The January meeting of the NCCKG was full of good news, bad news, and fun for all. There was a good number of members attending today.
http://www.poythresscustomknives.com/images/NC Guild/gathering.jpg

The day started with the General Business meeting of the Guild. We had some sad news given to us. There will be no SouthEastern Custom Knife Show this year. Andrew McLurkin, Show Promotor, hated to bring the news to the Guild but due to various reason, it just was not going to come together to be the great show that we all had become accustomed to. Many members were disappointed to see this happen with the show.

But, as I said, bad news/good news. There are several folks in North Carolina that would like to see the great heritage begun by Tommy McNabb, and supported by our Guild continue. This translates into the fact that at this time 3 different groups/individuals are exploring the possibility of keeping a custom knifemakers show in North Carolina. Each group/individual is at different stages in the planning of putting a custom knife show together so no specific details can be given out yet but expect to see more here on this forum in the future.

The NCCKG and it's Board of Directors are very excited about the possibility of working closely with these folks. The primary purpose of the NCCKG is to promote the craft of custom knifemaking and to educate the public about our craft. We also are very committed to providing opportunties for the knifemakers to have a venue to show their work. We may not be able, this year, to do this on the scale we have assisted with in the past but be assured, we are not abandoning our purpose.

The next order of the day was one of our "primary education" events, the demos that have made our meetings a multi-state event with people coming from NC, Virginia, and Georgia. The first demo was John Poythress. John showed those present his technique in laying out and then filing the spiral fluting shown on his daggers.
http://www.poythresscustomknives.com/images/NC Guild/John.jpg
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Barry Jones and Travis Daniel are quite impressed with the finished product of John's work.

And how can you have a good knife meeting without Pop showing up with supplies.
http://www.poythresscustomknives.com/images/NC Guild/pop.jpg

Next, Andrew showed us how he manages to get those great photographs of his knives.
http://www.poythresscustomknives.com/images/NC Guild/photography.jpg

To round out the day, Barry and Phillip Jones showed us how they do their flat grinding. These guys may be twins but that does not mean that they do everything the same.
http://www.poythresscustomknives.com/images/NC Guild/Barry.jpg
(Barry)
http://www.poythresscustomknives.com/images/NC Guild/Philip.jpg
http://www.poythresscustomknives.com/images/NC Guild/Philip1.jpg

Many times things crowd in on our lives and making meetings may be hard--especially with the 6 hour drive we make for these. Bbut each time John and I both come away from these meetings bringing home much more than we went with--the genuine friendships we have developed with you guys and the fellowship of having time with you energize us and encourage us, and John always learns so much from the demos and talking with other knifemakers. And this time, I came away with quite a bit of info on photography. (Thanks Andrew and all of you who tried to help me understand the abstracts that makes for taking a good picture!!).