Frustrating trip to the knife store

My best customers are the guys who know the most about knives and how to use them. I'm happy with that.
 
The ignorance at knife stores pales in comparison to that on display at Renaissance Fairs. Not that I'm any kind of knife expert, but gosh...

The difference is that the sellers' nonsense is often surpassed by their customers', many of whom are fantasy role-players or re-enactors and who imagine themselves to be quite proficient swordsmen -- knights, samurai, swashbucklers, etc.

But hey, whatever makes them happy. As long as they don't insult my personal weapons, we're cool, and since I never go to those things in costume, I don't have a problem. ;)
 
It occurred to me that this guy is a business owner who gets a margin of profit for the knives he sells. If he started steering people to HI, Uncle Bill would benifit but not him. He may very well know that HI products are superior but it is against his business interests to admit that anything other than what he is selling is any good. I still think that if this is the case then he should focus on only the positive aspects of what he sells and not badmouth the competition
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Quite possible, and I agree:)

I know how you feel. I have been in a certain knife store in a yuppie town just north of Portland. Not to name the store
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:D Ahh, that would be the very same store if I read you right:D Did the young guy have glasses and sideburns, darkhair, kinda chubby? That's the fool I dealt with.

BTW, there is an excellent gun shop about 2 miles out of town--old style with woodstove in the corner and a great guy name Paul who runs it, he is one of the good guys, does business like Uncle Bill. If you haven't been, you really should check it out. Email me if you want the name. I am out near Sebago Lake in the town of Windham. Not to far from you:)

Oh, BTW I forgot to mention this. When I was in there and talking to tweedle dee and tweedle dum, one of them offered to sharpen my khuk on their belt driven polisher:eek: Don't even want to think about what they might have done to it:eek:
 
Rob,
Yes, we speak of the same shop and it sounds like the same chubby, rings a bell clerk. I have been to Bennetts many a time. You are correct, he deals with people like Uncle Bill does. He always has a smile and a good word for you. Good Man for sure. He also has the best ammo selection around these parts. As a matter of fact I think he is about the only small shop in these parts any more.
It is nice to hear that we are almost neighbors. Maybe in nice weather we can start our own Konvention. It at times pains me not to have others to share the fun (or disorder) with. I tend to love your area. I used to camp and fish on the far side of Pebody pond for years, until all the logging started. That sort of killed the area for me. It was a fun pond to canoe and camp on though. Go up on old Baldy and watch for the bald eagles that used to frequent the area back then.
I hope that we may meet one day and share Khuk lore and even a good beer! Take Care. Rick S.
 
there seems to be a considerable number of Mainiacs on this forum...something about khuks that appeals to the true Downeaster, I guess!
Rob I haven't been into that 'knife store' but I hear their radio ads on the classical music station WBach all the time. It has always seemed to me that they are trying to appeal to the same know-nothing yuppie 'outdoorsman' (or their missconception of real Maine outdoorsmen) that L.L. Bean is now catering to, and that the whole Freeport 'shopper's mecca' has devoted itself to becoming. :barf: It's another feature of the spreading 'gentrification' of Maine that out-of -state immigrants with more money than sense have introduced into our midst.
I'm far north of that contamination, in the wilds west of Bangor...where we know what a good knife is...and how to sharpen it ourselves.
The gunshop you mentioned sounds like a good one...I'll have to remember it if I get down that way. Of course, Kittery Trading Post, while it has grown rather big and varigated, still has a firearms department upstairs that is staffed by people who know what they're talking about...I've found good stuff there many times...and they are on the web, for those of you unfortunate enough not to live in Maine!
Ken
 
It has always seemed to me that they are trying to appeal to the same know-nothing yuppie 'outdoorsman' (or their missconception of real Maine outdoorsmen) that L.L. Bean is now catering to, and that the whole Freeport 'shopper's mecca' has devoted itself to becoming. It's another feature of the spreading 'gentrification' of Maine that out-of -state immigrants with more money than sense have introduced into our midst.
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Ken, you took the words out of my mouth! My friends and I have said the very same thing time and again about Freeport and Southern Maine in general. Bean's doesn't even seem like the same place it was 15 years ago:( You really should check out Bennett's---it is one of the last real old style gunshops. If you can imagine a physical space the cantina would occupy, its Bennett's(just substitute khuks for guns--nah, in a perfect world merge the two, have Uncle Bill and Paul Bennett running their respective halves--man, that would be some store!!:D ).

BTW, there is a good sporting goods store that is more like the old L.L. Beans in Camden (maybe technically Rockport). Of course I can't for the life of me think of the name right now:o But when I think of it I'll email you.
 
Originally posted by Bill Martino
Long ways from Reno.
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Even a sorry storefront has a purpose if they do indeed actually carry decent knives instead of all United Cutlery stuff.
You can make a trip there to check out a knife you've been wondering it you would like.
I think a little, but only a little, of putting up with the dumbass help most of the stores have is worth being able to check out a knife one is unsure of.:)
 
I'm always amazed when I find competent help at almost any store I visit -- one of the main reasons I hate to shop for anything.
 
Even a sorry storefront has a purpose if they do indeed actually carry decent knives instead of all United Cutlery stuff. You can make a trip there to check out a knife you've been wondering it you would like.I think a little, but only a little, of putting up with the dumbass help most of the stores have is worth being able to check out a knife one is unsure of.
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Good point!:D

I'm always amazed when I find competent help at almost any store I visit --
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So am I.
 
I know I'm in trouble when I ask for directions to the polishing rouge and they send me to the cosmetics department.
 
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