If the third time really is the charm, then BLADE Show 2023 is smack dab in the middle of charm’s way.
Why? Because it’s the third BLADE Show after the one that was cancelled in 2020 as a result of the pandemic, and most all travel restrictions instituted even as late as last year’s BLADE Show have been lifted. That means a full return of international knife exhibitors and fans in addition to all those domestic are expected to make the 42nd annual rendition of the world’s most important knife event the biggest and best ever.
Sponsored by Smoky Mountain Knife Works, the BLADE Show is where more knives—new, old, custom, factory, etc.—are exhibited, bought and sold than at any other knife event. Almost 930 exhibitors* from every continent but Antarctica were scheduled to exhibit at press time, all bringing their latest and greatest knives and other edged tools, accessories, knifemaking supplies and more. Factory and custom knives, sharpeners, knife collections, knife purveyors and other cutlery entities too numerous to mention will showcase their wares as the world knife community makes the yearly pilgrimage to the Cobb Galleria Centre.
The latest, hottest custom knives, factory knife debuts (page Awards, the custom knife judging competition and the knife collection display judging competition are others. The ABS Knife Auction (page 26), formal inductions of the latest members of the BLADE Magazine Cutlery Hall Of Fame, and some of the best knives the ABS and the Knifemakers’ Guild and unaffiliated makers in general have to offer are still others.
