Fortytwoblades works at a really nice knife shop in Maine. Hopefully he'll chime in at some point. I can say from the time I've spent in knife shops (as a customer myself) that the customers can be really, really, really annoying. But the same could be said about any type of retail job.
Wow--I'm a little late to the party here! I've been a bit busy with samily and school lately so my time online has been minimal. Yeah, the customers can range from terrified sheeple, to old timers who think that we "don't make steel as good as they used to," to folks who are genuinely interested in learning more (by far the majority), and forums members!
I generally do what I can to educate even the most stubborn or individuals, though I also try not to argue with them either. Sometimes you just have to laugh when someone comes in and asks if we have any of them "Krenshaw," "Buick" or "Benchmark" knives. It's worth mentioning that our knife pads on the counters have BENCHMADE written right on them but people insist on mispronouncing it anyway.
I wonder if the Obamas stopped in to browse while they were in Bar Harbor last weekend?
Nah--the Secret Service wouldn't let them get within a mile of a place with five counters of knives and a sword display in the front window, even if the other half of the store sells women's clothes and jewelry. We were hoping he'd come in and pick out a William Henry or something, but he just went up the street and got a coconut ice cream.
It's in downtown Bar Harbor, but I forget the name. I've been gonna stop in and visit but haven't made it to the coast yet this summer.
It's called Jekyll and Hyde.
I was there last year and had no idea he worked there. I spoke to two guys at the counter about a Benchmade Nagara...maybe one of them was Fortytwo
If one of the guys you met had about six RAT/ESEE knives and/or Condor machetes strapped to him, that was Ben/ Fortytwo.
Haha! Sounds like an apt description of me. Hey ans7812--this is me, just so you know. Chances are you at least saw me there. I'm sort of the resident sharp stuff guru/knife doctor there.
As far as working at a big box place like Cabela's...I can't say as I recommend it. I tried working there one winter and it was awful. The selection was totally wrong (better stuff out there for their market in the same price range or less) and no one had a clue what they were doing. The knife counter was part of the sport optics counter, and while the company has an employee training program for optics, they don't have one for knives. There was no feedback system for modifying the arrangement--corporate decided what you got and when they saw fit to send it, so we had folks looking for Case all winter, and yet were only "issued" a single trapper that sold in two days. Then we never saw them again.
At one point they had a "hot buy" on Leeks for only $30--but failed to mention either to the staff or to their customers ANYWHERE in their fliers etc. that they were all factory seconds! Every single one of them had badly burnt tips, and many had stripped screws or faulty spring assists. If it weren't for the fact that I'm an actual "knife guy" and not just someone who thinks knives are "awesome" then the "XXXX" on one side of the blade on all of them wouldn't have meant anything. For a company that claims to care about their customers I felt that was more than just a little underhanded.
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