I went of Friday ... VERY VERY busy first thing, but thinned out significantly within an hour or two. Some of it much the same ... but some regulars missing, and some changed ... Phil Irons without a single bit of blue metal for instance and The Tool Room not present with any heavy metal either ... a marker of the economics of Stirling v's $AU and the Euro I think? Also, marked lack apparent (to me at least, maybe I missed them) of the "show discounts" I've seen previously ... if you had in mind a number of purchases and saved them for the show, you could refund your ticket/fuel/etc costs and more ... this year seemed mostly list-price for everything ... would have been (and I saved quite a few notes for later) better to go for the post-free bargains off the net.
Did pick up a couple of nice bits of yew from English Hardwoods though ... and a couple of big/heavy scraper blades from Ashley Isles (with tangs thrown in for free) ... I want MUCH longer handles (50-60 cms rather than about 30) for deeper/bigger bowl work (especially after a nasty accident a year or so ago where a dig working a long way off the rest with a "standard" short handle lost control ... I could have permanently trashed 2 fingers on my left hand!) ... why don't they have long handles like the hollowing tools ... or equally, why no bowl scraper blades for these multi-tool handles?