1st Annual Knife Dogs Awards

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I think this is a great idea as well . We have some GREAT makers on this forum .
The only suggestion I would make concerns the Special Award . There are SO many Wonderful Makers who have done So much for the new Maker - Most Live Here on KD - that the naming of it could be the hardest part of this .. it'll just be a popularity contest ..​
I suggest the Title for that award has no ones name attachted to it . Truly it is KNIFE DOGS - The Forum - That is now the Leader in helping the new Makers . That is what makes this place and its Members different than the others ..​
It is KNIFE DOGS which now is synonymous with decent people treating each other decently . Look at all the good works and benefits we have done for others ..​
The KNIFE DOG SPECIAL AWARD FOR blaa blaa ... If it must have a name , then maybe the name of the Man that got us together and helped us change the face of how things should be done ..​
 
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I agree with Mike -don't discount a Gil Hibben Award. The whole plan sounds terrific and thank you, Steve, for coming up with the plan.
 
I agree with Bill. I know there are some great makers and some great people that have helped the knife community but if this is going to be an award presented by knife dogs than I think they should represent knifedogs. Some of the names being thrown out aren't even members. I like the idea of a simple KnifeDog award. By naming it his we are saying they represent what knifedogs is about an that is a great honor in itself.
 
You 2 have a point!

I am thinking The Mickley award.............Given annually to the one person voted most recognizable
for their efforts, participation and knives put out through the year.

I already have a person picked for this:)
 
I can see it and agree either way. It IS the KnifeDogs award and perhaps that is what it should be.

On the other hand, it was suggested the award honor someone who has contributed to the world of knives. In that case, I think it should be Gil. There are a lot of great knifemakers and several great teachers. But few have taught as many or contributed as much as Gil has in his over 53 years of making knives.

Gil is sometimes critcized for licensing his designs for mass production but when he first did that, it gave a huge boost to the industry when it desperately needed it. His low-cost "fantasy knives", movie knife replicas and throwing knives got a LOT of people interested in knives. He is not a member here but he simply does not participate in forums and spends little time in front of a computer.
 
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Just so you know Mike , I LOVE Gil , and I agree with everything you've said about him . He truly is a Legend that NO ONE will ever come close to . He signed my Guild papers at my 1st NY Custom Show in 1989 . To this day , I consider it one of the biggest things that happened to me in my Knifemaking (career?) .
 
Point well taken, Mike. Gil is certainly a living legend in this industry.
This is great discussion and it will be interesting when it all comes down to a vote. I'm looking forward to the whole process.
We are all going to learn something here.

Hey, maybe the annual award honors a different Giant and maker every year, who knows???
 
Once I'm set up again (in about a month),
I'd be honoured to make the wooden plaques for this:
I'd supply the wood and labour, and you could arrange for the engraved plates...
anything I can do just let me know!
 
Playing Devils Advocate here:
1. too many awards makes them not worth winning, a maximum of 10 would be good.
2. If a named award ie. Gil Hibben then he needs to be involved in the awarding otherwise meaningless also I have some moral reservations about using someone elses reputation for our award.
3. How do we determine winners, so much is determined by the quality of the picture and the talent of the photographer.
4. Who determines winners ensuring not a popularity contest.

Great idea but the devil is in the details.
Steve
 
SVanderkolff said:
Playing Devils Advocate here:
1. too many awards makes them not worth winning, a maximum of 10 would be good.
2. If a named award ie. Gil Hibben then he needs to be involved in the awarding otherwise meaningless also I have some moral reservations about using someone elses reputation for our award.
3. How do we determine winners, so much is determined by the quality of the picture and the talent of the photographer.
4. Who determines winners ensuring not a popularity contest.

Great idea but the devil is in the details.
Steve
Click to expand...

These are some very solid points, I would have to agree with them.

Maybe just name the named award "the Top Dog Award'' that way it is directly related to The website and the people here.
For voting I feel it could be done in two ways:
1. Public nominating by the members, admin, and mods. then have the voting on the final nominations by the same for the winners.
2. Public nominating by the members, admin and mods. Then have the voting for the winners done by the mods and admin.
there are probably better ways to do it but that's what I have thought of.

I also feel that the awards should be given for more categories but like said already for the first year keep it a small number.
the reason why I say this is because there are more knife types in each category: like fixed blade hidden tang, fixed blade full tang, slip joint, liner lock, frame lock, and so on. But then you would also have to go to the extreme of saying best bowie, best hunting, best camp and so on.
So yeah there could be 100 categories but it would not make much sense to do them all right now.

If we want ten to choose from I would have to vote on:
1. Best Damascus Fixed Blade
2. Best Single Steel Fixed Blade
3. Best Damascus Folder
4. Best Single Steel Folder
5. Best Art Knife
6. Best Neo Tribal Knife
7. Best Leather work
8. Best New Builder
9. Best Educator (hammer-ins, etc)
10. Collectors Award
11. Top Dog Award

These are my opinions as of now, I will probably have more ideas as the topic goes on.

Wow I cant believe I just typed all that:biggrin:
I will stop now:35:
 
I find myself agreeing with Mr. Vanderkolff's first bullet point... I think we should keep the number of categories limited. Here's my best shot:

1. Best Fixed Blade
2. Best Folder
3. Best Tactical (Fixed or Folder)
4. Best Art Knife (Good Neo-Tribal could fit here)
5. Best Leatherwork
6. Best New Builder
7. Best Educator (hammer-ins, etc)
8. Some Special award (I think this should go to someone who makes Knifedogs a great place to hang out... be that a moderator, a maker, a supplier, or just someone who makes us all laugh. This would be a person who is integral to the whole KD experience.)​

Anyway... that's my attempt to narrow the list down. Eight still feels like too many categories for me... maybe Art Knife could go away as well and be rolled into one of the first two categories.

Erin
 
Steve,
You are correct, this will be a learning experience. The best we can hope for is to improve it every year.
My original thought was to pare it down to three finalists each and have it judged at BLADE by a non partisan panel. This would incurr great expense which no one is prepared to pony up.

The fact that the CELEBRITY award has created the most buzz means there is great passion about it. If it doesn't make sense when the time comes, it will fall away. That award doesn't have to be given every year either.

It's nearly impossible for this not to be a popularity contest to some degree, but I think that most of us can look through photos, either pro or home grown, and glean the true quality and innovation of the knife. I would hope that this would be the basis for your vote and not the fact that someone threw you a piece of pin stock. I saw admirers of Bruce Bump tell him on BF that although they were his fans that they liked someone else's work better in that particular category. He graciously thanked them for their honesty.

I followed the BF awards recently and it was a source of healthy debate, (Is a fighter really a bowie,etc), that is why we are going to avoid having individual knife styles as categories. I'm willing to bet that even separating tactical and non tactical will cause a stink, but this is good for a forum such as ours. The people who argue (present) their opinions can enlighten others, also good.

I'm pleased that this thread has brought this many responses so quickly, but I see way more views than responses.
Now is the time to step up and state your opinions, we need everyone's help.

Steve
 
I have to agree with " The Top Dog Award " . To be recognized as a key player on THIS site , speaks volumes about that person .
To be honest , I know quite a few of the Dogs that embody that ideal ... I would be hard pressed to pick just one .​
 
I think we will need to avoid naming an award after someone, living or passed. There is a just a lot of baggage there. We can ask "celebrity knife personalities" to participate in judging but that might be most we should impose on a reputation. We need to keep the names related to KnifeDogs...
 
Hey Boss,
If we vote by the standard poll that is part of this software can we invite an outside celeb who is not a member to participate?
 
As I sat here sleepless early this morning I typed out a really long response to naming an award after an individual. I then dozed off and deleted it when I woke (don't sleep and type for the world to read). I must agree with the others. If we are to choose an award which will honor an individual member for exemplifying the ideals of Knife Dogs, why would we name it after a maker? That makes absolutely no sense. With that being said, if in ten years we find that "Moe" has won the award eight of the ten years it might make sense to name the award after him. The simple fact is that it is the Knife Dog Of The Year or Knife Dog's "Top Dog" Award.

Just my $0.02 dogs.
 
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