Blade Show west in California

Ok. I'm just going to bulletpoint some of my venting. (I actually liked Blade West in Portland.) But here goes.

The new show is 2 weeks after California Custom Knife Show (seriously?) Just like BW 2019

The suggested hotels were not suggested by the locals there. (some of which would wind up on investigation discovery)

The afterparty was a fiasco. (Once again talk to the locals going. I could have made 3 phone calls and gotten better food trucks, DJs, circus/burlesque or strippers.) (never mind how the cutting competition weirdness)

No sales tax in the state of oregon (yay).

Also there are other convention center areas in the Portland area as well so there shouldn't be any issues with finding a better location to do this.
 
Greenberg Woods said:
Look, as a California and Los Angeles Native who has been in the knife scene for nearing on a decade, I promise all your fears about free speech or being arrested or what not are unfounded.

Tony swanton, who makes all the swords and axes for hollywood is in Los Angeles, The Artificary doing exotic stainless steel damascus integrals is in los angeles, blade and hammer, fell knives, and many other knife makers, collectors, and users are in the city. I know people are gonna talk about the lack of rights or whatever, but as someone who has lived in California my entire life and los angeles for most of it, i promsie its never come up.
Click to expand...

So does that mean CA now honors carry permits from other states or allows constitutional carry of firearms?
 
Blows my mind how delicate people can be about a shows location... Especially when said location will amount to more attendance and sales.

Oh well, more sales for those who dont need to stay in their safe space/state bubbles.
 
Blade Show West is coming to Long Beach! This is great! I've been a lurker for over a decade, possibly two, and hardly post, but the negativity here really riled me up. For those that don't want to attend because it's in California due to politics I'll make it a point to never buy from you. I've gone to the point of writing your names and telling my friends not to buy from you either. We all need jobs for this economy to work and when you make statements to hurt your customers economy, it really tells me you don't care about your customers that live in California.

Long Beach is on the border of Orange County (Which is conservative) and Los Angeles (Which is liberal), stop making this political and generalizing about all of us that live in California. It's about the love of sharp objects.

We have a lot of knife makers that live here and a lot of knife history. More importantly we have a TON of knife buyers in California. I for one am attending and I'm inviting all my knife friends that live here as well to hopefully make it a huge success. I am a bit alarmed how this is going to affect the California Custom Knife Show which is a few week after this. I've attended that show religiously for six years. Just need to save up more to support both shows!
 
I accidently ended up with a table at Blade West this year. :oops:

So I'll see everyone there! :D The plan is to have three (3) swords on display. Hopefully.

Been all over the country but have never been to Long Beach or SoCal in general, so this will be interesting. According to the internet, SoCal is a bunch of outdoor weightlifting facilities on the beach and ladies on rollerskates. o_O
 
inju said:
Blade Show West is coming to Long Beach! This is great! I've been a lurker for over a decade, possibly two, and hardly post, but the negativity here really riled me up. For those that don't want to attend because it's in California due to politics I'll make it a point to never buy from you. I've gone to the point of writing your names and telling my friends not to buy from you either. We all need jobs for this economy to work and when you make statements to hurt your customers economy, it really tells me you don't care about your customers that live in California.

Long Beach is on the border of Orange County (Which is conservative) and Los Angeles (Which is liberal), stop making this political and generalizing about all of us that live in California. It's about the love of sharp objects.

We have a lot of knife makers that live here and a lot of knife history. More importantly we have a TON of knife buyers in California. I for one am attending and I'm inviting all my knife friends that live here as well to hopefully make it a huge success. I am a bit alarmed how this is going to affect the California Custom Knife Show which is a few week after this. I've attended that show religiously for six years. Just need to save up more to support both shows!
Click to expand...
The issue is the legality of many of the blades at the show is in question. California has very strict knife regulations that would make several of the $1000+ knives illegal, as well as many of the $200-$500 flippers, balisongs, assisted knives, etc. The anger is not with California, but the promoters of the show for moving the show to a very knife unfriendly state. Yes, there are more people in California than Oregon, but that's not the market. Blade Show West is a knife show, not a gun show. People travel from several states away for big shows, so the local population doesn't really matter that much. Salt Lake City would have been a much better location for the show than anywhere in California.

Just compare the state knife laws for the two Blade Shows this year, California and Georgia, just the restricted knives should be enough to explain why knifemakers don't like California.

California knife laws: https://www.akti.org/state-knife-laws/california/

Restricted Knives:​

Air Gauge Knife, Belt Buckle Knife, Lipstick Case Knife, Writing Pen Knife, Undetectable Knife, Shobi-zue (staff or rod containing knife blade), Cane Sword, Ballistic Knife, Switchblade Knife having a blade 2 inches or more in length, . Definitions for these items are found in California Penal Part 6, Title 1, Division 2.


Georgia knife laws: https://www.akti.org/state-knife-laws/georgia/

Restricted Knives:​

There are no forbidden knives under Georgia law. Some knives with blades longer than 12 inches are subject statutory weapon restrictions.
 
Atlas Knife Company said:
The issue is the legality of many of the blades at the show is in question. California has very strict knife regulations that would make several of the $1000+ knives illegal, as well as many of the $200-$500 flippers, balisongs, assisted knives, etc. The anger is not with California, but the promoters of the show for moving the show to a very knife unfriendly state. Yes, there are more people in California than Oregon, but that's not the market. Blade Show West is a knife show, not a gun show. People travel from several states away for big shows, so the local population doesn't really matter that much. Salt Lake City would have been a much better location for the show than anywhere in California.

Just compare the state knife laws for the two Blade Shows this year, California and Georgia, just the restricted knives should be enough to explain why knifemakers don't like California.

California knife laws: https://www.akti.org/state-knife-laws/california/

Restricted Knives:​

Air Gauge Knife, Belt Buckle Knife, Lipstick Case Knife, Writing Pen Knife, Undetectable Knife, Shobi-zue (staff or rod containing knife blade), Cane Sword, Ballistic Knife, Switchblade Knife having a blade 2 inches or more in length, . Definitions for these items are found in California Penal Part 6, Title 1, Division 2.


Georgia knife laws: https://www.akti.org/state-knife-laws/georgia/

Restricted Knives:​

There are no forbidden knives under Georgia law. Some knives with blades longer than 12 inches are subject statutory weapon restrictions.
Click to expand...
You do know we have had big knife shows here in california for decades? Pasadena show, Costa Mesa Show, Brea Show.

Those kind of knives you listed are not a show breaker as for autos, they are sold there all the time and MicroTech always have tables. Those in law enforcement are able to by auto knives in CA.

The sky is not falling and there will be thousands of knives to buy.
 
AVigil said:
You do know we have had big knife shows here in california for decades? Pasadena show, Costa Mesa Show, Brea Show.

Those kind of knives you listed are not a show breaker as for autos, they are sold there all the time and MicroTech always have tables. Those in law enforcement are able to by auto knives in CA.

The sky is not falling and there will be thousands of knives to buy.
Click to expand...
I dunno Adam. As windy as it was the last couple of nights up here, I was pretty sure the sky was falling!
 
you guys going to this Long Beach location might want to check out the Crime statistics posted daily by the Long Beach P.D
it looks like there are Robberies/Assaults'/ Burglary's almost daily there very close to the Convention center that will be hosting the show!!
Balisongs and Auto knives are both banned there so no way im going to go as a "Citizen" and risk coming out as a "Criminal" for trying to sell my wares at a knife show because of the silly laws there..
i just looked up the statistics Yesterday. thinking "How bad could Long Beach" be ?? no thanks from Portland !!!
 
All the comments about crime statistics being the reason not to attend reminds me of a disagreement I had with my Father ~ 40 years ago when growing up in the suburbs of Chicago. One summer day-off I wanted to take the train to Oak St Beach with a couple of friends to spend time with my older sister who was living downtown at the time. Even though I was 16 y/o, my Father refused to let me, his reasoning being, "Do you know how many people are killed/attacked each day in Chicago?" My response was to try to remind him that the news only reports the crimes, but never mentions the thousands of people who have a wonderful, safe time.
I was unsuccessful in my litigation attempts, btw.
 
According to Cityrating.com in 2019, the violent crime rate for Portland was 43.54% higher than the national average and the property crime rate was 146.61% higher. https://www.cityrating.com/crime-statistics/oregon/portland.html

While in Long Beach in 2019, the violent crime rate was 33.42% higher then the national average and property crime was 14.41% higher. https://www.cityrating.com/crime-statistics/california/long-beach.html

Looks like the rate of violent crime is greater in Portland than in Long Beach.
 
Last edited:
If you think the NUMBER of crimes in longbeach makes it seem high, maybe a few of you need reminders on the sheer population of california. Longbeach, a city not many of you seem to have heard of has right about the same number of people as Atlanta. Longbeach alone has about half the population of the state of Montana.

with the greator Los Angeles area has 18 million people, which is just slightly less than the population of the ENTIRE state of New york. The entire state of Illinois population is smaller than the population of greator los angeles. So yes, in the ender the number of crimes reported is relativly high, but on the whole Los Angeles generally and Long beach in particular are very safe cities.
 
Yeah I always laugh at these rural fly over state guys so absolutely scared of the 'big city'... it's not 1985, places like NYC, LA, etc got way less crime than most places these days. Safer in long Beach than just about any Midwest city over 200k people for instance. Last time I was in LA I felt perfectly safe, even heading down long Beach Ave in Compton for bqq. In fact felt like friendliest part of my entire trip.
 
So glad to hear the show is coming to So Cal!

It's hilarious to listen to the California haters who don't live in California saying it's not a knife friendly state. I've lived 49 years in California, carried knives of all sorts daily since I was 14 and never 1 time have I been so much as questioned about my knives. I travel all throughout So. Cal as a part of my day job, go in and out of all sorts of businesses and restaurants on a daily basis and I'm never without a knife visible on my pocket or hip. For the past 22 years I've been living and carrying my knives just a little north of L.A. in a small suburb packed with famous athletes and actors, and even in that sometimes "snooty" little environment nobody has ever said one word to me about the knife clipped in my pocket or attached to my hip. I now make my knives here as well.

Here's a real-life example of how I get treated in So. Cal with regard to knives... 2 months ago I went to a high-end eye wear store in the "Calabasas Commons" which is a shopping center known to be a place to find paparazzi stalking famous people. I asked the sales person if she could have my sunglasses made with a brushed silver frame and metallic bronze lenses instead of the blue lenses that Maui Jim offered because I wanted them to match the colors of my custom folder I was carrying. I showed her the knife (right there in the middle of a store in Calabasas) and explained that I designed and made it. She said "That's a beautiful knife, can I hold it!?" She then showed it around to the other staff. She said "Nobody has asked to order these glasses with bronze lenses before but I think I can get them for you". When they arrived 2 weeks later, she said "We all liked the bronze and silver combination on your knife so much that my boss had me order another pair of glasses like yours for us to put in our window display". Today, if you stop by Wink Optical in Calabasas, CA you'll find a pair of Maui Jim's unlike any others in their display, specifically because of a knife I was carrying.
QZUNzV0l.jpg


OTFs, push-button autos and double edges (dirks and daggers) aren't legal to carry but there's a loophole that allows them and others to be sold to collectors in California "for collections". Fixed blades over 3" (blade length) have to be carried in the open and not concealed. That's about it. The actual vibe I've always experienced anywhere I go in California is simply this, if you're not acting aggressively while you carry your knife nobody cares about your knife...police included.

In addition, the area that they will be doing the show borders the most conservative part of So. Cal (Orange County) plus unlike Oregon it's also a very wealthy area packed with a lot of people that actually have the money to buy custom knives. For those that are afraid of "the big city" šŸ˜… and feel the need to look up crime statistics..your concerns are unfounded and I really feel sorry for you. It's a friendly place and you shouldn't live in fear of the unknown like that.

This is a great choice for Blade Show West and I expect a much more successful show this time.


CK
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top