Personally, I think the "hey day" of the custom knife show is in the rear view mirror. I've been at this for pushing 30 years now, and up until about the last 5-6 year made 2/3 of my annual knife income from doing 3 major knife shows a year. For a number of years, the Eugene, OR show was one of the best in the world. After having attended that show for 12 years in a row, the mgt decided they wanted to become the biggest show west of the Mississippi.....and in doing so, it became a "flea market" environment, and most of the collectors stopped attending. I've not been back since. For any Maker who is serious, the Blade Show in Atlanta is simply a must do show. At first you can feel like a little fish in a big pond, but since Eugene went downhill, it has been my most consistent show for making money. Blade is unique in that it's the absolute king of shows to serious knife buyers. I've had tough years there, but I've also had years when I was sold out 15 mins after the doors opened.
I'm planning on attending the Boise, ID show this year, and hope it's as good as previous shows in that locale.
These days (over the past 5+ years), an internet presence has become VERY important for knifemakers. I say that for two reasons..... 1. There is no where else that you can have such a huge audience, for such a low cost. 2. Many serious collectors are now choosing to personally attend only 1-2 knife shows per year, generally one of those is the Blade show. What they are doing it using the money that they would have spent to travel to shows, and sitting down in front of their computers......and using that travel money to buy knives via the internet.
OK, back the show issue.....most of us start out at local and regional "Gun & Knife" shows, and as our quality and noteriety levels increase, we "upgrade" to shows that are strictly custom knives. Each show is going to be differnt for each maker. However, one thing they all require for a knifemaker to be "successful" at them, is for the Maker to do his/her homework. By that I mean you can't walk into someplace like the USN show with a bag full of forged Bowies, and expect to do well. You have to know your audience, and what they want. For examply, at last year's Blade show, I took 1/2 dozen tactical "flippers", and several traditional forge straight blades.....the flippers were gone within the first 1/2 hour of the show, and the afterward I sold only two straight knives the rest of the show.
Finally, whatever shows you decide to attend, don't get discouraged if each is not a "screamin success" the first year. Often times I will attend a show for 2-3+ years before I do well at it, but afterward can usually count on good sales.
