Knife dealers from the past.

Kilroy1107

Kilroy1107

Joined
Aug 1, 2022
Messages
189
Anyone remember Phil's Fine Cutlery in Las Vegas NV. I remember meeting and buying from him at the great knife shows that use to be held at the old Riviera Hotel and Casino Las Vegas in mid 90s. Still have his knife catalog with prices and descriptions. Before computers and websites only mail order back then. InkedInked20220912_102722 GGGGtttt.jpg
 
Besides LL Bean, which used to advertise fishing and hunting gear before it went all fashion conscious (they do still make good jackets), there was Herter's Catalogue, which I used to memorize. Herter wrote all his own copy. You can still find some vintage Herter's Catalogues on-line. This was back in the Dark Ages when you had to walk across the room to change TV channels, so I'm dating myself.
 
at one time, Abercrombie & Fitch was THE sporting goods dealer par excellence. I remember my grandfather taking me there in the '70's to see their incredible shotgun selection.

It's also where Bob Loveless sold his first commissioned knife...the Delaware Maid. Imagine going to a dealer and being able to walk out with an engraved Beretta shotgun and a Loveless knife?

The current teen clothing store bought the name but obviously offers a completely different product.
 
Ron Sabbagh said:
at one time, Abercrombie & Fitch was THE sporting goods dealer par excellence. I remember my grandfather taking me there in the '70's to see their incredible shotgun selection.

It's also where Bob Loveless sold his first commissioned knife...the Delaware Maid. Imagine going to a dealer and being able to walk out with an engraved Beretta shotgun and a Loveless knife?

The current teen clothing store bought the name but obviously offers a completely different product.
Click to expand...
I made a pilgrimage to the A&F store in Chicago quite a few decades ago to see the racks of gorgeous, walnut-stocked shotguns and rifles, not to mention the knives in the glass front case.
 
I remember my neighbor always got the SMKW catalog and when he was done with it, I'd look over it for hours. Never had the money to buy though.

My dad got Cabelas which was coop as well, but I'm not sure if I ever ordered anything.

When I was a boy, Hasbro had 3 transformers that were mail in only. I bought 2 of them with money from my paper route in 3rd grade. Still have them, Camshaft and Downshift.

There was also the mail order create your own G.I. Joe figure. Always wanted one of those.

My parents were very young and money was scarce. My first two birthdays and Christmas' were stuff I already had. They just wrapped it, I didn't know any better.
 
When I was a kid of maybe 9 or 10 I ordered an imitation "Swiss Army knife" from an ad in the back of a comic book. Dad provided me with a check. This was around 1979-1980, and as was typical of the times, I was informed that I would have to wait "6 to 8 weeks for delivery". That's what life was like ordering stuff back in the old days.

The knife came from the Westbury Sales Company in New York. And along with the knife I received several large, fold-out, black & white, one-piece paper catalogs of other Westbury products. Mostly knives, but also some odd things, including a "water pipe".

My friends and I used to lust over those "catalogs". There were lots of "weapon" style knives, including various folding stilettos. We would dream of ordering those knives, even trying to get one of our fathers to write a check, but it never happened.

I eventually threw away those "catalogs", but I regret it. As for the imitation SAK, after several years of faithful service certain non-stainless steel parts had begun to rust, and when one of the handle scales broke off, the knife ended up in the trash. But I still have the good memories. :)
 
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There was a sporting goods store on the east coast, Herman's
They had a pretty good knife counter and I always wanted a Gerber dagger that they had in the case, but I couldn't afford $75 for it.

Before the Internet I would hang on to the SMKW catalog for a week filling out the order form.

Then I'd write a check and mail it to them, turn around was about 3 or 4 weeks ( some of you guys would die waiting that long now) :)
In the 1990's SMKW started taking fax orders with a CC#, I thought that was fantastic, cut the wait to only 2 weeks.
 
In the 80s I shopped Hoffritz and later The Remington Store. They were my go to brick-and-mortar knife shops. I used to buy a lot through mail order too...Brigade Quartermaster, Atlanta Cutlery, A.G.Russell and many others I've forgotten the names of. There aso used to be local gun shops that sold knives but many are gone.
 
Hoffritz was the earliest dealer I remember, I'd ask my mom to take a certain route when shopping in NYC, so I could see the window display. Then one day when I was 10 or so, she took me to Paragon -

(
).

It was awesome to see, but usually too rich for my blood.

Most of my pre-internet collecting came from two sources - 1) SMKW. My friend's dad used to get it, and we'd pool our money for a large order. Many hours were spent plotting on the school bus. You had to be quick, many times the best deals would sell out within a couple of days of the catalog. If you snoozed, you'd lose.

The second dealer was Skyland's Cutlery of Ringwood, NJ. He'd set up at some of the larger Northeast gun shows sometimes, and he dealt in high end stuff for the time - Cold Steel, Boker, Spyderco, Al Mar, custom Benchmade butterflies, Emerson, Kit Carson, Timberline, etc..... Awesome guy, carried the full line usually, and wouldn't steer you to something else just to make an extra couple of bucks. Sometimes he'd even show me the custom Emerson's, Carson's, etc....., pulling them out of the display even though there was no way I could afford them at 14-15 years old.
 
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Paul's Discount. Farm & Fleet, (Iowa) Grandpa's Sporting Goods (Clarksville, TN), Carl's Gun Shop, Bass Pro's world head quarters store. (Missouri)
Only mail order/catalog knife I bought was from Dixie Gun Works. A regulation double edge 12 inch blade Buck Skinner Rendezvous competition throwing knife. Sent a postal money order for the payment, if memory serves.
 
When I was a kid there was a store named Service Merchandise that was unique in that you wrote down an item number and your item came down a conveyer belt from the storage room. Bought many a blades there when I was a kid. Mostly SAK and a Buck 110.
 
Ron Sabbagh said:
at one time, Abercrombie & Fitch was THE sporting goods dealer par excellence. I remember my grandfather taking me there in the '70's to see their incredible shotgun selection.

It's also where Bob Loveless sold his first commissioned knife...the Delaware Maid. Imagine going to a dealer and being able to walk out with an engraved Beretta shotgun and a Loveless knife?

The current teen clothing store bought the name but obviously offers a completely different product.
Click to expand...
My understanding is that before that A&F was the outfitter par excellance for your complete expedition. Want to go on safari in Africa? The real kind with gun bearers and a decent chance of becoming lion chow? You would call up A&F and they would have pallets waiting for you on the dock that had everything from guns and ammunition to mosquito nets to salt and pepper. It was a different world.
 
K.O.D. said:
.

When I was a boy, Hasbro had 3 transformers that were mail in only. I bought 2 of them with money from my paper route in 3rd grade. Still have them, Camshaft and Downshift.

There was also the mail order create your own G.I. Joe figure. Always wanted one of those.
Click to expand...

I didn't get those but I did get the Super Trooper G.I. Joe that was mail order only. Still have him too!

Also used to mail order the Paris island cap and cork guns, some of the nicest kids replicas ever made. I'm sure many mothers would go into melt down now at the sight of them.
 
mmyron1 said:
When I was a kid there was a store named Service Merchandise that was unique in that you wrote down an item number and your item came down a conveyer belt from the storage room. Bought many a blades there when I was a kid. Mostly SAK and a Buck 110.
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Service merchandise was the best. It was always fun going there as a kid.
 
WorldKnives.com, I used to browse it all the time but the single guy operating it retired. It's hard to find US distributors of many, many European brands, I recently became interested in actually acquiring some of what I used to peruse but discovered the site was gone.
 
I really like AG Russell. They've been around forever and still continue to hang on. They've had knives made by all sorts of companies for them throughout the years, as well as selling all kinds of knives from other companies, that I don't think get seen by many people on here any more. I like to browse what they have, if nothing else to pay homage, from time to time.
 
Growing up in the 1970s and 80s, Mack’s Hardware, Wire Hardware, and the Trading Post were all within a couple of blocks of my house. It never would have occurred to me to look for knives somewhere else. This wasn’t in some idyllic Mayberry, either, but a suburb of a major city - I’m sure they must have been available from other nearby stores and malls.

All three places have long since been put out of business by big box retail.
 
mmyron1 said:
When I was a kid there was a store named Service Merchandise that was unique in that you wrote down an item number and your item came down a conveyer belt from the storage room. Bought many a blades there when I was a kid. Mostly SAK and a Buck 110.
Click to expand...
I also remember Skyland's Cutlery of Ringwood, NJ from the Northeast gun shows. Purchased many knives from him. Great to deal with. I think he retired years ago. Also remember my father and I buying my my first fixed blade knife as a kid in 1970s in the Northeast Service Merchandise store. I still have it a Kabar USA #1202 knife.

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