Editor’s note: This article originally appeared in the October 2022 issue of KNIFE Magazine. Since the Solvang Show is this weekend, we thought we would share.
Nordic Knives and the Solvang Knife Show. – A Legendary Little Knife Shop and the Revival of the Show it Sponsored
By Jim Sornberger
As originally conceived, this article was going to be about a knife shop in a cute little Danish town on the Southern California coast just north of Santa Barbara, about a hour and a half north of Los Angeles. But like so many stories, things change course and before you know it there’s another story to tell.
The knife shop now known as Nordic Knives (nordicknives.com) was founded as Nordic Sports in mid-1971 by a fellow named Bob Gaddis and his silent partner John Conti. During the mid-’70s a couple of factory knife cases were added in the store and later the trickle of custom knives began, the beginning of Nordic Knives under Bob Gaddis and new partner and local vineyard manager Barry Johnson who was an avid hunter and knife user. Add to the mix Bob’s former son in law David Harvey, working in the store after high school and college. David took over as store manager after college in 1981, later he and wife Grace became the sole owners of Nordic Knives.
I met Bob and Barry through Mel Wood, an early mentor and gun and knife engraver in Santa Maria, California about 30 miles north of Solvang. In 1977, on one of my trips to Mel’s, we decided to run down to Solvang and show them what I was doing. Bob and Barry liked my knives and so began a business and friendship that has lasted many years.
I often stopped at the Nordic knife shop on my way to or from shows in Southern California. A dozen or so of us, knifemakers, collectors and dealers, started the Bay Area Knife Collectors Association (BAKCA) in 1978 and held the first two shows in 1979-80 in conjunction with the San Jose Gun Show.
You can read the whole thing in flipbook form below.
From our Events Calendar, click on the image for more details.
Read the full article here