Maximize your BLADE Show experience by knowing what to see and when. (PointSeven image)
The 34th Annual BLADE Show starts this Friday at the Cobb Galleria in Atlanta and you can maximize your experience by knowing what to see and when. But before you do that, be sure you come prepared.
1) Dress appropriately. Comfort is the watchword. Bring two pairs of shoes—one to wear while walking the show in the morning, the other for the afternoon. And be sure they’re well broken in and comfortable! Don’t worry about being a fashion plate. Getting around the 116,000-square-foot hall is a marathon, not a fashion show runway. Leave the spiked heels at home.
2) Carry a small water bottle. The show hall can get humid/hot and you need to stay hydrated.
3) Eat an apple mid-morning and mid-afternoon for energy and to maintain your, ahem, constitution. Apples also are good for hydration.
4) Don’t be afraid to bring a roller case (like the one pictured herein being pulled by award-winning Canadian knifemaker Brent Beshara) or small backpack to carry stuff (including your extra pair of shoes, ball cap and sunglasses [see below]). Carry bags can get hard on your arm after a while.
5) Wear a ball cap and sunglasses—and shorts if you can because Atlanta gets hot in the afternoon in June—in case you want to watch any of the outdoor seminars. The sun can beat down on your head and give you a heckuva headache;
As for stuff to see, the main attraction, of course, is knives and more of them than you will see at any one time under one roof anywhere. There are also other attractions, including:
•On Thursday, the day before the show begins, and Friday the world’s foremost knife authorities will conduct classes on a variety of knife subjects in the 2nd Annual BLADE University. Learn from such world-famous makers as Jerry Fisk, Bill Harsey, Tony Bose, Ed Fowler, Ryan Johnson, Spartan Blades, Case, Joe Keeslar, Murray Carter and many more;
•By noon Friday all entries for the BLADE Magazine Knife Of The Year® Awards sponsored by New Graham Knives must be on display in the Knife Of The Year Display Area, which will have a new location this year—in the show lobby—for your viewing pleasure;
•At 2 p.m. Friday the show opens to the public but you’d better get there well before then because the lines start to form early;
•Friday after high noon, ABS master smith Jason Knight and other world-class smiths will hold an impromptu forging session in The Courtyard, the parking lot of the host Renaissance-Waverly Hotel, until the show closes at 7 p.m. This is a last-minute addition to the show and should be a rare treat;
•Saturday at 10 a.m. the ABS will hold its annual auction of top ABS handforged knives in Room 103;
•Saturday at 12:30 p.m. the ABS forging demonstration returns to The Courtyard with ABS master smith Timothy Potier showing you the ins and outs of how to handforge a knife;
•On Saturday at 4:15 p.m. Jessica Elias, the first-ever female contestant in the 13th Annual BLADE Show World Championship Cutting Competition conducted by BladeSports International, will show her stuff in The Courtyard along with the rest of this year’s qualifiers;
•FREE BLADE Show programs and August/BLADE Show preview issues of BLADE® will be distributed in the show lobby containing complete show schedules, events, exhibitor table and booth numbers and much more.
•After show hours, hit The Pit in the Renaissance-Waverly Hotel lobby to share sharp tales of the day’s events, what you saw, what others saw and more. Things are usually hopping/get hopping by 8 or 8:30 p.m., sometimes earlier.
Back in 1999, Tim Troyer and Rick Hinderer made a knife/hatchet combo as a fundraiser to buy people out of slavery in Nepal. Now that same collectible will be auctioned again at BLADE Show 2015, with proceeds helping the ravaged people there rebuild after recent devastating earthquakes.
Mr. Paul Weaver, the original buyer, has donated it back to The Reckoning International to be sold again to help the Nepal people in the wake of a growing humanitarian crisis.
This knife/hatchet combo, which was produced in collaboration with Rick Hinderer, one of the top names in custom tactical folders, will be auctioned at BLADE Show 2015 in Atlanta, Georgia, June 5-7, 2015.
In the wake of the recent Nepal earthquakes, the needs are very great and the timing couldn’t be better to auction this very special knife at BLADE Show 2015.
Be sure to see this knife at table 9I, where Troyer will be running the knife auction throughout the weekend. Enter a bid that will change the lives of the people of Nepal one more time.
Gil Hibben, who made knives for the Expendables move franchise, will be among many with steel star power connections at the BLADE Show.
The world’s greatest knives and greatest knifemakers are the main focus of the BLADE Show June 5-7 at the Cobb Galleria in Atlanta, Georgia, but there are also many legends and legends in the making who attend the show that help give it steel star power.
A Gil Hibben bowie knife from the Expendables.
For instance, Todd Begg, star of the Discovery Channel’s Blade Brothers, will be displaying his knives at booth 722. Robert Young Pelton, journalist, documentary filmmaker and author of The World’s Most Dangerous Places as well as host of the Travel Channel’s series of the same name for six years, is the headman of DPx Gear (booth 415).
Others who have made knives for movies include Allen Elishewitz (booth 59) and Cold Steel (booth 318) for Sinners and Saints; Ernest Emerson (booth 104) for Black Hawk Down and Night of the Running Man, among others and also for some TV shows; Daniel Winkler (booth 606) for Zero Dark Thirty, Sommersby and The Last of the Mohicans; and TOPS Knives (table 20U) for The Hunted and The Punisher. R.W. Wilson (table 25R) made the tomahawks for the early 1970s classic, Jeremiah Johnson. There are no doubt other makers at the show who made movie knives that we’re leaving out. And on the TV side of the ledger, Condor Tool & Knife (booth 739) supplies the knife for Matt Graham, star of the Discovery Channel’s Dual Survival, and Zero Tolerance knives (booth 99) appear regularly on the long-running hit TV show, NCIS.
On the entertainment side of the ledger, Southern Grind (booth 41) is owned by Atlanta’s Zac Brown of Zac Brown Band renown. And Adam Drescher of Adam Unlimited (table 15S) has been appearing on a number of TV shows in assorted character roles of late.
Learn all about Japanese swords from Wally Hostetter at BLADE University. Wally made the mounts for Steve Schwarzer’s Nagmaki, a repro of a pole arm with a sword-like blade used by 14th-17th-century Japanese warriors to cut the legs of the horses of enemy cavalry.
Japanese swords combine the elements that make everything about the world of blades fascinating—history, mystery, outstanding cutting performance, beautiful craftsmanship, collectibility and more—and Wally Hostetter will school you on it all at the 2nd Annual BLADE University.
Hostetter’s class will be one of many at BLADE University, which will be held the day before (June 4) through show Saturday (June 6) of the 2015 BLADE Show June 5-7 at the Cobb Galleria in Atlanta.
In his class entitled “Collecting & Maintaining Japanese Swords,” Hostetter will explain what to look for when you buy a Japanese sword—including different patterns/designs and genres, the proper fittings and more—and how to maintain and care for it once you’ve bought it.
Hostetter is a long-time swordsmith who also is known for making sword mounts for such world-renowned swordsmiths as Steve Schwarzer. From the tsuba (guard), habaki (collar), fuchi (pommel or metal hilt sleeve) and other mounts, Hostetter makes and knows them all quite well. No matter what question you have concerning the proper construction, sword terms, traditional Japanese handle wraps, menuki and more, Wally’s your man. He will bring examples of Japanese swords and encourages students to bring cameras and photograph them for future reference.
Wally has collected Japanese swords for 18 years and does his own restoration work on them. He also has done restoration work for others over the past eight years. They include Troy Baxley, president of the Florida Token Kia; Bob Elder, owner of East Coast Martial Arts Supplies Inc., and his students of Toyama Batto Jutsu/US Batto Federation; ABS master smith Don Fogg; and martial arts practitioners throughout the USA.
Hostetter forges katanas, wakizashis, tantos and Naginata blades, including all the fittings and poles for the latter. “I have wrapped many tsuka [sword handles] and done some intricate patterns not seen everyday,” he noted. “On sayas [scabbards] I have reproduced a lot of the old finishes and techniques. I also practice Toyama Batto Jutsu. We have cut many rolled tatami/wara [rolled straw mats] with the swords, wakizashis and tantos I make.”
For more information on Wally’s class and others, how to entroll, etc., visit BLADE University.
Also Check Out:
Sword Making Secrets (Download)
Author Don Fogg is here to help you build one of the big blades, the lengthy lopper — the sword! His step-by-step sword-making process resonates well with your fellow knife enthusiasts who can’t get enough of the romance, history, look, feel, usefulness, ethnic heritage and physical impressiveness of swords. Download here
The BLADE Show wants you for the 34th annual rendition of the world’s largest and most important event June 5-7 at the Cobb Galleria Centre in Atlanta.
The 2015 BLADE Show at the Cobb Galleria Centre in Atlanta June 5-7 will have the hottest knives and makers in the largest, most important knife event ever.
Over 600 tables and more than 300 booths will display the world’s latest knives, knife accessories, knife collections, knifemaking equipment and materials and much more June 5-7 at the 34th annual BLADE Show in the Cobb Galleria Centre in Atlanta.
The BLADE Show is the world’s largest and most important knife event and draws knife enthusiasts from every continent and most every knifemaker and knife company you’ve ever heard of—and many you don’t know of who will be the knife legends of tomorrow.
Knifemakers from the Knifemakers’ Guild, the American Bladesmith Society—including some of the world’s finest handforged knives up for bid in the ABS Auction and testing for ABS master and journeyman smith status—and the world’s best unaffiliated makers will all be on hand to exhibit their latest custom knives, with some entering the show’s custom knife judging competition. Assorted demos on how to throw knives, the use of Japanese swords, how and what to buy and collect and many others, knife giveaways, lotteries, knife club meetings, after show hours revelry in the world-famous Pit, the sunken lounge of the show’s host hotel, the Renaissance-Waverly—these and much more all await you June 5-7 in Hot ‘lanta. Don’t miss it!
Learn how custom knifemakers and manufacturers join to make knife collaborations from two of the best at it: knifemaker Tony Bose and John Sullivan of Case at BLADE University.Award-winning custom knifemaker Tony Bose.
Learn how to have your design turned into a custom/factory knife collaboration from renowned custom knifemaker Tony Bose and John Sullivan, marketing director at W.R. Case & Sons Cutlery Co., at BLADE University.
Held in conjunction with the world’s largest knife show, the BLADE Show, BLADE U. will be held the day before through show Saturday at the Cobb Galleria Centre in Atlanta. The BLADE Show will be June 5-7.
In Bose and Sullivan’s “Your Knife Design Into Production,” you’ll learn the keys behind the decision to produce a particular knife pattern and what knife manufacturers are looking for in new production concepts. Additional topics will include how to plan for the production of the first knife samples and the steps involved in preparing for a larger-scale production run. Product packaging, promotion, marketing, sales and post-sales support also will be discussed.
Bose is an award-winning custom knifemaker of international renown whose custom slip-joint knives set the standard in the genre. Working out of Shelburn, Indiana, he has long been a proponent of traditional pocketknives, and few manufacturers have a better reputation for such knives than Case. Bose has designed knives for special collaborations with Case since 1998, including but not limited to a sowbelly pattern (2001), his Saddlehorn design (2004), a sway-back jack/gent’s knife (2008) and the BackPocket.
Based in Bradford, Pennsylvania, and owned by Zippo, the famous lighter manufacturer, Case is the leading name in collectible factory knives. Sullivan has worked hand-in-hand with Bose on the Case collaborations and will share his insight on the relationship from a manufacturer’s point of view.
For more on this class and the many others of BLADE U. visit BLADE University.
The 2015 BLADE Show Custom Knife Award Winners were announced on Saturday, June 6, 2015, at the Cobb Galleria in Atlanta.
