"HOW TO MAKE A SINGLE-BLADE TRAPPER"

Award-winning knifemakers Luke Swenson and Bill Ruple will show you how it’s done based on Swenson’s video tutorial “Slipjoints with Luke Swenson.” Basic setup, assembly, tang geometry, spring tension, fixtures and tuning, including the Ruple Gauge and the Elite Folder Jig from Metal  Head Tools, will be among the highlights.

Above: Bill Ruple Knife

Above: Luke Swenson Knife

"COMBAT KNIFE DESIGN: WORLD WAR II TO TODAY"

Celebrating 40 years as a maker and designer of knives, Bill Harsey worked closely for 14 of those years with Col. Rex Applegate, retired OSS operative and bodyguard for President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, designing and making combat knives. Bill takes you through Col. Applegate’s mindset in creating folding and fixed-blade daggers, the smatchet and other combat knives, and how that mindset was influenced by the actual use of the knives. Harsey also details how Col. Applegate has influenced him in his creation of combat knives for Gerber, Chris Reeve Knives, CRKT/Ruger, Spartan Blades and more, a number of which have won BLADE Magazine Knife-Of-The-Year Awards.

"STAG HANDLES: TIPS, TRICKS & MORE"

Last year ABS master smith David Lisch demonstrated how to make a flowed-in “S” guard for one of his stag-handle fixed blades. This year he will “cap off” the process by demonstrating how to pin the buttcap to the stag handle, shape the buttcap to the stag tips and other tricks of the trade.

"PUUKKO: FIRST BLADE OF FINLAND"

The all-purpose Finnish puukko knife is famous for tackling any number of bushcraft and other utilitarian cutting chores, and Jeremy Spake’s custom puukkos are stunning examples of the genre. Join him as he shares his personal story of falling in love with the design early in his knifemaking journey, and his quest to learn as much as he can about making these fascinating knives.

Above: Puukko by Jeremy Spake