[hso]

I'll be at the Blade Show in Atlanta this weekend if anyone wants to try to get together.

[Valkman]

Have fun! That was my favorite trip ever, but I don't know if I'll be able to go again.

[Gary G23]

I'll be there Friday afternoon and Sunday morning.

[hso]

I attended the CKCA (http://www.customknifecollectorsassociation.com/) dinner/auction tonight and was impressed at the growth of an organization dedicated to improving custom knife making and collecting that was only a couple of years old. This evening in addition to the great knives brought out by the makers who attended, Jerry Fisk announced that a benefactor had contributed the money for an endowment to provide 3 grants to the most innovative proposals submitted by custom makers. The money would be given to the makers to advance knife making and the best of the 3 would be picked at the end of a year. The intention is to give custom makers the opportunity to stretch their imaginations and skills and intellect. Judging would be done by authorities from within and outside the knife collecting/making community to help introduce a wider audience to the craft and artistry of custom knife makers in hopes of expanding the community.

Cool idea and a real benefit to these craftsmen.

I bopped over to "The Pit" at the Waverly to see which buddies of mine I could shake hands with and ran into Mudbone and Gary Wheeler before I got in the hotel. Inside I found Walter Brend and he showed his new prototype folders to me. A folding Ti handled Marauder as well as a new Model 2 auto. Walter's come up with a couple of clever ideas to make the folders rock solid while still being smooth as glass and without looking like sharpened pry bars. Very elegant and very business like at the same time. Outside again I talked with Ethan Becker and Kim Breed. Kim promises another beautiful folder will be on their table and I'll try to get a crummy picture tomorrow morning to post. Ethan hinted as something new from KaBar.

More tomorrow.

[bikerdoc]

Ethan hinted as something new from KaBar.




Ya, thats worth looking into. Got to be good.

[lemaymiami]

Never been to a knife show... any chance there's one that might be in south Florida?
any info appreciated.

[hso]

Gator show is in FL as is the Knifemaker's Guild show.

If you've never been to a knife show it is a bit of a shock and very much a delight.

[Tomcat47]

Check out RKK .... see what new items he has for us!

And thats Randall King Knives not to be confused with Randall Knives!

But both do great things for mankind!:D

[hso]

Randall didn't have anything specific for RKK, but has been working with Meyerco and HTM to collaborate and design and manufacture knives for them.

Cas Hanwei's forge facilities suffered a fire and 60% of the building and equipment burned. Supply will be limited for a while.

Al Mar has a EDC smaller size of the SERE 2000. One version was in stainless damascus. Their kitchen knives are marvelous.

CRKT is going to produce Ken Onion's octopus cane. It is a thing of beauty and is "appropriately" priced.
http://www.thehighroad.org/attachment.php?attachmentid=143876&d=1307934593
They also had a new small hunter fixed blade by Ken. The blade shape doesn't match anything out there, but Ken swears it made short work of the bears taken on his Wounded Warrior hunt with permanently disabled vets and several supporters. http://lh3.googleusercontent.com/public/duWiIVs9gNiW7USdoFKPskSyXXj5ILvj-mm2A7PikyIdwgxFw1Naeh_Wtl_8sW8XqQVjRXmOzOb2G6qkbKWAebNJSR43DKQFPsmn05GkYuWhgEdDMAvSHUrqMLkQgMypkFvliyxRrMgsKZV4R3NKLcU7n93aEDT7zu-H5Q

KaBar had their Zombie Killer line. Classic blades of the past revived with modern materials and a nice tongue-in-cheak use of neon green handle scales (spare black are included). My favorite, the "Pestilence", which is a classic concave curve machete. The thing seemed perfect in the hand. http://ep.yimg.com/ca/I/policestuff_2160_132233145
They also officially showed the new BKT Mini Magnum, Mini Campanion and Mini Bowie I posted about a few weeks ago. Ethan and a few of the Becker Heads were at the booth and around the show. Dinner with Ethan Saturday night was a lot of fun.

KnifeRights announced that they'd filed suit in federal court against DA Cyrus Vance Jr. (http://kniferights.org/) and the city of New York over their practice of prosecuting or threatening prosecution to extort a deal for diversion of prosecution based on intentionally misapplying the city law against gravity knives to one hand openers. They had NH Rep. Jenn Coffey and UT Representative Ryan D. Wilcox who respectively each lead the charge in their states to get knife preemption laws in place. Both laws protecting the right to own and carry knives were signed by their Governor's this year. Sandy Froman, former NRA president, was with KnifeRights as well and spoke at the KnifeRights award breakfast. All three spent a couple of days as the guests of KnifeRights and the Blade show and were wowed by the variety and artistry of the knives at the show.

[hso]

New Peltons. Notice that the cap lifter has shifted from the back of the blade to the to the extended tang like on the Becker Necker and there's no pry.
These knives were very well balanced and were very comfortable in the hand. The handle scales still have space to store small important items.

[Sav .250]

Some of the more recent Gun Shows I`ve been to seems more like "Blade Shows" as knives of all sorts and prices seem to fill the hall.

[hso]

Unless you're seeing prices starting at $50 and going upwards of $15,000 the Blade Show is pretty different from any gun show, but I have seen a couple of local custom knife makers showing up at the local shows from time to time bringing the level up a tad over the embarrassing junk and reasonably good factory pieces.

[hso]

1911 knife! A knife built around the ergonomics of the 1911 grip.

[hso]

Colonial Cutlery autos.

Yes, they put the springer on the riser cutter side for some! Look for a double springer soon.