Collecting Award-Winning Knives

[Buddy Thomason]

Although it might be a narrow slice of the pie, I thought it would be interesting to focus some energy on knives that have won awards at shows. It's been very educational since it involves the opinions of judges as well as my own. We collectors aren't usually privy to the judging process. All we know is which knife was 'the best' in its category. So it's hard to know what a given award really means. For example, there would naturally be a huge difference between 'best of two entries at last month's knife swap down at Ray's Bible & Tire' and 'best in show at the Art Knife Invitational.' Despite all of the uncertanties involved I still thought I'd give it a try. Since this is certainly not a new idea I'm hoping other collectors out there will contribute. I'll kick it off.



This (the larger one) folder by Koji Hara won Best Art Knife and Best In Show at the SouthEastern Custom Knife Show last month. The little one is in a similar style and I brought it home for 'my attractive wife' - sort of a dumb-guy smoke and mirrors diversion. "Honey, look what I brought you!" "Yeah, I got a couple of other minor things but don't you think this little one is really cool?"

Anyway, bring on those award winning blades for all to admire, add as much in the way of detail and discussion as you like and let's have a little fun with this.

[Jason G Howell]

Nice! Good snag Buddy.

[Buddy Thomason]

Thanks Jason! OK, here's another one. This a scan of a Point 7 photo. Bill Sowell is responsible for this black beauty. It won the "Best Bowie Knife by an ABS Journeyman Smith" and was presented by the American Bowie Knife Association at the BLADE Show in Atlanta this past June. Incidentally, Bill has won this award two years in a row. The idea, as I understand it, is for the maker to create a knife that, while not necessarily a copy of an historical piece, is none-the-less historically accurate. Because of this parameter there is some real thought and research required. So, the maker must venture outside of their usual style and methodology - push the envelope as it were. For example, Bill told me this was his first attempt at a checkered handle. The throat and tip on the sheath were also significant challenges, per Bill.

[Mark Williams]

Beautiful knives Buddy,

But your new avatar scares me

[RogerP]

Gorgeous knives Buddy! Here's one from the category of "not fancy, just super-clean" - ironwood bowie by Brett Gatlin (Hoffman Photo):



I had ordered this knife from Brett for delivery at the recent Spirit of Steel show. I looked it over on Friday and was extrememely pleased with it. I was going to have the knife shipped out to me after the show (thanks, Les) so I told Brett to keep it on his table until then. I will always remember the look on his face when he strolled up to me on the following Saturday afternoon to let me know that my, I mean, his knife had won the Best Bowie award.

Cheers,

Roger

[Buddy Thomason]

Roger, I saw that beauty by Mr. Gatlin in your excellent Spirit of Steel Show review and hoped you'd post it in this thread as well. Excellent Bowie and I bet there was a lot of competition in that category, especially at the SOS Show!

Here's a large Mediterranean Bowie by John Perry that apparently very narrowly missed getting the George Peck Award for best knife submitted by a newly qualified ABS Journeyman Smith at BLADE in '02. I saw it there on John's table and dreamt about it that night, something that's only happened to me a couple of times. I guess I consider it a "winner" in that it was selected to be featured as the centerpiece for the new KNIVES 2005 which should be available any day now. Here's the cover of the annual and a couple of pics I hastily snagged before shipping it out to the Arkansas Historic Museum where it was accepted for display as part of their awesome Bowie knife exhibit. Despite not being a show winner per se, it has been recognized and awarded notable distinction in the knife world.





KNIVES 2005 can be ordered from KnifeWorld: http://www.knifeworld.com/knives2005.html

[RogerP]

The Mediterranean Bowie is one of my very favorite styles and that example by John Perry is truly outstanding. The handle looks like the work of a skilled jeweller. Great stuff!

Roger

[Jerry Oksman]

Does the last page of Blade count?

[Buddy Thomason]

Heck yeah, it counts! I should've made the subject of this thread "Blades of Distinction" instead of "Award Winning Knives" because that's closer to what I was thinking about - meaning blades that have earned distinction in the bigger picture.
Jerry, I remember what a splash your Larry Harley exotic 'Art Razor' made. What a beauty and what a distinctive piece of creative inspiration! In fact, I thought it did win some sort of award somewhere. Well if it didn't - it should have!
Here's a picture of something I mentioned in a thread a while back. This is the Jim Crowell cutter with which he won the First Annual ABS World Championship Cutting Competition in Atlanta at the BLADE Show in 2003. Jim re-handled it and made a nice sheath for it. Camillus approached Jim with a proposition to copy the knife and offer it as the first in a series of limited-edition production knives based on each annual winner of this competition. (Reggie Barker's winning knife from this year will be the second.) Well, Jim very kindly offrered me not only his championship knife, but one of the first (as soon as they are ready) numbered Camillus versions as well - as a companion piece! How cool is that? Here's the image:

[Jerry Oksman]

Buddy,

You scored with that last one. Beautiful piece! Is it going to be part of OVB (Our Very Best) the Camillus line that started (restarted actually) with Jerry Fisk's Bowie?

[Buddy Thomason]

Jerry,
I'm not sure it's the OVB series per se. I'm thinking that they're starting a second OVB type series devoted exclusively to ABS World Championship cutting competition knives. I remember when Jim Crowell took me over to meet the Camillus folks during the BLADE Show last June, they indicated that Reggie Barker's knife (he'd just won the championship that weekend in Atlanta) would be the second in the series. I should be hearing from Jim soon concerning delivery of the Camillus version of his knife and I'll ask him if he can clarify.
I really need to re-do that picture! The blade is not that dark. It was a lighting issue combined with my trying to do a late-night rush job just to get the post up. I should've taken the time to do it right! Even so, it is such a great knife. I'm dying to do some chopping and cutting with it myself but of course that would be a pretty dumb thing to do! I'm sure you wouldn't shave with Larry Harley's "Wootz Razor" - or would you? Tell you what; you shave with that razor and I'll do some cutting with Crowell's knife. Deal?
BT

[Jerry Oksman]

OK, deal! you have no idea how sharp that razor is, on the other hand I use an electric daily , so maybe I should not agree so soon

[RogerP]

That Crowell is a terrific knife with exceptional provenance. I had a chat with John Fitch at the recent SOS show and inquired as to why more makers didn't sell their competition knives - particularly the ones with which they had competed successfully. John said he ends up giving away a lot of his competition knives ot family members. Must be nice to be related to Big John. For me, a knife that had "won" a cutting competition would be at least as appealing as one which received an award, and more so than one featured in a magazine.

Cheers,

Roger

[JossDelage]

That John Perry bowie is amazing.