Australians! Where do you buy your knives?

HandofCod

HandofCod

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I"m not sure how many Aussie bladeforumites are out there so this thread might bomb. But there's only one way to find out1

I'm just starting out in the world of knives but have bought many items online. I'm wondering where people prefer to buy their knives and other related gear online. This thread could serve as a way to track performance of retailers, share experiences and review of pricing, sales and offers etc.

Please add or comment to this list. The more people to do so, the more useful this will be.

Knives Australia
Mail order with online Catalogue - no direct online purchases.
Very prompt service. I was unsure how it would all go down given you can't use Paypal or an online merchant but everything went seamlessly following the instructions. Bought Kabar USMC Short at a good price.
Prompt delivery.
Not a very huge list of brands though.

Cutting Edge Knives
HUGE range of knives, axes and other items.
Prices are okay but not comparable to US prices
Pay via Paypal
Good prompt service. When item was out of stock email came back with 24 hours offering alternative purchase or refund. Gave accurate time to restock (1-6 weeks, came in four). Item online however continued to list as In Stock on the website.
Update: I've had some great experiences with Cutting Edge thus far - two shipments, the last one a F1 with left handed sheath and strike force arrived in 6 business days.

Kitbag
Sells mostly military and professional gear. Huge range or items.
Pay via online merchant or Paypal
Seem a bit tardy with their orders though. Two orders placed so far and each have taken a long time between ordering, purchase showing on credit card, and finally delivery of items. I enquired about one order via email and had a prompt reply though.
UPDATE: Bought pair of medium sized kevlar lined gloves, first pair too small so ordered a large size. Gloves turned out to be IDENTICAL in size despite being Medium and Large. Asking for a refund now. Keep you posted on how they treat this farce.
They have offered to refund but not a word of surprise, apology or explanation. I don't think I'll be buying from them again as I get the impression they sell cheap crap, at least the items I've ordered so far.

Wellington Surplus
Good range of knives, gear and collector items
Never purchased from here because prices have always been (much) lower elsewhere (see above).

Plat-a-tac
Stockists for military gear, Snugpak, knives and outdoor tools. Overall not a bad range. They've also just revamped their website to make navigating much easier, very good presentation.
Pay via standard online merchant.
Had very good experience with them buying a sleeping bag at cut price, VERY quick delivery.
Update: Walked into Platatac store in Melbourne, guy behind the counter doesn't know what a RAT or ESEE is and wishes he didn't stock SOG because they are crap... But they do have a good selection of Benchmade folders on display so you can see and handle before you buy.

Has anyone purchased from overseas retailers? Was it cheaper overall? Any problems with customs/shipping?
 
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I am currently in the middle of purchasing stuff from Ron at urban conquest.

You can use paypal and Aus post money orders, which is what I did, safer I think, and I don't have a paypal, so its a plus for me. Also Ron, can get many knives, and other bits of gear, and the postage is a good price, @ about 12 bucks, maybe a few more for WA. and you only pay postage on the first knife, if you buy more than one.

Ron's prices are a bit high, but as overseas sellers can't accept money orders, urban conquest is quite easy for me to deal with, I'm fine with paying that extra bit of money

EDIT: also email and CS is good, Ron responds to most email pretty quickly
I'll let you know how it all goes through
 
^Interesting site. Sort of looks like he's an ad hoc importer. I'm very interested in seeing if the price comes out comparable with Cutting Edge which I think services most of the online knives market here in Oz.
 
well one of the comparisons I could find is the delica FG G10, which I was thinking of getting

Ron @ UC has it for $150 +12 for postage - no more for postage on futher knives - not sure if there is a limit though
CEK has it for $214.20 and $10 for postage - however an additional 2 bucks for every item after that

But CEK do have some good prices on some things
 
Go to the Oz sub-forum here and look at the sticky at the top for some links.

You could also log onto the Oz knife forum and see what you can find there.

Cutting edge failed my first test so I dealt with Ron from UC. He's fast and friendly and he's also a member over on the Oz forum.
 
Emailed Ron at Urban Conquest on a Sunday night and had a reply waiting for me in the morning. He replied at 11:50pm! Great service.
 
I have dealt with a Tasmanian based ebay knife seller a few times - they are easy enough to find on the Australian ebay site. Very reliable and pleasant to deal with.
 
Just bought a sleeping bag through Plat-a-tac as a very good price.

Ordered on Monday. Arrived on Thursday. What more could you want?
 
sweet I'll have to try them next time I order some gear
how's the sleeping bag?

Also can you only get what they have in stock, or can they order in items for you?

EDIT: forgot to add this in - got my order from Ron @ urban conquest - all good just waiting on a couple more things - but I ordered them after, so really, Ron can ship it out to you pretty fast, I got my new g10 dragonly, sharpmaker, UF rods, some paracord and a firesteel and torx bit thingy.
 
Not bad! That's quite a gear list... and I thought I was the only one trying to single-handedly prop up the economy.

I'm sure they'd order stock in for you at Plat-a-tac they seem like a fair large operation. The sleepingbag? Tested it out last night a Mt Franklin and it got pretty cold over night - I was completely fine with the Snugpak Elite 2 though. Glad it arrived when it did or my crappy blackwolf would have had to do.
 
sounds like a pretty good sleeping bag then, coz I've only gone camping with blackwolf and brands like that, and I thought they were ok, so the sleeping bag brand you used must ahve been really good
 
The black wolf I have was never designed to go below 5 degrees so on comfort level anything below 8 degrees is going to be a problem. I once naively camped out on Mount Wellington about 700m up the mountain. By the end of the night I was wearing thermals, tshirts, fleece and socks plus my goretex jacket over my face. That was one cold night.
 
sounds like it was a rough night

was that the first time you bought something from platatac?
 
Yep - incidentally I wandered into their shop in the city and had a brief look around. Got talking about the knives he had on display and it became apparent he held some fairly particular views on knives.

They stock Gerber, Benchmade and SOG. He said he thought SOG were crap now that they were made in Taiwan and he wish he didn't sell it. When I asked whether he sold RAT or ESEE knives he said he didn't know what company I was talking about. I mentioned the life time guarantee and he said that sounded like a stupid business practice.

I told him to check them out and left thinking what a bizarre conversation! Maybe buying online isn't such a bad thing afterall.
 
yeah thats what I like about UC, and I want to try platatac and knife center eventually. But I'm thinking of getting A FB soon, but I wish there were more stores in Aus, and where I am that actually stocked RAT and other brands. That way I could handle the knife I'm thinking of buying. But I'm guessing that it costs too much for the smaller businesses to stock them.

A bti annoying, as all three of my knife purchases have been off of online pictures and reviews, but I was lucky as both have been great, and I am waiting on the third.
 
I've purchased from the US from Knivesshipfree.com, great people, very helpful, prompt delivery. It only took about 7 business days all up to arrive.

CuttingEdgeKnives were the other people I bought off, good stock, maybe a little expensive compared to overseas. My main problem was their site saying In Stock when it wasn't. So something I thought I would get in 1 day, or 2 days seeing as I lived 40min away turned into weeks.
Other than that slight hiccup they seemed fine.
 
not to hijack, but has anyone here had experiene with kitbag, gonna place a decent order with them (50 bucks worth) and just want to make sure its all good. I think I recall someone saying they were good

EDIT: I did read HOC's experience with them in the OP, but has anyone else bought stuff from them, I'm buying one of their trekker space pens, and 50 bucks is a fair amount for me.
Also if anyone knows an australian sites that sell it for cheaper, coudl you PM me or email, would be nice to know.

thanks
 
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Another plug for Ron at Urban Conquest here. I have used him several times.
His prices seem to be lower than most others (local) and the customer service has been great.
 
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