2018 East Coast Gathering (ECG) - Sunday April 29 in Alexandria, VA

do we have a guess on head count for the ECG?

 

It is at 26 right now, including some spouses/ SOs. But quite a few people have not been very affirmative yet. I am pretty sure we will top 40 people.

 

I have sent out more info via email to those who have expressed interest in attending. We are down to 9 days, so anyone else who is interested please send me a DM with your name and an email address. We are at about 30 people right now (including SOs), so there is room for more.

 

Now only 5-1/2 days away

Emails with event info and Saturday night dinner info have been sent to all who expressed interest so far. If you did not receive an email please indicate below, or send me a DM. We still have some empty seats for the dinner, and plenty more room for the ECG.

 

i have a blade in the brot-max i think im going to redo the wood on it and i neeed to mill the action clean (it wedges) but we will be able to play with it

 

Looking forward to it. See you tomorrow!

 

Some pics up at #kkfecg2018.

I'll add a few more tomorrow. Hopefully some other attendees will past as well.

It was another great event. I think it was the most knives yet, with knives covering 6 tables plus part of an island. The food was killer, both literally and figuratively. Spicy bacon, ribs, pulled pork, fried chicken, dry-aged ribeye, cookies and drunken bread pudding. The healthiest thing was a fritatta made with onions and potatoes

It is always great getting to spend time with forum members and their spouses/ SOs. And the dinner Saturday night at Zaytinya was a real treat, with ChefCosta taking very good care of us. Thank you to all who were able to come.

 

such a great day the people the food ... maybe some knives.

 

It was great seeing everybody again. Lots of amazing foods for sure. Theory killing it with his fried chicken station. Seriously, frying chicken to order!
Bill's dry aged ribeye being sous vide? Nuts!
Kevin's corn beef was awesome.
And Andrew's ribs were straight MONEY!
Of course we can't forget the spicy bacon candy that I had way too much of. No regrets though.

I was surprised by a couple knives that sort of piqued my interest. One was a 210 standard Kato. For some reason that really gelled with me.
Another is one that James is offering at knives and stones. It's the stainless
Sakai Takayuki Syousin Gin-Sakura Wa Gyuto 240mm (Ginsanko). That was a fun one as well.
A Haburn 220ish Damascus western that Kevin had really tickled my fancy also.

Plus seeing so much of Butch's work. Hard not to break the bank with so many of his knives laying around.

I posted a bunch of cell phone pics on my IG account, marc4pt0knives using #ECG if anyone wants to see pics

 

And of course I can't forget the side by side of my modified ZKramer (compliments to Jon) and David's actual Kramer. Whooahh!

 

I can't believe I forgot to mention the corned beef!

 

So bummed I missed it......... again. Sounds like good times had by all!

 

It is a pity that so few photos.

 

There are quire a few on IG at #kkfecg2018 and #ecg.

 

so what cut better?

 

A big thanks to David for organizing and hosting! Thanks to everyone who brought something to share, whether food, drink, knives, company, or enthusiasm.
I'm glad I was able to stay for a while this time.

 

The zKramer by a good margin. Of course the real one just felt better and more refined in hand. That's to be expected though. But for pure performance, your tune up took the cake for sure.

 

yeah... kramer really makes nice knives. A lot of people like to make fun of him or his prices, but I have a lot of respect for how he works and his knife making. I'm not personally a huge fan of using his knives, as i have a serious japanese bias, but its hard to not appreciate them for what they are.

 

In defense of the real Kramer, it has only been tuned up by Bob, and not by Jon, so it may not have been a fair comparison

As far as "appreciating for what they are", I could not agree more. Love them or hate them, he has real reasons for every design element on the knife. His design is based on his own preferences from his days in a kitchen. In my opinion, it is better to have reasons then to just make a knife to a certain profile based on aesthetics and not performance. My main reason for deciding to pick this one up was that I had first-hand experience listening to him describe his journey as well as his knife development. His passion is there -- way more so then a hunting knife maker who decides to move into kitchen knives because there is less competition. To a certain extent, one of his knives is like a piece of U.S. history, as he definitely helped open the doors for custom U.S. kitchen knife makers.

 

Well stated, David....... grass root with passion!