BLADE Magazine

The BLADE Show‘s new exhibitor layout is designed to improve the overall show experience for the thousands of patrons who will attend and the close to 750 exhibitors who will display the industry’s finest knives and knife accessories.

The world’s largest knife show is set for June 6-8 at the Cobb Galleria Centre in Atlanta.

In the past, the rows of exhibitor tables were dissected by lines of factory booths in some areas, making it somewhat difficult to pick up where you left off from the previous table row. It also presented a somewhat choppy look to the overall setup.

When you walk into the show hall this coming June, a new layout will greet you. Instead of being dissected in some areas by lines of factory booths, the exhibitor tables will be in the right-hand portion of the show hall and most of the factory booths will be in the left-hand portion. There will be no lines of factory booths dissecting the rows of tables. As in the past, there also will be factory booths along the walls of the entire hall. According to one exhibitor, the change should make it so show patrons are not so overwhelmed by the visual challenge of negotiating the large number of exhibitor tables and booths.

As a consequence of the changes, the booths have been renumbered from last year.

Looking from right to left, exhibitors’ tables will be divided in the usual fashion: Antique, American Bladesmith Society, the Knifemakers’ Guild and Handmade. The collector displays will continue to be in the right-hand back portion of the show hall. The Stage and Demo Areas will be in the back center of the hall. The Knife-Of-The-Year® Display will be in the middle of the floor starting where the booths are.

For the latest knives, knife news, trends and more, stay tuned to blademag.com.

The federal ivory ban, the 12th Annual BLADE Show World Championship Cutting Competition, how to make a cut ‘n shoot and much more will highlight the free seminars of the 33rd Annual BLADE Show June 6-8 at the Cobb Galleria Centre in Atlanta.

The seminars are free to all BLADE Show ticket holders only.

Knifemaker Jim Hammond has made knives with assorted ivory handle materials for decades, and Sandra Brady has scrimmed ivory handles for many years as well. She also has been on the front lines of the debate over the federal ivory ban. Both will discuss the ban, its effect on knives, how to identify the many different ivories and much more in their free seminar, “Ivory: Past, Present and Future.”

Knifemaker Dan Keffeler will return to defend his title in the 12th Annual BLADE Show World Championship Cutting Competition, conducted by BladeSports International (BSI). Others who will participate in the competition that pits big cutters in such regimens as the 2-inch free-hanging rope cut, 2×4 chop and more will include past champion Ted Ott, BSI Executive Director Donavon Phillips, Jim Cottingham and others.

ABS master smith Steve Culver won “Best of the Rest” in the 2013 BLADE Show’s custom knife judging competition with his “Laffite’s Revenge” cut ‘n shoot knife/pistol—which also will serve as the cover knife for the July BLADE® (on many newsstands beginning April 22)—and will show you how he made it in his special seminar. Other free seminar topics will include: Sharpening On a Stick, with knifemaker Jared Williams; How To Use Bushcraft Knives, with knife writer/designer Abe Elias; Surviving Inside the Kill Zone, with  knifemaker Ernest Emerson; Tactical & Handforged Knives: What To Look For, with purveyor Les Robertson; Estate Planning and Your Knife Collection, with BLADE Magazine Cutlery Hall-Of-Fame© member Bruce Voyles; and much more.

For the latest knives, knife news, trends and more, stay tuned to www.blademag.com.