[Chad Arnow]

Whatever happened to some of the smiths who were active a while back but seem to have dropped off the map?

Guys like Al Massey, Glen Parrell, and Randall Graham?

[Jonathan Hopkins]

Al Massey appears to still be active. He posted a new sword at SFI back in March.

http://www.swordforum.com/forums/showthread.p...ght=massey

[Patrick Kelly]

I dealt with both Glen and Randal for various reasons in years past. Both were talented but seemed to lack any kind of real business acumen. I suspect this has a lot to do with any so-called disappearance. Let's face it, most of these people are craftsman not business people. They do it because they love it not for any sense of profit. It seems that many of them can actually become too successful and when that happens they don't have the resources to handle it. Most seem to live on the ragged edge of security and it doesn't take much to push them over the edge, especially in the current economy. Recently I spoke with someone from the industry and he commented on how empty the Atlanta Blade Show had seemed this last time, "scary" is the word he used to describe it.