Hey all. As I sit down to write this, it is currently Monday morning, though I will almost certainly not be hitting “publish” until the afternoon. I rolled into my driveway about 7:30pm last night, having driven through pretty steady rain the whole way back. It will take c few days until I am firing on all cylinders again, but I am feeling pretty good about how the show went.
Please forgive this post, as it will be very stream-of-consciousness. I plan on two more Blade Show specific posts in the next few days. The first is the always anticipated “Haul” post, where I get to play Show and Tell with all the cool stuff I picked up. The other is a “People of Blade Show” type post which is a lot of selfies with friends and acquaintances, some of whom I have known for upwards of a decade, and some whom I count among my closest friends. Someone described Blade Show as “A family reunion masquerading as a trade show”. I think that is an apt description.
This segues fairly neatly into some sad news which has cast a pall over the weekend…
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This news broke on Sunday morning, Reuben Bolieu has passed after a battle with cancer. I did not know him well, though I liked his vibe during the time I spent with him, most recently at a Case luncheon at SHOT Show this past January. He was a designer for TOPS and ESEE, an author, bushcraft expert, and world traveler. I have so many mutual friends who are genuinely hurting today, that is a testament to his legacy as a man.
As my grandmother used to say, “Other than that Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play?”. There is no easy way to bring things around after sharing such news. But the weekend is a celebration of all things knife, and it is a great, if exhausting time.
This post will mostly be about some cool things I saw..
The coolest was probably the Spyderco 50th Anniversary edition Native 5. My picture came out unusably bad, so I grabbed that one off the Spyderco website. Dyed bone handles, Mosaic bolsters, S90V steel. And a $1200 MSRP. I collect Native’s, but as I am not in the market for one of these, I will never have the definitive collection apparently.
Dennis from Cooper’s Creek Lithics (coopers_creek_lithics) makes some amazing obsidian creations.
I will definitely be following up with him, because I think some lithic content would be great on the site.
ESEE Knives has an exciting new model. They partnered with Adventure Traveler (and Waffle House Aficionado) Robert Young Pelton on a folding Izula model.
I finally met Ben Beliken of Jack Wolf Knives.
I have covered them in Knife News, but it was my first face to face meeting.
Their Gateway FixEDC is a wonderful pocket EDC in myriad colorways.
Walter Brend was our cover feature in the June issue, which was the one we were giving away at the show.
I got to see a couple of old Loveless prototypes that Russ had found in the back of a toolbox.
Our friend Kyle Daily (KHDailyKnives.com) won the Knifemaker’s Guild’s Best Chef’s knife (for the second time)
I am not totally sure I can explain the people and business behind Blade Arts (@thebladearts) because of some difficulties in language. But this group of Brazilians was having a wonderful time in Atlanta, and were incredibly fun and enthusiastic. They make some amazing mosaic damascus.
Aaron and Kyle from Houghton Era Outdoors were recommended by Craig Powell of TOPS. I stopped by and these two guys were a ton of fun to talk to.
I will have more about their knives when they do a Five from the Grinder soon, but who doesn’t need a kydex holster for their banana?
The Guys at Willumsen Copenhagen have a new folding hatchet designed by Mikkel Willumsen.
I blew them away with the story of my “axe-cident”.
Renan Scariot won the Best New Journeyman knife from the ABS…
And I also met last year’s winner Matias Funes…
Both were beautiful knives and and awards well deserved. well deserved.
Doble “O” Knives (www.dobleknives.com) is a a venture partially located in Spain and partially in Mexico City. My wife bought this Kephart Knife from them, which has already been given to our son.
Pablo and Ovidio are a hoot to talk to. I am pretty sure that their enthusiasm is what sold Niki on the knife.
Our friends at VZ Grips are no longer our table-neighbors, but they had some exciting news. They are branching beyond (really great) G10 Prison Shanks, and are now making actual steel knives. Unfortunately, my photo was garbage, but I was able to handle them and they have great balance.
They also had the best shirt at the show.
That is about it for now. I am too late publishing this post as it is. But much more to come as the week progresses.
You never know what you will see.
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