Blade Show Day Three 2019

Sunday is always Spyderco day.  Not exclusively, but I look forward to seeing their new products and talking with Joyce.  It’s been a busy year for them and for her.

Do you like catalogs?  I love ‘em.  The problem with catalogs is, even small ones like Spyderco’s, they must be printed in September for release by January.  Some products are ready but others are not.  Some will experience changes.   Some knives will be added, some dropped.  All of which makes people angry as they can’t get it now.  Maybe it had two screws in the catalog but three screws in production and every collector wants the two screw version that was never made.  I think you can see the problems.

Spyderco will release three ‘Reveals’ during the course of the year, featuring products which are ready to ship.  I’m sure Spyderco gains some unspecified advantage from this, but it’s an interesting approach.

Top orange- Endura, Bottom orange - Delica but the middle black is the new Endela available in plain edge too

Right now lightweight folders are the rage.  Consumers are suddenly worried about an extra ounce or three.  The FRCP (fiberglass reinforced copolymer) has a little too much flex so Spyderco has incorporated a thin metal liner to eliminate the problem.  You’ll see more and more variations of old and new favorites like the Police lightweight. It’s slightly bigger than the original, but easy to carry and use.  

Spyderco Dragonfly with Emerson Wave opener.  The wave works very nicely with this
knife.  Reversible wire clip on back

Another example is their lightweight Para-military 3 which just won the 2019 Blade award for the most innovative American knife.  No small potatoes.

Don't ask the price, I can't afford it, but professional chefs will love it.  The Itamae series

Speaking of food, Frank Daily has been hired to head their new cutlery division.  It’s a new departure for Spyderco and they are offering a range of knives.   At the top end are Murray Carter’s Itamae series.  These are super thin laminated blades of Aogami Super Blue steel between two layers of SUS410 stainless steel.  Murray is a proponent of super sharp thin blades. They will come in different blade configurations and are aimed at professional chefs and culinary schools.

Spyderco's new sharpening system, the Gauntlet.  Uses oval shaped stones.

Closer to my pocket are the Z-Cut.  With their offset handles they are often referred to as ‘sandwich shop’ knives.  You can get them both with plain and serrated blades.  The plastic handles are fused to the CTS BD1N stainless steel making them dishwasher safe.  Carpenter’s BD1N is high carbon martensitic stainless steel, containing chromium and nitrogen that can be air or oil hardened.  It has good edge retention and better corrosion resistance.

As Z-Cut knives come with pointed ends, a rounded blunt tip is available for our friends in England and other parts.  Might not be a bad starting knife for youngsters learning kitchen arts.  In the middle of the range will be the classic Spyderco utility kitchen knives and their amazing and terrifying bread knife!

There is only one roadblock to their domination of the world cutlery market with low cost, effective Z-knives.  Yes, they got the stock, but someone forgot they needed packaging.  They will get it straightened out soon.

Spyderco production is running 24 hours 5 days a week and they are still swamped.  Their engineering staff has continued to promote tighter and tighter tolerances.  I wouldn’t say you could toss a handful of the correct parts in a bag, shake it and find an assembled knife, but…..

Prototyping is enhanced through the use of 3D printers.  Modern and advanced technology is actively pursued as is their intellectual property.  All of which allows for newer and more interesting knives.  This might be considered the Golden Age of factory knives.

What else do you need to know?  They will continue to make sprint runs limited to 1200 pieces, because that is what they like.  These sell out fast.  Just a word to the wise.

Proof Cobb Galleria is haunted by the ghosts of past shoppers.  You would think the high food prices
would chase them away!

The knife industry, including Spyderco, is becoming more protective of their intellectual property and technology.  This is beginning to create walls.

In Europe and many American cities laws limit blade length.  Don’t make assumptions that your home rules apply everywhere.

Pro-Tech Custom TR-3 with purple alligator 

Sunday isn’t solely Spyderco day.  I stopped by Pro-Tech and bought a TR-3 auto custom made specifically for the Blade Show. It has a nice purplish anodized alligator on the front and back where it is partially covered by the clip.  The opening stud is mother of pearl and the 3.5 inch blade is CPM S35vn coated with black DLC.

I’m told they send out several knives to an artist with the instructions to ‘be creative.’  And they never know what they’ll get back.

You can find this on Pro-Tech’s website, but they are making autos for Boker based on Lucas Burnely’s designed Kwaiken.  This is one very nice knife with simple modern lines.  Look into it.

Sunday Morning at Blade. Time for bargains if what you want is still there. 

I walked past Colonial Knife and found many of their fine blades had strongly resembled another manufacturer.  It’s not uncommon and often turns out to be one of the worst kept secrets in the knife industry.  But I will not spill the beans.

Speaking of Shadow Tech, John and Dave report they are happy with the Show and are making both hatchets and fixed blades for other companies.

Last words:  Only because I find it amusing about the dead making money and someone asked me, yes, Loveless Knives is still making knives stamped Loveless.

Blade Show Day Two 2019

Outside the weather raged torrents of rain, but inside the Blade Show it was sunny and knifey.  It’s still hard to imagine all the vendors and shoppers packed under one roof, but it isn’t all knives.

Grace Horn's Scissors

Grace Horn showed off her custom scissors.  And they flew off the table like umbrellas during a deluge.  I especially liked the tall elegant pair that had a benign demonic look to them.  Grace is an unusual knife maker.  You can follow her on Facebook.  She did measure my right thumb to get an idea of an average size opening for men’s scissors.

Another table had nothing but knife sheaths.  If you heeded a Randall or a Loveless or just about any other sheath, you’d find it there.

You need it?  You could find it.

I stopped at Darrel Ralph and looked at his ZEK hatchets.  Darrel tells me he had been thinking about hatchets since 1998.  I think he finally came up with a winner.  The kydex sheath locks the hatchet head in place and has a belt clip so you can wear it.  A secondary strap locks the sheath closed so you will not accidentally lose your tool moving in or out of a vehicle or in the brush.  He had several styles including a nice carbon fiber handle, but I went with the micarta grip that had a rounded profile.  I found it fit my hand better.

Never know when you might need to chop something or somebody

Speaking of Shadow Tech, they have introduced several lines of folders.  I especially liked their Sidekick, a gentleman’s knife.  Well, it could be a gentlewoman’s knife as well.  It sports a stud and a hole, but it actually opens with a flipper.  The blade opens and is locked in place with a liner lock.  It doesn’t have a clip, because it is not a tactical knife.  It’s well made and I think I’m going to enjoy it.

They call it rose, but it looks purple to me 

Sharpening blades can be terrifying to some, but there are easy options 

At one table a vendor had a pile of paper shavings, several knives and more simple sharpeners than you could imagine.  In this day and age when sharpening systems require a mechanical engineering degree to set up and use, his simple pull-throughs turn a dull knife into a sharp edge.  It may not be the zenith of sharpness, but if your edge can cut curly paper shavings, it’s sharp enough for most of my needs.

Doug and friend drawing door prize tickets

Doug Marcaida, best known for Forged in Fire and his expression, ‘It will keel!’ was at Russian Blades and has designed a fighting knife based on his Filipino system.  You could mug with him and get your picture taken, but I took a pass on that.  He’s a tremendous martial artist, but also a shrewd business man.  He showed us several karambit-style knives he designed as rescue tools for Europe, where such knives are illegal.  In the absence of an edge, a ‘blade’ consisting of a seatbelt cutter, screw driver, oxygen bottle wrench is allowed.  Of course, you could still use it to control and apply to pressure points, but Doug never said that.

I got my hands on a DART (Direct Action Response Knife).  Doug developed this knife with the Italian knife company, Fox.  It’s a karambit style, with an Emerson wave opener, but a non-curved blade.  I looked for these for several years but couldn’t find them.  All Fox would say was a “…family disagreement prevented continued manufacturing.”  Well, it seems they are back and I have one!

It looks like a Karambit, but.....

Instead of a curved blade, it's more of a drop point tanto

Could I summarize the Blade Show in blog or two?

Look, you could spend the day just visiting the big commercial knife companies, like Spyderco, Cold Steel and Buck, and you wouldn’t be disappointed.  You could also spend the day talking to custom designers, the makers and technical support people.  There are demos on the floor as well as classes, lectures and helpful people everywhere.

The Blade Show has become too large to be summarized by any one blogger.  Each of us is a blind man inspecting an elephant.  If you are a knife fancier, come and attend.  It’s the greatest knife show on earth, possibly the solar system.

Here are few more photos.

Think of them as pocket jewelry 

It takes two to truly understand the image