For custom knife maker Gary Griffin, the Central Oregon Gun and Custom Knife Makers Show represented a recent “paradigm shift” in gun shows.

“Most gun shows are dingy and dark,” said Griffin. “This has a well-lit, friendlier atmosphere. There’s a lot more women involved.”

Indeed, the atmosphere was informative and bright at the show Sunday at the Deschutes County Fair & Expo Center. Held indoors at the North Sister Conference Hall, 38 vendors sold knives, guns, ammunition and a host of related products, according to event promoter Sue Bridwell.

“They’re all itty bitty pieces of obsession,” said Griffin, standing behind his display of 20 or so hand-forged knives of varying sizes. Perhaps the most exciting was a 3-pound saber called the “Lion’s Tail.” Its steel blade is made from old parts of a Chevrolet.

Griffin’s knives have a range of uses, from skinning an animal to “tactical” purposes, he said. Some feature a wrench and bottle opener.

Behind Griffin, a pair of women from Creswell sold fashionable concealed-carry handbags in a range of sizes, from demure shoulder bags to the everything-but-the-kitchen-sink variety.

“I couldn’t find a bag I wanted to carry,” said Alicia Brincat, the owner of Twelve-Six, a custom holster handbag and purse business. It’s the company’s first Central Oregon show, said her business partner, Tanelle Azzatto.

The show ran from Friday through Sunday and registration for vendors sold out a month ago, Bridwell said.

Bridwell, who lives in Bend with her husband Terry, said they came up with the idea together.

“There hasn’t been a real good gun show in Central Oregon for some time,” she said. The Oregon Trail Gun Show, also held at the Expo Center, allows many products other than guns and knives.

“They let a lot of other things in,” said Bridwell. Everything at this weekend’s show had to be gun- or knife-related, she said: no Tasers, stun guns or archery equipment.

Terry Bridwell is a custom gunsmith, competitive shooter and general gun enthusiast who has been interested in firearms “from a historical perspective” since he was 3 years old.

He said that as the U.S. has transitioned from an agricultural to a “cosmopolitan,” urban society, the use of and perspective on firearms has changed. People are much more apt to collect items these days than use them in their everyday lives, he said.

As far as gun safety goes? “It falls to personal responsibility,” said Terry Bridwell. If you don’t take the proper precautions with a car, kitchen knife or drain cleaners, they can become weapons too, he said.

Each vendor signed a contract before being permitted to sell at the show, Sue Bridwell said. Businesses are required by law to run a state background check on the buyer, while individual sellers must fill out a form and pass a background check as well in order to sell their wares, she said.

More than 800 people so far had come from far and wide to buy, sell, trade or just look around, said Sue Bridwell.

“I’m just window shopping,” said Jason McPheeters, of Bend, who attended the show with a friend in tow. He too has been interested in guns and knives since he was a small boy.

This weekend was not ideal timing, as many people are out enjoying the first weekend of hunting season, said Sue Bridwell. The Bridwells plan to expand the show and hold two each year — one each in the spring and in the fall.

Door prizes were awarded by raffle each day. Friday’s winner scored a brick of ammo, and two lucky winners on Saturday took home an ammo brick and a Lost Creek Armory gift certificate, respectively. Sunday’s door prize was a knife custom-made by Griffin.

R.E.A.C.T. Training Systems, a Prineville outfit that has offered training courses in gun safety and personal defense since 1995, offered quick safety classes to visitors. A R.E.A.C.T. instructor, Chris Smith, demonstrated safe handgun handling to an audience of four in the room adjacent to the expo hall.

“What’s the most dangerous thing in this room?” asked Smith, pointing to a brick and a fake gun on the podium. “It’s you, the human.”The class covered safety tips ranging from proper stance to holster technique.

“We’re going for the antlers,” said Mary Brothers, who attended the class with her husband, Bill Brothers.

The couple hunts for shed antlers but is also concerned about encountering cougars and other beasts off the trail.

“We just want to be safe,” said Bill Brothers.

— Reporter: 541-383-0376, cwithycombe@bendbulletin.com