Increasing knife selection in my store, need simple recommendations of most popular

[cowgirl55]

Have trail riding outfitter store and have sold knives (nothing special stuff) for close to 10 yrs. Decided to increase my knife selections and upgrade to name brand just because #1, I like knives and #2 It is the only thing in the shop that the men actually stop and look at, ask to see or discuss with their buddies. My problem is don't know alot about knives except what is flip, a fixed and a tactical. Am located in rural area with lots of local deer,hog and now bear hunting, but also where I get lots of traffic from every state into a small federal park in Southeast with camping,riding,atv,hiking and hunting. If you needed to fill 3 or 4 show cases with knives, and please keep this simple!!, give me a style like Flip and 3 or 4 models/brands you would buy, same for fixed, tactical, some custom?, nice ladies styles, etc. Please think about this for me, it is my winter project and I will start looking and buying this winter for 2015 spring. So glad I googled and found this site because it led me to the Blade show in Atlanta and am checking my schedule to attend. Hope I haven't overwhelmed anyone, this is my first post and it is a Doozie!

 

[mnblade]

Sounds like you'll need a selection of Case knives.

 

[harkamus]

Spyderco, Benchmade, Buck, Zero Tolerance for folding knives. ESEE, Ka-bar Becker, Swamp Rat, Strider for fixed. Each of these brands have various designs and sizes. There really aren't a lot of lady knives out there IMO. For ladies, just pick some of the smaller sized knives. Unless...you meant stuff like pink knives or some other girly color.

Custom...too broad to define since they can easily go into the 500+ dollar range.

 

[craytab]

Kershaw, ZT, Benchmade, Spyderco. Names like that.

One thing you could do is go over and look at the exchange forum here: http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/forumdisplay.php/672-The-Knife-Exchange

Specifically look at what other members are buying and selling on the secondary market here. You will see the names I listed above quite often.

 

[GlockandBalls]

Here's a start that will get your knife selection very relevant.

Folders:
-Ontario Rat 1 and Rat 2
-Spyderco Delica, Endura, Tenacious, Manix 2
-Kershaw Cryo 1 and Cryo 2, Skyline, Blur
-Benchmade mini Griptilian and reg Griptilian
-Cold Steel Mini Recon 1, Medium Voyager
-Zero Tolerance 0350, 0560, 0566
-SOG Flash 1 and Flash 2
-Buck 110, Vantage, Bantam.

Fixed Blades:
-Ontario Rat 3, 5, 7
-Becker BK2, BK7
-Esee Izula, 3, 5, Junglas
-Kabar USMC fighting knife
-Bark River Bravo 1, 1.5, 2, and Gunny
-Fallkniven F1, S1, A1
-Buck 119, Punk, Hoodlum

 

[Ankerson]

Spyderco, Benchmade, Zero Tolerance, Becker, COLD Steel...

Swamp Rat and or Scrap Yard.

Maybe a Strider or 3...

 

[BladeCommander]

Folding Knife Brands (recommended models in parentheses)

Case (various)
Buck (various)
Benchmade (556, 551, 710, Hunt line, 555, Triage)
Spyderco (Tenacious, Persistence, Delica, Endura, PM2)
Kershaw (various)
Cold Steel (voyager, recon, tuff lite)

Fixed Blades (not much help here)

Buck
SOG ??
KaBar-Becker