BLADE Show

The world’s largest and most important knife event, BLADE Show 2018 will return next year at the Cobb Galleria Centre in Atlanta—and there’s no time like now to make plans to attend the annual edge-stravaganza that true knife enthusiasts can’t afford to miss.

Slated for June 1-3, BLADE Show 2018 will assemble thousands of knife exhibitors and knife enthusiasts from around the globe, and with international attendance increasing every year, it’s wise to make your hotel plans now.

To book your hotel reservations online, click on https://aws.passkey.com/go/Blade2018. To call the housing bureau, dial 1-855-547-8429.

The BLADE Show is the be-all, do-all knife event. Among the industry honors determined there are the BLADE Magazine Knife Of The Year® Awards, the BLADE Show Custom Knife Winners and the BLADE Magazine Cutlery Hall-Of-Fame© inductions. The BLADE Show also hosts BLADE University, three days of the best and most comprehensive knife instruction you can receive at a knife show. Members of the world’s leading knifemaking and bladesmithing organizations, including the American Bladesmith Society and the Knifemakers’ Guild, knife enthusiasts from the Usual Suspect Network, BladeForums and more, they all come to the BLADE Show. The world’s finest knife collections, every knifemaking supplier, knife accessory and related edged item you can think of—from tomahawks, to swords, to axes, multi-tools and everything that cuts—if it has an edge or enhances it, it will be in Atlanta.

If you have attended the BLADE Show before, you know how fast hotel rooms disappear–not only at the Renaissance Waverly, the host hotel, but at lodging anywhere near the Cobb Galleria. If you’ve never been to a BLADE Show, then you cannot know the mad rush that is BLADE Show planning time. Don’t learn the hard way and get left out–plan and make your hotel reservations now!

You’ve heard all about BLADE Show 2017 but you can get the inside scoop on the show’s hottest knives and knifemakers and what and who will be hot in the future as a result in BLADE®’s special 2017 BLADE Show Recap issue, on newsstands now! Or, if you prefer a digital copy, click here.

The world’s largest and most important knife event enjoyed its longest lines ever of patrons queuing up to get in, and the patrons packing aisles for much of the three-day event enjoyed the best knives and knifemakers the international cutlery industry has to offer.

Why was the show among the best if not the best ever? What were the demographics of the patrons who attended? What nationalities were represented most in

what has become a show teeming with knife enthusiasts from all corners of the globe? Did more women attend than ever before, marking a new, unprecedented wave of knife enthusiasts from the female side? How many patrons actually bought knives instead of kicked tires, and how much did they spend?

Speaking of knives, which patterns sold most? What sub-categories of exhibitors—knifemaking suppliers, acc-

essory makers and others—emerged in terms of high numbers of sales? And what does it portend for the future of the BLADE Show and the knife industry in general? These questions and others are addressed in “BLADE Show Stands Tall & Delivers” on page 12.

Of course, the BLADE Show is much more, including the BLADE Magazine Knife-Of-The-Year® Awards, the BLADE Show Custom Knife Judging Competition and the BLADE Magazine Cutlery Hall-Of-Fame inductions. Get all the specs and fantastic images of the knives by new Official BLADE Show photographer Chuck Ward in the respective stories “Best Blades of Both Hemispheres” and “BLADE Show Custom Kingpins,” the latter including this issue’s cover knife, the CAS/Sam Lurquin Sub-Hilt that won the Hugh Bartrug Best In Show Award.

The announcement that Benchmade CEO Les de Asis and American Bladesmith Society master smith Jim Batson had been elected to the Cutlery Hall Of Fame was made earlier in the year, but why they were elected was revealed in detail during their official inductions during the BLADE Magazine Awards reception the Saturday night of the BLADE Show. Get the lowdown on their career accomplishments, their induction speeches during the reception and more in the special story on page 42.

The BLADE Show is also the place where factory knife companies introduce their latest knives, though this year’s show may have seen more new knife debuts than ever. Check out the fantastic array of production pieces in “All Blades Pointed to Atlanta.”

There’s more this issue, including a salute to Alfred Pendray, tests of locking folders and drop-point hunters, the new Case/Daniel Winkler collaboration, a retrospective of Cutlery Hall-Of-Famer Michael Walker’s landmark linerlock that changed knife history forever and much more, all in the latest issue of BLADE.