BLADE Staff

Two of the older and bigger custom knife shows promise to make the weekend of March 4-6 sharper than usual.

At the Westin Jersey City Newport in Jersey City, New Jersey, Steve D’Lack will present the 22nd Annual East Coast Custom Knife Show. Meanwhile, in Pasadena, California, the Southern California Blades will conduct the 26th Annual Knife Expo in the Pasadena Convention Center.

Both shows have lots of history. Blade Magazine Cutlery Hall-Of-Fame© member Bob Loveless was a long-time member of the Southern California Blades, and the East Coast Show has been a perennial potpourri of some of the world’s finest makers, including a number from Europe.

What’s more, it will be the first time the East Coast Show has been held outside New York City, thanks mostly to the heavy-handed anti-knife policies of Manhattan DA Cyrus Vance, whose office conducted a raid of local retail knife stores last year, confiscating over 1,400 legal knives Vance claimed were “gravity knives.” As a result, nearby Jersey City seemed a much better place to hold a knife show. How the loss of revenue will play with businesses in New York City and their opinion of Mr. Vance remains to be seen.

For more information on the East Coast Show, contact Mr. D’Lack at [email protected] or call 417-866-6688 or fax 417-866-6693. For more on the Knife Expo 2011, contact Helen Nauert at [email protected] or call 619-417-4329.

Today, Feb. 28, is the last day to enter the sweepstakes to win a Kershaw Whiplash knife, courtesy of BLADE magazine and Kershaw.

Entering is free. Click here.

Just received word that the West Coast Custom Knife Show has been canceled. Its website states the show has been “suspended until further notice.”

For reference, here are the now-defunct details:

Time: April 29, 2011 at 12pm to April 30, 2011 at 6pm
Location: Fess Parkers Double Tree Resort
Street: 633 East Cabrillo Boulevard
City/Town: Santa Barbara, CA 93103
Website or Map: http://www.wcckshow.com/
Event Type: knife, show
Organized By: Fifty-Fifty Productions

In search of some of the best in knives, and/or wanting to connect or reconnect with new/old friends? If you live near Ozark, Missouri, or Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, both areas will have knife shows this weekend.

A one-day-only event, the Knife Club of the Ozarks’ 15th Annual Spring Cabin Fever Knife Show will be Saturday in the 4H Building of Ozark’s City Park. Show hours are 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. For more information call Don Long at 417-485-6759 or Randy Long 417-581-8138.

Meanwhile, the Country Cupboard Inn just north of Lewisburg will host the 23rd Annual Keystone Blade Association Knife Show on Saturday and Sunday. The Country Cupboard Inn is on Rt. US 15, four miles south of Interstate 80. Show hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday. For more information call or e-mail Marlyn Kepner at 570-584-4835/[email protected], or call Skip Fryling at 570-387-4955.