If you didn't go you didn't go please don't repost from others that did. We want your experience, not someone else's.
There were fewer exhibitors and fewer attendees. None of the foreign companies that didn't have staff in the US to set up for them made it. Kizer wasn't there, Lionsteel wasn't, ... Most knife makers or dealers I spoke with did very well financially compared to previous years. Interesting contrast to fewer attendees. Several makers were sold out by Thursday afternoon to dealers/purveyors (before the show opened to the public), many were sold out by close of the half day on Friday, and others by lunch on Saturday.
Manufacturers mostly had the same logistical nightmares whether they were shipping product from overseas to the US or if they were producing in the US. Shipping cost doubled and then quadrupled over the past year. A $3,000 bare container from Asia or Europe in 2019 had increased to $18,000 this week. SIX TIMES just for the container...if they could schedule one. The shipping times increased as well since it took longer on every link of the chain to move goods from A to B to C to D. While US manufacturing had a little better luck, they still faced cardboard shortages for packaging or fastener shortages, or handle material shortages. For want of a nail...
There were fewer new exhibitors, but most of them were new makers inspired to make knives as therapy or inspired by shows like Forged In Fire, Man At Arms, and the glut of Youtube videos. Most were nice folks.
Related to that, they could have fit all exhibitors into the one original room, but Medford and Microtech brought a WWII staff car and troop carrier respectively INTO the hall! I don't know if the promoter asked them to bring the things in to fill empty space (I should ask) of if they paid for the space.
Big makers that didn't come but kept their booths let couches or chairs be set up. Nice to have a place to sit and relax. I would have killed for professional chair massage provider to have been allowed to set up since load-in for a small team like Knife Rights is brutal on the volunteers.
Oh, you wanna know about knives.
I found almost everything to be a version of what I'd seen before except for a few exceptions.
Had a nice talk with Goldie Russell. Sad not to see AG there.
One of our Youth Hammer-In volunteer smiths ended up tearing up. He helped year after year by hauling his equipment to Pigeon Forge and helping teach kids to forge. Even though the program is gone, he continues to reach out to kids. He gives a knife away every year to a young person and the look on their faces and their thanks are heartwarming. This year a young woman walked up to him and gave him a knife she had forged by herself. She told him the knife he gave her 5 years ago inspired her to learn to forge and she wanted him to have a knife of her's she thought was good enough to show him. Gotta love bladesmiths and how they want to pass on the flame.
Knife Rights had a good show. The guys that volunteer are essential and they can't be thanked enough. Keep checking the Ultimate Steel fund raiser. There are some stunning knives already donated for the drawing, but there are going to be some more that should blow your mind on the way.
Deep insider info now. The new promoter that ran the show starting a couple of years ago stopped mailing out Exhibitor and other passes. Since they didn't open up to pick up passes until 0900 on Thursdays and they opened up for for exhibitor load-in at the same time the same day it caused a very stressful and chaotic experience for exhibitors trying to get badges while lined up to get loaded into the hall (which couldn't be done without an exhibitor badge). This year was expected to be the same. It was in the contracts and literature and even emails and calls that badges wouldn't be available until 0900 and that load in would start at 0900. Apparently enough people complained (I sent a politely worded email explaining the logistical nightmare this created to my buddy who has been at Blade for decades and he forwarded it to the manager of the show) that they decided to start handing out badges at 0830. HUGE help. They also let the largest footprint exhibitor in an hour early (two full rental trucks) so they weren't vying for access while everyone else was trying to get in. As a result, this was the smoothest load in I can remember.
There were fewer exhibitors and fewer attendees. None of the foreign companies that didn't have staff in the US to set up for them made it. Kizer wasn't there, Lionsteel wasn't, ... Most knife makers or dealers I spoke with did very well financially compared to previous years. Interesting contrast to fewer attendees. Several makers were sold out by Thursday afternoon to dealers/purveyors (before the show opened to the public), many were sold out by close of the half day on Friday, and others by lunch on Saturday.
Manufacturers mostly had the same logistical nightmares whether they were shipping product from overseas to the US or if they were producing in the US. Shipping cost doubled and then quadrupled over the past year. A $3,000 bare container from Asia or Europe in 2019 had increased to $18,000 this week. SIX TIMES just for the container...if they could schedule one. The shipping times increased as well since it took longer on every link of the chain to move goods from A to B to C to D. While US manufacturing had a little better luck, they still faced cardboard shortages for packaging or fastener shortages, or handle material shortages. For want of a nail...
There were fewer new exhibitors, but most of them were new makers inspired to make knives as therapy or inspired by shows like Forged In Fire, Man At Arms, and the glut of Youtube videos. Most were nice folks.
Related to that, they could have fit all exhibitors into the one original room, but Medford and Microtech brought a WWII staff car and troop carrier respectively INTO the hall! I don't know if the promoter asked them to bring the things in to fill empty space (I should ask) of if they paid for the space.
Big makers that didn't come but kept their booths let couches or chairs be set up. Nice to have a place to sit and relax. I would have killed for professional chair massage provider to have been allowed to set up since load-in for a small team like Knife Rights is brutal on the volunteers.
Oh, you wanna know about knives.
I found almost everything to be a version of what I'd seen before except for a few exceptions.
The tiny S&W Metalworks in Utah had a new locking mechanism (and I'm a sucker for mechanisms). The spine is cut to allow it to serve as spring and the design allows for a "blade stop" to act as the lock. The lock is pressed to the side to release a hardened pin that locks into a small hole. I beat it mercilessly on the table edge and it wouldn't fail. Slim design, very comfortable, nice lines, ... an interesting new mechanism. Right up my alley. $175.
V Knives had a new particle metallurgy folder. Nothing new, you say? Wellllll, the lunatics at V used laser sintered additive manufacturing for the body and blade. It let them do things that would have taken many machining steps. They won US Most Innovative with it.
Vero Engineering had several new knives they were premiering. Nice folks, dedication to quality that I had to respect, well thought out designs, prices at a fraction of what you'd expect to pay.
Heretic had a lovely slim OTF and young Anthony won his first Quality award. He and his wife were over the moon. He donated one to Knife Rights for the fundraiser.
Gavin Hawk and his crew had slimmed his OTF down considerably to make a more pocketable knife with the same bank vault like OTF lockup. I wanted one, but it would have emptied my pockets of cash.
Lots of kitchen/chef knives. The ones submitted in that Knife Of The Year category were ... well, I ended up writing in a knife in the Innovation category instead of picking from the options. I ended up buying the knife I wrote in because the ergonomics were intentionally done for a pinch grip and was so well done I had to bring one home.
No Limit Knives is a buddy of mine that works small batches with parts manufactures. He had an OTF called the Night Stalker for a fraction of the money for the high end OTFs and he had a few of the 200 he had made. It was almost as solid as Gavin Hawk's OTFs. Slim, carbon fiber scale on aluminum with an S90V blade. Yeah, I got one, but then it got bought out of my pocket and I couldn't get another since four other guys helping with Knife Rights had to have them.
I got a custom from Alex Hossom, Jerry Hossom's son. Jerry is somewhat biased, but I have to agree that he has the skill of someone who has been making knives for 20 years.
OTFs have gotten smaller. As in Boker's USB is the size of an old thumb drive. Too cute to pass up.
I had to laugh at an out the front company that claimed they made their knives in house when I knew they were buying Chinese ZAMAK body parts and D? blades from China and was just assembling them. They then told me they had developed their new aluminum alloy bodied knife as an improvement (which I read as "we couldn't get the crap we were importing to assemble so we had to contract someone to mill the softest aluminum alloy here in the US and ship them to us to assemble"). Someone local to them could coat them so they didn't feel like that rubbery stuff used on most China/US made OTFs. Matter of fact, who ever was doing it was very good and they had a raised vine and flower coating that I had to get. I paid too much, but I bought the knife just for the impressive raised coating.V Knives had a new particle metallurgy folder. Nothing new, you say? Wellllll, the lunatics at V used laser sintered additive manufacturing for the body and blade. It let them do things that would have taken many machining steps. They won US Most Innovative with it.
Vero Engineering had several new knives they were premiering. Nice folks, dedication to quality that I had to respect, well thought out designs, prices at a fraction of what you'd expect to pay.
Heretic had a lovely slim OTF and young Anthony won his first Quality award. He and his wife were over the moon. He donated one to Knife Rights for the fundraiser.
Gavin Hawk and his crew had slimmed his OTF down considerably to make a more pocketable knife with the same bank vault like OTF lockup. I wanted one, but it would have emptied my pockets of cash.
Lots of kitchen/chef knives. The ones submitted in that Knife Of The Year category were ... well, I ended up writing in a knife in the Innovation category instead of picking from the options. I ended up buying the knife I wrote in because the ergonomics were intentionally done for a pinch grip and was so well done I had to bring one home.
No Limit Knives is a buddy of mine that works small batches with parts manufactures. He had an OTF called the Night Stalker for a fraction of the money for the high end OTFs and he had a few of the 200 he had made. It was almost as solid as Gavin Hawk's OTFs. Slim, carbon fiber scale on aluminum with an S90V blade. Yeah, I got one, but then it got bought out of my pocket and I couldn't get another since four other guys helping with Knife Rights had to have them.
I got a custom from Alex Hossom, Jerry Hossom's son. Jerry is somewhat biased, but I have to agree that he has the skill of someone who has been making knives for 20 years.
OTFs have gotten smaller. As in Boker's USB is the size of an old thumb drive. Too cute to pass up.
Had a nice talk with Goldie Russell. Sad not to see AG there.
One of our Youth Hammer-In volunteer smiths ended up tearing up. He helped year after year by hauling his equipment to Pigeon Forge and helping teach kids to forge. Even though the program is gone, he continues to reach out to kids. He gives a knife away every year to a young person and the look on their faces and their thanks are heartwarming. This year a young woman walked up to him and gave him a knife she had forged by herself. She told him the knife he gave her 5 years ago inspired her to learn to forge and she wanted him to have a knife of her's she thought was good enough to show him. Gotta love bladesmiths and how they want to pass on the flame.
Knife Rights had a good show. The guys that volunteer are essential and they can't be thanked enough. Keep checking the Ultimate Steel fund raiser. There are some stunning knives already donated for the drawing, but there are going to be some more that should blow your mind on the way.
Deep insider info now. The new promoter that ran the show starting a couple of years ago stopped mailing out Exhibitor and other passes. Since they didn't open up to pick up passes until 0900 on Thursdays and they opened up for for exhibitor load-in at the same time the same day it caused a very stressful and chaotic experience for exhibitors trying to get badges while lined up to get loaded into the hall (which couldn't be done without an exhibitor badge). This year was expected to be the same. It was in the contracts and literature and even emails and calls that badges wouldn't be available until 0900 and that load in would start at 0900. Apparently enough people complained (I sent a politely worded email explaining the logistical nightmare this created to my buddy who has been at Blade for decades and he forwarded it to the manager of the show) that they decided to start handing out badges at 0830. HUGE help. They also let the largest footprint exhibitor in an hour early (two full rental trucks) so they weren't vying for access while everyone else was trying to get in. As a result, this was the smoothest load in I can remember.
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