There's a lot that goes on at Blade Show every year, but one thing that people really look forward to are the Blade Show Awards. These are the awards given for makers and knives in different categories. These are the 11 different categories for production knives.

The big winners this year was Giant Mouse, they took home Overall Knife of the Year in the production category for their GMX folder. Also, a new company RoseCraft Blades got their first Blade Show Award, Import Knife of the Year for their Clinch River Swayback. Here's a list of all the awards that were given out in the production category:

Overall Knife of the Year: Giant Mouse GMX

American-Made Knife of the Year: Benchmade Narrows

Imported Knife of the Year: RoseCraft Blades Clinch River Swayback

Most Innovative American Knife: Buck 590 Paradigm

Most Innovative Import Knife: Maserin W-Lock

Manufacturing Quality: Spartan Blades Limited Edition Spartan-Harsey Folder

Best Collaboration: We Knife Co. Solid (collaboration with Gustavo T. Cecchini)

Best Investor Knife: Shirogorov Knives Mini Quantum CD

Best Kitchen Knife: MKM Prima

Best Buy: Kershaw Iridium

Accessory of the Year: Work Sharp Professional Precision Adjust

There's just 24 hours left until we draw a winner for this OKnives Heron L1 knife!

The folks at OKnife have sent me their new Heron L1 folder to review, and they were nice enough to send an extra one along to give away.

I just got them in yesterday afternoon and I'm a bit rushed to get it posted, because they are also having a flash sale on these from April 16th to the 22nd.

Today I had a great chat with SOG founder Spencer Fraser, and members of his team. Spencer is retiring and we wished him the best on behalf of the fine folks here at MTO.

But what's going on with SOG? We all know that SOG has produced some really interesting designs over the years. Their compound leverage tech for multitools is effective too. But as you can see through the threads on our forum, the quality has not always been up to par. My conversation with SOG leads me to believe that they're listening. They're changing up what they're doing and they'll be moving away from lower end retailers like Wal-Mart, and Amazon, meaning they won't be catering to that price point market.

I was happy to hear that they've been reading threads here on our forum. They heard how annoyed MTO members were with the giant flashy SOG logos on all of their products, and the concerns over material and workmanship.

They're currently in the middle of a re-brand and they say they're going back to their founding roots. They're moving away from “SOG” and going back to “Studies and Observations Group”.

Their newest multitool was designed prior to the changes and re-brand. I will admit that I am not sure it will be one of my favourites, however I am really into their new knife line up. They feel very good in the hand, and the quality to me matches the clever design.

I'll be posting more about the knives when I have a moment later, but I wanted to share something with you ahead of time. I had an opportunity to see where Studies and Observations Group is headed for 2021 and I am pumped. It looks like, for the first time in a long while, we might have a unique plier-based multi tool. I viewed some early designs which I wasn't permitted to take photos of, or describe. But I will say that we have something to look forward to in 2021. And I think SOG will be one to watch. SOG has always been good to us at MTO, and our fingers are crossed that their new multis are what we're hoping for!