How was Vegas? Tell us!

[rhrocker]

Most of us didn't get to go, so we're anxious for some first hand reports, and PICTURES

[SKIVIE]

Robert my Friend.......It was Awesome ! It was great to meet a lot of the guys from here and to actually hold their work in hand. My Jaw was dragging on the floor the whole day, drooling like crazy.

Heres just a quick overview of my thoughts as I walked through....

Raymond Richard, INCREDIBLE work. His Knives and Hawks are exactly what I expected. Awesome !
David Johansen, Best New Maker. His work is coming along awesome.
Sean O'Hare, Wonderfull work but Bad luck with Customs. Awfull Nice guy too.
Dave, His Folders are insane. They are just gorgeous. I got to talk to him and his wife for a while and had a great time. Great friendship found.

Then theres the guys like Buster Worenski (sp), Johnny Stout, RJ Martin, They were all a great bunch to talk to and to admire their work. RJ was an great individual to talk to.....Made you feel like he's known you for years.

Got to watch Terrril Hoffman take pictures with his NICE new Camera that he purchased in Vegas due to some bad luck. He tells me I have hope. hehe

Missed Coop, Steve johnson and a few others.

Jaye Fisher was a joy to chat with and has some beautifull work.

I know ive missed some people but theres was just too many to remember. I will post a couple pictures I got. Its amazing just how many talented makers there are out there. I left the place very humbled and excited to get back in the shop.

Heres a couple photos.

Raymond and his Incredible spred


RJ Martin


David Johansen luring in the customers


Johnny Stout

[rhrocker]

Wha...? These people don't look anything like what they sound like on the monitor! Shane, great report, I wish I could have been there. Were the sales brisk, or slow? Attendance pretty good? Since this was in conjunction with the firearms show, I was hoping that the guys would have really good sales and attendance.

[Don Cowles]

Traffic was extremely slow for those of us at the back of the room. I think (just my opinion) having the knives and guns at the same time is good for the promoter, but not for the knifemakers.

Great to see many of you there- Shane, sorry I missed you!

[SharpByCoop]

Shane, thanks for the images!

I missed you as well, but caught up with a bunch of others. I agree about Raymond Richard's work.

I also agree with Don about the room placement and adjoining show. I went up and down each aisle gladhanding just about everyone and peeking in at work. By the time I got to the last 3 rows I simply had no energy. That's a bummer to be back there.

The Gun portion of the room was three times the size, at least! I only peeked in there.

I have a number of images to process from the tactical show and a couple of others.

I roomed with Thomas Haslinger and Kirby Lambert--both from Canada. Greg Lightfoot spent an hour up in the room chatting as well. We had a great time, and I captured a couple of Thomas' knives to show.

Terrill Hoffman and I spent a bit of time together, and he was doing a fantastic job with his work--and doing it quickly. I applaud his sharing and his professional work. Very inspiring!

Thanks again.

Coop

[Raymond Richard]

Shane, Thanks for the kind words! It was a great pleasure getting to meet a number of people that I have been able to touch base with on the forums. As for the show it self there were a number of disappointments but then again nothing turns out to be what you are wanting or expecting. I really think having a GPS would have been a big plus to find your way around the hotels and especially in the Mandalay Bay. I felt really releived after 30 to 45 minutes of pulling my load of knives and tomahawks around the Mandalay Bay I finally located the show. As far as sales go for myself they were none to be had on Friday. Saturday was better and I did pay for expensises. Sunday was normal for any show I've done. Just down right slow. I didn't follow the croud and I left everything out untill the very end of the show and it paid off. My only sale of the day came right at quiting time and was a high ticket item but I still don't think I'll be back to do this show. I found Las Vegas overwhelming. Sunday morning I got on the wrong bus thinking it was the one doing the shuttle to the knife show and ended up taking a tour of Las Vegas and I found out where the Shot Show was......

[DiamondG Knives]

Man! Sounds like a good time was had by all!!!

Ive never been to Vegas, but as Ray mentioned, I hear it can be a bit overwhelming.

Im going to be at the Arkansas Show in Feb, hope to see some folks there! Anyone from here planning on attending??

Glad all had an overall good time, Shane, thanks for the pictures!!


God Bless
Mike

[Dave Kelly]

Robert, I think you would've really liked the show. It was great to finally meet some fellow forum members. Spent some time with David Johansen and his beautiful knives, very nice guy. Met Shane and his lovely wife and I saw that he couldn't convince her to wear the sick t-shirt, very nice couple but I was hoping to see one of his knives Spent time with A.T. Barr and John Frapps wow, I learned so much in such a short amount of time, they were both so willing to share information. Spent time with Weldon Whitley, very nice guy and I bought a file working vice from him that's seen in Dwayne Dushane's video, looking forward to trying it out. Talked with Johnny Stout and his wife, very nice people. Johnny's wife was doing some beautiful scimshaw and talked with my wife for quite a while. Met Steve Johnson and he gave me some encouraging words on my folders. I met Coop and he took some great pics of one of my folders, very nice and very talented guy. It was a shame about Sean O'hare's customs problem but I did see a couple of his beauties. There were so many talented makers there and I'm sure I'm forgetting someone. I missed seeing some other forum members that I wanted to meet but was not having a good health weekend so my time was cut short, we intended to go back Sunday to make some purchases (especially one of Raymond Richards beautiful knives) and my wife wanted one of David Johanson's small knives but had to leave early, maybe next time.

In my opinion, I didn't like the layout of the room. To me it didn't have a good flow and I noticed a lot of makers were being passed by because of it. I'm not sure that I would go back next year, hopefully it will improve.

Dave

[Dusty Moulton]

Thought you might like a bit of perspective from a veteran of ten years of attending the old Las Vegas Classic. On a scale of 1 to 10 Vegas was always no less than an 8 for me as far as sales & enjoyment goes. It was generally one of my best selling shows each year. The new show is no higher than a 4 at best.
Sales were down, although we finally did pretty well by Sunday afternoon.
It is exactly what I feared. The new owner just wants lots of tables and doesn't care much about us as Knife makers, at least not that I could see. It is no more than a Gun Show with a bunch of knifemakers partitioned off by them selves. But still in the same room with the Gun Show. There were none of the usual amenities usually associated with a quality knife show, such as knife competitions for best of show, best hunter, folder, etc. Absolutely nothing at all going on for us as table holders from the new owner.
The main reason for poorer than usual sales, is that it went from 105 tables to 200 tables. Even with my poor math skills, I know that doubling the amount of makers with out bring in substantially more buyers means the financial pie is cut into much smaller pieces. And that is not good for a full time maker that has no other income. I now have to find another way to replace the income I used to make at the old Vegas Classic.
Well now that I have got that off my chest, I had better get off here before I write a novel. I have considerably more to say but I had better shut up now.
Dusty.

[Dan Pfanenstiel]

I've gotta agree with Dusty, not the best show I've seen. The other issues I didn't like was the timing with the SHOT show and Reno. Like Ray, I waited around until the last minute on Sunday and made my only sale for the entire show. My wife and I enjoyed wandering around the casinos like star struck tourists and I really enjoyed all the conversations but the bills didn't get paid.

Dan

[Don Cowles]

Amen, Dan. I was across the aisle from Dan, and I think we probably spent as much time comiserating over our poor locations and the lack of traffic as we did talking to real customers.

[A T Barr]

I agree, the "room" was not near as classy as what we had in the past. Having to stand on concrete for 4 days was a real pain. I did have a lot of traffic at my table. I took 9 knives and sold 6 by Friday afternoon. I had no sales on Saturday or Sunday.

Except for the death of my good Friend Thomas Haas, this show, IMO was a winner.

I think that next year, we will get more people from the gun side coming over and checking out our work. I do know that I will not fly in Wednesday to set up early Thursday morning. Next year, I'll arrive Thursday afternoon and set up around 2:00 PM.

A.T.

[SharpByCoop]

I agree with everyone's overall sentiment. The cost of accomodations, the AMOUNT of walking involved, the cavernous hall and the climate of just being one more addtion to the more-popular SHOT and Gun Show was tough to justify.

There WERE other makers who did fantastic, in spite of this, but I suspect it had less to do with the condition as they would have done well anywhere. (Terrill Hoffman had a great weekend, but that's different.)

If I had a choice or voice I would have the Reno ABS show in conjunction. But those makers don't want to be diluted either...!

At any rate, it was a pleasure once again meeting Don, and meeting Dusty and Raymond for the first time in-person.

Coop

[rhrocker]

When I first learned of the "new" Vegas show several months ago, my wife and I were excited, and planned on attending. I had been working on some inventory for it, but mostly wanted to get exposed to the overall atmosphere, and meet people (mainly meet people). Knowing now what I know about the show, I don't feel quite as bad about not being able to go (health reasons), however I would have still liked to shake hands with everone, and cornered Coop for a couple of hours, and let Buddy buy me lunch. I'm just not sure about Vegas next year through, I'll see what the majority of you guys do.

[Raymond Richard]

Robert, It had been 30 years from the last time I was in Las Vegas. Really a HUGE CHANGE in that period of time. If I hadn't made the one sale at the end of the show my negativity would have been much stronger. I had looked at the link to the show several times not realizing it was at a different venue. My biggest disappointment was them not having the knife judging. The thing that shocked me the most was my table was right next to Ken Onion's. To tell you the truth I had never heard of him. For at least 1 hour on both Friday and Saturday you would have never know I had a table there. I had never seen or heard of the way his knives sell. He actually did a raffle so the lucky winners could buy one of his knives. I'm guessing between 200 to 300 people had taken part in the raffle to get a chance to get one of around 20 knives he had with him. While my table was engulffed by the sea of humanity I told the crowd if they liked they could draw straws to buy one of my knives or hawks. No takers....... :confused: