Knives in Michigan

Joined
Jun 14, 2016
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77
Hey everyone, I apologize if this is in the wrong section of the forum! I was curious to see if anyone here is from Michigan and if so if anyone knew of any great brick and mortar stores that I could check out to see some great knives in person before I go ahead and make any purchases. I'm from Lansing and I'm totally willing to drive a few hours for a great store! We used to have an awesome store here called the Knife Trader but it shut down a few years back and all of my searches turn up the normal sporting goods stores.

Im sure someone will mention Bark River - and while I'd love to visit at some point (if they even have a store), Escanaba is nearly 400 miles away.

I'm looking for basically any kind of knife store. I want to buy everything from folders and fixed to new kitchen cutlery for work. Thanks everyone!
 
Knives Ship Free has a showroom but it's in the same town as BRK. DLT traders is in Marinette, WI, perhaps that's closer to you than MI.
 
Marinette is further, unless you take the ferry across the lake.

National Knives is in Michigan. I don't know if they have a brick and mortar store, but the owner is such a nice guy I'm sure he would let you stop in and shop.
 
I'm in Lapeer, about a half-hour East of Flint. I have heard that Knives Ship Free is nice, but I have yet to make it there to check it out. There is a gun shop in Marine City (Centennial) that stocks several good brands of knives; ZT, Spyderco, Hinderer, Strider, and a few others. I saw their booth at a gun show at Gibraltar Trade Center, and they had a nice variety there, but I haven't made it to the shop yet.
 
Thanks for the tips everyone! I'll be in the U.P. (Upper peninsula for those not from here) camping this summer so I'll have to wait until then! Sending an email to National for when I'll be up in that neck of the woods in the next few weeks!
 
Rylee's Hardware in Grand Rapids has a pretty good selction of knives. The Wolverine Knife Collector's Club has a spring show in Novi on the last weekend in April.
 
Welcome ! I am in the capitol city as well. I do dearly miss Knife Trader what a great store. There are not too many knife stores around but all the gun shops have a few decent brands . Drop me an email through the forums if you feel like it; always interested in talking to a fellow knife guy.
 
If you're in the area KSF is easy to find right on US2, which is the same road you'll take all the way from the bridge. We are about an hour to the south of them, just across the border into Wisconsin.

BRKT does not have a store but us and KSF have the largest selection of their knives. If you see it on either site, you can see it in store.
 
If you're in the Saginaw area, Cabelas carries Benchmade ,Kershaw and ZT , the Cabelas exclusive 940 would be sweet!

I'm in Livonia MI. The Cabelas in Dundee MI has a decent selection. Prices are darn near MSRP in the store but you can fondle before you shop online. Some of the local gun shops have knives too but I don't know of any "must see" stores.
 
ill second rylees in gr. most impressive selection I've seen in a single building. but their prices are high.
 
If you're in the area KSF is easy to find right on US2, which is the same road you'll take all the way from the bridge. We are about an hour to the south of them, just across the border into Wisconsin.

BRKT does not have a store but us and KSF have the largest selection of their knives. If you see it on either site, you can see it in store.

What a class act Eric, giving directions to your competitor to help a forum member out. Impressive.
 
Silver Bullet in GR (Officially Wyoming) had a few options, several kershaws and CRKT's when I was there a few years ago before moving but the guy selling me stuff carried and talked highly of benchmade even though they were far above my price range at the time. They are primarily a gun store so their stock is limited but fair as they aim at the tactical market I think. I know they're still around as they hold CCW courses regularly.

Harry's Army Surplus in Dearborn Heights is where I get my stuff locally now that I'm on the other side of the state. They have a fair selection of the basics in BM, spyderco, CS, and many other more budget brands in stock but they can order a lot and they've been good to deal with. Prices aren't the best, compared to online prices, but that's typical of of physical location stores vs online. I like that I can handle the knives and see them in person before making a decision. I have found they'll get some less common knives like a OKC carter prime that I was really eye-balling for a while online but it's feel in hand was completely different that I was expecting, so it was nice to see and hold that in person. The shop puts benchmade as the top brand as the owner (or manager) used to live out by the benchmade factory supposedly.

I don't know of any other bigger knife stores around.
 
Wow! The amount of advice I've received from everyone has been incredible! I'm honestly going to try and make it a point to stop pretty much everywhere I can! I travel around the state frequently, so making a stop off isn't too difficult. Thank you so much everyone
 
Wow! The amount of advice I've received from everyone has been incredible! I'm honestly going to try and make it a point to stop pretty much everywhere I can! I travel around the state frequently, so making a stop off isn't too difficult. Thank you so much everyone

Let us know if you find a hidden gem of a store as well. I occasionally get surprised by some of the small outfitter stores in what they carry. It's not usually tactical stuff unless it's a gun store that promotes CCW (IMO) but you can find some nice hunting and outdoor type knives. I feel like a lot of the small shops carry buck and the like, kind of the old classics, but I've seen kershaws and CRKT and more mid-range knives in some and have a fair selection.
 
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