SYMPTOMS: Dull pain in the cutlery cortex, rust-colored redness in the eyes and a bad case of bloated blade belly.

DIAGNOSIS: Factory knife Jonesin’.

CURE: 2009 Shooting, Hunting, Outdoor Trade (SHOT) Show. There’s nothing quite like the SHOT Show to get the ol’ BLADE® blood boiling and the knife juices flowing, and this year’s version was no exception.

Targeted to the professional outdoor trades only, it contains just about every product to do with hunting, shooting, fishing and other outdoor activities—most of which, of course, require the use of a sharp knife, knife accessories and other blade-related accouterments.

It’s hard not to catch an advanced case of edged euphoria when you see so many knife professionals practically giddy with excitement at being back in the saddle again at SHOT.

Sure, some knife companies had a bad 2008—one official told of at least one company that reported a 25 percent drop in sales—and some companies seemed to scale back on introductions of new knives for 2009, but it was hard to tell times were lean from the upbeat demeanors and beaming grins at most of the factory booths we visited.

In fact, several companies seemed to introduce as many if not more than the usual number of new knives they debut at the show.

As if that wasn’t enough to snap a factory-knife-Jonesin’ sufferer out of withdrawal, there was Paul Tsujimoto of Ka-Bar good naturedly showing off the new Ka-Bar pistol bayonet, a kind of novelty piece inspired by the folks at LaserLyte, which specializes in laser gun sights.

(Right) Ka-Bar’s Paul Tsujimoto displays the Ka-Bar pistol bayonet at the SHOT Show. Though more a novelty piece than designed for actual use, the bayonet will cut, Tsujimoto noted.

Suffering from the dull-drums? One visit with the energetic Jared West of Mantis Knives and it’s impossible not to think sharp. In fact, Jared related a conversation about knife design he’d had with Blade Magazine Cutlery Hall-Of-Famer© Ken Onion that helps explain Mantis’ outside-the-box approach.

“I asked Ken what his design philosophy was,” Jared began, “and he said to think like you were in the year 2060 on a space station and you had to put on your spacesuit and go outside and fix something—what kind of knife would you use?”

That’s not outside the box, it’s outside the ozone!

One of the more entertaining conversations was with custom knifemaker Walter Brend, who was walking the show with his brother, Norman, ogling the gaggle of guns and other goodies. All Walter wanted to talk about was his new steel-gobbling, custom-made grinder from Bader.

“It has a three-horsepower motor and I can get a 1.5- to a 1.75-inch-wide hollow grind with it,” he grinned. “Nobody else can do that.”

A more sobering moment came in a discussion with Ernest Emerson of Emerson Knives, Inc., who told of a knife show promoter lamenting a number of his regular knifemaker-exhibitors cancelling tables due to the economy. To paraphrase Emerson, if those makers think they can’t afford setting up at shows now, wait until they reap the results of not exhibiting: no orders, no sales and a business contracting on itself and imploding.

Now is not the time to scale back but to continue to exhibit at the makers’ usual show stops—heck, share a table, hotel room, etc., with another maker if necessary—advertise in print publications, update their web presence and promote themselves every way they can, Emerson stressed. Leave it to the “Twin E” to tell it like it is.

Besides, if Cutlery Hall-Of-Famer A.G. Russell is right, the cutlery industry may just be on the brink of another knife boom. In a chat with “Mr. Knife” at the Case booth, he related how he thinks, as do many, that the new Barack Obama administration will pass a bevy of gun control laws. The last time that happened? 1968.

Soon after, as A.G. noted, the first great modern boom in knife collecting occurred because gun enthusiasts had to rethink their collecting strategies, with many of them setting their sights on fine knives instead of guns.

Of course, we don’t wish ill on our gun brothers but, if the reports about expected anti-firearms laws are true, now is the time for knife companies and knifemakers to continue business as usual—or at least as close to it as possible—not contract.

And don’t forget to do your part and buy a good knife when you can.

Richards’ Correct Address

Th e correct address for Chuck Richards—one of the makers identified in “Who Will Shine in ’09?” in the March BLADE—is Dept. BL5, 7243 Maple Tree Ln. SE, Salem, OR 97317 503.569.5549 chuck@woodchuckforge.com, www.woodchuckforge.com.