From UG-Tools’ snack-fueled award sweep to Rick Dunkerley’s full-circle Hall of Fame moment, this year’s show didn’t disappoint.
Each BLADE Show has more than its share of entertaining adventures, and the 2025 version was no exception. Two of the more memorable happenings from this year’s event were as follows:
UG Tools Tiny & Twinkies®
1: UG-Tools won both Imported Fixed Blade and Overall Knife Of The Year® for the TiNy Drop Point. Among the more notable features of the award winner is its light weight and the ability to be used for heavy-duty jobs and a variety of different applications, including hunting, fishing, hiking, law enforcement and EDC.
It was the knife’s lightweight/heavy-duty nature the UG folks chose to highlight at the show, doing so by putting the knife in the hands of patrons visiting the company’s booth.
“You could literally see their brains working to figure out why it was so darn light,” UG’s Jan Gierse wrote of the patrons’ reactions and the TiNy. The UG team would then take the knife and baton it through an 8×8 post, the sounds of hammering echoing through the exhibit hall.
Also known as Fixed Knives International and with the UG standing for (Philipp) Utsch and (Jan) Gierse, the German-based company began operations in 2020. BLADE Show ’25 was its first “trade fair” as an exhibitor and the firm’s brain trust had been contemplating how to best convey the low weight of their knives. The solution: say the knife is lighter than two Twinkies® and give away the famed Hostess snack cakes in large quantities to booth visitors. The idea went down well with young and old show-goers alike, and UG quickly became referred to as “the Twinkie guys,” even partaking of a few of the cream-filled treats themselves.
“The sugar was driving our brains to peak performance,” Jan wrote, “[and] we came up with an idea: If we won an award, [one of us would have] to get a tattoo of a Twinkie or a knife. Since we won the Overall award, each of us will get a tattoo. What it will be remains to be seen.”
Jan added that the results can probably be seen at next year’s show.
Rick Dunkerley’s Wild Ride to the Top
At the 1996 BLADE Show, Rick Dunkerley commanded notice for more than just his handforged folders. Late one night after the show he and fellow bladesmith Barry Gallagher mooned The Pit, the beloved sunken lounge in the lobby of the Renaissance Atlanta Waverly, from one of the hotel’s see-through glass elevators. As Rick stepped to the podium to be formally inducted into the BLADE Magazine Cutlery Hall-of-Fame® the Saturday morning of this year’s show, he began his comments by referring to the now-legendary “elevator exposé.”
“So it was 29 years ago that I was in the elevator and mooned The Pit,” he said to a round of laughter from the induction ceremony audience, “so my advice is that if you want to get into the Hall of Fame, don’t get in the elevator and moon The Pit. I got home from that episode and an ABS master smith called and told me they were going to kick me out of the ABS, and I said, well, if they’re going to kick me out of the ABS for that I don’t want to be in the ABS. But I passed my master smith test the next year, so I guess they didn’t hold it against me. My career has skyrocketed since,” he summarized to even more laughs.
Meanwhile, the induction ceremony was this writer’s first in my new role as Cutlery Hall-of-Fame chairman. In one of my first unofficial acts as chairman, I informed Rick and the audience that while the Cutlery Hall-of-Fame had a “little-known rule” banning anyone from membership if he or she mooned The Pit, the statute of limitations on the rule is—wait for it—28 years, and in his instance had run out. My lame joke aside, on behalf of BLADE®, the BLADE Show and the Hall of Fame, it’s my honor to help welcome Rick and the rest of his fellow inductees to the Hall.
Get a look at everything that went down at the world’s largest knife show.
The 44th Annual BLADE Show in Atlanta was yet another in a historic line of three-day edge-stravaganzas of the present, past and future of an international knife industry that seems to advance daily by leaps and bounds.
The latest and best knives, knifemakers and related accessories the planet has to offer, the pioneers that laid the groundwork for what the knife community is today, the new, up-and-coming knifemakers and knife companies that hold such great promise for tomorrow, and so much more all showed their sharpest stuff June 6-8 in the Cobb Galleria Centre.
Jason Yount displays his damascus pizza cutter under the watchful eye of BLADE Magazine Cutlery Hall-of-Fame® member Steve Schwarzer. Steve called it the best BLADE Show in a few years.
It was about what you would expect from the world’s largest, most important international knife event.
BLADE University provided a full slate of topics, including knife and sheath making, how to sharpen, fundamentals of blade grinding, how to etch damascus and many more. BladeSports International conducted the annual BLADE Show World Championship Cutting Competition and Blade HQ held Balicomp 2025.
Custom knifemakers and bladesmiths from around the globe displayed their wares, including members of the American Bladesmith Society, Knifemakers’ Guild and unaffiliated makers from everywhere. Meanwhile, various knife collector groups, knife rights organizations and other outfits met and discussed their favorite topic as only they can each year during the BLADE Show.
Through it all, knife enthusiasts of all stripes renewed old acquaintances, made new ones, and otherwise immersed themselves in the world’s keenest three-day weekend, capped off each night with food and beverages in The Pit, the legendary sunken lobby lounge of the host hotel, the Renaissance Atlanta Waverly.
It was knife heaven on steroids.
BLADE Show Sales
The BLADE Show has always been unlike any other knife event and this year’s rendition was no exception. Attendance ebbed and flowed Friday and Saturday, and Sunday was its usual slow-to-middling self. While some exhibitors raved about the attendance and sales, some said both seemed off from last year.
Jordan Berthelot discusses next-level damascus etching while Greyson Weltyk shows a student a result of the process during one of many BLADE University classes.
One reason for the differences in observations may have to do with the sheer size of the show hall as opposed to the smaller size of the adjoining Baller Room. The show hall is so large that waves of attendees seemed to gravitate like flocks of birds from one side to the other, constantly in search of the latest, coolest knives. As a result, one area that was flooded with patrons for a while might be somewhat devoid of them minutes later. By contrast, the smaller Baller Room seemed to have fairly steady traffic throughout.
Another factor has to do with the exhibitors themselves. As with any business, those who are constantly on the go, looking to make deals or offering giveaways are usually the ones who experience the most success. Smiling faces and engaging, upbeat demeanors sell knives. Those who stand or, worse yet, sit behind their tables with their arms folded waiting for something to happen usually have a long if not endless wait.
Custom knife purveyor Michael Donato was constantly on the move, talking and probing for those who wanted to buy and/or sell knives. He said his company, KnifePurveyor.com, had its best show ever in 24 years of BLADE Shows.
John Horrigan’s 16.5-inch Kings Dagger features Gorgon flower damascus, petersite, a red agate, and 24k-gold engraving with a ruby, diamond, sapphire and emerald inset in the crown. John’s price for a similar knife: $14,500. (Jocelyn Frasier image)
“Many of my colleagues shared with me how well they had done at the show as well,” he noted.
Matt Bando of Demko Knives was stoked about Demko’s performance.
“We brought the largest number of knives we have ever brought to a show and sold out faster than any other,” he noted. “All of our USA models were sold by 2 p.m. Friday. There seemed to be a lot of people at the show and every year it seems to grow.”
Demko is one of those exhibitors who employs giveaways to drive sales and create enthusiasm.
“We had a large turnout for our giveaway on Saturday. We gave away five different packages. For the main giveaway, we gave a USA-made titanium AD20 in 3V. A young man entered his younger brother into the raffle and ended up winning his first Demko knife. Great story. “We were blown away and pumped.”
Two blade enthusiasts try out/talk knives at the McNees Knives booth.
Custom knifemaker Rhidian Gatrill not only won for Best Miniature in the custom knife judging competition but, along with Jeremy Yelle, also captured Best Collaboration. “Rhid” exhibited 13 knives, two of which were miniatures, and sold all but one.
“Most sold within the first few hours on Friday but the others sold slowly through Saturday and my minis within the last hours of the show Sunday,” he wrote. Still, he said he thought the buying was slower than last year, which was his first year exhibiting at the BLADE Show.
Vince Evans specializes in high-end historical swords and knives. He brought four swords and sold two, both on Friday.
“Most of my clientele are interested in historical pieces,” he stated. “Swords are a more limited field as some collectors don’t have the room to collect and/or display larger pieces.” Vince indicated the show seemed slower than last year and that a few regular local attendees did not come. “Friday and Saturday seemed fairly busy,” he wrote, adding that on a scale of 1 to 10, Friday and Saturday were “about a 7” and Sunday “about a 2.”
The VK-Zame—aka Shark—in M398 stainless steel and titanium was among the knives Poikilo Blade debuted at the BLADE Show. MSRP: $580-$600. Available to the public: August/September. (Poikilo Blade image)
Gregarious Cutlery Hall-of-Famer Steve Schwarzer was pleased. “I had a great show, sold most of my carved pieces and took several orders,” he commented. “It was the best show in a few years. It was very busy.”
As usual, the South Texas Slipjoint Cartel boys all seemed to do well, including sellouts by Tanner Couch and Toby Hill, the latter who sold all 11 of the knives he displayed. Bobby House only brought three knives but sold them all by early Friday afternoon. He indicated his most-sought-after knife was a high-end Cutlery Hall-of-Famer Bill-Ruple-design Ax Handle with wasp nest damascus bolsters and shield that went for $2,800 to a French buyer. The other two buyers were Americans, the latter being Arizona Custom Knives.
The Baller Room buzzed all three days.
“I thought attendance was up on Friday and Saturday,” he wrote, giving Friday a 7 rating. “Friday attendance was the people wanting to buy custom knives. They are there to get the first shot at our custom builds. Saturday attendance is more for entertainment purposes. They want to look and see all types of knives, but they have funds to buy also.”
He gave the Saturday attendance an 8, concluding, “Overall, it was one of the best shows that I have been involved in. Great job by the BLADE Show crew!”
BLADE Show Treasures
A highlight of all BLADE Shows is you never know what unusual old knife or sword, new knife introduction, mechanism or material, or other notable hidden treasure may turn up.
“I always enjoy seeing what the antique dealers bring to the show,” Evans wrote. “I purchased an antique quillon dagger for research and a future replication project.”
It’s easy to get mesmerized by knives at the BLADE Show, here at the table of Alex Hossom (left).
An antique also caught the eye of knifemaker David Kramp, who sold 10 of 12 knives and won Best New Maker in the custom knife judging.
“There was a French knife from the 1830s that was very intriguing,” he wrote. “I’m very much looking forward to that potential build with a fellow maker.”
Winner of Best Damascus in the custom knife judging, Gabe Fletcher came across a product that piqued his interest. “The Gator Skin Blade Coating from Baker Forge seems very interesting,” he wrote. “I picked some up to try on my damascus.”
Both Kramp and knifemaker Jared Oeser were gobsmacked by Gatrill’s lockback whittler automatic that won Best Collaboration in the show’s custom knife judging competition.
Conducted by Blade HQ, Balicomp 2025 drew a packed house on show Saturday.
“I’m not ready to make something like it yet but that auto slipjoint was impressive,” Kramp observed. Oeser, who brought 14 knives and sold out by Saturday afternoon, chimed in, “One thing that stood out to me was Rhidian’s automatic lockback whittler. I’m gonna have to try [making one like] that.”
Next Up: BLADE Show West
It was indeed another BLADE Show for the ages. Speaking of which, next year’s show will return to the Cobb Galleria June 5-7. For more information, visit bladeshow.com. Meanwhile, it’s not too late to make plans to attend BLADE Show West Oct. 10-11 at the Salt Palace Convention Center in Salt Lake City, Utah (bladeshowwest.com). See you there!
Living and past greats highlight huge roster of inductees.
The BLADE Magazine Cutlery Hall of Fame® enjoyed its most prolific induction ceremony ever when it welcomed eight new members during BLADE Show 2025.
The total includes four living inductees—Harvey Dean, Rick Dunkerley and Daniel Winkler and Karen Shook—and four deceased ones: Stanley Fujisaka, Dr. James R. Lucie, Alfred Pendray and Jim Schmidt.
Induction speeches were provided by an array of Cutlery Hall of Famers—newly minted inductee Rick Dunkerley, Ken Onion and Steve Schwarzer; friends of three of the inductees, military veteran Kevin Holland and Josh Smith, founder of Montana Knife Co.; and Stephanie Lucie, daughter of inductee Jim Lucie.
Emotions understandably ran high, as did more than a few tears. It was a ceremony to remember.
Jim Schmidt
Cutlery Hall-of-Famer Steve Schwarzer enjoyed the honor of inducting two of his mentors: Jim Schmidt and Alfred Pendray.
As wrote Dellana, one of Jim Schmidt’s stellar students that also included Barry Davis, Cutlery Hall-of-Famer Steve Schwarzer, Larry Fuegen and more, Jim was “larger than life, truly a giant among men.” Added Schwarzer, Schmidt’s inductor, “Jim was like the father of filework. All of that filework in the business came out of him.” Schmidt made the first goblin folders, a unique style his students such as Dellana, Schwarzer, Fuegen and others emulated. “He was always willing to teach,” Schwarzer said. “His generosity with his time and knowledge was legendary … He was there at the rise of modern custom knifemaking and is one of the reasons the movement has risen to the heights that it has … He brought tool-and-die work to knifemaking and was an incredible artist.”
In the 1970s, along with Jimmy Fikes and Cutlery Hall-of-Famer Don Fogg, Jim was instrumental in forming the New England Bladesmith Society and organizing the Ashokan Bladesmithing Seminar. He was one of the earliest ABS members and ABS master smiths, a member of the ABS Hall of Fame, a constant member of the Art Knife Invitational (AKI), winner of the Knifemakers’ Guild’s Red Watson Award and the Beretta Award for Outstanding Achievement, and more. He was the ultimate teacher, his profession for most of his life. An outstanding book on Schmidt is James Schmidt: The Great Master, by Mike Haskew. As the book noted, Jim “welcomed those who were earnestly interested in improving their bladesmithing and knifemaking skills into his shop … and shared with them the light of precious knowledge that he realized should be readily and freely given rather than hidden.”
Alfred Pendray
“Alfred Pendray was a legend in the forging business,” Schwarzer began. “He was the pioneer in wootz research. I worked alongside him and 99 percent of the rediscovery of that material was by Alfred Pendray. Once he got his mind set on something he wouldn’t quit; he did it scientifically and that legacy will live on for a long time. He was just good to people—he was really good to people.”
Pendray taught and influenced many bladesmiths. “I learned so much from him,” noted Charley Ochs, “not only about knives and metallurgy, but also about life and social interaction as a person.” Alfred is co-author—along with Dr. John Verhoeven, former metallurgical engineering professor at Iowa State University—of articles in eight scientific journals, four bladesmith publications and BLADE® on the nature of “genuine damascus,” or wootz steel. Pendray holds patent number 5,185,044 on a “method of making damascus blades.”
He joined the Guild in 1982 and became an ABS master smith in 1983. He spoke at the Symposium on Damascus Steel at New York University in 1984, the International Conference on Damascus Steel in Germany in 1985, and at the same conference and the Imperial College in London, England, in 1992. He won the ABS Bill Moran Knife of The Year in 1991 and was elected to the Guild board of directors in 1992. He received the ABS W.W. Scagel Award in 1998 and is a past recipient of the Guild’s Red Watson Award. He served as Guild president from 1998-2004 and is a member of the ABS Hall of Fame.
Rick Dunkerley
Teacher Rick Dunkerley (left) was inducted by one of his prize pupils, Josh Smith (right).
Rick Dunkerley made his first knife in 1983 and started forging in 1992. He founded the Montana Knifemakers Association in 1993, organizing the state’s first modern custom knife show. He became an ABS journeyman smith and hosted his first hammer-in in 1995 and became an ABS master smith in 1997. He’s taught bladesmithing internationally, in the process earning the Maestro Rating by the Italian Knifemakers Guild in 2006. In 2015 he was inducted into the AKI and later served on the AKI advisory panel. He’s served on the ABS board of directors for nine years and was just re-elected for another term.
According to Rick’s inductor/former student, Josh Smith, founder of Montana Knife Co., “What makes Rick special is his relentless desire to give back and teach … He hosted hammer-ins featuring instructors like Al Dippold, Hank Knickmeier, Rob Hudson, [Cutlery Hall-of-Famers] Wayne Goddard and Don Fogg and other greats. It was through these hammer-ins that the Montana Mafia was born. With Rick as the ringleader, this group went on to shape the landscape in bladesmithing and damascus to this day. It’s because of Rick and others in this era [including Shane Taylor, Wade Colter and more] that pattern-welded steel and the patterns to create it took giant leaps into the future … There’s no doubt the incredible makers we have today are standing on the shoulders of these giants.” Added an emotional Josh, who started learning how to forge under Rick’s tutelage at 11, “That was 33 years ago and I’ve been able to be in this community and build what I’ve built all because he let a kid into his shop. I love him for that.”
Stanley Fujisaka
Stanley Fujisaka made beautiful linerlock folders and fixed blades and was a beloved mentor to Hawaiian and other makers, including Scott Matsuoka, Les George, Cutlery Hall-Of-Famer Ken Onion and many more. Fujisaka played a key role in encouraging Onion to patent his SpeedSafe assisted-opening mechanism, a mechanism that resurrected Kershaw and revolutionized folding knives. However, in his speech inducting Stanley, Onion said it was the “little” things that set the new inductee apart.
“Stan didn’t invent a new category of knives, he didn’t have some crazy invention. What he had was admiration and respect and love for every one of you guys in this room,” Ken noted. “Every time I went to a show I’d come back to his shop and he’d tell me these stories of Schwarzer, of Ruple, of everybody, and they were legends to me, and he was a really great orator about that, a really great story teller, which is really why I got enough courage to come to a [knife] show. You guys were all magical to him.
Stan was one of those guys if you bought a knife from him he would write down your name, your wife’s name, your kid’s name, where you lived, your address, everything, and he would send you coffee, Hawaiian candies, a handwritten card thanking you. He would struggle to look through his book if he saw you walking toward his table so he wouldn’t forget your name. He was the truest form of gentleman, and I think that’s more of what I learned from him. It was not just knifemaking, it was how to … respect everybody, how to conduct myself in an honorable way, and nobody did that better than Stan.”
Dr. James R. Lucie
Stephanie Lucie inducted her father, Dr. Jim Lucie, with family and friends as special guests. From left: the inductee’s nephew, Chris Lucie; ABS master smith Kevin Cashen; and the inductee’s daughters, Robin Lucie, Stephanie Lucie and Pam Lafrance.
Dr. James R. “Jim” Lucie was the personal physician of Cutlery Hall-of-Famer William Scagel and signed Scagel’s death certificate in 1963. In her speech inducting her father, Stephanie Lucie said Jim researched Scagel’s life and collected his work for over 30 years, culminating in Dr. Lucie’s seminal book, Scagel Handmade. After retiring from medicine at 65, Jim dedicated his life to making Scagel reproductions. “He recreated Bill’s designs as closely as possible—unless he saw a way to improve them,” Stephanie said. “Ever the physician, he even X-rayed Bill’s knives so he could ‘see what the old boy was up to,’ as he liked to say … His goal was to become an ABS journeyman smith, which he achieved at the age of 71.”
A highlight of his career was making a knife for Willie Nelson and presenting it to him after a concert. It was featured on the cover of BLADE®. In 2001, the ABS created the Dr. Jim Lucie Award, making Jim its first recipient. He hosted a hammer-in at his house that over 500 people attended, and he freely shared Scagel’s techniques at many bladesmithing events. “He helped many beginning knifemakers, just as others had helped him,” Stephanie said. “When it came time to move from Michigan to Texas, instead of selling his knifemaking equipment, he donated much of it to the ABS—enough for each U.S. ABS school.”
In a speech Jim said, “Nowhere does there exist a finer or more helpful cadre of people than the knifemakers and bladesmiths of today. I have not yet found anyone [among them] who was not ready and willing to help impart knowledge or answer questions. I have always believed that we must give something to the society from which we took, and these people are doing it in grand style.”
Daniel Winkler And Karen Shook
From left, Karen Shook and Daniel Winkler accept their plaque after Kevin Holland (right) delivered their induction speech.
In the late 1980s, Daniel Winkler started handforging period-correct frontier knives and Karen Shook made period-correct sheaths to match. In 1992 the showcasing of Daniel’s period pieces in the hit movie Last of the Mohicans made the pair custom knife stars. The film captured the attention of Kevin Holland, who would go on to serve in both the Naval Special Warfare Development Group/aka SEALs and Army Special Missions Unit. He asked Winkler to make a hatchet for him in 1993, and Daniel complied with a model Kevin carried for the balance of his Navy hitch.
After his discharge and still with hatchet, Kevin was working as a North Carolina game warden when 9/11 happened. He joined the National Guard and worked his way into the Army Special Missions Unit. One day his team leader espied the Winkler hatchet on Kevin’s belt and asked if he could get more. Kevin contacted Daniel, who subsequently filled an order for 15 or so. Then Kevin’s old SEAL unit saw the hatchets and Daniel made them some, too. It wasn’t long before Daniel and Karen had reached a crossroads—make period pieces for collectors, or hatchets and knives for special ops warriors. They eventually agreed that making tools for our nation’s warriors was far more important than anything else they could do.
As Kevin noted in his speech inducting the new Hall-of-Famers, “… they had a higher call … making tools that meant life or death to men in combat. They saw how important that was. They put these tools in the hands of our military and law enforcement, who carry them all over the world now.” Added Daniel, “We’ve been very fortunate to be a part of it, and I couldn’t have done it without Karen.”
Harvey Dean
Harvey Dean enjoys the moment.
As inductor Rick Dunkerley outlined, Harvey Dean made his first knife in 1979—the same year Harvey and Deborah were married. “Harvey said this is the kind of wife I have. She let me sand that first knife on the kitchen table. Harvey has a good backup system there,” Rick smiled. Harvey started making knives full time in 1992 and became the 42nd ABS master smith the same year. He joined the ABS board of directors in 2004, was voted into the AKI in 2007 and served as chairman of the ABS from 2015 to 2019, and continues to serve on the board today. He was inducted into the ABS Hall of Fame in 2016.
Harvey’s taught an impressive number of students all over the USA, including conducting two hammer-ins a year with Johnny Stout for 25 years. “The amount of teaching going on there was pretty incredible,” Rick observed. “Harvey’s won countless awards. If it has to do with a bowie knife, Harvey won it … Harvey does it all. He brings bowie knives to the AKI, he brings slip joints, he’s the consummate knifemaker. He can make whatever he wants and makes it at the highest level. There just aren’t a lot of makers who can do that. And as much as he’s given back, he’s a better man, a better family man, a better father, a better husband than he is a knifemaker.”
In accepting, Harvey said, “In the Bible, Book of Romans, the Apostle Paul says a man should not think more highly of himself than he should, and I’ve tried to live my life and career like that, so it’s hard for me to get it in my head that I deserve this—but I’ll take it.”
Cutlery Hall-of-Famer’s book showcases the most unique, historic and outlandish blades to enter their treasury.
Probably the most important international buyers of modern American custom knives ever, BLADE Magazine Cutlery Hall-of-Fame® members Aldo and Edda Lorenzi bought and then sold those knives and many other edged items in their iconic G. Lorenzi retail cutlery store in Milan, Italy.
Located on the Via Montenapoleone in the heart of Milan’s elegant retail sales district, and under Aldo and Edda’s direction, G. Lorenzi sold the finest knives, scissors, razors, table cutlery and assorted other edged wonders from 1959 to 2014, serving customers from every corner of the globe.
If you read BLADE® regularly, you know of the Lorenzis—but mostly only through the eyes of BLADE. In their new book, Shining Blades from the Aldo and Edda Lorenzi Collection, the Lorenzis recall their journeys far and wide in their lifelong search for the finest blades as only they can tell it, from the age of Elvis and crewcuts to the internet era.
Intrepidly scouring Europe, America and elsewhere for cutting tools of all kinds, the Lorenzis chronicle their travels in Shining Blades. From Aldo doubling Edda on their Guzzi Galletto motorbike through the snow and rain in the Alps on their first working trip to Fance in the early 1960s, to their early visits to the knifemaking shops of John Nelson Cooper, Cutlery Hall-of-Famer Bob Loveless and many other of the most famous American makers and beyond, the Lorenzis share their incredible story.
Shining through it all are full-page color images of some of the most spellbinding edged implements you will ever see. In addition to buying them the Lorenzis collected the vintage edged implements along the way. Bronze-Age spoons, folding forks and unbelievable folding knives of the 17th century forward are just some of the visual feasts of the edged art that populate the book’s pages.
For instance, if you think you’ve seen all there is to see in scissors, think again. The images of vintage scissors alone are enough to fill an encyclopedia on the subject. Spectacularly ornate and mystifying in construction, the scissors the Lorenzis amassed over the decades alone will take your breath away.
The preceding simply scratches the surface of what the book is all about. Most of what is illustrated and much more can be seen in the state-of-the-art Aldo and Edda Lorenzi Foundation museum in Milan.
The book also delves into some of the oldest knives known, from the 5,000-year-old knife of Otzi the Iceman discovered in 1991 on the Austrian-Italian border, the finest in European custom knives and knifemakers, ancient books on all things cutlery, notes on damascus steel and much more.
It’s all contained in a top-quality, 9 x 9.75-inch hardbound book with 344 pages that will provide you enjoyment for years to come. It’s a unique history with an MSRP of only $50—a ridiculously low price for such a landmark publication. However, as Edda Lorenzi noted, it’s not about the money so much as the education of worldwide edged tool enthusiasts and the recognition of those who authored some of the most fascinating edged tools extant.
“The book cost us about double its sales price [to produce], more or less,” she began. “Keeping the price low was our choice. It is a choice in line with our Nate Posner Award—to honor the artisans who created the works we loved most and whose names we would like to be known by as many people as possible, and to encourage new generations of artisans who, unlike collectors, certainly do not have large sums of money to invest in expensive books. To achieve this, this choice had to be made!”
If most anyone else had written the preceding paragraph I might be going, “Yeah, right.” But with the Lorenzis, you can rest assured it’s true. If you don’t believe me, ask members of the old guard at knife shows who know of them. If anything, my assessment of Aldo and Edda isn’t laudatory enough.
Niagara will help fill the shoes of an industry icon.
The recent demise of Crucible Industries LLC not only marked the end of a celebrated name in the manufacture of blade steels, it denoted the dawn of a new age—not only for the steels famously known by their CPM prefix, but other premium blade materials as well.
Used by Crucible and short for Crucible Particle Metallurgy*, CPM prefixed such Crucible steels as CPM S30V, CPM S35VN, CPM MagnaCut—today’s hottest CPM variant—and others among some of the most-used blade materials since Chris Reeve Knives popularized S30V on Reeve knives beginning in 2004-2005. S30V, in fact, was the first modern steel manufactured specifically for knife use. All other manufactured steels used in blades were originally made for purposes other than knives.
CPM S45VN is one of several of the old Crucible steels Niagara offers. The Defiant7 Auto Eagle has a stonewashed blade of the stainless steel and a black aluminum handle. Blade grind: flat. Weight: 4.4 ounces. Designed by Les George, it’s 4.75 inches closed. Country of origin: USA. MSRP: $285.
Crucible closed its doors earlier this year and sold most, if not all, of its assets at auction in February. So what happens to all those wonderful steels that both the factory and custom knife industries use in mass quantities?
According to Bob Shabala of Niagara Specialty Metals (NSM), NSM will do its part to have/supply most, if not all, of them, as well as other up-and-coming steels, to the custom and factory knife industries.
Among custom knifemakers especially, CPM 154 stainless is extremely popular. Craig Brosman employs it in a hollow grind and amber-dyed European red stag on his utility fixed blade. Overall length: 7.5 inches. (SharpByCoop image)
Opined Scott Devanna of steel service center SB Specialty Metals, “The majority of steel sheet in the U.S. comes out of Niagara. They’re the only [domestic mill] that can make it right now. It’s been that way for the last 25 years. They’re the only game in town.”
Erasteel And The Name Game
Erasteel, with state-of-the-art steel mills in France and Sweden, is owned by Syntagma Capital, a private equity group based in Brussels, Belgium. Erasteel acquired a part of the assets of the old Crucible Industries during the February auction, including working capital, steelmaking equipment and, perhaps most importantly, the trademarks for all the CPM steel names. A manufacturer and supplier of steels not only to the knife community but also the aerospace and other hi-tech industries, NSM had worked with Erasteel before the auction, processing millions of pounds of the Swedish mill’s steel for industrial applications.
The 4.75-inch blade of Jacob Gaetz’s Large Field Hunter is CPM 3V carbon steel cryo-treated to a Rockwell hardness of 60-61 HRC. Handles are Apocalyptic box elder burl (left) and vintage Micarta® (right). Overall lengths: 9.875 inches. (Jocelyn Frasier image)
“We’d been doing that for several years,” Shabala noted, “so we know the quality of their steel is good.”
Together with Crucible, Erasteel is the pioneer in gas-atomized metal powders and started with the process in 1969. Today, it has the largest installed capacity in the world to produce metal powders, with two large atomizers built and designed by Erasteel.
Shabala said NSM officials understood their knife customers wanted the assorted CPM steels to keep the old names to avoid confusion among knife-buying consumers.
“They didn’t want to change the names and have to educate consumers on what the new names would be and how they related to the legacy Crucible names,” he explained.
The Cold Steel Recon M1 sports a black-coated blade of MagnaCut stainless, which remains the hottest of the CPM steels used by both factory and custom segments of the sporting knife industry. Handle G-10. Lock: Atlas Lock. Weight: 5.2 ounces. Blade and closed lengths: 4 and 5.5 inches. Country of origin: Italy. MSRP: $309.99.
Meanwhile, the two companies reached an agreement where if NSM buys the steels exclusively from Erasteel, NSM can use the original names too, including S30V, S35VN, S45VN, MagnaCut, S110V, 3V and CPM 154. NSM and its customers can still use the full designation of CPM S30V, CPM S35VN and so on, though the customers can omit the CPM if they so choose.
“The reason we’re keeping the CPM 154 name is because everybody knows that it’s the powder metallurgy version of 154CM, so we want to keep that designation alive so people will know what’s going on there,” Shabala noted.
There will be a couple of exceptions. The steels formerly known as CPM Cruwear and CPM S90V will be renamed NSMwear and NSM 90PM, respectively.
Niagara is both a manufacturer and distributor, not only of knife steel but also steel for the aerospace and other industries. It is employee owned and employs 41. (NSM image)
“Erasteel already had an agreement with another distributor to buy Cruwear exclusively, so we worked out a deal with them where we can buy the steel, we just can’t use the name,” Shabala explained. “It’s on us to educate people and let them know they can still get CPM Cruwear, it’s just a different name.”
As for CPM S90V, NSM already had Carpenter Technology’s version of it in stock and wanted to rebrand it so that it’s not sole-sourced to one mill. By renaming it NSM 90PM, “hopefully people will understand that it’s coming from us,” Bob said.
Steel Tariffs
Concerning steel supplies in stock, Shabala indicated NSM officials had been aware of Crucible’s coming demise, and in January 2024 began ramping up purchases to build inventory for any future supply disruptions.
Dennis Friedly opts for CPM 154 stainless blade steel and a mammoth tooth handle for his Art Knife Invitational fighter. The copious engraving is by Ray Cover Jr. Overall length: 13 inches. (SharpByCoop image)
“We started placing orders with Carpenter and Erasteel in September 2024, though not knowing Erasteel would be the eventual owner of the CPM trademarks,” Shabala noted. “The steel we bought in September is starting to arrive. There will be some disruptions in MagnaCut and CPM 154, but everything else we still have a decent amount of and there should be no disruptions.”
In case you hadn’t heard, President Trump has instituted tariffs on most countries, including France and Sweden. At press time, the European tariff was 25 percent.
“Everything we buy from Erasteel as it stands right now is subject to a 25 percent tariff,” Shabala said. “Even the steel we buy from Carpenter, the powder for it is atomized in Sweden, so that’s subject to at least a 10 percent tariff.”
Dennis Friedly opts for CPM 154 stainless blade steel and a mammoth tooth handle for his Art Knife Invitational fighter. The copious engraving is by Ray Cover Jr. Overall length: 13 inches. (SharpByCoop image)
Another concern is whether knife companies can continue to mark their knives built with NSM steel “Made in the U.S.A.” Bob said he is up front with his customers, telling them that Erasteel will be supplying a “good chunk of our CPM alloys,” though it’s all hot rolled at NSM.
The question becomes if the raw materials are imported but don’t officially become a steel until they’re hot isostatic pressed, does that make the steel American made or imported? He indicated it will be up to his customers’ lawyers to hash out what the customers can and can’t do concerning U.S.A. markings on their knives.
NSM Innovaions
What’s on the horizon at NSM? One thing is a new grade developed by steel guru Larrin Thomas. Called Magnamax, it won’t be widely available until the end of the year. Since NSM has both patented and trademarked Magnamax, it can have it made by any mill it wants, and had it on order with both Erasteel and Carpenter at press time.
Bob Shabala of Niagara Specialty Metals
Meanwhile, along with Erasteel, Bob had high praise for the steel being made by Carpenter.
“We’re getting powder now that is atomized in a vacuum furnace. It’s a step forward in quality. We hardly ever had an issue with any CPM product from Crucible,” he qualified, “but I think Erasteel’s and Carpenter’s steel has a finer grain size. It’s a little microscopically cleaner than what we were getting before, so it really is an opportunity to provide a better product.”
As Shabala noted, Carpenter has made lots of cutlery steel, and NSM has processed a huge amount of it, hot rolling it into sheets and sending it back to Carpenter’s warehouse for sale to various customers. One of Carpenter’s best-known steels is CTS XHP stainless.
“It’s a grade that customers really like,” Shabala said, adding that NSM had over 20 tons of it and was in the process of preparing to make a big marketing push on it at press time.
Having steel manufactured in the USA remains a big selling point with many of NSM’s customers, so the company remains on the lookout for new melt sources, one of which is Prime Metals & Alloys (PMA) of Homer City, Pennsylvania. A manufacturer and supplier of a wide range of steels for assorted hi-tech and other uses, PMA was in the process of making steel for NSM at press time, which Shabala seemed to think holds great promise.
Larrin Thomas, metallurgist and knife writer
“We should receive it in a couple of months, but if it works out it’s going to be an ESR version of stainless steel that we’ve always supplied, so it should be a noticeably better product than what our customers were used to before,” he said. “It’s really a good find for us to be able to get a higher-quality steel with a shorter lead time, so we’re really excited about that.”
ESR stands for Electro-Slag Remelting, a process that results in a very clean steel devoid of contaminants.
“In a traditional melting process, you heat the steel up, get it in a molten state, pour it in an ingot and that’s it,” and later forge and finish it out, he explained. “With ESR you take that ingot and you remelt it again and all the slag and contaminants float to the top, and they’re skimmed off. What remains in the new ingot is a cleaner version of the original.”
Shabala added that two different grades of NSM stainless steels that had always been air melted will now be ESR melted.
NSM’s Role
People often misunderstand a company’s role in any endeavor, and Shabala said that seems to be the case with NSM.
“Larrin Thomas was concerned that people had the misconception that NSM is just a distributor, that we just got sheets from Crucible and resold them,” he observed. “He said we should emphasize the fact that we’re a lot more than a distributor, we’re a manufacturer, we buy slabs of steel, we process it into the final dimensions and ship it. Cutlery is a big part of what we do. We do a lot with the aerospace industry, so we know a lot about quality standards.”
NSM is 100 percent employee-owned, so all 41 employees in its mill in Akron, New York, just outside Buffalo, own a piece of the company.
“Everyone here has a vested interest in ensuring that we’re successful and doing everything we can to put out a good product,” Shabala said.
A last point of emphasis Bob made was that just because Crucible went out of business doesn’t mean NSM is going out of business—in fact, far from it.
“We’re very financially sound. We just put out a $7 million upgrade in our sheet mill, we’re rolling out finished product, it’s the biggest expansion we’ve ever done and we’re getting ready to expand our grinding and laser-cutting capability,” he noted. “We’re really, really in good shape.”
*Editor’s Note: For more on the particle metallurgy process, visit Knife Steel Nerd’s post on powder metallurgy.
Rusty Preston gets an unforgettable slipjoint from good friends.
As a founding member of the South Texas Slipjoint Cartel, Rusty Preston made lots of traditional pocketknives over the years, but never did he have one made for him like the trapper recently built by fellow Cartel member Phil Jacob and Ben Champagne.
It all started when a friend sent Ben some green Micarta® bearing some unusual part and serial numbers. They traced it back to a Vietnam-era F4 Phantom fighter jet. The Micarta was part of a chafing block used on F4s as a support to keep hydraulic-activated metal rods used throughout the plane from rubbing or chafing against each other. Ben and Phil knew Rusty was an Air Force pilot during the Vietnam War and when they learned he flew an F4, they decided to use the Micarta in making a surprise knife for him.
The knife had to be a slipjoint, of course, and the two decided on a one-blade trapper pattern. Phil made the blade and springs and Ben made the handle. For a shield they figured a silhouette of an F4 would be appropriate. They got a photograph of an F4 to use as a guide and made the shield of 416 stainless steel to inlay into the Micarta. However, the shield was an inch-and-a-half long.
“It was so long it wouldn’t fit from the center pin to the pivot pin,” Phil said.
Rusty Preston
The solution? The knife would have to be a shadow pattern, which has no bolsters and provides a bigger canvas for a shield. Phil added some Roman knot filework—which Rusty taught him how to do—to the backspring, and the result is a really cool pocketknife.
Once the trapper was done, they had to settle on a place where they could all meet, including many members of the Cartel, and Rusty would be there, too. BLADE Show Texas would be the place and Rusty was about to get a surprise for the ages.
Parting Gift
Rusty and his wife Sally had visited with BLADE Magazine Cutlery Hall-of-Fame® member Bill Ruple and the rest of the Cartel members during the show at the Fort Worth Convention Center and were preparing to leave on show Saturday.
“We were just saying our goodbyes and somebody hollered at me—Bill, I think—‘Hey Rusty, come over here,’ and I realized he was at the end of the aisle and he had a group of guys there,” Rusty recalled “Everybody there was a friend of mine, and I thought, ‘Oh, what’s gonna happen here?,’ and sure enough Sally and I walked up—Sally knew about it but I had not a clue—and they started in on me.”
It was all Rusty could do to keep from breaking down—which is about what he did.
“I’ve had this birth defect I’ve had all my life,” he said. “I can squall like a baby at an ice-skating contest at something like that, so it was pretty hard on me but in a good way—you know how that is. So they told me they wanted to present me with something and I saw what it was and I couldn’t believe it. It came as a total, absolute surprise to me. I was dumfounded at what they had done, and why they saw fit to honor me in that fashion is a marvel to me.
“It was just an honor to look around and see the approval on every one of those guys’ faces for what was happening.”
Rusty called the work on the knife “stunning.”
Ben Champagne (left) and Phil Jacob (right) present Rusty Preston (center) with his special surprise knife at BLADE Show Texas 2025 (page 56).
“It’s got both Ben and Phil’s names on the blade and it’s just absolutely outstanding detail work on the inlay and the silhouette of the F4,” he observed. “That took a lot of effort. I don’t know how they managed to get ahold of all that but they did. It’s beautiful, it’s perfect.”
But what about that Micarta? How in the heck was Ben able to obtain material meant for an F4 Phantom jet fighter? Some things are just better left unsaid.
“The fact that the handle material is what it is and where it came from, how in the world Ben ever got ahold of F4 parts I don’t know. And I’m scared to ask him,” Rusty grinned, “because he’d probably tell me.”
Cutting Through the Costs: How Tariffs Are Reshaping the Global Knife Industry.
Tariffs. The simple mention of the word makes some folks tear their hair out. That’s not a problem for me because the word doesn’t upset me that much. Besides, most of my hair has already fallen out anyway.
As you know, a significant portion of American knife companies depend on China to manufacture some, most or all of their knives. As you also no doubt know, President Trump is addressing America’s tariff imbalance with other countries—including China—in no small part to help erase some of America’s $36 trillion debt. And, at press time, he was threatening to impose higher tariffs on China than any other country.
How will the President’s tariffs affect the knife industry? I asked one industry insider and he told me of a recent trip he made to China to talk business with those who make many of the knives for the company he represents.
He said the last time he went there was 2018 and he was amazed at all the changes in the interim. There wasn’t a bridge from Hong Kong to China seven years ago. Now there is one and they drove on it to the Chinese mainland. There are new superhighways all over with no cars on them.
“It’s crazy the money they’re spending on infrastructure,” he wrote. When he went to one city in 2018 there wasn’t a traffic light in sight. Now it’s a city of 2.6 million people with high rises everywhere.
“Maybe it was my imagination but the vibe wasn’t great,” he observed of the reception he received earlier this year. “A couple of factories seemed to blow me off. I used to get the golden carpet treatment. One of our guys who speaks Chinese said he was having a hard time getting answers from some of them. I think the tariffs have them scared.”
I wondered out loud if the Chinese manufacturers thought they’d gotten most all they could out of the company my friend works for and are looking at other revenue avenues.
“I don’t think so,” he wrote. “The other markets are small in comparison to the USA. The Chinese knife factories are so specialized that making knives is really all they know.”
He added that the big Chinese manufacturers are building factories in Vietnam to avoid the tariffs, though he predicted the President would close the Vietnam loophole soon if he hadn’t already by the time this story hits print. I asked if that would make it more economically feasible for those American companies who have knives made in China to have them made domestically, and he hit me with the cold, hard facts.
“Rough numbers: cost to make a folder in the USA, $100; cost to make the comparable folder in China, $25. Double the cost with tariffs and Chinese-made knives are still half priced,” he emphasized. “Knives are such a niche market and relatively low volume that even with automation it would be tough to match the price of knives made in China. Marketing, design and innovation can overcome that cost gap. Look at Benchmade. They are killing it.”
Concerning my earlier question of whether the Chinese manufacturers might be looking at other sources of revenue, he returned with a qualifier.
“I did see two factories that are now making manicure stuff like nail clippers. Ten years ago you would not have seen that. A knife factory was a knife factory. One factory was making Nite Ize® products, so I guess they are diversifying,” he wrote.
“One more thing,” he added. “I went to a big-name [Chinese] factory and the owner did not appear to be worried about tariffs. He is focused on making the best knife he can, so I think you could say the higher-end manufacturers aren’t as worried about tariffs.”
My insider friend, however, disagrees with that rationale.
“I think when the market goes bad even the billionaires slow down on impulse buys,” he opined.
On the domestic side, at least one U.S. company official says costs are increasing for steel and other knife materials even though the steel and materials are U.S. made. Meanwhile, by the time you read this, here’s hoping the President has been able to work out, or is well on his way to working out, deals with most if not all of the countries on which he imposed tariffs. Either way, as my insider friend summarized,
“The tariffs are going to have a big impact on our little industry!”
