The BLADE Show is off with a BANG!
At least that’s what you’re lead to expect
reading the blogs. Here’s the reality.
The show starts with people lining up for HOURS before the
show opens. I was there 2.5 hours before
it opened and found that the end of the line was all the way down the hall, and
blocking the concourse. By the time it
opened the line stretched down another hall, across, then snaked over, reversed,
and headed into the adjacent hotel. By
that time the smarter people just sat at the entrance and waited for the
opening bell. The end of the line
eventually reached them and they walked in the door like normal people. I wonder what time the first person in line
arrived to get that number one spot?
Early morning line up. Who was suppose to bring donuts and coffee? |
About an hour before the opening the line starts to compact
itself and soon begins to vibrate in anticipation. It’s a dangerous condition. Management came by and told everyone they
couldn’t block the concourse and everyone involved collectively told them to
shove it. Cooler heads prevailed and
they got the passageway opened.
While sitting there I met Phil Wilson. He’s a knife maker from California, now
retired and has been for 25 years. (PS 8 June 15 I just found out that Spyderco consideres him one of the top 5 knife metalurgist still living. I wish I have know that when I was talking to him.) Some
of his work is being considered by Spyderco, but he had a few knives with
him.
One of Phils knives. He makes a nice blade! |
Phil is a true hobbyist: he makes 5
knives a month for his own pleasure and isn’t interested in creating an
industry around himself. I thought his
knives were very nice.
I stopped by Santa Fe Stoneworks. They are buying their stabilized ivory and a
resin material called Sparkle from Raffir in Denmark. These materials are very nice and I really
like the Sparkle which is a plant fiber and aluminum shavings in colored resin. Prices are floating up and I expect them to
continue that way.
Remember one of the Terminator movies with the liquid metal
bad guy? The Miltner Adams Co. is making
something like that. It’s a moldable
metal that’s reported to be double the strength of titanium and was developed
by Caltech/NASA. The metal technology
allows you to injection mold complex shapes to a high degree of tolerance.
The stud on the top of the round hole controls the sheath. |
As a result they have developed the Hybrid
Knife. It’s a fixed blade and you slip
your fingers through the knife handle to provide a non-slip grip. By pressing a stud just above the central
circular opening you can pop the metal sheath off the blade to expose the cutting
surface. By manipulating the stud it will
close the sheath over the blade. Frankly,
it is an acknowledgment that most of your (and mine!) cutting is mundane and of short
duration. The metal sheath can be
removed if you want.
The knife has a Rockwell C of 53. That’s pretty low but the salespeople told me
that was the non-heat treated value.
They also told me if you slip the knife in the oven at 300° overnight you’ll
find a very different metal in the morning.
I’m going to assume that would be bad.
This kind of heat treatment usually results in dimension changes, so your
knife might not fit together so well. So
don’t do that. It’s a very interesting
knife as is and a very interesting look at manufacturing.
We lucked out at Cutco. Loren, the local sales rep, has been changing
out his display knives for new ones and my wife found one she liked at a great
price. He remembered us from last year
and told us what we had bought. That
impressed me. Cutco owns Ka-Bar and
makes very nice kitchen knives so
take a look at them if you’re upgrading.
My wife's new knife |
Later at Stone River Gear she found a ceramic black bladed
folder she really liked. We often get
requests for ceramic folders so we’ll see what one does on our sales
table. Yeah, I bought a second one just
for the table.
Here's a few more pictures:
Before the general admittance at noon |
One was to carry a butterfly, clearly a custom job! |