Went to a gun show this weekend.....

My Favorite at a gun show:
"My granddaddy built a knife out of a file and we skinned 14 deer, four bears, three coons and cut the fender of my cousins pickup with it and we could still shave with it. Can you make one like that for me?" I answered no, but my buddy three tables down can.
 
Josiah.. on the other hand he may be that good. When I was at Army CW (morse code school) the first thing the instructor said was, "I'm the best damn !@#$!@$!@$ morse guy in the world and if you don't believe me the Guiness Book of World Records is in the back of the class." Errrrrr he WAS the world record holder for sending and recieving code. He was so fast that they had to use computers to send and recieve his code. He demonstrated and it sounded like a fax machine...... I didn't do very well at CW and later became a medic :p
 
'Bama doesn't have a monopoly on idiots at gun shows. I've only been to a couple gun shows up here in Wisconsin... but my gut impression is, they're a great place to buy used guns, a maybe-good-place to buy reloads (fire at your own risk), and a FANTASTIC place to buy genu-wine Chinese-made "Indian" artifacts.

Let's face it, your typical "gun show" is little more than a flea-market with higher prices. In my experience at gun-shows, flea-markets and carnivals, I have never come across a "handmade" knife that was worth a spit. 97% of them were horrible, edgeless imported sh!t with a pretty silk-screened handle (often, a wolf, buffalo, or other pseudo-Native American theme. :rolleyes: ) The second 1% was "my dady forged this'un frum a old sewer pipe, I gwarantee it kicks azz, but no, I won't give you my name". The next one percent is just your general-run crap, in a pretty box marked "collecter's addition" (spelling mistakes included on purpose.) The other 1% were Ka-bars and the like at fair prices; nothing wrong with that.

Like other posters have said, it astounds me that some folks will happily drop $5,000 on a custom rifle, $10,000 on a bass boat, or $70,000 on an RV or recreational land, yet refuse to spend more than $20 on a quality hunting or fishing knife. What can ya say to that? Some folks refuse to be educated. Forget 'em.
 
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The New York gun shows are the same,the middletown one has a few custom sellers but only one maker,Bruce Gillespe is there every time.He makes great knives and great conversation,I dont know how many knives he sells.

If work goes the way it has been I'll have enough stock to make a table full of knives.3 weeks and counting with unemployment giving me the hokey pokey :jerkit:
 
Well someone needs to play Devil's advocate.I'll agree the first couple of gun shows I did I had the same experience as you all.Fast forward about 18 years, and I have sold out at the last three shows I have attended, about 50 knives and picked up several thousand dollars of leatherwork.Now I only am able to do one or two shows a year at best, but for a $60 table for two days close to home, works for me.I have met my two best customers at gun shows, and while they maybe the exception to the many idiots that show up, I think its worth listening to silly questions and bad stories for a bit.Dave:)

http://dcknivesandleather.blademakers.com/
 
J-siah said:
thats true, he was pretty cool too.
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Awe shucks. Your not so bad yourself. Seriously sorry it went so bad. If you would have asked I would have told you not to bother. I have done that show myself and got the same thing.

I like to go to the gun shows but I am not going to spend a weekend waisting my time like that. Sitting at a table getting affended repeatedly.

One of the last gun shows I had a table at I had some older guy bleeding on my table. It is amazing how many people at gun shows dont understand that knives are (or should be) sharp. Why would some one test the edge of a blade by trying to cut off their fingers?


On a brighter note I got a really nice piece of Sambar Stag at the show this past weekend. :thumbup:
 
Just a couple of weeks ago I had a guy tell me that his grand father used to harden the knives he made in his grand mothers cornbread. Now that's funny, I don't care who ya are! Funny thread guys! I think a couple of the Alabama boys have migrated up here to Ol kentuk!
 
J-siah said:
thats true, he was pretty cool too. I will be sure to give you a call, probably this week.

I also got to meet the best black smith I will ever meet in my life, he told me so himself. he said, I quote " I'm pretty damn good, probably the best you will ever meet" how long have you been a black smith, I ask " almost 10 years ". 10 years is a long time, but I have me people who have been doing it longer than my father has been alive, so I was a little under impressed. he would be best off to adopt some humility before he meets some old timer who will rock his world.

-Josiah
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LMAO.... I'd like to know who that blacksmith is
 
I did buy a decent 1095 Nessmuk from Jeff White Shoulda seen his eye's light up when I said Hey nice nessmuk's..."He said most folks dont even know what those are! he asked how I knew and I said I was a maker too... Got invited to his shop to play and learn sometime. oghta take him up on his offer soon.

Jason
 
I guess I am lucky that my local gun show has a knife section, there is the two hockey arenas for the guns "antiques" etc and the curling rink for knives. Last year I bought some nice O1 from Rob and Marilyn from knifemaker.ca there (I would have bought it anyway but this saves money on shipping :))
 
I visited a gun show back in the summer. Met a couple makers. 1 did kit knives. 1 did what I would consider new makers work (less than 3 completed knives) but had probably 30 on the table. Said he'd been making knives 20 years. Appairantly he still had them all. He also came with 3 buddies that were his cheering section. He ask what I was carrying so I showed him my EDC ( Chad Nichols orbital damascus blade and guard with Ivory handle.) I'm not that great of a maker but it did me good when one of the cheerleaders ask " Da$n thats sweet who made it." and I got to reply I DID.
There was one maker there who did excellent work. Very nice forged blades. We talked threw most of my visit at the show. So it wasn't a total waste
 
silver_pilate said:
Panther piss is really hard to find these days. You know, there were only so many people that had the gumption to collect urine from militant African American social activists in the 60's. By the time the trend caught on in the mid 1970's, panthers were a dying breed.

So I use cougar piss now. It's a whole lot easier to convince a single, amorous, 50 year old woman to pee in a cup than it is to hunt down a panther.

--nathan
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Awesome, just awesome man :D
 
Ditto to Will's post.

I will NOT do a gun show any more.

Either Danbo is stealing my story, or those Indians are making their way around the country. The worst part, is the guy used to fish with my dad and I when I was a kid.

He walked up to my table and started telling me I was a fake, that my knives were no good, and that I should be ashamed for trying to "pull one over on these fine folks at the gun show." He claimed that the knife I was using for cutting tests was different than the ones I had for sale.

When he flicked it with his finger, and told me, "See... this blade is different, and old Indian can hear good steel..." I almost lost it.

I had several offers of $35 for $300 knives. And the guys would get mad when I politely declined.

Cant tell you how many times I wanted to punch some of those guys right in the face that week-end!!! :grumpy:

I'm with Bruce... I'll stick to shows where the visitors are respectful of the table holders. :) I'm all for customer education, but most of those guys just won't listen.
 
Okay, I'll step up to this one. One of my best customers is a gun show knife dealer - George Harrison, Straight River Knife - who does Midwest gun shows. George is the guy who convinced me to get "serious" about knife making and I owe him and you guys whatever ability I have making knives. If you ever see him, stop by and introduce yourself. George is a 100% straight-up guy. I sometimes work for George when he's in Des Moines and one day a guy comes by the table and is looking at a David Dill knife. So I had it out, showed him how the scale release works, pointed out the interior filework and Dill's super-fine finish. He asked how much it was, I said, "Six fifty." The guy says, "I'll take it." So I got out the calculator to add tax (he had his credit card out), and said, "That'll be six hundred eighty nine; we'll round down." "Six HUNDRED?!!! I thought it was six dollars!" and he stalked off.

A number of the gun people at work know I make knives and one day a guy asked me how much to make him one. I told him it depended on the knife but around two hundred dollars. He looked shocked; "I can buy a Buck for $35 at Walmart!" "Well," I said, "it won't hold an edge like a custom knife will. It costs me more than $35 to make a knife." No way, this guy was not having it; he would not accept that a knife was worth $200. I made the mistake of sharpening his Buck for him one year and all I heard from him the rest of the season was how well that Buck knife was holding its edge... :D

People are a freakin riot. I'm getting really nervous about doing the Wolverine show, but at least those are knife people. But dang! There are going to be 40 makers there, the likes of Raymond Richard and Don Cowles, to compare my paltry efforts to. It freaks me out. I should just stay in my basement, making steel dust. :eek:
 
People are a freakin riot. I'm getting really nervous about doing the Wolverine show, but at least those are knife people. But dang! There are going to be 40 makers there, the likes of Raymond Richard and Don Cowles, to compare my paltry efforts to. It freaks me out. I should just stay in my basement, making steel dust. :eek:[/QUOTE][/I

Dave, Ive seen your knives. They are works of cutlery art. Go there and stand tall. You've paid your dues in this craft and it shows. The other makers know you well and so do most of the collectors just by your constant support on this forum. You will do fine there. Just have fun.
 
The funniest thing is that Mel Pardue and an MS buddy of his used to do the January gun and knife show here in town. There's maybe 5 of us at the show that know or care who they are. Mel has like 4 of his knives on the table the MS has maybe 3... people are fainting at the prices, not even muttering but almost yelling "I can buy a damn used car for that" and the well practiced reply of "and?". They were a heck of a lot more polite than I have been in the past. Mel doesn't come to the show any more :(
 
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