Hey everyone…
Blade Show 2024 is in the books. I made it back to Knoxville, and am safely ensconced in the confines of my workshop with my dogs snoring away next to me. I am a walking (sitting) contradiction right now. Exhausted but amped, glad to be home but already missing friends, thankful for the quiet but missing the buzz of the show. Which is pretty typical all in all. I go through similar each year.
Sunday of Blade Show is always a contradiction as well. For some patrons, it is the only chance they have to see the show. For exhibitors, it is business as usual and beginning to break things down, saying goodbye to friends on the chance you won’t cross paths again when you probably will. Except when you don’t.
I feel like I had an incredibly productive show, and yet there are myriad tables and booths I didn’t have a chance to visit.
I did end up buying a knife though…
I couldn’t help it. I don’t know what about it had me so taken. I think the way that the yellow in the Fat Carbon back scale matched the slide. It is a cool knife, even if it doesn’t make sense as part of my collection.
I had the opportunity to finally meet Bill Ruple, who has a new collaboration with Case that made its debut at the show…
You can read more about it here.
Ran into my buddy Bob “The Knife Junkie” DeMarco. He is the face of the Knife Junkie Podcast, which is available on all podcast platforms and YouTube.
Dan and Tony Lewis of Desert Forge Knives, who are most likely the first pair of brothers to pass their ABS Journeyman test on the same day (yesterday).
Didn’t have a lot of time to spend with Joseph Vero, because there was always a line of customers 3 deep every time I stopped by. Caught him late this morning in a free moment, and snapped a pic of him with his Blade Texas award.
Aurelien Cheyssial of AGO Knives is a 25 year old French maker whose folders are as fine as many by makers with decades of experience.
He made the trip with his mom. Who was an absolute delight to chat with.
Alec Wachtman had his mom helping out at his booth as well.
Matt Cammenga of White River Knives showing off their first folder, a slipjoint that they are making in collaboration with SMKW.
Much more on that to come.
Matthew Parkinson, knifemaker and author of the Turning the World to Dust column in KNIFE Magazine.
It was great to see Yue Dong, both at the Vosteed booth and randomly walking around.
We correspond regularly, but there is no substitute for getting to hang out a bit.
With David Sun.
Chad Bowlin of Black Hog Knives.
Caleb White is one of the first makers I got to know, almost a decade ago. I reviewed the Penance back at TTAK.
I brought Dogwood Dan over to meet him. Caleb just moved to Tennessee, and I need to make the 2 hour trip to visit.
Speaking of Tennessee, Knoxville maker Chuck Cook had this really nice dagger among his wares.
Always good to see Tim Stetzer. We might be doing a collaborative article at some point. Look for several new pieces in KNIFE from Tim in the coming months.
BladeHQ Wienie Warriors. Not quite my thing. I will skip to the desserts.
I enjoyed getting to know BladeHQ’s George Muhlestein this show. We had met several times, but we spent a great deal more time chatting this time around.
The crew at GiantMouse Knives.
Helle has a new knife out, the little sibling to the Nord.
The Nordlys. They gave me this one to ship to Jim Cobb, but I give you an in depth look soon.
Mickey Yurko
SMKW’s Greg Pressley introduced me to Jason Teitz, whose work I would have admired even without Greg’s endorsement.
It is now midnoght and I am starting to really lose focus.
Read the full article here