See who took home the hardware from the custom knife competition at BLADE Show Texas
With its roots in fine custom knives, BLADE Show Texas tends to draw the top names in makers. In turn, the custom knife awards competition turns out to be a heavyweight slugfest of some of the country’s most accomplished blade artisans. The 2024 competition at the Feb. 23-24 show lived up to this expectation completely.
The judging hall buried in the catacombs of the Ft. Worth Convention Center was packed to the gills with exceptional specimens in 12 categories. To say the 3-judge panel had their work cut out is an overstatement as large as the Lone Star State itself. But after much debate and some furrowing of brows, this team of custom knife experts came up with the top picks from each category.
This included Best Of Show (and Best Bowie), Mike Quesenberry’s dog-gone outstanding bowie knife—a creation that sucked the air out of the room. A testament to how competitive the competition was, the judges for the first time awarded “Contender” awards in three categories for knives that were worthy of top honors, but were just edged out of the highest award.
Best Of Show: Mike Quesenberry
Best Art Knife: Mike Quesenberry
Best Bowie: Mike Quesenberry
Bowie Contender: Franco De Souza
Best Damascus: Franco De Souza
Best EDC: Karis Fisher
Best Fighter: Franco De Souza
Best Folding Knife: Jared Oeser
Best Hunting Knife: James Rodebauh
Hunting Knife Contender: Peyton Ramm
Best Kitchen Knife: Harvey Dean
Best Slipjoint: Tim Robertson
Slipjoint Contender: Phil Jacob
Best M.A.C.K.: Princeton Wong
Best Of The Rest: Jason Knight/Winburn Steel
Check Out Previous Custom Award Winners:
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