Case Knives, now owned by Zippo, has an interesting knife museum in Bradford
Pennsylvania. The museum has samples of the early knives and the stories behind them. My nephew, Tim Pike accompanied me since he has been a knife fan for years. His grandfather, Thomas Pike, used to have Fort Tuscarora on Route 172 in Lisbon Ohio. History, guns, and knives runs in the family.
My quest for the best pocket knife was easy at the Zippo/Case Museum, because of the abundance of knives there. This place is open to the public, and I highly recommend it to knife collectors. These pictures were taken in 2006, so things might have changed since then. According to their website, the place is open 7 days a week, and boasts of 100,000 visitors per year, from all over the world.
You should have seen all the pocket knives last Saturday in Niles-Liberty Ohio. The Ohio Gun, Knife & Military Shows packed the house with vendors and
customers. They used the vacant Big Lots store in Liberty Ohio, in the Belmont Plaza. The next show at that location will be January 23 and 24, 2016, in case you missed this one. The address is 3495 Belmont Ave., Youngstown, Ohio 44505, next to Aldi’s. Most of the tables had rifles and hand guns, be we were there for the knives. There were more knife tables than we saw at our last regional knife show. We were impressed, even though most of the tables were for guns. Ohiogunshows.com is the place to go for more information on upcoming shows.
Here are some pictures of just a small percentage of the knife displays from last Saturday, December 19, 2015. If you are a knife lover, you should enjoy these. See you at the next knife & gun show! Tim Pike, my nephew usually goes with me.
The best knife show in Ohio 2015 had the best pocket knives this year. The Ohio Classic Knife Show was put on by Battle Horse Knives. It was held at the Pritchard Laughlin Civic Center, 7033 Glenn Hwy, Cambridge, Ohio 43725. The best pocket knife that I saw was one of the Buck knives. Buck has always been one of my favorites, because of the durability and its reputation.
Here are some highlights of the show. Among the 90 tables were unique displays from “aroundthecabin.com/campfire“. These guys put on an entertaining live program 6 nights a week.
The “Best Display” award went to “Hair of the Bear” owner Moon Munjas from Marietta OH. Moon makes custom knives, sometimes 5 or 6 at a time. His display was colorful and attractive.
Yurco Handcrafted Knives owner Mickey Yurco, is from Canfield Ohio.
He makes custom designs, specializing in self defense knives. He is a member of The Knifemakers’ Guild. Mickey is accompanied by his wife in the picture.
Mickey’s buddy, Tim Roddy, from neighboring Youngstown, Ohio also had a nice display of
custom knives that he made from the finest stainless steel. He specializes in quality fixed blade knives.
Michael J. Balaskovitz, the director of the 2016 knife show, has “Woodlab Outdoors, LLC”, Premium Materials & Servicing. He sells various knife handle materials.
The award winner for “Best Value” in the show was Greg Gottschalk of Carnegie PA. Greg does a beautiful job making hand crafted knives, and is a member of The Knifemakers’ Guild and ABS Mastersmith. Of course, all the custom-made knives at the show are made in the USA.
Valerie Hibbard, of Plain And Practical LLC (Scales & Grip Blanks & More) had a huge display of various hardwoods that she sells to knife makers. She is from Hilliard Ohio, and travels around looking for unique specimens of hardwood which she can bring into her store.
Wayne G. Hensley, and his business, Custom MadeCutlery, had an interesting table. Wayne’s motto is: Materials by God, Crafted by Hensley. Wayne is a member of The Knifemakers’ Guild, Professional Knifemakers Association, and Georgia Custom Knifemakers’ Guild. He is also the vice president of The Knifemakers’ Guild. His picture is missing here.
My nephew, Tim Pike (a camo knife connoisseur) and I had a great day looking at some of the country’s best pocket knives.