BLADE®, the world’s No. 1 knife media brand, announces the all-new BLADE Show West in Portland, Oregon—the Knifemaking Capital of the USA. The 3-day show will open its doors at the Oregon Convention Center on Friday, Oct. 5, 2018.
BLADE Show West is presented by BLADE® Magazine, which also hosts the Annual BLADE Show in Atlanta, Georgia June 1-3 at the Cobb Galleria.
Why Portland?
“There’s no better place to have a new BLADE Show than in the backyard of Blade City USA,” said Steve Shackleford, BLADE® Magazine Editor in Chief. “Knife enthusiasm is at an all-time high, and there are many thousands of knife aficionados and knife makers in the West. We’re eager to see and showcase all the great blades out there.”
Reasons to Attend
The new BLADE Show West will feature the works of prestigious knife manufacturers large and small, as well as handmade knives made by skilled custom knife makers. And Portland is the perfect city.
See knives of all types and designs—fixed blades, folders, automatics, swords, daggers, tactical knives, throwing knives, art knives and more
View custom knives designed, forged, and finished by individual knife makers, and new models by renowned manufacturers
Visit knife dealers, purveyors, collectors, and knife enthusiast organizations at more than 200 booths and tables
Shop for knives priced from $10 to more than $10,000, knifemaking supplies and machinery, and accessories from sharpeners to cases
Vote for the Best Knives of BLADE Show West
See knives entered in the Weirdest Knife Contest—in line with the region’s unique Keep Portland Weird! slogan
Does This Change Anything About the BLADE Show in June in Atlanta?
Nope! The BLADE Show in Atlanta that takes place every June will continue as it has in years past.
Editor’s note: This article is the conclusion toMake a Bowie Knife in 10 Steps. Read that one first if you’re interested in making a complete knife from start to finish.
1) Choose the Material
For handle material, I chose olive drab G-10 with a simple red liner for a little flair. The choice for your handle material is up to you.
While the material used, the rasp, is classic and traditional, the handle material will be more modern. I’ve chosen olive drab G-10 with a simple red liner for a little flair. Any material you like would be fine. It’s your knife and the handle is the easiest place to express your personal taste.
2) Lay Out the Scales
Trace the handle profile. I use a black magic marker since the G-10 won’t absorb the ink.
Now that we have our materials it’s time to start laying out our scales. Trace the handle profile. I use a black magic marker since the G-10 won’t absorb the ink.
If you use a natural or unstabilized material, a pencil might be a better choice to avoid staining or permanent marks.
3) Mark the Holes
To help ensure your holes will line up, make a light mark with a hand drill and finish in a drill press to help ensure the holes are square and true.
Mark the holes you need to drill on one side of the pair of scales. To help ensure your holes will line up, make a light mark with a hand drill and finish in a drill press to help ensure the holes are square and true.
4) Sand, Drill and Glue
A simple light sanding will flatten the scales and rough up the surface for a better bond. Drill the holes in one scale, place a drop of Super Glue® on the flattened inside surface, and glue the two scales together.
One important thing to remember when doing anything is to never assume. While the handle scales look flat they in fact are not. A simple light sanding will flatten them and rough up the surface for a better bond.
Using the drill press I drill the holes in one scale, place a drop of Super Glue® on the flattened inside surface, and glue the two scales together. This ensures the scales will stay perfectly matched up as you drill your holes and do the rough shaping.
5) Profile the Scales
Profile the front of the scales while they are attached by the light glue bond.
Another important step is to profile the front of the scales while they are attached by the light glue bond. First, it is very difficult to clean up the front once it is attached to the blade without scuffing and scratching the blade. Second, it ensures that the faces of the scales will match up just like the holes do.
6) Pop them Apart
Place the edge of a blade on the seam between the scales. A light tap will pop them apart easily and you are ready to add any spacer material if so desired.
Once the holes are drilled and the rough shaping is complete, simply place the edge of your everyday carry blade on the seam between the scales. A light tap will pop them apart easily and you are ready to add any spacer material if so desired.
7) Trace, Cut and Glue
Trace the handle shape onto the spacer material, cut to rough shape and then glue to the inside of the scales.
Trace the handle shape onto the spacer material, cut to rough shape and then glue to the inside of the scales. Super Glue or epoxy is fine for this. Different materials will need different bonding agents. I use Super Glue here because the materials are very non-absorbent. If you choose antler or unstabilized wood, an epoxy is probably a better choice.
Once the material dries, clean up the edges and drill through to match the existing pin holes. A hand drill is fine for this as the holes in the scales will guide the bit.
8) Assembly
Now you’re ready for assembly. For pins the author uses two simple brass bolts. Use the pins themselves to clamp the scales in place by simply adding a nut and snugging it down after applying epoxy.
Now you’re ready for assembly. I’m going semi traditional and keeping the build simple. For pins I use two simple brass bolts. The advantage is I can use the pins themselves to clamp the scales in place by simple adding a nut and snugging it down after applying epoxy.
Also, the threads on the bolt help add an extra mechanical bond to the handle assembly.
Once you’ve checked the fit of the parts, give them a good spray with brake cleaner to be sure they are free of dirt and oil and to ensure a clean bonding surface.
9) Get the Pins Flush
Clean off the head of the bolt and then extra length of bolt body on the nut side, and your pins will be flush.
After the epoxy dries, take your angle grinder or whatever you have been using—a file or hacksaw will do as well—and clean off the head of the bolt and the extra length of bolt body on the nut side, and your pins will be flush. When doing this be sure to work slowly! Brass heats up very quickly and that can compromise the bond of the adhesive if you’re using power tools.
10) Clean and Shape
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You’re almost to the finish line. All that’s left is to clean up your handle and shape it to fit your hand. When you do this, again, take your time.
Once you remove any material, you can’t put it back. Go slowly and check the fit often till it fits like a glove, an extension of your hand.
Do some cutting and chopping with the knife—this will let you know what, where and how much material you need to remove.
Work through your sandpaper grits to whatever final finish you desire and voila! Your personal vision of knife perfection is in your hand.
I hope you enjoyed this journey of steel as much as I have. Now get out there and put that knife to work!
Pro-Tech’s new Chris Kyle Frog Collection is anchored by the Model 752, a spin on the Godson Tuxedo. The Chris Kyle “Legend” logo is lasered into the ivory Micarta inlays. Proceeds benefit the Chris Kyle Frog Foundation.
Stubby blades designed for the Golden State may also hold appeal for those elsewhere. That seems to be the thinking behind SOG’s discreet California Special, which could be described as an entry model for new collectors.
This series won’t hit shelves until May 1, but it’s worth keeping an eye out. This USA-made auto is slated to retail for $125.
Final specs aren’t available yet, but the series will offer S30V blades and four style options.
Benchmade Coalition® Family
The models in this series (or family) aren’t necessarily distinct variants. Instead, buyers can choose from plain or serrated edges, and satin or coated finishes. That makes for four possible combinations for this EDC auto.
The job of a scribe was to copy the text from an existing manuscript using a quill pen and an inkhorn. When they made mistakes, they had to scrape the ink off the page with a sharp knife, a painstaking job that could easily ruin a piece of parchment.
How well can a knife made out of wood perform? Pretty dang well.
This video details how a man in Japan, identified only by his YouTube channel Kiwami Japan, shaped a knife from a wooden blank using sandpaper and whetstones.
Here’s the video, featuring a few cutting tests:
The key is the lignum vitae wood the man used. It’s “the densest and hardest wood known,” according to the Forest Legality Initiative.
New Hollywood Steak Restaurant Will Feature Knives Made In-House
Adam Perry Lang gained renown for running a barbecue smoker outside the studio of Jimmy Kimmel Live in Los Angeles. Now, Lang is set to open a steak restaurant with something sharp on the menu: knives made by the chef himself.
Walking into Lang’s man-cave/test kitchen, the first thing you spot is the double-barreled smoker rig that Lang tows to various barbecue events. The next thing is the forge. Glowing at something like 2000 degrees, the renowned pitmaster heats a piece of vaguely knife-shaped raw steel until it glows bright orange, puts it on the anvil and gives it a dozen or so good thwonks with a mallet on the way to making a sharp edge. Making Damascus steel knives by hand is just one of his clutch of obsessions — and APL diners will be able to slice into their aged steaks with Lang’s own carefully-forged blades.
Knifemaker Turns Out Blades with 14-Year-Old Grandson
The Tribune-Review out of western Pennsylvania recently profiled a grandfather/grandson combo keeping the tradition of bladesmith alive. The article was originally about a heart attack the grandfather experienced, but to BLADE that’s second to the fact a multi-generational pair was pounding steel in the first place.
From the article:
After his heart attack, Eyth had three stents placed in his major coronary artery. But, he said, “It didn’t stop or slow me down much. They wanted me to take it easy for a month or two.”
The pace of production at Eyth’s forge has slowed some, mainly because his son doesn’t participate as much, he said. But his 14-year-old grandson, Joe, has stepped in to help fill the gap.
“We’re still turning out 120 to 130 knives in a year,” said Eyth, who puts some of his knives to use when he hunts deer.
Forged in Fire will go down as one of the most significant television programs to knife enthusiasm of all time. Here are eight things you may not know about the show, as sourced from BLADE interviews with contestants.
1) The Set is Hot
Despite the Forged in Fire staffs’ efforts to reduce the heat in studio, the combination of forges and overhead lighting for filming makes for piping-hot working conditions.
The forges are lined up four abreast so you are sandwiched between fires. The stage is fireproof, which means it’s vented to prevent asphyxiation, but not as you would vent a home forge, drawing heat up and away. This is where you see contestants collapsing. Add to that the heat and brightness of the lights needed to adequately film the show, and you’ve got an extremely hot environment.
2) Knifemakers Need Reminders to Drink Water
The staff is great about providing thermoses of water, but often the makers are driven and forget to drink.
3) Filming Isn’t Like a Casual Hammer-In
Everyone who appears on Forged in Fire undergoes a telephone interview, a Skype interview and a background check. The participants are flown to New York City and set up in a hotel. The filming takes place in a studio in Brooklyn.
One knifemaker thought it would be cool to hang out after the show, “light a fire and make stuff,” but due to insurance liabilities there was no resemblance to a relaxed hammer-in.
4) It’s a Competition With Yourself, Not Others
One knifemaker who appeared on the show told BLADE there is no backstabbing, no negative talk about other smiths. It is very stressful, but it’s about doing your personal best and reflecting well on the industry.
5) Knifemakers Have to Speak in Present Tense
To a man, each bladesmith found filming the interviews a long, challenging process. Those need to be conducted in the present tense, which is hard to remember when you’re talking about something that’s already past.
6) The Show Format Changes Based on Knifemaker Feedback
Although knifemaker JW Randall was contacted early on to be on the show, he didn’t like how it seemed to take advantage of people and their situations. Randall caught up with Forged in Fire judge J. Neilson and expressed how off putting the original format was to him. The show evolved.
7) Not Every Knifemaker Jumps on the Chance to be on TV
Mace Vitale (featured in the latter half of the video above) of Vitale Knives in New Haven, Connecticut, received an email invitation to interview for selection on Forged in Fire. A batch of emails had been sent to noted smiths in the industry.
“We were all talking about it,” Vitale said of the reaction within the bladesmithing community.
Some thought it was going to be the ruin of the craft ; others saw the potential. Vitale passed but then changed his mind.
“I didn’t care about being on TV,” he said. He wasn’t concerned about promoting his knives or his business. He decided to try it because it was a personal challenge. He wanted to know if he could compete with his experience and skill set and beat the competition.
8) The Twists in the Show are Surprises to the Knifemakers, too
In episode eight of season one, Vitale and his competitors were told to pick what they wanted off “a table of junk.” There were shovels and hoes, mid-carbon steel; horseshoes and railroad spikes, no carbon steel; and ball bearings, most likely 52100.
This is where experience came into play. Vitale grabbed some ball bearings and began making a 9- to 12-inch knife that would have to survive a coconut chop and another sharpness test, which turned out to be cutting a reinforced sand bag, though the contestants didn’t know it at the time.
Get Started in Knifemaking for $50
If Forged in Fire gave you the itch to try making a knife, start with Wayne Goddard’s classic knifemaking book, $50 Knife Shop.
BLADEShow.com is ready to rock ‘n’ roll with online ticket purchases, exhibitor information, travel arrangements, schedules, and more. BLADE Show 2018 takes place June 1 to 3 in Atlanta, Georgia, but you don’t want to wait. The earlier you lock in, the better.
Facebook’s new policy for Pages, effective now, means it will be even more challenging for knifemakers, companies, enthusiasts and websites to reach their audiences on the site. From a Facebook blog post:
Because space in News Feed is limited, showing more posts from friends and family and updates that spark conversation means we’ll show less public content, including videos and other posts from publishers or businesses.
As we make these updates, Pages may see their reach, video watch time and referral traffic decrease. The impact will vary from Page to Page, driven by factors including the type of content they produce and how people interact with it. Pages making posts that people generally don’t react to or comment on could see the biggest decreases in distribution. Pages whose posts prompt conversations between friends will see less of an effect.
Basically, this means Facebook users will see fewer posts from the Pages they Like in their newsfeeds. Unless the Page pays for an ad, of course.
But that isn’t an option for knife-centric pages. Facebook will refuse ads that feature “weapons,” and that includes legal knives from legitimate organizations. It doesn’t matter if the Page sells knives or not, or if the ad’s content is tame. If there’s a knife in it, Facebook will refuse the ad.
So what are the alternatives?
The only option here is to look elsewhere to spend ad dollars and grow audiences (follow BLADE on Twitter here). Maintain those existing Facebook Pages, because the rules could change later, but focus on building followers on other platforms.
Renowned knifemaker Todd Begg recently made the move from California to Texas, which kicked off a profile by The Dallas Morning News. He talks about how BLADE magazine sparked his knifemaking career in this video:
Begg briefly mentions the controversy with the use of his name to sell knives, something the knife community has been watching closely, but the majority of the article focuses on his craft.
It’s legal to carry most knives in Texas since restrictions relaxed last September, but that doesn’t go for trench knives. From the Dallas Observer:
It’s a lesson local construction worker Christopher Sparks learned when he was arrested over the weekend for possession of prohibited weapon. A Royse City police officer told him that he was under arrest for having brass knuckles, a Class A misdemeanor, and took him to the Rockwall County Jail.
Now Sparks is facing a fine of up to $4,000 and up to a year in jail. He’ll also have a permanent criminal record attached to his name, making it harder to find work and places to live, unless he pays an attorney to have his record expunged.
“I was just trying to get home from work,” Sparks says.
This is a perfect example of how nuance in knife laws creates more problems than solutions. Were Sparks in possession of a dagger instead of a trench knife, he wouldn’t be looking at a four grand tab and a year in the cooler.
FEB. 2-4 LAKELAND, FL
The 40th Annual Gator Cutlery Club Knife Show
Lakeland Center. Call Dan Piergallini 813-754-3908 or 813-967-1471.
FEB. 10 WYOMING, MI
West Michigan Edge Show, the K of C Hall. Call Mike 616-322-5846.
FEB. 17 HONOLULU, HI
Hawaii Custom Knife & Tactical Show
Pomaikai Ballrooms at Dole Cannery. Contact JSM Cutlery LLC, Dept. BKG18, POB 1290, Aiea, HI 96701 872-356-2953 [email protected].
FEB. 17 LITTLE ROCK, AR
The Arkansas Knife Show
Statehouse Convention Center. Call 870-279-7329 arknife.com.
FEB. 24 OZARK, MO
The 21st Annual Spring Cabin Fever Knife Show, 4-H Building, City Park. Call Don Long 417-485-6759.
FEB. 24-25 LEWISBURG, PA
Keystone Blade Association Annual Knife Show
Country Cupboard Inn. Contact Marlyn Kepner 570-584-4835 [email protected] or Skip Fryling 570-204-1544 [email protected].
MARCH 2-3 TROY, OH
Spirit of the Blade Custom Knife Show
Miami County Fairgrounds. Call Joel Worley 937-638-9518 or visit [email protected].
MARCH 2-4 DALTON, GA
The Knife Road Show
Northwest Georgia Trade Center. Contact Spirit of Steel Promotions 423-238-6753 [email protected], jbrucevoyles.com.
MARCH 3-4 NEW BRAUNFELS, TX
Guadalupe Forge Winter Hammer-In & Knifemakers Rendezvous.
Contact Johnny Stout 830-606-4067 [email protected] and/or Harvey Dean 512-446-3111 [email protected].
MARCH 3-4 PASADENA, CA
The 33rd Annual Knife Expo 2018 presented by the Southern California Blades Knife Collectors Club
Pasadena Convention Center. Call Helen 619-417-4329 knifeexpo.net.
MARCH 9-12 NURNBERG, GERMANY
The IWA Outdoor Classics 2018.
For trade visitors only. Contact NurnbergMesse North America Inc. +1.770.618.5842 [email protected].
MARCH 16-17 FORT LAUDERDALE, FL
East Coast Custom Knife Show
Westin Fort Lauderdale Beach Resort. Contact 417-866-6688 [email protected] or visit fiftyfiftyproductions.net or ecckshow.com.
MARCH 23-24 HAMPTONVILLE, NC
The 43rd Annual Tar Heel Cutlery Club Show
Yadkin VFW Building. Call Chris Groce 336-679-8817 [email protected].
MARCH 23-25 JANESVILLE, WI
The 2018 Badger Knife Club Knife Show
Janesville Conference Center/Holiday Inn Express. Contact Bob Schrap 414-479-9765 Badgerknifeclub@ aol.com.
MARCH 30-APRIL 1 HARRISONBURG, VA
The 27th Annual Greater Shenandoah Valley Knife Show
Rockingham County Fairgrounds. Call Ralph 540-828-0778 svkc.org.
