The world’s most important knife awards—the BLADE Magazine 2013 Knife-Of-The-Year® Awards—will be named next week at the BLADE Show & Living Ready Expo (www.bladeshow.com).

Set for May 31-June 2 at the Cobb Galleria Centre in Atlanta, the BLADE Show & Living Ready Expo attracts knife manufacturers and knifemakers from all over the world to display and sell their knives.

Companies that rent booths at the show are eligible to enter knives and/or accessories in the Knife-Of-The-Year Awards competition, which includes categories for 10 factory knives, one accessory and two individuals who have furthered the betterment of the knife industry.

The Knife-Of-The-Year categories are: Overall, American Made, Imported, Most Innovative American Design, Most Innovative Imported Design, Manufacturing Quality, Best Buy, Investor/Collector, Kitchen Knife, Knife Collaboration, Accessory, Publisher’s and Industry Achievement. The winners will be announced the Saturday night of the show during the BLADE Magazine Awards Banquet in the Cobb Galleria Centre (tickets required). The winners will be listed outside the BLADE Show office in the Galleria Centre the morning after.

There is a Knife-Of-The-Year Display Area in the BLADE Show hall for entrants to display their knives. New for this year, the display area will be in the back left of the show hall as opposed to the former location in the center of the hall. There, show patrons can look at all the individually displayed knives, many of which will include accompanying information on blade steel, handle materials and more. Entrants may also display their entered knives at their booths, though that is optional. Representatives of each company may stop by the display to examine and vote on the knives for the awards. Voting begins the Friday of the show and ends Saturday.

For more on the awards, stay tuned to www.blademag.com and/or see the November issue of BLADE®, on newsstands Aug. 13.