Thoughts From Blade Show

WillB

WillB

Joined
Feb 3, 2007
Messages
497
There were some good show prices if you looked and people were willing to haggle
You had to keep looking as same item was often surprisingly different price one booth to another depending on the item.

Wear comfortable shoes!

While it was still a sword fight (pun intended) there were more women there than I expected. There were a few female smiths there too, and that was nice to see! There was on girl with her (twin?) sister who was 18 years old, and her knives were great! She's going to be a name in the smith name some day. I told her to get hold of the Forged In Fire producers, they'd jump at having her on. Terribly cute too... her IG:

https://www.instagram.com/raeganleeknives/?hl=en

Doug "your blade will keeeeeeeeeel" Marcaida was taller than I expected.

Balisong kids. I had no idea that was such a thing. Sure, seen vids of some kid flipping around a balisong, but there were large "gangs" of them as this show all standing around flipping the balisong knives. I was just waiting for one to send one into the crowed. Guy told me most of them are not sharpened to reduce chances of getting cut. Not sure if true, carrying a dull knife that you're great at flipping around just seems just missing the point. Knives are tools, not toys. Yes, I sound like "get off my lawn you kids" guy now, but I just found them annoying all around.

The spiderco booth was always clogged with fan boys so I never did get to actually see what they had.

Jerry Hossom was a really nice guy (he's a member here of course) and his table sold out within a very short time.
 
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There are so many tables that I missed Raegan Lee's. I missed a lot of the custom tables frankly and they all seem to start blending together and I only had so much time with my one-day show visit. I didn't stop at the Spydie booth either as you said it was always pretty clogged up with people and I can look at their knives just about anytime in stores.

Maybe I'm just not a haggler as the haggling thing never stood out as a reasonable option at BLADE except late Saturday and Sunday, essentially the stuff that hadn't sold earlier.

The show is pretty easy going and wearing comfortable footware is always important and a consideration before going.
 
I will chime in with agreement that the bali kids were both annoying and hilarious at the same time. We were walking by just as one kid cut himself pretty badly and all I could do is shake my head. I am not a balisong person and personally find the whole thing kinda dumb. That's just me. Bali tricks are the vape smoke ring tricks of the knife world.
 
22-rimfire said:
There are so many tables that I missed Raegan Lee's. I missed a lot of the custom tables frankly and they all seem to start blending together and I only had so much time with my one-day show visit. I didn't stop at the Spydie booth either as you said it was always pretty clogged up with people and I can look at their knives just about anytime in stores.

Maybe I'm just not a haggler as the haggling thing never stood out as a reasonable option at BLADE except late Saturday and Sunday, essentially the stuff that hadn't sold earlier.

The show is pretty easy going and wearing comfortable footware is always important and a consideration before going.
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I would highly suggest haggling with folks no matter what day of the show it is, though I'd recommend having cash in hand. Sellers are definitely less inclined to haggle with you if you've just successfully cut into their profit margin and then you ask if they'll take your card. That means that now they have to eat transaction fees also. But have a wad of cash in your hand, most sellers (especially those in "Collection Table Alley") are usually ready to deal.
 
Quiet said:
I will chime in with agreement that the bali kids were both annoying and hilarious at the same time. We were walking by just as one kid cut himself pretty badly and all I could do is shake my head. I am not a balisong person and personally find the whole thing kinda dumb. That's just me. Bali tricks are the vape smoke ring tricks of the knife world.
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As someone who used to be into Balis in a big way, I totally appreciate the skill needed to pull off the tricks and enjoy a good routine. That being said, I think a "nothing but trainers in public" rule isn't a bad idea if they're not going to maintain a safe distance from the crowd.
 
Quiet said:
I would highly suggest haggling with folks no matter what day of the show it is, though I'd recommend having cash in hand. Sellers are definitely less inclined to haggle with you if you've just successfully cut into their profit margin and then you ask if they'll take your card. That means that now they have to eat transaction fees also. But have a wad of cash in your hand, most sellers (especially those in "Collection Table Alley") are usually ready to deal.
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I had cash with me. I understand completely how using plastic cuts into their profits as I deal with the same issue with my business. I prefer cash or checks myself. I only purchased one handmade knife and there was no haggling option as I brought it up.... cash or card.... I seldom spend much time going through the collections at Blade as I do that at smaller knife shows primarily with traditional knives. Roughly half of my purchases are traditional knives in terms of numbers.

I was very interested visiting the Italian manufacturers this time around and made a special point of seeking them out. I bought a lionSteel knife at their booth. It was no bargain.
 
WValtakis said:
As someone who used to be into Balis in a big way, I totally appreciate the skill needed to pull off the tricks and enjoy a good routine. That being said, I think a "nothing but trainers in public" rule isn't a bad idea if they're not going to maintain a safe distance from the crowd.
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Yeah, I mean, I DID feel bad for the kid, but I really, reeeeaaaallly don't understand why people are spinning live blades in a closely grouped, public setting. That one booth in the far back of the secondary room, remember that bali booth over there? You had a bunch of 15-20 somethings all standing close enough doing their tricks that I was genuinely sort of nervous for some of them. One wrong spin, that thing's going right in someone's eye.

I DID appreciate that apparently this year, some effort was made to curb the situation we had last year, where kids were just walking around in the crowd doing tricks.
 
22-rimfire said:
I had cash with me. I understand completely how using plastic cuts into their profits as I deal with the same issue with my business. I prefer cash or checks myself. I only purchased one handmade knife and there was no haggling option as I brought it up.... cash or card.... I seldom spend much time going through the collections at Blade as I do that at smaller knife shows primarily with traditional knives. Roughly half of my purchases are traditional knives in terms of numbers.

I was very interested visiting the Italian manufacturers this time around and made a special point of seeking them out. I bought a lionSteel knife at their booth. It was no bargain.
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Oh man, you are not wrong. We visited a couple of the Italian makers and stuff was just...(I'll be polite) very poorly priced. I'm not paying $650+ for a production model. Sorry "limited edition of only 300" isn't a selling point for me either.
 
I have ZERO interest in Bali's. I didn't even consider spending time at the show with their stuff. Since there are generally a fair number of people around, you really need to pay attention to how you handle a knife there. I purposely try not to make people nervous. You get that when you handle big blades if you aren't careful.
 
I did buy one, and it's wildly impractical even for flipping;)

image-20190607_164301.jpg


Incidentally, I was able to haggle 25% off this one from the Chinese manufacturer in the second room:D
 
WValtakis said:
I did buy one, and it's wildly impractical even for flipping;)

image-20190607_164301.jpg


Incidentally, I was able to haggle 25% off this one from the Chinese manufacturer in the second room:D
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I'm definitely a non-bali person myself, but can confirm that this knife is very striking in person, and definitely a quality made product.
 
I visited every table/booth in the second room. That area was smaller and more comfortable.

I looked very hard at some hatchets and small axes with an interest in buying. I decided that even if I could get a better price at the show, I was comfortable just gaining the product knowledge for a later purchase. The thing about these kinds of things is that I really seldom use them.....
 
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While I did not go and most likely never will I did watch every video posted by the youtubers and I honestly was not overly impressed with what I saw. Yeah, there were some cool one-off show-only knives and all but the prices were so high that the average person can't even think about. As for future production knives I saw out of the whole thing I only saw maybe 3 I would buy.

But no doubt it would be fun to go. A bad day at a knife show beats a good day not at one I bet.
 
WillB said:
There were some good show prices if you looked and people were willing to haggle
You had to keep looking as same item was often surprisingly different price one booth to another depending on the item.

Wear comfortable shoes!

While it was still a sword fight (pun intended) there were more women there than I expected. There were a few female smiths there too, and that was nice to see! There was on girl with her (twin?) sister who was 18 years old, and her knives were great! She's going to be a name in the smith name some day. I told her to get hold of the Forged In Fire producers, they'd jump at having her on. Terribly cute too... her IG:

https://www.instagram.com/raeganleeknives/?hl=en

Doug "your blade will keeeeeeeeeel" Marcaida was taller than I expected.

Balisong kids. I had no idea that was such a thing. Sure, seen vids of some kid flipping around a balisong, but there were large "gangs" of them as this show all standing around flipping the balisong knives. I was just waiting for one to send one into the crowed. Guy told me most of them are not sharpened to reduce chances of getting cut. Not sure if true, carrying a dull knife that you're great at flipping around just seems just missing the point. Knives are tools, not toys. Yes, I sound like "get off my lawn you kids" guy now, but I just found them annoying all around.

The spiderco booth was always clogged with fan boys so I never did get to actually see what they had.

Jerry Hossom was a really nice guy (he's a member here of course) and his table sold out within a very short time.
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Holly cow - thank god I didn't go. I have a hard time not buying knives from dudes, but there is no way I could have walked away from the Raegan Lee knife booth without and empty wallet. Good to see some lady's getting into the mix.
 
steelhog said:
Holly cow - thank god I didn't go. I have a hard time not buying knives from dudes, but there is no way I could have walked away from the Raegan Lee knife booth without and empty wallet. Good to see some lady's getting into the mix.
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Was great to see. I tried to make sure to stop at any of the booths with lady smiths in them to give encouragement etc. I'm amazed an teenager, boy or girl, is producing such quality knives.
 
Mrgauth said:
Yeah, there were some cool one-off show-only knives and all but the prices were so high that the average person can't even think about.
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While there was definitely more than a fair share of tables and booths with Instagram/ Ebay pricing, there was a lot of fair value there too.

I'm not rich by any means, solid blue collar middle class here...and I was able to pick up a few amazing pieces without going into debt, it's all priorities;)
 
Mrgauth said:
While I did not go and most likely never will I did watch every video posted by the youtubers and I honestly was not overly impressed with what I saw. Yeah, there were some cool one-off show-only knives and all but the prices were so high that the average person can't even think about. As for future production knives I saw out of the whole thing I only saw maybe 3 I would buy.

But no doubt it would be fun to go. A bad day at a knife show beats a good day not at one I bet.
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There is a wide range of knife prices at the show. You don't have to be rich. But you do have to have an open mind and interest. If dropping by the local hardware store or home center and picking up a knife satisfies a person's need, then Blade is not for you in general. The cool thing about Blade is all of the handmade stuff that you simply never see or only see pictures of selected items. Also, the manufacturers are definitely showing off their product lines and again, only the largest knife stores will carry a broad range of product.

Your saying is what I have adapted to the Smoky Mountain National Park.... any day at the Smoky's is a good day.
 
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