The Bowies of the Blade Show - 2008 Edition

[RogerP]

For STeven's excellent show review, go here:

http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=560170

I can scarcely believe that 3 years have passed since my last Blade show, but couldn'tbe happier to have put that drought to an end.

This was a terrific show. 3 days of non-stop custom knives - and far more importantly - the great people that go along with them: makers and their spouses, collectors, purveyors, photographers, writers, sheath makers - man, I did so much yakking from start to finish that I still don't have a voice.

While the knives will be the primary focus of this review, by far the best part of the show for me was the people. Putting faces to a lot of forum names as I walked the show floor; hanging out with knife nuts in The Pit; getting out for some nice meals with friends new and old - these are the biggest reasons that I am smiling still.

Okay, on to the show.

First order of business - a bunch of guys now have new or different initials following their names:

New Journeyman Smiths

Fuad Accawi (Peck Award)

Karl Andersen

Ronald Boydston

Dan Cassidy

Carlton Hallenbeck

Steven Kelly

David Sylvester

Brian Thie

Daniel Warren


New Master Smiths

Russ Andrews

Bill Burke

Sean McIntyre (Hughes Award)

J. Neilson

James Saviano

Henry Torres


CONGRATS TO YOU ALL - WELL DONE!

Next order of business:



SHOW AWARDS

Best In Show- Ken Steigerwalt
Best Fixed Blade - Ken Seigerwalt
Best Damascus - John White
Best Art Knife - Arpad Bojtos
Best Fighter - Shawn Ellis
Best Bowie Knife - Jason Knight
Best Miniature - Yosho Sakauchi
Best Handle Design - Bill Tuch
Best Tactical Folder - R.J. Martin
Best Utility Hunter - Lin Rhea
Best Folder - Larry Newton
Best Innovative Design - Joe Caswell
Best Knife Collaboration - Hank Knickmeyer and Chantal Gilbert
Best Sword - Paul Jarvis
Best New Maker - Steve Gatlin
Best of the Rest - Todd Begg

(Thanks to Peter Gill for the above info)

Three comments about the photos to follow:

1) They are crap, but better than nothing.
2) They reflect my personal area of interest (the title to this thread was a clue) but by no means represent the tremendous diversity on display at the show.
3) Even within the forged bowie context, I missed a BUNCH of guys that I was sure I had. Tried to take a pic - too many people around - thought I'd come back later, and when I did, thought I'd already taken the pic.

With that said, photos will follow presently.

Now lets see some knives and the people who made them.

Those on dial-up can go straight to the album here:

http://www.fototime.com/inv/C0659EF5D84D965

 

[Matthew Gregory]

MAN I can't wait!

 

[RogerP]

Karl Andersen


It was great to finally get to meet Karl and to have the opportunity to look over his knives in person. He's doing some really nice work and greating a look that is identifiably his own - which is quite an accomplishment.

The spalted maple piece he is shown holding above - and in close-up below - was my favorite, and would have gone home with me had someone a few minutes earlier not decided it was their favorite, too.

Russ Andrews

One of the truly memorable experiences of the show was waiting with Russ Andrews - and the other anxiety-stricken MS testers - outside the room where their knives were being subject to the very closest of scrutiny.

Here we see Jerry Fisk flanked on the left by Shawn McIntyre and the right by Russ Andrews:

Relax guys.... it's gonna be okay.....

Here's Russ - a Master Smith for all of 2, maybe 3 minutes, holding his gorgeous test dagger:

Believe it or not, I did not get a pic of Russ' table, but in my defense, he didn't have one. I can show you one of his test knives, however, and no crappy pic this time:

Russ stag sub-hilt was off-the-hook. I mean completely. He didn;t just put spacers between guard, butt cap and both sides of the subhilt, but actualt ferrules. And not just any ferrule, but each one filed to match the changing contours of the stag. We'll have to wait a bit to see more of that one.

Bailey Bradshaw

Always a pleasure to spend some time chatting with Bailey and looking over his outstanding work. His dagger was one of my favorite pieces of the show - beautiful detail work, flawlessly executed.

I SO wished I had funds left for that integral with snakewood inlay at the top of the following photo. It was beautiful, felt fantastic in the hand and would make a great do-it-all utility knife:

 

[T.K.C.]

Thanks for the pix!!
CONGRATS to all new JS & MS folks!! That is awesome!!

 

[RogerP]

Ed Caffrey

Great guy and absurdly talented maker.

It's not often that a hunter makes me go absolutely weak in the knees, but this walrus ivory / damascus piece sure did. You should see the frosted texturing that he did on the spine - looked like it was glowing. The damscus EBK was one of THE bargains at the show.

Kevin Cashen

Kevin abhors hero-worship, but he is one of my knifemaking heroes - sorry Kevin. His contributions to my personal understanding of what exactly is happening at the various stages of transforming raw steel into a knife are beyond measure.

I could become addicted to daggers with pieces like this on display:

This stag and damscus fighter was both a beautiful piece of work and a raging bargain - snagged by a buddy of mine in 6, maybe 7 nanoseconds:

Jim Cook

He may have been at this game for a while, but that doesn't mean his work isn't improving. In the last 2 years I'd say his pieces have jumped up a notch or three - and where they jumped up from was already a pretty high place.

Cookie is shown above holding one of his striking Arkansas Razorback fighters. The sheephorn damascus piece below had some serious shimmer going on:

 

[T.K.C.]

Roger:Thank you for this awesome thread!! I can not wait to see MORE!!

 

[John M Cohea]

thanks for the review Roger. Great stuff!

 

[RogerP]

Jim Crowell

Jim - along with Fisk - are primarily to blame for my forged blade addiction. Theirs were the first two forged pieces I purchased and I have never looked back.

Here we see Jim recklessly putting himself within range of the corrupting influence of of Mr. Gill:

Shall we snoop a little closer?

Looks like a winner :thumbup:

A note to my fellow collectors - Blade provides a tremendous opportunity to hash out the the fine details of an ordered knife - and even to select the specific piece of hande material.

Here we have a peek at Jim's table. Anyone looking for an absolutely first rate chopper need have looked no further.

Shawn Ellis

Been looking forward to meeting Shawn and I was very impressed with both the man and his knives. The show judges liked what they saw as well, bestowing the Best Fighter award on one of his knives (not shown):

Dan Farr

A personal friend of mine, a personal teacher of mine and an innovative maker of knives that I simply can't get enough of.

Here Jason Knight visits Dan's table to check out one of his new super lightweight black powder coated camp knives:

The powder coating is a process that Dan learned from RJ Martin. It held up so well under prolonged hard use (on one of RJ's folders that sees duty as Dan's shop knife) that Dan figured it would be worth trying on some field knives. In addition, these pieces featured micarta guards (to reduce weight) and were all forged from Crucible's new forging steel.

Not a traditiional look within the forged blade world, to be sure, and unsurprisingly polarizing. Some guys REALLY didn't care for the look. A bunch of other guys REALLY did - and spoke with their wallets, quickly snapping up all four pieces (two camp knives, two hunters). One dealer I know of wanted to order a bunch more.

Dan also had a sublime stag hunter - you'll see more of that one when Coop get's through his mountain of editing.

Tom Ferry

This maker is turning out some of the most exciting damascus patterns out there.

This walrus ivory fighter tops my "Must sell a kidney - now!" list. You should see the treatment of the guard on this one.

 

[jdm61]

Great stuff!!! And if you think about just the folks that "backed out" of presenting their knives for JS and MS judging this year, next year promises to be just as good as the last two shows!!!!!:thumbup:

 

[ptgdvc]

I have been almost alone in the wilderness regarding Tom Ferry's terrific work.

Thanks to Danbo for sending me over to look at Tom's work a few years ago!

He is clearly in the top twenty makers right now, and will be in the top ten in about 15 minutes, imho.

Versatility, Damascus, Original Folders, Engraving, Execution, JUST WOW!

This particular Fighter is his BEST fixed blade to date and absolutely stunning!

 

[RogerP]

Jerry Fisk

The Man. It wouldn't be Blade without several visits to the table of this living legend.

You've seen better pictures posted on these knives in earlier threads, but here they are on the table. I just LOVED the browned fittings with copper spacers on the stag bowie:

Burt Foster

Burt had easily one of the best tables of the show in terms of quality, diversity and number of pieces.

I fell in love with the damascus military piece.

The lineup for that little stag integral was long and distinguished.

Don Hanson

Don put down his bags full of ivory (you should have seen the haul that he and Hogstrom took away) long enough to pick up two fistfulls of bowie awesomeness:

A fellow forumite snagged this awesome piece in ivory and 1086m, which rivaled the damscus piece that Jon Brand picked up (blade visible at top of photo) for my favorites on Don's table.

(steel corrected - thanks Riad, and congrats!)

 

[jdm61]

Don also had that unfinished blade on his table that may be the best of the lot!! The reason you did not get a pic of Russ Andrew's table is that I don't think that he had one. I too was bowled over by that dagger that Kevin Cashen had. I accused him of sandbagging as he left it with the photographer for most of the day on Friday so it seemed to just magically appear on his table Saturday morning...lol.

 

[ptgdvc]

Don also had that unfinished blade on his table that may be the best of the lot!!

Yes, I spotted that one and would have to agree with you! :thumbup:

P

 

[RAN]

Hey Roger Great Meeting You
Thanks for taking me back with this report and showing me what I missed
That was my first and hopefully the beginning of an annual event for me
I met great people and Makers I also learned one important lesson You and Gill are not human....you are Knife Locusts!
Thanks for documenting this amid the stampede
BTW That Middle Hanson is 1086M

 

[RogerP]

Roger Massey

I have long been a fan of Roger's work and I was really looking forward to seeing some of his knives again. I was not disappointed. The Moran-style camp knife that he is shown holding below was superbly balanced and very fast for such a large blade.

The stag bowie with clamshell guard presented substantial temptation that was only overcome by a complete lack of additional funds:

Sean McIntyre

Newly minted MS and Hughes Award winner - I'd say he had a good show. After his MS test dagger (quickly snapped up by you-know-who) this stag bowie he is shown holding was my top pick. Did you like the way I captured his award, magically floating in mid air? Ignore the hand of Gill, believe in pixie dust.

The fighter with browned fittings was screaming "buy me" as well:

Greg Neely

It was a real pleasure meeting Greg Neely. His knives are extremely well designed and flawlessly rendered. He is shown here holding a 12" blade engraved stag bowie that I wanted - BAD!

 

[RogerP]

Yes, I spotted that one and would have to agree with you! :thumbup:

P

Spoken like a true knife locust.

 

[ptgdvc]

Hey Roger Great Meeting You...

...You and Gill are not human....you are Knife Locusts!

BTW That Middle Hanson is 1086M

Dangerous Collector Alert!

Thank goodness Riad gets distracted by Bose folders, or there wouldn't be a leaf left in the forest!

He knows the materials in that absurdly nice Hanson Bowie, because he is playing with AT HOME as we speak.

It was lucky that Michael Starr chose to sit this show out. There might have been collisions on a planetary scale.

P

 

[T.K.C.]

I LOVE that coated Dan Farr!! So many amazing knives!!

 

[braillediver]

Thanks Roger- simply amazing.


Mitch

 

[RogerP]

Next up is Chuck Richards:

The S-guard fighter at the bottom of the pic below felt so good in my hand that it was real hard to put down.

Lin Rhea

You can file this under "I'm an idiot - didn't get a shot of his table." Sheesh - I had breakfast with the guy every morning! I returned to make sure I got an "additional" shot of his knife that won the "Best Utility Hunter" award, s at least I have that.

Mike Ruth

Another absolutely killer table here. Mike is shown holding an awsome stag and damscus bowie:

His clamshell bowies were outstanding and real attention-grabbers. I would have quickly grabbed that honey of a small fighter had it not been previously spoken-for.

Paul Savage

A fellow Canuck making his first Blade show appearance and loving every minute of it.

His collaboration folders with Del Doucette are really something special.