I attended G7 last year for about 2 hours. In that time I entered 1 lottery (Peter Carey) and I was the first number drawn which gave me the opportunity to buy the most amazing knife I've ever owned..a Zirc bolstered CF and Ti Cayman XL!
After that unbelievably lucky experience, plus getting to meet guys like Peter Carey, Gayle Bradley and Travis Wuertz I was hooked! This year I planned to soak it ALL in! I booked my room and cleared my schedule for the entire time. I was at G8 from open to close both days and WOW I'm glad I was there!
For those that have never heard of The Gathering, it's a knife show put on by the USN forum that has a very friendly and casual atmosphere. It's a great place to meet some of the greatest knife makers in at atmosphere where they will sit and talk with you for while. There were 9 "stage" lotteries were you can enter a ticket into a drawing and if your number is drawn you get to purchase that maker's knife for the "lottery price", which is the lowest you'll ever see these knives priced. Not to mention, there are hundreds of people that are ready to buy each lottery knife, so getting the opportunity to buy one at all is lucky in itself. Plus, a lot of makers do "beep-beep" lotteries where you can enter at their table and they will text you if you win. I entered all of the stage lotteries plus a bunch of beep-beeps.
The crowd facing the lottery stage. :cool:
In addition to the exciting lotteries, the show is a friendly gathering of knife enthusiasts, knife makers, and accessory makers. I had the wonderful pleasure of talking with Gayle Bradley and Peter Carey among others last year. This year was no exception :D . I talked with "old friends" and met new ones too. My old buddy :p "Pete C" actually remembered me and spent quite a while talking with me again. Unfortunately lightning didn't strike me twice....so no custom Carey blade for me this year
. The Careyblade offering was spectacular once again. Here's some horribly out of focus pics of his gorgeous knives...sorry about the pics.. :o Gordo...cough, cough...future spyderco please... :D
He brought 2 "open bid" knives that were SPECTACULAR!
This one's beauty completely overloaded my camera...sorry :o
This one is the subject of my dreams at night.... :D
I got to meet a lot of great makers and great people. I found Jonathan McNees and his wife to be a couple of my favorite people I've met so far! Jonathan was very encouraging regarding my desire to become a knife maker and he helped me with an issue I was having making clean grinds on an inside radius among other very helpful business advise. It's this kind of friendliness that is prevalent throughout the show. In fact, my favorite thing I am taking away from this year's show is my new friendship with Jonathan McNees.
I was extremely lucky and won the Beep-beep lottery at the McNees table and left with this amazing Ti and copper McNees Dixon with a carbon steel blade. I am a sucker for a good Hamon line... :cool: so I felt lucky once again!!
There were lots of big name makers there ready to talk...Aside from those I've already mentioned, I met Rick Hinderer, Todd Rexford, Michael Burch, Derrick Munroe, Jeremy Marsh, Gerry McGinnis, Brad Southard, some guy named Bob :D ..Yes..there were knife legends just roaming around.. :p
I met Chad Nichols and talked with him about making his billets as well as about building his shop up and he gave me advise on tools for my shop :D .
There were tons of accessories and great deals being offered too. I won a cool cobalt bead from Starlingear, who did an unbelievably generous giveaway raffle both days! There were all sorts of fun things to check out and Travis Weurtz even had his amazing grinder running and available to use if needed.
The USN crew is also a generous group that likes to encourage kindness. Those of you that are getting to know me probably know I like to see people showing kindness :) . As I walked through the show a USN "admin" stopped me to give me these dates, as a randomly friendly gesture. That's the kind of act that really impresses me and adds greatly to my appreciation for the USN group.
As well, Unbeknownst to be, someone "tagged" me with a cool patch for my pack without me knowing it until I looked at my pack hours later. Good people were everywhere!
and....the highlight of the show for me....wait for it....
The Spyder crew :spyder: :spyder: :spyder: !
I finally got to meet Eric Glesser! After enjoying my time talking with Sal and Gail in the past I have been looking forward to meeting Eric and finally had that opportunity at G8. Eric was great to talk with! We talked about some of the upcoming knives and he told me about some great stuff that's coming from Spyderco in the near future!! I got to hear about plans for the eagerly awaited lil Nilakka! I heard about exciting upcoming Maxamet offering(S)! As usual, talking with a Glesser is a reward in itself! Eric also gave me a bunch of Spyderco stickers and some pins :spyder: :D :spyder: . Thank you for your time and generosity Eric!!
Eric wasn't alone though....not hardly! In fact, we all know the "REAL" work :p is done by the 2 fantastic ladies that ran the booth with Eric. Rebecca and Joyce were there all day, both days working the booth too. Wow, did they have their hands full! Answering non-stop questions, keeping an eye on every knife that is picked up, and trying to keep the "prototype" table from being photographed is a serious juggling act that requires skill and patience. Speaking of patience...Rebecca showed remarkable patience with me while I picked up and fondled almost every knife on the prototype table. It took a long time and I would have understood if she had lost patience but she was truly gracious and allowed me to inspect everything closely while remaining kind and courteous! Thank you Rebecca! It was a genuine pleasure meeting you!!
The first few times I stopped by the booth Joyce was busy with other customers. I finally got to meet Joyce on the second day and she too was a pleasure to talk with. Joyce handles the catalog and marketing materials for Spyderco. She spent time with me discussing the catalog and the annual supplement and she shared stories about Sal and Gail..which are always fun to hear! Like many people I've met at Spyderco, Joyce showed a deep knowledge of Spyderco and a passion for the great company the great owners that I too admire so much.
I would point out that not every big knife company comes to The Gathering. There are companies that most of us would consider quite analogous to Spyderco that don't show up. Spyderco doesn't sell a lot of knives at this show. They show up to be a part of our community and to make friends, in person, like real people. For example, I met Eric Friday and after that, each of the 3 times I walked by him outside of the show over the weekend he made a point to say hello. I LOVE the fact that being real people and understanding their customers are real people is important to Spyderco. Thank you to Rebecca, Joyce and Eric for being so welcoming and for giving me the opportunity to remain immersed in Spyderco while I visited G8. You 3 were truly a highlight of the show for me! :D :spyder: :spyder: :spyder: :D
Of course they had a table of current knives...
And they had a table of prototypes....can't take pictures of that table..Darn it!! :p I spent a lot of time checking out the prototype table closely. The PM3 was awesome! The Lil' Nilakka was fantastic! I finally got to hold, open, close...fondle :p ...a Reinhold Rhino! I can tell you that holding a Rhino made me want one even more than I already did!! It's OK if you're jealous...it's a natural feeling :p
. There were sooooo many knives I hope they'll make..but no matter what they go with, I know we've got great knives coming in our future!!I had made this handle for a Maxamet Mule in USN style colors just prior to the show. I kinda' hate that it makes me sound like a "fanboy" for admitting this, but the fact that Eric held this handle that I made and said complimentary things is really cool to me and makes me like the handle even more :o :) . Thank you Eric!
I left my 2 days at the show with a head full of new information, a mind full of new friendships and a bunch of SWAG too (including a slice of tactical bacon!)!!
Knives, accessories and SWAG aside...I'm already looking forward to next year's show just to get back and talk with this great group of people again! I hope to see all of you there with me at G9 next year!!
On Sunday I got a chance to get back to my other favorite activity and headed out into the Nevada desert for some exploring! If any of you attend the show next year and you like to hike, hit me up, I'll show you some hidden gems of cool shaded beauty in what you might otherwise think is a hot flat landscape. :cool: :D :cool:
Best regards!
Chad
