Gateway Knife Show Jan. 25-26

[anthony cheeseboro]

I just came from the Gateway knife Club's show at Carpenter's Hall on 1401 Hampton Ave. in St. Louis. This is a great show! There is something for every price range and interest. The customs are especially strong. Don Hanson with his beautiful forged damascus, Ray Cover, Paul Meyers, Rick Nowland, are there in person and a number of purveyors have a strong selection of great customs. It's also a great place to swap and sell. I picked some real nice stuff myself.

 

[rluebb]

The Gateway show was a good show. It was my first knife only show. Lots of good looking custom knives along with lots of older models. I came home with a benchmade griptillian with a camo handle.

 

[anthony cheeseboro]

I really enjoyed the show because I was bale to trade away or sell off stuff that I was not interested in and I picked up a few really nice new customs. I really like my little Ray Cover slipjoint. I would encourage anybody who loves slipjoints to track Mr. Cover down if he's at your show! The man makes absolutely bullet proof slipjoints and traditional lockbacks at rock bottom prices. His single bladed slipjoints with beautiful jig bone handles were running $150. His lockbacks were around $225. This is what he charged for knives with flawless workmanship and ATS-34 blades. I love P.J. Tomes' work, but Ray Cover may have him beat when it comes to absolute bang for the buck. I also picked up a great little Rick Hinderer framelock with beautiful anodizing and a mirror finished BG-42 blade.

I must also say that I really enjoyed meeting Don Hanson, his knives are true works of art. It will take me a while, but I will pick up a couple of his knives in the next few years. The problem is that I'll have to lay off the less expensive customs and nice production knives to be able to afford at least one of his beauties.