Whelp, Blade Show 2025 is in the books, and it was a strange one for me. More on that in a moment.
For Mark and Vince, the show was more typical, aside from Mark using the booth space to sell a collection of 400+ custom knives that he had been retained to liquidate.
In my case, I wasn’t really there. My son had AAU basketball back home, and my daughter had a lacrosse tournament. Which was, by sheer coincidence, in Atlanta.
Turns out her first game wasn’t until 2pm on Saturday, but we had made hotel reservations for Friday night, not knowing the schedule at the time. So for the first time ever, I attended the show on Friday afternoon with a patron wristband, rather than a Media credential or Exhibitor badge, and I brought my daughter with me.
Over the years I have written about Blade Show being as much about the people as it is about the knives. This year, that was more true than ever. I handled very few knives, rather took Thing 1 around to introduce her to people she has been hearing about for a decade and never met, and a handful of folks she had. Rosecraft’s “Swaggs” has corresponded with her, but this was their first meeting.
She knew Dogwood Dan, but it had been a few years. Last time she was shorter than Dan.
She’s heard Joe Flowers stories for years, but this was their first meeting. He made her follow him to the Condor booth, and gave her a machete.
Technically, it is the Primitive Bush Mondo Knife, designed by Matt Graham, but “Hey! Do you want a machete?” is how Joe phrased it, and it is much more amusing than asking if she just wanted a knife.
She met Doug, Sue, and the other folks at Knife Rights, but she already knew Brian Shaw, and she had also met Mike Crenshaw several times in Knoxville.
When I say Blade Show is about the people, I mean it. Mike’s absence was felt by all who knew him. In fact, a slightly overweight grey haired guy in a Hawaiian shirt rounded the corner into my peripheral vision, I could have sworn it was Crenshaw.
Andersen has known Emery since she was just older than a toddler.
But Ben was a first time meet for her.
I had to introduce her to Mark Hopper, and I even looked at his Skein Dubh offerings…
I ran into Sal Glesser and his wife Gail, during our 3 hour walk around the show. I explained to Emery how important a person he is in the industry, and thanked him again for sitting down for an interview with me back in 2015 back in my TTAK days.
She had a strangely in-depth conversation about AI and chemistry (her favorite subject) with CJ Buck.
But the most important (to her, and thus to me) person we saw was her “Uncle” Ethan Becker.
She has known Uncle E for years, and we have visited him out in Montana twice in the past 3 years.
She got to spend some time with him at the show, but even better, we dined “en famille” with Ethan and his son and DIL Friday evening.
The day ended in the Pit, where she hung out with my friends, and met a few more.
Like Josh Swanagon…writer, Editor, and one of my closest industry friends. I was really bummed when I thought I wouldn’t see him.
In the end, it was a fantastic weekend, even if Blade Show was only a tangential part.
I will have my traditional “Blade Show Haul” post in the next day or two. I will never forget this year’s Blade Show, even though I wasn’t even supposed to be there.
Quick note about the cover photo…Ken Onion had heart surgery back in January I believe. It made a heck of a difference. He looks better than he has in years. So happy to see it, and happy Thing 1 had a chance to meet him.
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