Blade Show 2014 Photo Report

Saturday morning I had breakfast, got cleaned up, and headed back down to the show that was scheduled to open at 9am.  I arrived well before 9am, but folks were already lined up to get inside:

Once inside, my first stop was my current favorite production knife company – Zero Tolerance:

Before attending Blade Show, I emailed Thomas Welk (Director of Sales and Marketing for Kai USA) and asked if we could meet.  Thomas and I have not always gotten along well in the online community and I thought perhaps a face to face meeting might help remedy the situation.  Thomas was very gracious with his time and we talked about a great many topics – a fascinating conversation and many thanks to Thomas for the time we spent together.  Here’s a photo I snapped of some of the ZT guys (all of which were very helpful and great to speak with) – Thomas is the tall guy on the left.

With regard to their knives, the big news was the Zero Tolerance 0392 which debuted at Blade Show 2014:

This is a very interesting and ambitious project for Zero Tolerance.  The ZT 0392 is another ZT-Hinderer collaboration knife, and is closely patterned after the Hinderer Eklipse.  The ZT 0392 will be a limited edition model that incorporates actual Hinderer manufactured components.  All of the anodized blue hardware you see in these photos are manufactured my Hinderer and are the same exact components which would fit on the Hinderer Eklipse.

Zero Tolerance is calling this knife a “Factory Custom” – the idea is that once you have the knife, you’ll be able to later purchase different colored hardware – stand offs, pocket clips, etc. and even different blade finishes.  Personally, the concept is so fantastic that I’m going to support it just on the principle in hopes that other limited edition ZT “Factory Custom” knife projects see the light of day.  Factory custom ZT 0562CF anyone?  How about a Factory Custom edition ZT 0550?  No word as of this writing when the ZT 0392 will be shipping, but my gut tells me you’ll see pre-orders open in the next 90 days.  Jump on it as soon as you hear about it – I can’t see this not selling out quickly as again this will be a limited edition model.

Speaking of the ZT 0562, I finally got hands on with the ZT0562 standard edition and the 0562CF.

I have the 0562CF pre-ordered and after handling it, I fully expect it will be my most often carried knife.  The dimensions are positively ideal for my purposes.  Combine that with the gorgeously satin finished M390 blade and the perfect KVT enabled flipping action, the 0562CF will the EDC knife I’ve been waiting for…hopefully it will be shipping out soon.

Not surprisingly, the ZT 0562CF won the Blade Show Awards category of American Made Knife Of The Year.  If you didn’t pre-0rder this one, my guess you’re going to be kicking yourself and I predict it will be ZT’s most successful limited edition model.

Having spent a good amount of time with ZT, I wanted to spend some time visiting some custom makers who are interesting to me and get the opportunity to get hands on with their product.  In many cases, the hottest makers simply didn’t have have any product on their table.

Here’s a shot I got of Brian Tighe at his table – apparently he sold out of what he brought on Friday and just had some pretty pictures of his knives on his table:

Kirby Lambert’s table wasn’t much better – he wasn’t even at his table when I came by.  In fact, the only thing identifying it as his table was the tiny little ID tag in the lower left hand corner.  The only product example he had was this lone lottery knife…but at least I can say I’ve held one.

RJ Martin was a very nice guy to talk to and he did have several examples of one of his models at his table:

He also picked up a nice award win at the Blade Show Awards:

Blade Show has to be a double edged sword (pardon the pun…) for many custom makers.  Guys like Martin and Tighe have back-orders going back months and in some cases years, so it makes no sense for them to bring a lot of product to Blade Show to create more orders they can’t fill anytime soon.  But for someone like myself, I came to Blade Show hoping to get hands on with examples of what these guys produce to see if I want to get on their wait list or pay secondary market prices on a pre-owned piece….so obviously I was disappointed by several makers.  My issues with the Hinderer Knife company are well documented, but I’ll say this for Rick – he brings product to the show.  He obviously doesn’t have to do that, as he sells everything he makes and then some.  But year after year he brings product to the show for fans to see and hold.

Kudos to Todd Begg knives for bringing a nice selection of their product to Blade Show for fans and potential customers to play with:

If you look closely in the above photo, both the Begg brothers (who were both very pleasant to speak with) are wearing examples of Jim Skelton’s new Strider Hperdive Watch (named after his son).  Here are some photos of the fantastic lottery knives they had on their table:

Of course it’s a bummer you can’t actually buy anything from them, but at least I now have a better idea as to whether I want one in the future.

One of the genuine highlights of the show was getting the opportunity to meet and talk to Jake Hoback of Hoback Knives:

Hoback is another name that I was familiar with, but I never had the opportunity to play with any of his knives.  Kudos to Jake for having product on hand and on display:

I was definitely impressed by his knives – I really want an A8 or an A10 now.

Jake is a SUPER friendly guy and a joy to talk to – I learned that his work is his ministry.  A knife maker with Christian values?  Sign me up!  Hoback Knives is a company I DEFINITELY plan to support in the future.

I’ve bought a couple of knives from Jason Brous so it was nice to be able to meet him face to face at Blade Show, along with his new bride:

Of course, every self-respecting knife fan has to stop by the Chris Reeve booth:

CRK had some very nice knives on display AND available for purchase – I was tempted by the new Sebenza 25…and a few others in the display case.

Speaking of Chris Reeve, this year Blade Show tried something new with their “Blade University” – seminars with industry leaders as the speakers.

I attended the 2pm seminar on Knife Design by Chris Reeve – it was both fascinating and enjoyable…a rare opportunity to hear one of the modern day legends of knife making speak and answer questions:

Hopefully the Blade University concept carries forward in the coming years.

On the flashlight side of things, Foursevens had a nice booth display at Blade Show:

They weren’t showcasing any new product at Blade Show, but it was nice seeing David Chow and the gang from my favorite flashlight maker Foursevens.

One of the busiest booths at Blade Show was the Work Sharp booth:

It was surrounded by people every time I came by, and for good reason – their new Work Sharp Ken Onion Edition is the best knife sharpening system I’ve ever tried.  In case you missed it previously, click here for my review of the Work Sharp Ken Onion Edition.

Speaking of sharpeners, the folks at Wicked Edge were also at the show:

I had hoped to be able to speak with company founder Clay Allison but I rarely saw him in the booth (only once and I wasn’t able to stop at the time).  I’ve had a Wicked Edge for a couple of years, but to be honest it’s largely been a disappointment – I’ve never done a review on it because I don’t think I would have much positive to say.  As you can see in the above photo, they had their new model on display that’s marketed toward professional chefs/restaurants.  With the level of skill needed to use the device, and how slow it is to sharpen a knife using the Wicked Edge, I can’t see many restaurants buying it…but I could be wrong.

Both Spyderco and Benchmade had large and impressive booths at Blade Show – I think Benchmade had more space than any other vendor at the show:

CRKT also had a huge booth at Blade Show – they’re products have never interested me personally, but I did stop by to check them out:

Their new Ken Onion designed and Lionsteel manufactured Hijinx won the Knife of the Year but to be honest I wasn’t overly impressed with it.  Like so many flippers, it suffers from a weak detent….or at least the display model did.

Kizer had a very substantial presence at Blade Show – their booth was staffed almost exclusively with Chinese company reps.

With their derivative designs and flipper knives which (due to again a weak detent) had disappointing flipping action, I wasn’t particularly impressed despite the relatively low price point on most of their models.

By 6pm, it was time for me to head to the airport for my 8pm flight back to Dayton – my only regret was not being able to stay for the Blade Magazine Awards Ceremony and Dinner.  But I did have a fantastic time at Blade Show 2014 – the knives were of course great but seeing friends and making new ones was the real reason to come to Blade show – I hope to come back again and again in the years to come.