One week in sunny Las Vegas, Ha Ha
The first couple days where sunny and nice but the rest of the week saw clouds and lots of rain. It rained three days, mostly in the evening and totaled 1.8 inches. The average yearly rainfall for Vegas is 4 inches and last year they didn’t even reach 2 inches.
Most people try to get a hotel close to the convention center and walk every day. With the rain in the evening the line out front waiting on taxi’s was huge, several thousand people hutled under the eves to catch a ride. The traffic was also backed up and added to the problem. The police showed up and started directing traffic and that seemed to help. We, as in the Al Mar crew, had a rent a wreck that we parked near by for a quick getaway. The booth was manned by The president of Al Mar Knives, Gary Fadden and his wife Rumiko, my son Kalob and myself. We also had various friends drop in to help.
Setting up the Al Mar booth
Too much to see too little time
The Shooting, Hunting, Outdoor, Trade show is a dealers show that is not open to the general public. The companys show their products to the dealers and take orders for the coming year. Many new products are introduced at this show and it is well attended as the dealers are anxious to see the latest hot items for sale. The booths very greatly in both size and content at the show. All the major gun company are there with giant booths, also scopes, knives, tents, barbeque and outdoor cooking, camoflauge gear – pretty much everything but fishing equipment. I’m sure the fishing and boating industry have their own trade show.
This a shot looking down one of the many isles at the show. There are many miles of isles and thousands of booths to see. Four days just isn’t enough to cover the show. Since I’m working the Al Mar booth the whole time, I don’t get a chance to see much. That is why I make a list of the things that I am interested in prior to the show, look them up in the show directory, and I can go directly to them.
This years show was held at the Sand’s Convention Center. The venue was not well recieved as it was on two levels and very confusing to find your way around. We were on the first level which I think is a converted parking garage because it had a low ceiling and not quite enough light. It was a little slow the first day, I think because it took people a while to filter down. The rest of the show moved quickly with lots of traffic. The upper level had high ceilings so the companys could hang there banners and construct the larger booths.
Here are Five Eagle Classics with beautiful Mammoth Tooth scales that were commissionedby Al Mar Knives. Through my design work for the company it was decided that I should do a few custom handles. These will be done in a very limited number. The mammoth tooth is all natural colors, they where not dyed to achieve the different shades of brown with white bands. Mammoth tooths is kind of tricky to work with as it is thin and prone to crack and break. I glue the scales to a .015 thick piece of black fiber material. This stabilizes it and helps it hold to the handle when glued up also. It is ground very thin once it is glued to the knife, then sanded down to 800 grit and polished. It takes on such a shine you can look right into it. If you have any questions or comments about mammoth tooth and it’s properties just let me know. These knives will be for sale by Al Mar Knives and are headed for the S.H.O.T. show. Thanks for looking Kirk
I Just finished this Custom Al Mar Havana Clipper and sent it to a collector in Germany. The Clipper is a great little knife with many uses, not just the snipping of cigars. This one has explosion damascus blade, white Mammoth ivory handle with ivory in the thumb stud. Gold anodized titanium liner with full filework. A true one of a kind piece.