Good knife stores in Oregon and Washington

T

TheBleedingEdge

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Apr 14, 2010
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Road trip time!

I'm planning a road trip from Los Angeles to Vancouver Island, and I wanted to know if any of you Northern Californian, Oregonian, or Washingtonian knife nuts had any suggestions for good knife stores close to the I-5 freeway.

I'm setting aside a...erm...discretionary budget just for knife purchases during the trip. :D

Knife stores currently on the list:
  • Columbus Knives, San Francisco
  • We Be Knives, San Francisco
  • Shaver & Cutlery Shop, Oakland
  • Benchmade Corporate Store, Oregon City
  • Leatherman Corporate Store, Portland
  • Hawthorne Cutlery, Portland

Any other recommendations?
 
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I work in SF and have heard that We Be Knives is a great shop. I called them about an Al Mar SERE that I wanted, and they said that they can pretty much order anything. The guys on the phone are really knowledgeable, but be prepared to pay MSRP or higher from them, given their super high rent location. Columbus Cutlery on Columbus Ave. looks more family owned and I might make a lunch time run there. SF is a good 1+ hrs from I-5 though. Also, try Dublin Knives and Guns. Much closer to I-5 for you, right off of I-580 in Dublin/Pleasanton area. I think I went there a few years ago and they had lots of knives to look at. IIRC, prices were very decent, too. Sort of in a small strip mall off the beaten path. Look them up on Yahoo local and you'll get a map, too. In general, this part of the state has few knife shops unless their part of a hunting store. Have a nice trip and drive safely.
 
Well I see that you already have Hawthorne Cutlery in P town on your list so thats about all I can recommend. Definately check them out, they have a good selection of nice production knives, and a ton of nice customs from all sorts or makers along with a nice case of William Henrys. Plus the owner and workers there are really somethin. They yell across the store and cuss like sailors but definately are good guys.
 
There is a cool little knife shop in Gearhart, Oregon -on the 101 highway. They have a great selection of ZT, Kershaw, Al Mar, and lots more. They even have some amazing custom knives by local makers.

Stop by Seaside and check out the turnaround too. :D:thumbup:
 
There's really not much between Sacramento and the Portland area worth seeing if you're sticking to I-5, knife shops or otherwise. Which is sad, really, considering the number of custom knife makers around here.
 
Scott Neelan said:
There's really not much between Sacramento and the Portland area worth seeing if you're sticking to I-5, knife shops or otherwise. Which is sad, really, considering the number of custom knife makers around here.
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Yeah, I noticed. I went down to Street View on Google Maps and it looks like a barren stretch of highway. That's probably going to be the second leg of our hard-burn up the country - the first, of course, being from Los Angeles to San Francisco.

The good thing is, a lot of those custom knife makers tend to sell their wares to stores in major cities, so I should be able to find a good selection of items in the San Francisco area.
 
TheBleedingEdge said:
Yeah, I noticed. I went down to Street View on Google Maps and it looks like a barren stretch of highway. That's probably going to be the second leg of our hard-burn up the country - the first, of course, being from Los Angeles to San Francisco.

The good thing is, a lot of those custom knife makers tend to sell their wares to stores in major cities, so I should be able to find a good selection of items in the San Francisco area.
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It's not quite as bad as it looks at first glance. Redding is a decent-sized town (80,000 people, so I can't quite call it a city), but I don't know about any cutlery shops there. Medford, OR is about the same size, and Eugene is a bit bigger, but neither had anything special worth going out of your way for as far as knives go. Most of the good places to hit are either in Portland or in the small towns along the coast. The scenery in this part of the state is beautiful, though. If you weren't sticking to I-5, I could recommend a LOT of great parks, campgrounds, etc.

But getting back to knives, the best time to come through here is in April for the OKCA show in Eugene. I went for the first time this year, and it was definitely worth it.
 
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