Blade Show Opens!

A Blade Show Special from Spyderco, BOGO!

The first day of the Blade Show finished and was punctuated with plenty of excited people and sore feet.

As good as the show is, registration is just as terrible.  You can’t register and pick-up your pass Thursday night, despite the fact registration is open for the vendors.  The VIP passes can be bought only Friday morning at 10:00 despite the fact people lined up at 7.  The when you get to the registration window the equipment and personnel don’t work.  In fairness, the staff is desperately trying to stem the human tide of impatient people and haven’t been trained very well.  After you get your pass you have another line to stand in until the official opening at noon.  You’ll soon find the floor is your friend.

The doors open at about 12:05, because none of the security personal have the authority to open the doors and the moron with the authority can’t tell time!  At least it seems that way to me.

A.G. Russell

My first stop was A.G. Russel.  A.G. wanted to chew me out about my Folding Gents Hunter article in the June issue of Knife Magazine.  It seems A.G. can flick the blade open with quick wrist motion.  Well, so can I, but every knife class I’ve attended where people open their knife that way, sent their knife flying across the room.  Still, he and his wife Goldie were very nice to me.  I later found out of the other 3 articles about the FGH, he liked the one in Knife Magazine the best.

I stopped off at Aku Strike Knives to look at their trainers.  Dwane Horvath has developed a training knife that emits a sound and flashes a red or green light when a solid contact is made.  

Aku Strike's new knife fighting trainer

While these can be dangerous (get jabbed in the gut with 4 inches of hard plastic and you’ll know what I mean), they add a new dimension to training.  The knife’s sounds and light is only activated when the blade is pushed back or upward to simulation a stab or cut.  Keep your eyes open for this.  It will add a new level to your training.

Seems like a good way to set your kilt on fire!

I always like to watch the demos on knife grinding.  I think it’s the sparks.  It’s also interesting to watch all the other people.  I try not to be too obvious about it, after all someone might be watching me!

Here’s a few photos.

Some of Cutco's knives

1

Browning's Kukri  A real different look for Browning.

Re-sharpening

You can barely see the serrated steel edge, the rest is protected by the masking tape

I don’t normally cover the side of a knife with tape to protect it from touching the sharpening stone.

This is a little different case.  It belonged to my mother-in-law who no longer needs it and my wife isn’t sure where it’s going.  She has one and is quite happy with it.  Most of the relatives have one.  Yeah, we gave them as Christmas presents.  She may want to sell it as a used knife. 

I don’t have any problem selling used knives, especially one I know its history of use and abuse.  This bread knife needed a little touch up, and I wanted to ensure a nice appearance. 

Most serrated knives are a chisel grind.  The serrations are cut into one side only.  Sometimes you’ll find only a tiny bevel to remove the wire edge.  When you sharpen a serrated knife you end up with a wire edge along the straight side.

This is easily removed by drawing the knife flat over a fine stone, if you don’t mind the surface scratches.  Enter stage right, masking tape on the blade right above the top of the curve forming the serration.

Since I use a Spyderco Sharpmaker, removing the wire edge calls for me just lifting the blade from flat on the edge of the fine stone a degree or two and back stropping.

I got a nice resharpened edge and protected the finish.  I recommend this to anyone who needs to resharpen a dressier knife.

More 2016 Blade Show news:

By now most of everyone should know Spyderco is one of my favorite knives.  They were the first ones I carried.  The one my wife first carried.  I published my first article about a Spyderco.  Not only that, but I think for the money they are great knives.

I understand Spyderco is coming out with an all new line of kitchen knives.  New steel and new handles, it sounds pretty radical.  My friend at Spyderco tells me she is thinning out her kitchen drawers to make room for the new knives.

Also spied in their prototype display were two throwing knives.  I’ve never seen throwing knives at Spyderco.  I suspect, if throwers come to be, we will not see them until January at the 2017 SHOT Show.  2016 is half over and they and everyone else is still delivering and promoting the new 2016 product.  Most of the magazines already have articles lined up for the rest of the year.  To introduce something so radically new might be missed completely by busy editors and layout demands.

Day 2 blade 2016

The calendar retired people use works remarkably well at the Blade Show.  There is only yesterday, today and tomorrow.  By the end of the second day you’ve seen just about everything and plunked down your hard earned cash, at least I hope you have.  There will be no bargains on Sunday, Day 3.

Esnyx paid $500 to have an empty table for half the show.

By noon Saturday Busse was down to 2 knives and 1 tomahawk.  Microtech has only the knives nobody wants and many of the custom knife makers have sold all their knives. 

 Some manufacturers don’t sell at this show.  Neither Spyderco nor CRKT sell, partially to prevent their retailers from taking it on the chin, partially to reduce the shipping problems.  There are some nice discounts from vendors.  It’s also a lot to pack, ship and return to the main warehouse.  Benchmade does it, but then they only sell to brick and mortar stores.

Busse and empty counter by noon on day 2

Shipping has its own risk.  I overheard Emerson Knives ‘lost’ all their custom knives they auction off.  They just disappeared in transit.  Of course it doesn’t take much to look at the label and read Emerson Knives Co. and Blade Show and realize there’s a lot of easy-to-convert loot in that box.

James Knife, a relatively new company with very modern and clean lines, reported that two of their knives disappeared during shipping.

At some point, after the 150^th table, you realize that for most knife blades (let’s exclude the art and fantasy knives) form and function are bound into a tight circle.  There can only be so many variations of a blade.  You’ll soon find yourself only noticing the handles.  Here the range of materials, finish, shape and combinations give the artist more latitude.  Don’t believe me?  Entire displays are devoted to just dyed wood.  But there is a cure for this.  Visit Mickey Yurco’s table.  He has a table of innovative blades and impact tools that is actually joyful to look at.  He’s always one of my favorite stops.

Sandy Brady, the scrimshaw artist, had her work on display.  She had several CRKT turtles (now discontinued) in which she replaced the original plastic shell with scrimshaw ivory.  They are just wonderful.  She’s also very active in the effort to prevent the ivory ban.  It’s not that she hates elephants, it just very little of illegally poached ivory finds its way to our country.  Most ends up in China and other Far East countries.  Banning ivory from animals that died between 1980 and 40000BC has no impact on today’s conservation efforts.

Micky always has a fun table!

Sandy's wonderful artwork

I bought a few things as did my wife.  I’ll have pictures later. There is an old parable about packing.  It says lay all your clothes and money out on the bed before packing for vacation.  Leave half the clothes and double the money.  It is so true at the Blade Show.  While there are few bargains, they aren’t cheap.  I purchased a handmade auto.  The handle is specially laid-up carbon fiber.  The maker uses a double strength steel coil spring for positive opening.  All the load bearing points are stainless steel imbedded in the carbon fiber.  The opening button is oversized and requires a spring loaded safety to be retracted before it functions.  Each knife is numbered with its own unique serial number.  Most of these knives are made for two government contracts, the FBI being one.  I suspect the eight he had to sell were contract overruns and he offered a great deal.  Still they were not cheap!

The aisles were filled with people, and it seemed attendance was up.  This year the new products were labeled ‘no photos.’  The new product area is where companies display some of their newest products which they hope will be award-winning world beaters.  I guess Blade got tired of having bloggers releasing images before they could.

I went to hear Murray Carter talk about sharpening knives.  He’s an interesting person.  He claims to have sharpened 125,000 knives all by hand.  He uses two water stones for basic sharpening, a course and a fine. 

Murray and his elaborate sharpening system, a bucket, board, towel and a stone with two grits

With these two stones using a seven step method he gets razor sharp knives.  He believes that all knife blades should be thinned and the only acceptable grind is a flat grind.  Grind angle?  Don’t make him laugh.  The best angle is the angle that works the best for your purpose.  Since it only takes him a few minutes to resharpen, he’ll try one angle then another and see which works best.  Sort of suggests having a pocket full of knives with different purposes written on each.  He’s very pragmatic about sharpening, but he has the reputation for it.

I stopped at ZT.  They make amazing factory knives.  I picked up one which has both a flipper and a thumb stud.  The flipper worked fine, but using the stud I couldn’t get the blade to move.  Now, I don’t know why the thumb stud is present, as it doesn’t work.  Maybe, at least in my imagination, there is a legal reason.  “Yes, your Honor/Officer/Boss, it has a flipper that lets you open it lightning fast, but it also has a thumb stud so this knife cannot be an auto/dangerous ordinance/ballistic/forbidden by the Geneva code of ‘civilized’ warfare.”

ZTs!

So I asked one of the sales reps about why it doesn’t open with the stud.  He seized the knife out of my hand, muttered some words indicating I didn’t know if my ears were bored or punched and dug his thumb deep into the space between the stub and frame.  With a mighty effort that turned the knuckle of his thumb white and caused me to move out of the way of the debris that would surely result from his exploding joint, he couldn’t could get the knife to pop open either.  And with finger speed and dexterity that would only be seen with the top tier of prestidigitators, he managed to roll his thumb over onto the flipper and pop the blade open.  He muttered a few words about grit and discovered something else somewhere else that needed his immediate attention.

The knives at the Blade Show are amazing, but it’s the interpersonal interactions that are so much fun!

Here’s a few photos!

Blade show 2016

Big time Buck collector!

Knives from Painted Horse

Blade Show 2016 Day One

The first day of the Blade Show came off without a hitch, at least from my perspective.  By the end of the day I got a lead on a new article for Knife Magazine, and found out my Benchmade article will be published in the July issue, so that’s all good.

I purchased a tactical tomahawk from the Australian company Hardcore.  Since the story from 9/11 of the window washer who battered his way through a plaster wall to save himself, I’ve been wondering what I would do.  This is even more significant because of work.  In the almost five years I’ve been there, they have never had a fire drill and when I asked about where my department meets for a head count following a disaster, nobody seemed to know.  I think self rescue should be my middle name.

We lined up about 10 o’clock for the opening at noon.  Two guys (women have more sense) lined up at midnight the previous night to be the first in.  Men 3 and 4, it was reported, lined up at 2am.

What was the rush?  There are many answers.  Microtech has some very good deals on autos you could cash in on if you got a couple thousand set aside.  Same with Busse.  They have a huge following.   There are quite a few custom knife dealers with high end prices and only a few knives to sell.

I could not get to see any Microtech knives, the line to buy was too thick.

Many of these knives will re-emerge on the resale market in a few days.  The prices will be higher and many will disappear quickly.  It’s hard to believe the following some knife companies have.

At noon they started letting us in the main door.  You had to have either a VIP pass or pay an additional $20 to get in early.  We had passes.

Shadow Tech has released their first folder.  Right now they are all made by hand and have an interesting construction.  John wanted special components togive it more strength and improve on its performance and he’s got a pretty nice knife.  I expect a few modifications over time; nothing is made perfect the first time.  His karambits are very interesting.  The large handle maybe bigger than many other manufacturers, but it feels solid and locks open when you hold it.  John and Dave have designed several interesting ways of snapping them open during the draw.

The new Shadow Tech folders

I was disappointed by CRKT last year.  What a difference one year has made.  They have some very exciting new knives which should be reaching the market soon.  CRKT always over-engineers their knives and I didn’t see any change in that.  This could be the year you should buy a CRKT.

I stopped off at a new company called James.  They have two ‘gentleman’ knives they are offering.  The lines are very modern and the knives are very nice.  The name reflects their belief that this is the style knife Ian Fleming’s Bond (not the movie ones) would carry in the casinos at Monte Carlo.  They are design engineers and not machinists, so it’s been an interesting adventure for the two of them.

James Folders

We stopped long enough to see one knife from Popl Custom.  It was quite lovely and a table auction starts at $5000.  That’s dollars, in case you were confused.  I didn’t even touch it to get a better picture.

It is a crappy picture, but I was afraid I touch it and the handle would fall off, I'm not buying that thing!

No Blade Show is complete without demos and classes.  I sat in on one by Abe Elias on machetes as bush knives.  While I’m not ready to rush out and buy one (I already have one in the basement) it’s amazing what you can do with one.  Abe talked about proper cutting, safety and showed techniques to accomplish many of the basic cutting techniques.  It was well worth the hour.

I also paused long enough to watch a short demo of knife grinding with a Burr King grinder.  It was like the 4^th of July as it shot sparks everywhere.  The really impressive thing is how smoothly the demonstrator moved the knife grinding the edge.

More Blade tomorrow.

Blade Show Day 2

Today’s my last day at the Blade Show.  I’m heading home Sunday June 2nd but the show continues most of Sunday.  I always feel sad about the end of the show.  For two days I’m surrounded by people with many of the same values I have.  Come Monday I’m back at work surrounded by sheeple.  I may have to go back to the sheep, but tonight I’m still entrenched in the knife culture.

I stopped at Spyderco.  I just love their knives.  Look, there are only so many variations on a knife: blade, handle, lock, cutting edge.  Many companies make the same knife in 30 variations.  Face it, see one Benchmade and you’ve seen about 80% of all Benchmades.  And I’m a big supporter of Benchmade!

Spyderco is a little different.  They are not afraid to try something different.  Take the Pingo Orange.  

Spyderco's Danish Pingo.  It will work in many knife intolerant US cities.

It’s a collaboration of Spyderco, Jen Anso and Jesper Voxnaes.  The two are Danish knife makers and despite their long established knife culture, Denmark has some very strict knife laws.  Citizens can’t have locking or one-hand opening knives.  The Pingo has a 2.35 inch blade made from N690Co steel and is street legal in Denmark. 

I got into a discussion about locking blades with Joyce at Spyderco.  I’m uncomfortable with non-locking blades.  I’ve cut myself a number of times when I did something stupid and the knife closed on me.  She told me about several Danish military frogmen who bought a lot of these at a dive show they were attending.

“Look,” they said. “You can do three things.  Carry illegally and hope for the best, do without, or follow the law and have something on you.”  I agree with that completely, but I’ll add we don’t know how lucky we are to be Americans!  (PS: This knife should work legally in Chicago, New York and Cleveland just to name a few.)

Also from Spyderco are a Puukko fixed blade made from CPM S30V steel and a folding Puukko also made with S30V steel called Nilakka.  It’s named after a lake where the designer Pekka Tuominen lives.   

 

Two knives showing Spderco's interest in ethnic knives.

Both are excellent knives.

I stopped off at Boker to get more information on their knives.  Boker has several different levels of knives.  Some are made in Germany, others in South America and still others made everywhere else.  I know it doesn’t sound very useful if you’re trying to match quality and price.  Boker tells me all of their knives meet the quality standards set by the German parent company and you can find some remarkable knives in the Magnum class.  Much to my error I’ve always thought Magnum class was the cheaper, junk knives.  I’ve got to admit the ones I saw felt pretty good.  But as the sales rep told me, there’s German steel and then there’s other steels.  I guess you have to read between the lines.

Benchmade was selling knives.  That amazed me!  A number of years ago Benchmade stopped selling to distributors and wanted to deal only with brick and mortar stores.  They never sold at the SHOT Show or the Blade Show.  Until now.  It was a good deal:  15% off list and free laser engraving.  The engraver was a little thing about the size of a 1200-watt microwave.  I suspect laser engraving could become so cheap you’ll see it everywhere including home hobbyist.

I was looking for a neck knife, but nothing struck my fancy.  I stopped at Danny Robinson, who prints his business card on the back of a sealed band-aid, and fell in love with his files-to-knife conversions.  

Utility converted to art.

I bought a high carbon steel fixed blade with a wood and brass handle and a blued blade.  Maybe someday I’ll have a neck sheath made for it.

Last word for tonight!

How does she keep her balance?!  Yikes!

Blade Show Opening Day

I got in line around 9:40.  The show opened at 12 noon.  Fortunately the fellow in back of me was interesting and we spent the time yakking.  Turns out he’s a high end commercial photographer.  We’ve both seen the end of film as a media and the growth of digital media.  While most of his work is wedding and architectural photography, he occasionally takes photographs of a few knives and was a lot of fun to talk with.  He likes high-end knives ~ Microtech, Chris Reeve and Benchmade.

We're lining up to get in.  Toyland for adults.

We got in and started walking.  It’s row after row of knives, sharpening, manufacturing supplies, and of course, more knives.  Frankly, after a while it all blends together.  Especially with sore feet.

The floor isn't packed yet, but it's beginning to get crowded.

Still, I picked up a few new knives.  My wife and I both got Covert Defenders from TWBrands Gear.  Covert Defenders are neck knives made from G10.  No metal.  They can be resharpened with an emery nail board (!) and one’s include in the pack.

The knife is entirely made from G-10.  No metal.

You’re not going to shave fir sticks to start a fire or skin a deer out with it, but I sure wouldn’t want to get slashed with it.  I’m told you can get it sharp enough to slice a tomato.  It fits into my personal belief that I should be ready.

 

My wife bought several Cutco Knives.  Cutco, as you may know, owns Ka-Bar and makes quality knives.   Yes, Cutco is expensive but their quality makes the price reasonable.  I hope to write a little bit more about them later.

I like some of the new knives coming out from CRKT.  The Swindle has a lot going for it, but the crazy spring-loaded clip wants to hold the knife perpendicular to your body.  That’s kind of odd.  CRKT indicates the knife will distort the fabric and lay flat until you reach for it.  The hand pooches the pocket outward and the Swindle become very easy to grasp.  I don’t know.  Too many of CRKT theories sound good and work okay standing at the counter, but stoop down or sit striding a bike and the theory self-destructs.

One of my last stops today was Shadow Tech.  They make all their knives in Ohio and have some very interesting designs.  I picked up their newest.  It’s so new it doesn’t have a name yet or is on their website.  At least that’s what I was told.  (I did check their website and it’s called the QRT and you can find it there.)

 

This may rival Ka-Bar's TDI knife.

The knife is designed for police and military.   It has a lot of the functionality of a push dagger, but doesn’t torque in your hand.  The finger hole really locks the knife into your grip.  The blade is 1095 steel with a Rockwell C of around 58.  That’s a good value for knives that may be used a pry bars, scoops and God knows what else.

Tomorrow is another day.  I still have to meet with some people and I anticipate a few more purchases.  I still haven’t found the neck knife I want.  Everything in this hotel and show is very expensive, so I really have to think about what I’m purchasing.

More tomorrow I hope!