This is a special year at Blade HQ – it’s the first annual Blade HQ Knife Awards! All of the new knives at Blade HQ from 2023 have been considered, and a team here at Blade HQ has compiled a list of nominees in six categories: Folder, Fixed Blade, Auto, OTF, and Overall Knife of the year. Those nominees were sent to the most dedicated knife enthusiasts we could find for voting, and on December 29, we’ll find out the winners!
Here are answers to some questions you may have.
Which knives were eligible for nomination?
To be considered for the knife awards, knives must meet the following criteria:
- They must have been first available to purchase in 2023
- They must have been available at Blade HQ
- They must be a knife
- They must fit at least one category of the awards
How were knives chosen for nomination in each category?
Knives were chosen by a panel of knife experts at Blade HQ. They considered hundreds of options in each category and selected the nominees based on which knives sold the best, represented significant innovation in mechanism or design, and received the most praise internally and externally.
Doesn’t Blade Show have knife awards?
Absolutely! Blade Show hosts an awards ceremony at each of its three major events: Blade Show Atlanta in June, Blade Show Texas in March, and Blade Show West in October. These best-of-show awards focus on what knives were presented to their panel of expert knifemakers. Blade HQ’s awards, on the other hand, take place annually in December and are in a best-of-the-year format. Instead of a small panel of judges, we use dedicated enthusiasts from the community.
This is also why we don’t give awards for customs. It’s much fairer for an expert panel to judge a one-of-a-kind custom knife up close and in person than to send a survey to thousands of voters.
We are not trying to replace Blade Show’s awards, but instead, to complement them meaningfully. We will continue to discuss Blade Show awards in our communication while adding discussion of Blade HQ’s Knife Awards. Receiving either is a significant honor!
How are winners selected?
Blade HQ’s loyalty program Blade Club has tens of thousands of members, and some of them have reached the Zirconium tier. To reach this tier, someone must spend over $1,000 in the space of a year at Blade HQ. We know these people are some of the most discerning knife enthusiasts in the world, so we sent them a survey to select the winners. Their results will be published on December 29!
Why wasn’t X knife nominated?
There are numerous reasons why many knives weren’t selected. Perhaps it’s just a new colorway of an older model (like the Crater Blue Benchmade Bugout), was released after the nomination process was complete (like the Microtech LUDT V3), or it was released in years prior but only arrived at Blade HQ in 2023 (like the Squid Industries Tsunami). Also, several knives that were really cool didn’t make the list because we didn’t want the list to be too long.
Don’t worry, the nominees are not the only cool knives at Blade HQ. There are thousands more!
So which knives were nominated?
I’ll drop the list below, as well as links to each of the products and a brief explanation of why they made the list.
For Best Folder:
- Kershaw Iridium
- The best-selling knife of 2023, a favorite for its slick design, quality materials, new DuraLock, and bargain price! The Iridium was awarded Best Buy at Blade Show 2023.
- Benchmade Narrows
- The slimmest AXIS Lock ever. This full-titanium knife weighs in at a featherweight 2.4 oz. The Narrows was awarded American-Made Knife of the Year at Blade Show 2023.
{/* and so on for all other categories and nominees */}
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Which knife won in each category?
Well, you’ll have to tune in to our YouTube channel on December 29 to see the Knife Awards Ceremony! We’ll see you there!
