BLADE Show 2022: International Exhibitors Return

With the end of the travel ban, exhibitors from nearly every continent are slated to converge on BLADE Show 2022.

On the heels of the cancellation of BLADE Show 2020, last year’s 40th Annual BLADE Show was the smash success everyone in the knife business longed for, got and celebrated with the most pointed of passions. However, one thing was missing: due to pandemic travel bans, many international knifemakers were unable to attend.

That is no longer the case with this year’s show set for June 3-5 at the Cobb Galleria Centre in Atlanta.

Top makers from every continent but Antarctica were scheduled to exhibit at press time, all bringing their latest and greatest knives. Due to the show’s cancellation in 2020 and last year’s travel bans, for many it will be their first BLADE Show since 2019.

Buy Your BLADE Show Tickets

Sponsored by Smoky Mountain Knife Works, the BLADE Show is year-in and year-out the world’s biggest and most important knife event, where more knives—new, old, custom, factory, etc.—are exhibited, bought and sold than any other knife show. Over 900 exhibitor booths and tables featuring factory and custom knife, sharpener and other knife accessory makers, knifemaking, steel and handle material supply companies, knife collections, knife purveyors and other cutlery entities too numerous to mention will showcase their wares as the world knife community descends on the Galleria Centre. All will renew friendships, make new ones, and visit with the living legends of the knife industry, today’s knifemaking stars and those of tomorrow.

The latest, hottest custom knives, factory knife debuts (page 24), the educational knife instruction class schedule of BLADE University (see sidebar) and action-packed free demos (see sidebar) await the hordes of show patrons that will descend on the Galleria Centre. The BLADE Magazine 2022 Knife-Of-The-Year® Awards (see sidebar), the custom knife judging competition (see sidebar) and the knife collection display competition are others. The ABS Knife Auction (page 34), the formal inductions of the latest members of the BLADE Magazine Cutlery Hall Of Fame® (see story beginning on page 50), and some of the best knives the ABS and the Knifemakers’ Guild and unaffiliated makers in general have to offer are still others.

And don’t forget The Pit, the after-hours meeting place in and around the sunken bar of the host hotel, the Renaissance Atlanta Waverly, where show patrons and exhibitors will congregate into the wee hours beginning the night before the show through the end of the weekend to compare knives, swap lies and otherwise celebrate the year’s most momentous cutlery weekend.

For the above and other show features, check the following pages and the BLADE Show Section on pages 50-65 for the sharpest three days anytime, anywhere.