Blade – September 2019

SEPTEMBER 2019 blademag.com 13

A

fter allthe tents pitchedby
thosewaitinghoursif notdaysto
get in hadbeen removed, scads
ofknivesboughtandsold,BLADEUni-
versityclassesandfreedemosconcluded,
awardspresented,exhibitsdismantledand
therecordcrowdofover11,000dispersed,
thequestionremained:WhatsetBLADE
Show 2019 apartfrompastrenditionsof
theworld’sbiggest,mostmomentousknife
happening?
ShowveteranMikeCrenshawcitedthe
continuedincreaseininternationalknife
companiesanda surgeinyoungerknife
buyers. “The market has been getting
youngerduetotheverystronginfluence
oft heInterneta ndsocia lmedia,sot here’s
an obvious shift,” he obser ved. “There
werea lotofpeoplewhohadneverheard
ofthe BLADEShowbefore untilsocial
media and Internet ‘buzz’ made them
aware. Theythought theywerecoming
toa largegunshoworfleamarketand
hadtheirmindsblown. [Some people]
wereshockedat whattheywereseeing.
[Comments included] ‘Too much to

takein’and‘I hadnoideawhatyouwere

talking about.’ The industry is shifting

andcollectorsareshifting.”

“It seems that every year we have

increasingly larger numbersof younger

people,” observed Mike Vellekamp of

Vnives. AccordingtoABSmastersmith

Brion Tomberlin, there “were definitely

more younger attendees and more

attendeesinterestedinbushcraft, survival

and tactical-style knives.” Fellow ABS

mastersmithDavidLischagreed.“Itdid

seemliketherewasa lot ofnewblood

intheroom.Mostofthemwanttobea

knifemaker.ThatwasthethingI would

sayI noticedmost,thata lotof young

folks,verynicefolks,camebytosayhi

andmeetme,asthey hadseenmyknives

onlineandjustwantedtomeetmeand

lookatmylatestknife.”Bothmaster

smithsagreedthattheForgedinFireeffect

continuesto play a factorinthe youth

movementaswell.AddedCrenshaw,“A

lotofinterestinforgedkniveshasgrown

fromForgedinFirewhilerealknowledge

hasn’t,soI sawmoreforgedinterest—but

I alsosawmoreforgedbladesthatnoone

wouldhavebroughtto[theshowinthe

past]becauseoftheinferiorwork.”

The continuedinternationalinfluxwas

undeniable.

“I think we had a good number of

international visitors, certainly more

internationalvendors than I havebeen

aware of in prior years,” noted Duane

WeikumofEDCKnives.“The guysfrom

BOYE REDUX Terrain 365 has a proprietary dendritic-

cobalt “super alloy” it calls Terrravantium™ and uses

it on the Invictus-AT folder. According to Terrain 365,

the material is “100 percent rust proof, non-magnetic,

requires no heat treating and will hold an edge longer

than virtually any blade steel and stainless steel

alloys.” (Terrain 365 image)