced too...

 

[jdm61]

Anyway I have to agree with you : if the knife had been cheaper, I would probably have bought it ! That means I thought it was overpriced too...

Everything is overpriced if you are a buyer and underpriced if you are a maker/seller...lol So Patrick...how is SICAC looking this year with the change in days/times? I am going to try to make it by for at least one of the days again, but purely as a spectator.

 

[Joss]

Patrick - thanks for this review & the pics. I'm looking forward to seeing some of those makers at the SICAC.

Wow, those prices are something else. Even factoring in the FX, some of those knives would be on the high end even at a $1 = 1 Euro rate. Ouch. I would think that US makers would do whatever they could to enter the European markets. I would imagine someone like D. Anders or Burt Foster could go to the SICAC or Milan show, raise his prices 50%, and sell everything in a few hours...

This review brings to my mind 2 things:

1) The knife market is still very inefficient in the sense that we know very little of the top makers outside the US. This is Europe and some of those makers are known here, but only so well. Imagine what must be produced in Russia or (even more) China right now, that we have no idea of.

2) I wonder if the European market isn't (more) elitist in its composition. In the US, there's a healthy portion of the knife buying community who is solidly middle class (even if the big collections are obviously in the hands of wealthy individuals). I wonder if there's as big a network of middle class collectors in Europe.

 

[Marcel54]

This review brings to my mind 2 things:

1) The knife market is still very inefficient in the sense that we know very little of the top makers outside the US. This is Europe and some of those makers are known here, but only so well. Imagine what must be produced in Russia or (even more) China right now, that we have no idea of.

2) I wonder if the European market isn't (more) elitist in its composition. In the US, there's a healthy portion of the knife buying community who is solidly middle class (even if the big collections are obviously in the hands of wealthy individuals). I wonder if there's as big a network of middle class collectors in Europe.
Today 07:35 PM

Joss, very good questions. I will try to give my input in the coming day or so...when I have a little bit more time. Regarding this I want to add something. We have to take into account that Europe, although very much unified, has still a lot of distinction in regard to standard of living in the different countries. The pricetags you saw are all from German makers and they calculate an hourly rate based on their standard of living. If I may use Slovakia, where a maker like Arpad Bojtos lives, as an example. Arpad's hourly rate is lower than that of the Germans because he lives in a different economy. That's why I made that remark on "value for money" in one of my earlier posts.

Marcel

Marcel