- Joined
- Oct 2, 1998
- Messages
- 15,226
Well guys, it was an interesting show for a number of reasons.
I met more people from the forums than either of the past 2 show's I've been too, but at the same time, I got to spend less time with them than before, something that saddened me. I spent more of my time with some of the big wigs, but what really impressed me was the real affability and unpretentiousness of all of the industry people. Sitting there and rubbing elbows with Mel Pardue, Bob Terzoula, Ken Onion, Pat Crawford, Bob Kasper, and several others really impressed me, especially considering how down to earth they all are. Overall, I came away with the impression that the knife industry is extremely open with a vested interest in helping it's members do the best they can.
We arrived Thursday night after leaving Jacksonville at 10:00 AM - too late to do any setup work. As a result, we found ourselves still setting up well after the show opened to the public. The booth was always busy though, with lots of members stopping by and saying hey.
So, here's a "thanks for stopping by!" to all of those who I remember seeing (if I left you out, my apologies) - Don Rearic, ShadedDude (and Mrs. ShadedDude), Bob Taylor & Chris, "Pimpin' Olly" Sean Perkins, Gus K, Llamedeos who came all the way from England, John Hollister, pyrguy (and his tutu tailoring wife), Dwight Williams, Mel Pardue, Kevin Pensinger, James Matthis, Dexter, The Balisong Twins - Clay ("Tiny") and Chuck, "Flexin" Rob Simonich, Kevin at CFI, CJ and his family, Mark from Sentry, Ernest Emerson, Mary, and the rest of the Emerson crew (including the elusive Derek), Darrel and his son Bob, Kit, The Hermanator, Chris and Anne Reeve (and the CR crew), Neil Blackwood, Pete Peterson, Mike Fuller, "Big Roy" Reynolds, Jim Ray, Duane Dieter, "I'm not a JBT though I play one on TV" Elliot "Blues" Pitilion, Farid, Jeff Randall, Steven Dick, Ken Onion, Scott Evans and the guys from Edgeworks, Chuck and CJ Buck, Joyce and Nancy from Spyderco, Missy from Blade, Laci Szabo, Fred Perrin, Jerry Busse, Andy "Human Dynamo" Prisco, Dave Roberson & the Busse Crew, The Guys from Myerco, Tad Stratton, Kristen and The White Lightning crew, Les de Asis, Ric Chopra, Lynn Griffith, Joseph from Timberline, and the guys from Bugei. For all of you guys who stopped by and said "Thanks for all you do on the forums" you have my heartfelt grattitude - I'm glad that you appreciate it. Remember guys, we just provide the venue, you guys make the magic happen.
Anyhow, like I said, the booth was constantly packed and I didn't have much of a chance to get out and look around. When I did, I was impressed by many of the custom offerings and especially some of the new offerings from the production companies. Some things to keep an eye out for that I haven't seen mentioned yet are the upcoming Mini CQD and new neck knives from MOD; and the SWAT M16 series (1*) and Howard Viele offerings from CRKT. REKAT's new Carnivore Cub is also cool, as are the new 722 offerings from Benchmade, and all the Spyderco Prototypes out there. It would appear that the companies are moving from a strictly "tactical" mindset to more of a "Sports Utility" - where the knives do the job, but look a hell of a lot prettier.
For all of you who haven't seen Clay and Gollnick with their Bali's, it's jaw dropping awesome. You wouldn't think a guy as large as Clay could exhibit the dexterity or hand-eye that he has, but *wow* it's neat to watch.
As previously mentioned, Pyrguy and his wife handed me the infamous pink tutu, and since I am secure in my masculinity, I promptly put it on and wore it for the next half hour. You guys have seen the pictures - I guess I finally know the answer to the question "Does this make me look fat?"
I liked the Samurai helmet ones the best... all I was missing was a Bokken
Friday night led to Mike and I heading to the Harris Publications cocktail party (pretty ballsy move by Harris, IMHO) and then being waylaid by several of the honchos of the industry for several hours. I eventually ended up chatting with Bob Terzoula, Phil Gibbs, and Ethan Becker for the rest of the night, by the time we finished up, it was 0200.
Saturday was like Friday, only busier. Everyone wanted knives, and they wanted them *right now*. More and more forumites stopped by the booth, and I had even less time to spend with them, but thank you guys for understanding. BladeForums.com hats could be seen all over the show and I can only hope that more than a few of you met up with each other that way.
I saw the Imagical Design 2000 knive - they had the coolest booth display by far with the CGI graphical display. Larry Chew and TiNives had yet another cool design, something better shown than described - but I can tell you this, all the stories about the needle bearings are smoooooooth.
Saturday evening was the Blade Show Banquet where the following Knife of the Year awards were handed out -
Pretty cool overall. After the Banquet, more of the same as the night before - chatting up the industry heads and discussing where we are going, and how BladeForums.com can be used to help all aspects of the industry. We're hoping several of the conversations pan out into some really cool changes for the site as a whole.
Sunday saw the end of the show - time for the real bargain hunters to come out and swarm... it was pretty wild. We wound up finally selling all of the Buck Striders that we had at the show, as well as all of the SpyderWrenches and many of the other popular items we had. Tear down took from 4 pm until 8, where we hauled butt to South Carolina for the real work - The 2nd Annual Fennel Retreat, hosted by Wallace and Will Fennel from Camillus. Sure, sleeping on the floor may be uncomfortable, but boy howdy, any meal cooked by Ethan Becker is well worth it! (FYI, Ethan not only does Becker Knife & Tool, but is one of the authors of The Joy of Cooking...) Two words folks - Venison Chili!
Lots of cutting tests, lots of BS, lots of camraderie and plenty of good humor to go around, I thoroughly enjoyed it, and badly needed the break.
I hope that each of you guys that made it to the Blade Show enjoyed it, and next year I hope to spend more time with you all both during and after the show. In the mean time, thanks for being a part of BladeForums.com, and thanks for stopping by and seeing us, I really appreciated it.
Spark
------------------
Kevin Jon Schlossberg
SysOp and Administrator for BladeForums.com
Insert witty quip here
I met more people from the forums than either of the past 2 show's I've been too, but at the same time, I got to spend less time with them than before, something that saddened me. I spent more of my time with some of the big wigs, but what really impressed me was the real affability and unpretentiousness of all of the industry people. Sitting there and rubbing elbows with Mel Pardue, Bob Terzoula, Ken Onion, Pat Crawford, Bob Kasper, and several others really impressed me, especially considering how down to earth they all are. Overall, I came away with the impression that the knife industry is extremely open with a vested interest in helping it's members do the best they can.
We arrived Thursday night after leaving Jacksonville at 10:00 AM - too late to do any setup work. As a result, we found ourselves still setting up well after the show opened to the public. The booth was always busy though, with lots of members stopping by and saying hey.
So, here's a "thanks for stopping by!" to all of those who I remember seeing (if I left you out, my apologies) - Don Rearic, ShadedDude (and Mrs. ShadedDude), Bob Taylor & Chris, "Pimpin' Olly" Sean Perkins, Gus K, Llamedeos who came all the way from England, John Hollister, pyrguy (and his tutu tailoring wife), Dwight Williams, Mel Pardue, Kevin Pensinger, James Matthis, Dexter, The Balisong Twins - Clay ("Tiny") and Chuck, "Flexin" Rob Simonich, Kevin at CFI, CJ and his family, Mark from Sentry, Ernest Emerson, Mary, and the rest of the Emerson crew (including the elusive Derek), Darrel and his son Bob, Kit, The Hermanator, Chris and Anne Reeve (and the CR crew), Neil Blackwood, Pete Peterson, Mike Fuller, "Big Roy" Reynolds, Jim Ray, Duane Dieter, "I'm not a JBT though I play one on TV" Elliot "Blues" Pitilion, Farid, Jeff Randall, Steven Dick, Ken Onion, Scott Evans and the guys from Edgeworks, Chuck and CJ Buck, Joyce and Nancy from Spyderco, Missy from Blade, Laci Szabo, Fred Perrin, Jerry Busse, Andy "Human Dynamo" Prisco, Dave Roberson & the Busse Crew, The Guys from Myerco, Tad Stratton, Kristen and The White Lightning crew, Les de Asis, Ric Chopra, Lynn Griffith, Joseph from Timberline, and the guys from Bugei. For all of you guys who stopped by and said "Thanks for all you do on the forums" you have my heartfelt grattitude - I'm glad that you appreciate it. Remember guys, we just provide the venue, you guys make the magic happen.
Anyhow, like I said, the booth was constantly packed and I didn't have much of a chance to get out and look around. When I did, I was impressed by many of the custom offerings and especially some of the new offerings from the production companies. Some things to keep an eye out for that I haven't seen mentioned yet are the upcoming Mini CQD and new neck knives from MOD; and the SWAT M16 series (1*) and Howard Viele offerings from CRKT. REKAT's new Carnivore Cub is also cool, as are the new 722 offerings from Benchmade, and all the Spyderco Prototypes out there. It would appear that the companies are moving from a strictly "tactical" mindset to more of a "Sports Utility" - where the knives do the job, but look a hell of a lot prettier.
For all of you who haven't seen Clay and Gollnick with their Bali's, it's jaw dropping awesome. You wouldn't think a guy as large as Clay could exhibit the dexterity or hand-eye that he has, but *wow* it's neat to watch.
As previously mentioned, Pyrguy and his wife handed me the infamous pink tutu, and since I am secure in my masculinity, I promptly put it on and wore it for the next half hour. You guys have seen the pictures - I guess I finally know the answer to the question "Does this make me look fat?"
Friday night led to Mike and I heading to the Harris Publications cocktail party (pretty ballsy move by Harris, IMHO) and then being waylaid by several of the honchos of the industry for several hours. I eventually ended up chatting with Bob Terzoula, Phil Gibbs, and Ethan Becker for the rest of the night, by the time we finished up, it was 0200.
Saturday was like Friday, only busier. Everyone wanted knives, and they wanted them *right now*. More and more forumites stopped by the booth, and I had even less time to spend with them, but thank you guys for understanding. BladeForums.com hats could be seen all over the show and I can only hope that more than a few of you met up with each other that way.
I saw the Imagical Design 2000 knive - they had the coolest booth display by far with the CGI graphical display. Larry Chew and TiNives had yet another cool design, something better shown than described - but I can tell you this, all the stories about the needle bearings are smoooooooth.
Saturday evening was the Blade Show Banquet where the following Knife of the Year awards were handed out -
- Overall - William Henry S07
- American Made - Masters of Defense Duane Dieter CQD
- Imported - CRKT Point Guard
- Most Innovative American Design - Gerber Legend
- Most Innovative Imported Design - Imagical Design 2000 DPI
- Best Buy - Timberline Vallotton Discovery Lock
- Investor / Collector - William Henry T-10 Pearl / Meier Damascus
- Manufacturing Quality - Chris Reeve Knives
- Collaboration - Microtech LightFoot Compact Combat
- Accessory - Sentry Solutions Tuf Glide
Pretty cool overall. After the Banquet, more of the same as the night before - chatting up the industry heads and discussing where we are going, and how BladeForums.com can be used to help all aspects of the industry. We're hoping several of the conversations pan out into some really cool changes for the site as a whole.
Sunday saw the end of the show - time for the real bargain hunters to come out and swarm... it was pretty wild. We wound up finally selling all of the Buck Striders that we had at the show, as well as all of the SpyderWrenches and many of the other popular items we had. Tear down took from 4 pm until 8, where we hauled butt to South Carolina for the real work - The 2nd Annual Fennel Retreat, hosted by Wallace and Will Fennel from Camillus. Sure, sleeping on the floor may be uncomfortable, but boy howdy, any meal cooked by Ethan Becker is well worth it! (FYI, Ethan not only does Becker Knife & Tool, but is one of the authors of The Joy of Cooking...) Two words folks - Venison Chili!
Lots of cutting tests, lots of BS, lots of camraderie and plenty of good humor to go around, I thoroughly enjoyed it, and badly needed the break.
I hope that each of you guys that made it to the Blade Show enjoyed it, and next year I hope to spend more time with you all both during and after the show. In the mean time, thanks for being a part of BladeForums.com, and thanks for stopping by and seeing us, I really appreciated it.
Spark
------------------
Kevin Jon Schlossberg
SysOp and Administrator for BladeForums.com
Insert witty quip here
