See who took home the hardware from the custom knife competition at BLADE Show Texas

With its roots in fine custom knives, BLADE Show Texas tends to draw the top names in makers. In turn, the custom knife awards competition turns out to be a heavyweight slugfest of some of the country’s most accomplished blade artisans. The 2024 competition at the Feb. 23-24 show lived up to this expectation completely.

The judging hall buried in the catacombs of the Ft. Worth Convention Center was packed to the gills with exceptional specimens in 12 categories. To say the 3-judge panel had their work cut out is an overstatement as large as the Lone Star State itself. But after much debate and some furrowing of brows, this team of custom knife experts came up with the top picks from each category.

This included Best Of Show (and Best Bowie), Mike Quesenberry’s dog-gone outstanding bowie knife—a creation that sucked the air out of the room. A testament to how competitive the competition was, the judges for the first time awarded “Contender” awards in three categories for knives that were worthy of top honors, but were just edged out of the highest award.

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Best Of Show: Mike Quesenberry

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Best Art Knife: Mike Quesenberry

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Best Bowie: Mike Quesenberry

Bowie Contender: Franco De Souza

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Best Damascus: Franco De Souza

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Best EDC: Karis Fisher

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Best Fighter: Franco De Souza

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Best Folding Knife: Jared Oeser

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Best Hunting Knife: James Rodebauh

Hunting Knife Contender: Peyton Ramm

Best Kitchen Knife: Harvey Dean

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Best Slipjoint: Tim Robertson

Slipjoint Contender: Phil Jacob

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Best M.A.C.K.: Princeton Wong

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Best Of The Rest: Jason Knight/Winburn Steel

Check Out Previous Custom Award Winners:

• 2023 BLADE SHOW WEST CUSTOM KNIFE AWARD WINNERS
• BLADE SHOW 2023 CUSTOM KNIFE AWARD WINNERS
• 2023 BLADE SHOW TEXAS FACTORY AND CUSTOM AWARD WINNERS
• 2022 BLADE SHOW CUSTOM KNIFE AWARD WINNERS