A funny occurrence at a store

Chiro75

Chiro75

Joined
Feb 4, 1999
Messages
5,786
I was recently at a large outdoor prodyct retailer in a new mall in Coralville, IA, and was looking at their nice selection of knives. The carry Spyderco, benchmade, Case, Knives of Alaska, etc. Your usual outdoors stuff, but interestingly, rather incomplete in the full lines. Anyway, a customer was wanting a decnet knife for some gardening work of some type. I didn;t hear what else he required, but the guy showed him the usual Bucks and whatnot. The customer asked the kid (probably high school, judging by his lazy attitude and inability to communicate) what else he had to show, at which point the kid moved him in the direction of the case holding the Benchmades and Spydercos.
I think the customer liked the looks of the sheepsfoot on a Rescue and Rescue Jr, and commented on them. The kid's reply was "Spyderco makes OK knives, but they're ugly as all get out, and I don't like 'em compared to Benchmade". He went on to point out a few tantos and whatnot that would "make for excellent tools in the garden", at which I was tempted to stab the kid with my first run, pre-bent Calypso, but thought the escape route was scetchy, so I held off. Anyway, against the kid's judgment, the customer was smart enough to go with some cheap Buck of some type, chich should do much better than an overhardened spec-ops knife ala Benchmade! Anyway, I though it was funny and ironic, especially considering the ugliest knife )Rescue) probably would've been the best for the purpose! Oh well. Speaking from personal experience, you can't appreciate a Spyderco until you close your eyes and hold one in your hand! ;-)
 
I just had a similar experience with a gentleman in a store I haven't visited in at least a year. Now I realize that there are Spydie fans and Benchmade fans, and that is OK, but...

I got to hear how he had never heard of ATS-34 chipping or showing any brittleness...
how Spydercos were all ugly and he didn't like the hole at all...
how opening my knife with the "drop" was slow and I would drop it (he carried a Sentinel in what appeared to be a pouch!)...
and how it was "all about Benchmades" and he had never seen any quality problems with their knives.

I felt like I was talking to myself five or so years ago, before I got to spend serious time around a knife store watching Benchmades come in from distributors with serious lock problems, or from customers with broken points; before I got to personally take apart dozens of BM knives and see their quality control up close; before I had enough practice with the "drop" not to sling my knife into the floor when doing it quickly and suddenly; and before I learned to appreciate the unique "beautiful ugliness" of a knife bearing the "hump" (though some I still have my reservations about).

I've come fully around to Spydercos now (well, I make exception for the lost sheep AFCK); could this be a sign of maturity?
wink.gif


(I'm joking, of course - a mature knife lover would appreciate everything and not take sides... but maybe it's a step on the path, anyhow.)

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-Corduroy
(Why else would a bear want a pocket?)
 
Don't get me wrong, I really have ne beef with Benchmade, it's just that they really pretty much produce one knife with one purpose in mind, and they have a few variations based on that one thing. Spyderco is more versatile, to say the least. I found it incredibly amusing to picture some guy with a Stryker in BT-2 coating trying to do yardwork! Just struck me as amusing!
 
One purpose?

I don't know about using a Benchmade Stryker in the garden, but I have a customer who is a carpenter who swears by his as a work knife.

A year and a half or so ago, in the Benchmade Forum, there was a post by a guy whose aged and arthritic mother got him to give her his Model 9700 Emerson design auto, because she could use it for gardening work a lot easier than she could squeeze the garden shears. In California, no less.

And then I meet people who can't believe there are non-combative uses for this or that Spyderco, like the Merlin that's ideal for working with fish nets, and also good for cutting up bunches of grapes in the kitchen.


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- JKM
www.chaicutlery.com
 
I think that just about any Spyderco would be great in the garden, though my choice would be the Merlin/Harpy. Pruning and similar tasks are where hawkbill's really shine...

Clay

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Clay Fleischer
cdfleischer@yahoo.com

"My redneck past is nipping at my heels..." -BF5
 
Yeah,

This Benchmade Spyderco thing blows me away.

I work at House of Cutlery in the Spokane Northtown Mall, owned by the same guy as knife.com, I got the job because of my product knowledge being a nut.

But people come in with this blind attitude about brands that just drives me nuts. They are not even remotely interested in being shown the features of other knives.

Of course it doesn't help that we don't carry the full Spyderco line to dazzle 'em with.

MDP
 
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