“You can’t tell the players without a scorecard” is a phrase that might apply to BLADE® and the BLADE Show lately, so allow me to introduce, re-introduce and say good-bye to those who have helped make, and those who will continue to make, BLADE and the BLADE Show what we think are the world’s best in their respective genres.

First off, remember Joe Kertzman, former BLADE managing editor and current KNIVES annual editor who left us to work for the F+W Media/Krause Publications book division? Well, he’s back—and BLADE’s got him! Long-time BLADE readers will recall Joe, who served as BLADE associate editor and then managing editor from 1997-2006, for his incisive writing skills and affinity for all things sharp. We feel privileged to have him back and know that he will take up where he left off in keeping BLADE the industry leader.

Joe will fill the void left by Benjamin Sobieck, who leaves to lend his ample talents to a number of F+W Media/Krause Publications magazine websites, including maintaining his presence on BLADE’s site, www.blademag.com. Benjamin is an exciting young talent F+W Media/Krause expects much from in the years ahead.

Meanwhile, the BLADE Show welcomes Eric Bradley as its new manager/producer. Eric started with F+W Media in 2005 after a career in newspapers, where he served as a writer, editor and director of editorial training programs at newspapers in Wisconsin and Michigan.

Since joining F+W, he has worked on antiques and collectibles-related publications and events, including Antique Trader magazine and, more recently, as manager and promoter of the Atlantique City Antiques and Collectibles Show, overseeing operations, promotions, sponsorships, more than 500 exhibitors and up to 10,000 attendees at the biannual event.

While managing Atlantique City, Eric also worked on a variety of other large conventions, conferences and shows in the Midwest and East, including those for graphic design, antiques and woodworking, such as the new Woodworking in America Conference in Berea, Kentucky, which he helped launch.

Eric will manage the BLADE Show, as well as help manage the Atlantique City Show. He replaces Mary Lutz, who served as BLADE Show coordinator for 10 years. Mary is now an advertising assistant for BLADE. We are honored to have her join the magazine staff and salute her for a decade of outstanding service to the show and the knife industry. She has made many friends over the years and the show blossomed on her watch. We expect the magazine to continue to do so with her in the fold.

They Will Be Missed

The world of knives lost four good friends recently with the passing of knifemakers Leroy Besic, Russell Easler and Jody Samson, and past BLADE administrative editor Sue Wilson.
A maker of straight working and high art models, Besic sold his first knife in 1979. A veteran of the Knifemakers’ Guild, he enjoyed the Guild’s “Knifemaker Emeritus” status and was no longer involved in the cutlery business at the time of his demise. A resident of Riverside, California, he was 73.

Another Guild veteran, Easler was a student of Blade Magazine Cutlery Hall-Of-Famer© George Herron and a good friend of knifemaker Ron Gaston. A resident of Woodruff, South Carolina, Easler specialized in straight knives, including hunters in the Herron style. Easler’s former wife, Paula, who preceded him in death, was a talented scrimshander who embellished a number of Russell’s knives. Easler was 63.

A protégée of legendary knifemaker John Nelson Cooper, Samson was one of the early pioneers in the making of art and fantasy knives and swords. He designed the sword used by Arnold Schwarzenegger in the 1982 movie, Conan the Barbarian, as well as blades for a number of other films, the Weehawk folder that was reproduced by the now defunct Pacific Cutlery, and others. In recent years he designed swords for Albion Armorers. He was 62.

Wilson, 75, lived in Chattanooga, Tennessee. She was a past member of the board of directors of the National Knife Collectors Association and was an NKCA life member. At the request of Cutlery Hall-Of-Famer Jim Parker, Wilson served as BLADE administrative editor in the early-to-mid-1980s and played a key role in the day-to-day operation of the magazine. She was an inspiration to this writer in terms of yanking a knot in my tail when needed (which was often).

BLADE salutes them all.