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AWARDS 2023: Winners & Prizes

AWARDS 2023: Winners & Prizes

The Australian Knife Making Awards is a free to enter, online knife making competition run every year in May.

The 2023 AWARDS ended Wed 31st of May with the Winner Announcement live stream where Riley Burns from Nordic Edge and Christian Mathieson from the Australian Knifemakers Guild showed all 12 winners across the 4 categories.

Here are the summary slides from the live stream if wanting to catch up on this year's winners and prizes:

Riley:
Before we start showing the winning knives;
let's just quickly introduce ourselves;
I am Riley Burns, I am Head of Events at Nordic EDge.
That means I get to do more of the fun stuff like talking
to makers when we go to Shows,
and to host the AWARDS again this year.
It's been fun following the AWARD knives come together on
social media as the month has progressed, and
We are excited to share some of the best knives with you tonight.
Christian:
And I am Christian Mathieson,
I am the Head Judge for the AWARDS this year.
That means I am representing the Australian Knifemakers Guild
in making sure we have some of the most experienced
knife makers in Australia judging the winners you will see tonight.
It has been fun hosting the live streams with Riley
and I am very pleased how many Guild members put their hand up
to help out this year.

Riley:
This is actually the 4th year we are running the AWARDS!
We started the AWARDS back in 2020 when we were all in lockdown.
As something fun to do while mostly just sitting at home,
an online knife making competition sounded like a good idea at the time.
What we had not planned was how much the makers taking part
appreciated the judging feedback they got on their knives.
So we thought we'd do it again, and again, and here we are!
On the last night of the 4th year, I think we can safely say we have
seen some truly nice knives come through,
and hopefully encouraged
some new makers to get out there and go to a physical knife
show as well.
Christian:
Some stats from the AWARDS this year;
We had a total of 50 knives entered across the 4 categories.
The most popular Category was "BEST IN SHOW" with 23 knives.
Not sure if that is due to the Prizes, or the fact that this is the only
category for damascus, but as one of the judges on the category,
I can tell you there were some truly nice knives this year.
We had no knives discqualified this year, which is great.
There were 2 knives moved from Best Chef Knife to Best in Show,
due to not being monosteel.
The "no damascus or san mai" was a new requirement this year.
Something we tested out to try separating Best in Show and Best Chef Knife
categories a bit more.
Let us know in the comments what you think about the changes in requirements,
so we can take this onboard for next year.

Riley:
Now, it is time to see some winning knives!
The first category is the "BEST KNIFE FROM KIT" category.
This category is for makers who use ready-made blades,
being judged on making the handle themselves.
This year we only had 3 entries, and 2 of them are not
really "Kit knives" as in the makers made the blades as well.
We decided to judge them in the category they had entered,
as these are brand new makers and between the 3 of them had
made a total of 5 knives.
Christian:
Making the handle is a key part of every knife.
Some say "the blade makes the knife, the handle sells it",
and what the judges are looking for here are how the knife looks
overall, the materials used, but most importantly it is about
execution.
How well is the handle shaped, as well as how well is it finished.
Are there scratches on the spine, pins or the handle materials
themselves.

The Judging team for the BEST KNIFE FROM KIT
consists of makers from Nordic Edge and a few of the sponsors.
The Judges are:
Riley Burns, Chris Neale and Bjorn Jacobsen from Nordic Edge
As well as Rod Hoare from Rod Hoare Images, who is sponsoring
one of the prizes and several of the giveaway prizes tonight actually.
Troy Hageman from On The Mark Engraving,
another experienced knife maker and sponsor.
Together with Ewan Gibson from 84Engineering,
these are the people who judged this category.
Bjorn, Rod and Troy are all Guild members as well, as far as I know.
But more importantly we have all made enough knives between us,
to hopefully be able to give some good feedback to the makers.

The 3rd Prize in the Best Knife From Kit category is NATHAN HOWARD-OSBORNE.
Nathan is a beginner maker from Wondai in Queensland,
who has only been making for a year. This is his third ever knife, and we can see
it is starting to come together nicely.
The knife is an outdoor style knife with blade in 1084 carbon steel,
and the handle is from micarta with brass pins.
Nathan scored well on the flow of the handle, it has good lines and look comfortable to hold.
Of the knives entered in this category, Nathan got the most judging feedback on how comfortable
the handle lines look and for the sculpting done to the micarta on only his third knife.
The judges provided more detail on how to improve his fit and finish, to remove the scratches
visible on both handle and pins.
Overall, that is a great third knife.
Well done, Nathan.

Christian:
The Prize for the 3rd spot in the BEST KNIFE FROM KIT,
is a Axe Wax and Broach combo from Nordic Edge.
As a new knife maker you will probably be fitting stick tangs
pretty soon, and the broach is a helpful tool here.
Nathan also wins the first trophy tonight,
well done!

The 2nd Prize of the category goes to ... SHANE
 WHITE.
Shane is another beginner knife maker, living in Elizabeth North in South Australia.
This is Shane's first ever knife, made from a basic kit from Nordic Edge he bought after the
AWARDS had already started
Having pulled this one off as his first ever knife is quite impressive.
Shane has brass bolsters front and back, both of which are angled.
Of the knives entered in this category, Shane's knife scored the highest on Technical Complexity.
The Judges gave some feedback on fit and finish, and suggested shaping the handle a bit more.

Overall this is a great beginner knife and the judges were impressed.

The 1st Prize in the BEST KNIFE FROM KIT Category,
goes to Lawrie W from South Yarra in Victoria.
Laurie used a Brisa Trapper blade he bought back in 2017 to make his first knife.
Making the handles from ringed gidgee with white and black G10 spacers.
Lawrie scored 6.1 of 8, scoring high on overall impression and consistency of finish
The handle looks comfortable and with clean, flowing lines.
The detail shot shows there are no visible scratches neither in the blade belly, or the
ringed gidgee.
This is a really well done handle for a first knife, the judges gave some feedback on
how to sculpt the handle a bit more for the next one, but overall very well done.

For taking out 1st Prize in the Best Knife From Kit category,
Lawrie wins a $200 gift card from 84Engineering.
Should you want to get more into knife making, you cannot
go wrong with some equipment from Ewan and the team at
84Engineering.
As well as the prize, you also get the trohpy of course.

Riley:
Before we introduce the judging panel for the next 3 categories,
I wanted to take a moment and thank the Guild for partnering
with the AWARDS again this year.
Rather than just getting a trophy - or not - when you enter the AWARDS,
you also receiving detailed scores across a range of criteira.
And we know this is something makers taking part keep saying they appreciate.
Christian:
The Guild is here to support and encourage knife making in Australia.
And using the experience we have in the Guild to help new and experienced
makers improve, is part of why many of us are in the Guild, I would think.
Having done the judging again this year, I can tell you it is a lot of work.
It takes hours going through the judging forms, looking at the photos,
scoring the different criteria and try to be as detailed as we can.
But more importantly, we give judging feedback on the knives.
This is to give some advice on how those makers can up
their skills, what to focus on next, kind of thing.
We are going to share some of the Judging feedback tonight
when we show the winning knives;
But all makers taking part will receive all the judging feedback
from their category on email tonight or tomorrow

Riley:Now here are the Guild judges volunteering their time
to help this year.
Shawn McIntyre
Kevin Slattery
Peter Del Raso
Craig Maher
Stacy Hall
Warrick Edmonds

As well as
Mark Sinclair
Mark Cordina
Mark Barrett
myself Christian Mathieson,
and Nick Edwards.
Now Nick Edwards submitted a knife this year,
in the Best Knife in Show category, so we made sure
Nick did not judge this category.

Riley:
The next category is "BEST BEGINNER OUTDOOR KNIFE".
This was another category that had some new requirements this year,
we decided to up the game by all knives needing a metal guard.
So the knife had to have a metal to metal transition, in the form of a guard
if stick tang, or bolsters if fulltang.
From the high quality of knives we got last year, we knew we could make this one a
bit more difficult, and we were not dissapointed.
Another new criteria was that the blade had to be monosteel, no
damascus or san mai to focus the field a little bit.
Christian:
The BEST BEGINNER OUTDOOR KNIFE category is a
"beginner" category, meaning the maker cannot have won in the AWARDS,
exhibited at a physcical knife show, or be a member of the Guild.
There is also a criteria of not self-identifying as an "Advanced" maker,
and the monosteel requirement means you cannot get points for making
your own beautiful pattern damascus and still be counted as a beginner.
Riley:
We had 17 knives entered this year, and the judging took a massive effort.
On average the 8 judges spent EACH spent 4.5 hours on judging this category alone.
There is an impressive amount of work going into the scoring and judging,
and the judging put a lot of effort into giving good feedback to each maker.

The 3rd Prize in the BEST BEGINNER OUTDOOR KNIFE category,
goes to Chris Boone.
Chris is from Surry Hills in Victoria, and has been making for about 2.5 years.
This is only his 4th knife, a medium sized Seax.
The blade is from W2, hand filed with a filing jig and heat treated in a tin can forge,
quenched in canola oil.
The blade has a visible quench line, made more visible by etching in ferric chloride.
The judges scored Chris high on CONSISTENCY OF FINISH,
with both blade and handle at a consistently high level of finish.
Overall impression is good with flowing lines from the blade into the handle, the curve and shape
of the handle.
Some pointers for next time included maybe adding a ricasso, and consider blade length vs height.

Riley
For taking out the 3rd Prize in the category,
Chris wins a trophy as well as another pack from Nordic Edge.
This is a combo consisting of your choice of Hybrid Handle Block,
and a large Knife Assembly Mat made in Tasmania.
Get onto Nordic Edge to see what Hybrid blocks we have in stock from
Ginger Beard Blades, and let Bjorn know which one you select.

Christian:
The next knife is from Dylan van den Bosch.
Dylan takes the 2nd Prize in the Best Beginner Outdoor Knife category,
and really impressed the judges.
It is great to see new makers enter the scene, and Dylan is one of those.
He is only 15 years old, and have already been making for 2 years, he says.
Dylan lives in Rose Bay, NSW and has not yet exhibited a show,
but from what we have seen so far, he is probably not far off joining us at a show!
The knife is in W2 with a 163 mm blade and 152 mm handle.
Total length 327 mm with a 4 mm spine,
the guard is a san mai of mild and high-carbon steel, and
handle in fiddleback blackwood.
The Judges scored Dylan high on both Consistency Of Finish, and Overall Impression.
Some of the feedback for improving the next one was around the ricasso and
bottom of the handle should be a continous line, as well as maybe add a pin
to the handle both for strength and for drawing the eye.
As well as spending a little more time on the guard fit-up,
Overall this is a very nice outdoor style knife, and considering
Dylan is only 15 years old, we are even more impressed.

Riley
For taking the 2nd Prize in the Best Beginner Outdoor Knife category,
Dylan wins a custom made maker;s mark from
On the Mark Engraving.
This means Troy will help with the graphics work if needed to make the
logo itself from your design,
then make you a 16 mm steel stamp for hot stamping blades.
Troy is also part of the Nordic Edge tribe,
having designed the Nordic Edge anvil, and
started his company over the last couple of years after playing around
with his laser.
If anyone else wants a stamp for leather or steel, get onto Troy on facebook,
as there is no website yet.

The 1st Prize in the BEST BEGINNER OUTDOOR KNIFE,
goes to Samuel Crute
Sam lives in Ucarty, Western Australia, and have been making knives for about 2 years
The winning knife is Sam's 17th knife,
a harpoon clip blade in 1084 carbon steel,
With stainless steel bolsters and pins, and handle in stabilised black palm.
Overall length is 190 mm with a 81 mm blade,
The Judges were impressed with this one, commenting on the flow and the
complexity of the bolsters.
Consistency of Finish was another criteria that really helped Sam score high on this one.
Several of the judges mentioned working on fitting the bolsters to the blade,
having a really flat ricasso and hollowing out the middle of the bolster underside,
to help avoid any gaps.
This is a good overall knife with flowing lines and the matching lines in the
plunge line and front of bolster is a sign of a good knife.

For winning the Best Beginner Outdoor Knife category,
Sam wins $200 from our sponsor Tharwa Valley Forge.
Tharva Valley is the biggest knife making school in Australia by far,
and an amazing place to learn as well as to hang out.
At the KAA we have held several Blade Symposiums at Tharwa,
and it is a great setting as well as a great place to learn.
In addition to the prize from Tharva, you also get the
AWARDS 2023 trophy of course, the right accessory
for any workshop wall!
One last thing to note on the BEST BEGINNER OUTDOOR category,
is how close this came this year.
Minor details separated the 3rd and 4th spots this year,
and honorable mention goes to Glen Hunt in the 4th spot.
Christian:
Well done to all makers who took part in the outdoor category this year.
As we said before, all makers will receive the feedback and scores
for their category on email.
And should you wish more help with your knife making,
The Guild is here if you want it.
We have State Reps in all states who can help with reviewing your 3 knives
needed to join the guild.
Should you want to join the guild, you will need to present 3 knives.
Each knife is scored against the full entry criteteria which has 20 points to check.
Each knife has to score only 10 of the 20 points for Probationary level membership.
And once you are in the Guild you have access to more resources for learning.
Anyway, on to the next category!

Riley
The next category we are going to cover today,
is the BEST CHEF KNIFE.
This category also had some new requirements this year:
for the first time this is now an OPEN category.
Meaning it is open for makers in Australia and New Zealand
of all experience levels.
As well as requiring the blade to be MONOSTEEL,
so you need to impress the judges without getting points
from damascus or san mai steeel.
We ended up with 7 knives to score in this category,
and again the judges had their work cut out for them.

Christian:
3rd Prize in the BEST CHEF KNIFE category
goes to Ben Donald from Western Australia.
Ben started making knives in 2021, this is only his 10th finished knife.
He says he has attended the Perth Knife show as a customer, but never exhibited.
Ben is hoping to get his Guild probationary membership sorted this year,
and from looking at this knife he should not have any issues passing with flying colours.
The knife is a "mini chef knife" with stanless Nitro-V blade of 130 mm,
well finished to a 600 grit satin finish.
The handle is what really sets this one apart, with Juma ivory, Trustone, brass and G10.
The judges loves the overall look and the level of finish,
some feedback for improvement was mostly around design elements like blade width
vs length, pin placement as well as grinding the edge past the plunge line.
Ben scored high on material selection and technical complexity as well.

Christian:
2nd Prize in the Best Chef Knife goes to Stacey Ferris
Stacey lives in Muswellbrook, NSW and made her first ever knife last year.
Stacey won in the Best Knife From Kit with her first ever knife in 2022,
and she says the judging feedback said to "keep making" - and she did.
The knife is a full-sized chef knife in stainless N690, the knife being designed
in Adobe Illustrator to work on design and lines before making it in steel.
Overall length is 330 mm with a 203 mm blade, 2.4 mm spine and 0.3 mm behind the edge
Stacey says the handle is in stabilised silky oak, G10 and stabilised maple burl,
with the inside of the maple burl being a lot redder than the outside so that was a surprise.
Delivering something like this for a first knife is quite special.
The design overall as well as the execution, is done very well.
There is much more judging feedback coming in email Stacey,
but just mentioning here the judges suggested looking at the height of the tip vs
bottom of the bolster, and how the material in the bolster does not quite match
the rest of the handle.
Well done, and a well deserved 2nd Prize.
Riley, what do we have in the way of a prize here?

Riley
Coming in at 2nd Prize for the Best Chef Knife,
Stacey wins the trophy as all winners do.
Then in addition, she gets a San Mai Steel Billet from Jezz at
Oblivion Blades.
This is a billet with 52100 core, nickel and stainless steel sides.
It should be a suitable steel for another stunning chef knife coming up.
Jezz from Oblivion Blades is well known both as a knife maker
and for making some very cool san mai steel billets.
The billets clad with stainless steel create a nice contrast when etched,
where the 52100 etches black against the shiny stainless side steels.
Back to you for the winner, Christian!

Christian:
And the winner of the BEST CHEF KNIFE category is Aidan De Fazio
Aidan is another young maker showing great skills already.
From Humevale, Victoria Aidan exhibited at the Melbourne Show this year,
and at only 17 years of age he is already delivering some quality work.
Aidan is a probationary member of the Guild, and working on his full membership
knives as we speak.
The knife Aidan won with has a forged W2 blade with a hamon,
then the ricasso has been heat treated for colour effect as an added element.
The blade has forged distal taper with a forged finish on the top section of the blade.
Handle is in ringed gidgee with heirloom fitted spacer of mild and 1084.
Judging feedback is giving credit for the
Great consistency in finishes, great design and all well executed.
The handle is well-sculpted and the heirlook fitted spacer is a nice touch.
There were some comments about the consistency of the forged finish,
but overall the judging feedback was very positive here.

Riley
The last category tonight is BEST IN SHOW
Here the criteria are much wider - just WOW THE JUDGES.
Blade length can be up to 500 mm, twice the length from the other categories.
This is the only category for damascus and san mai steel,
in fact 2 knives were moved to this category from Best Chef Knife due to the steel
requirement.
It was the most popular Category this year, with 23 knives entered.
It was the most time consuming for the judges, spending on average
over 4 hours to get through all the knives.
Again this shows how much time the judges are putting into giving good
feedback to the makers taking part.
Ben Anderson took out the 1st Prize in this category last year
with the knife in the photo one slide here.
And this year we have even more knives entered,
we are keen to show you the top 3.

Christian:
Third prize in the BEST IN SHOW goes to Nick Edwards
Nick is a Guild member who lives outside of Byron Bay,
and considers himself an advanced knife maker.
The knife is a chef knife from his own damascus,
approx 200 layers forged into a blade with integral bolster.
Total length is 395 mm and the blade has a distal taper
starting with a spine thickness of 4.3 mm at the heel and ending at 1.1 mm
10 mm before the tip.
Handle is in rosewood with an heirloom fit.
The knife scored high in all criteria, with special mention of technical complexity
and overall design and ergonomics.
The judges suggested a couple of things to work on, such as the heirloom fit
consistency and maybe adding a handle pin as an added element.

Riley
The prize for 3rd spot in the BEST IN SHOW,
is a BigMert file guide from Nordic Edge.
This is the original supersized file guide with screw-on carbides.
A collaboration between Mert Tansu and Bjorn.
In addition to the BigMert, Nick also gets a nice trophy for taking
part in the AWARDS 2023.
We only have 2 more knives to go today,
before we hit the GIVEAWAY quiz.
As every live stream, we will end with some questions and you can win
more prizes from our sponsors.
Tonight we have 5 prizes to give out, so stay with us until the end!
Ok Christian, back to you for the 2nd prize!

Christian:
Taking out the 2nd Prize in the BEST IN SHOW Category this year,
is Will Newham
Will lives in Howden, Tasmania and has been making knives for about 4 years.
The knife is a stunning chef knife including a saya.
Both the handle and saya are sculpted in ringed gidgee and finished
to a very high standard.
The blade is tapered from 4.5 mm at the bolster to 0.3 mm near the tip.
The blade has an "S-grind" and beautiful hamon.
26c3 or "spicy white" is a very clean, high carbon steel here showing how
well it takes a hamon.
The blade is tested at 64 HRC and looks like a fantastic package with the saya.
The judging panel loved this knife, with only a few minor things to maybe
think about next time, like the makers mark etching not being up to the
consistency of the rest of the blade

Riley:
Well done, Will!
As a prize for the 2nd Place in BEST IN SHOW,
you win a custom made forging hammer from Northern Iron Forge.
Nathan is sponsoring the AWARDS by making a hammer,
where you get to choose your style and weight from what he makes.
As well as the AWARDS 2023 trophy for a spot on the wall, of course
Riley:
Ok Christian, it is time for the last knife.
The winner of the BEST IN SHOW,
the one that gets a free table at a knife show of their choice.
What have you got for us?!

Christian:
The winner of this year's BEST IN SHOW is Ben Anderson
Ben has been making knives for 6 years, living on the Gold Coast.
He is a probationary member of the Guild.
The knife has a 300 mm blade in his own custom mosaic damascus.
The pattern and contrast is striking, total length including handle is 480 mm.
The handle is in Rosewood with a "nordic gold" spacer.
Nordic Gold is a copper alloy lighter in colour than brass, mostly used in coins in Europe.
Both scoring and judging was very high on this knife, with an average score
of 7.33 out of 8 possible.
This is an impressive knife,
well done Ben!

Riley:
The BEST in SHOW 1st Prize is a table paid at the knife show
of your choice anywhere in Australia.
You can pick a KAA show like the Sydney Knife Show,
the Melbourne Guild Show, or the Canberra Knife show in December.
Pick a show within 12 months and Nordic Edge will pay for it.
As well as another AWARDS trophy for the wall, of course.
Now, Ben is no stranger to the AWARDS:
In 2021 he won 2nd prize in BEST in SHOW
in 2022 he won 1st prize in BEST in SHOW
Now in 2023 he won 1st prize in BEST in SHOW AGAIN
So he probably has a matching set of the trophies by now.
Just wanted to also mention:
There were lots of really nice knives in the AWARDS this year.
And the BEST in SHOW was no exception.
There were 23 knives entered in the this category,
and we only get to show you 3 of them.
But there were several really good ones, and the gap between the top 5
keeps getting smaller.
Honorable mention here goes to Brodin CCullagh in 4th place,
where we had to go to the second decimal point to separate the 3rd and 4th spots.
Third spot was 7.167 while Brodin was 7.112 and lost out by 0.055 Points!
And to Alex Norton who made a very technically complex one with a folder hidden inside the handle!
Christian:
The last thing we have tonight before we close off the AWARDS for this year,
is the GIVEAWAY.
As always there are some very difficult questions, and whoever
WE SEE FIRST on our dashboard is the winner.
Because the live stream goes from this app to 2 different place on Facebook,
the person popping up first where you are watching might not be the one we see first.
So how this works is simple;
We ask a question, and watch who we see popping up first with the right answer.
Riley
For the giveaway tonight we have 5 prizes.
Rod Hoare has sponsored 3 copies of the
2023 Australian & New Zealand Knifemakers book.
And we have 2 other prizes from Nordic Edge.

Riley:
That's all folks!
A massive thank you to the people who made this possible,
Tharwa Valley Forge
84Engineering
Northern Iron Forge
Rod Hoare Knife Images
On The Mark Engraving
Oblivion Blades
The Australian Knifemakers Guild
Christian:
And Nordic Edge of course.
Thank you all, see you next year!

1st Jun 2023 AWARDS 2023

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