rlauferblog

Based on the phenomenal success of last year’s show, the Toronto Knife Show has expanded in size for 2026! The show now spans two rooms to improve traffic flow and accommodate additional knifemakers. Oh, and an additional bank machine was added since we emptied out two of them last year!

Knifemakers also really stepped it up this year! I saw lots of unique scales, Cerakote, laser engraving, Damascus, and copper, lots of copper!

My first stops were to check in with the show organizers Murray St. Amour and Mike Mossington.

It was great to see Murray’s big camp knife again

But what really caught my eye was this archer’s sleeve, custom made by Phil Clot to carry one of Murray’s knives!

Yes, I bought one! That didn’t take long eh? Purchase at the first table lol

Mike and his lovely family. I remember Elizabeth helping out at Mike’s table back in the day and now she is here with her daughter!

Mike’s fine outdoor knives and knife supplies (of course I still have my gold handle filet knife!)

Both Murray and Mike, along with several other makers donated knives for the hourly prize draws.

Gaetan Beauchamp

Murray St. Amour

Mike Mossington

Casey Belli (I won one of his knives at another event!)

Brad Millman of Black Maple Blades

A couple of the winners…Brad’s knife

And Gaetan’s

I was so happy to see Gaetan Beauchamp back at a show! He is incredibly talented, particularly in Scrimshaw.

The “twin” pieces with artwork that span across two knives are amazing

The Geisha girls were my favourites

Gaetan had a cool microscope to take a close look at his incredible work

Again, great to see you Gaetan!

Actually now that I think about it, my purchase at Murray’s table was technically my second of the show lol. I pre-ordered some scales from Emily’s Casting Crafts for a custom knife project and picked them up at the pre-show dinner last night. We had a great discussion about options for the custom knife that Nicolas Bayley of Black Coffin Knives will be making for me. In any case, I wanted to see Emily’s incredible work.

If you have seen the Dessert Warrior camo shirt that I have worn in recent reviews, you wouldn’t be surprised that I noticed these right away.

Emily’s famous skull scales come in many colours including glow in the dark

Thanks for the mini saw!

Emily cast the fish scales for this filet knife by Casey Belli

Full shot of Casey’s amazing lineup

I like the Ulticlip pocket carry, along with the cleaver in shoulder holster as shown on his tactical mannequin!

I won a Coffin Spike like the one shown with translucent scales (mine is all black)

Some real beauties here

Wakizashi with 13” blade

A variety of tantos

Casey’s Khukuris are my favourite though

My next stop was Black Coffin Knives to brief Nicolas on the custom knife he will be making for me. I will reveal the details on that in a review upon its completion. In the meantime, let’s look at his awesome knives! I really like some of the new styles he has introduced lately.

I especially liked the shipwreck knives

And the Reaper, particularly in red, as I love ring knives

ceriksson, my co-photographer (and Moderator of the knife forum on Canadiangunnutz) recently purchased a Bare Beaver from Cam Lymburner and we wanted to see the latest collaboration versions with Buffalo Bones.

I liked the one with blue stingray insert and flame colouring

ceriksson went with the green stingray

Buffalo Bones does a lot of sheaths for Cam and I really liked this one

ceriksson with his new knife

I picked up a couple of Cam’s 3D printed “fidget knives” for gifts.

Buffalo Bones actually does sheath work for many of the makers at the show. There is no better in leather!

Ok now for one of my favourite pieces at the show, a Klingon Bat’leth at Northern Edge Custom Blades!

Hmmm I wonder if Seamus can make a sheath for this…

ceriksson liked it too!

Perhaps not as dangerous as the Bat’leth (unless you step on them!) Northern Edge’s Lego knives were pretty cool too!

Great to see William Nease back at a knife show! I was his first customer at his first show back in 2004!

I have one of his paper blades but have never seen one in the form of a chopper

I picked up one his trowels at another event. Super sharp!

The Chickenhawk is such an interesting design

The rescue version

Classic Nease style axe

The more things change the more they stay the same

 I have purchased a few knives from Todd Bolce so let’s see if I get lucky this time.

Oooo this DH Russell in Damascus would be a great match for the one I got in all black…Seamus snagged it though (lucky guy!)

Beautiful Damscus piece. I have visited Todd’s shop and he does everything, Damascus, Cerakote, laser engraving…you name it.

I like the textured scales on the bottom one

For stock removal, John Wilson sets the standard as he trained under Bob Loveless and continues to make his patterns.

This one was featured in a magazine

My favourites were this boot knife

And Chute knife

Now for some folders. Grimsmo brought 20 knives covering their three styles, Norseman, Fjell, and Rask as well as 10 Saga pens.

I was most anxious to see the Fjell in Damasteel that they shared on social media…yup, it’s a stunner

I really like the mechanism, sort of like an airlock, on the Saga pen (shown next to a mini variant)

Rod Olson renowned for his button-lock folders

Steve Vanderkolff with a great assortment of classy folders

My two favourites, both with stag scales and Dellana Dots (named after the knife maker who invented them) for opening

Adam Smith has been making knives since 1975! It was quite surreal to see a balisong on the cover of one of his old catalogues before they became prohibited!

You know I gravitate to the unique and SAK Modder fits that description!

ceriksson picked up the one at the bottom

The Champ was my favourite. I met the collector who bought it later at the show and Parminder got one last year too

Speaking of Parminder, guess who we ran into at Paul Savage’s table! Parminder just bought this beauty from Journeyman Smith Paul Savage.

Another beauty on Paul’s table

More great forging at Fire Drawn Forge

Scott’s “window” knife was awesome!

The sheath has a window to expose the Damascus

And the handle scale is partially clear for the same reason

His chopper was fun too

As I mentioned in the intro, there were A LOT of copper infused blades at the show, for example at KC Forge

Muskoka Forge

Cool Buddha cap

 I liked the paring knives with glow in the dark scales

I like the way Trails Edge is incorporating copper into his outdoor knives. Dylan spends a lot of his time outdoors in Northern BC where he can field test his designs. As he says on his website “Just because it is designed to be used doesn’t mean it can’t be stunning”

Of course, he does make them in field grade as well.

More copper at 47 Kitchen Knives

And Sujo Blades

Even collectors I ran into had copper infused blades, such as this Pickle Kutterz

If I were to buy a kitchen knife, it would be from my friend Steve Cornelsen at Bad Llama forge (who I believe is now available at Knifewear).

Bunny Blade also has some nice ones across three product lines, Heritage, Signature, and Performance.

I liked the Damascus one the best

More great forged kitchen knives and tools like spatulas at Crane Culinary Custom Knife & Tool

Divide knives focuses primarily on kitchen knives and they had some partially finished sets ready for customization to customer specs

Of course, they had completed knives as well

Turning now to outdoor style knives, great to see Justin Dale from Matethi Custom and check out his karambit that I missed at another event. I love karambits and it was the only one at the show!

In addition to his stock removal knives, Wynn Stitt was showing his first two forged blades

The big natural handles on Wynn’s knives fit my hand very well and they are a lot lighter than you would think.

Brad Millman of Black Maple Blades had a lot of knives with Griptex handles. I really like the rubbery, sticky feel of them. No way they will fall out of your hands, even when wet.

On Bancroft Cutlery’s table, I liked the orange cord-wrap

Nice filet and outdoor knives from Jeff Maluske, Mad Trapper Knives. Again, outdoor knives made by someone with a lot of outdoor usage experience.

Hunting and outdoor knives by Matt Bedlington

Chris Green of Black Cat Metal is a Calgary based bladesmith who, according to his website,  was inspired to start forging knives after watching “Conan the Barbarian”.

And now more my speed, leaning a bit tactical, Iron Stinger

Love the glowing Griptex

Very interesting approach on this one. First it was Cerakoted in FDE then another layer of black. A laser engraver was then used to remove some of the black layer to expose the FDE underneath in a hex pattern. Cool!

More tactical knives from Steve Stuart, many of which were made from files

I liked the “gentleman folder”

Tim O’Brien had a Khukuri with convex grind that I really liked at another event and was wondering if he would bring another one. No luck there but I did like the daggers set up in small-of-back (SOB) carry.

This dagger was really nice too

Malcolm Stewart does such a broad array of styles. I like his medieval pieces, like his gen 2 mace, now with studs on the handle.

When I think of Aaron Byard I usually picture his smaller knives like kiridashis and prybars

Of course he makes full size knives as well

Cole Thompson is a Toronto based blacksmith, specializing in chef knives, EDC blades, and forged metalwork. I like his take-down tantos in small and extra-large lol

I really liked the “forged EDC” on Principle Forge’s table

Nice forged chef’s knives too

I actually preferred this one to the full Damascus

Justin Lamoureux of Rainy Day Forge is based in Manitoba and tests his products in the wild.

This one looks stunning

Again, Griptex, I am really starting to like it!

This friction folder sold quickly! A couple of people also mentioned to me that they wanted it but it was already sold.

Sacco had kitchen knives

But of course I gravitated to their Khukuri!

Hailing from Muskoka, Craig Henshaw combines Japanese and Western Bladesmithing styles, using the san mai method of wrapping Damascus steel around a core of high carbon steel. I liked the ones with Hudson’s Bay pattern scales

Christian Roy with both Damascus and single steel hunting and kitchen knives

Veinot Knives

Pretty sure I know who got this one

Colourful handles

If you want really colourful handles, Muskoka Turner is an amazing source

Ok let’s end with art knives, Jacco Van de Bruinhorst aka JVB

Wolfgang “Wolfe” Loerchner and his hand filed works of art

A technique he passed down to his daughter Elizabeth…enjoy your new knife Parminder

And now for some people of the show! Great to see waterfowler again.

Sharp & Fiery, one of the moderators on Bladeforums

with ceriksson, knife forum moderator on CGN

Bigjay, Usual Suspect on Usualsuspectnetwork! So we have all major knife forums represented!

Super Grimsmo collector, Bob from Chicago

Micaeli!

Sincere apologies to Vachon Knives, Ulysse Robert Knives, and Ikigai Knives I think I missed your tables and I do try to get them all.

There you have it, another incredible show! Thanks to the organizers, exhibitors, and my co-photographer, ceriksson!

Let’s see if we can make it three rooms and four bank machines next year!

RL