Most impressive knife shop?

Stevens creek surplus store here in san jose california its like 2 mins away from santana row. You will fimd ka-bar,BM, crkt, cs, spyderco,victorinox, boker, gerber, h&k, and other great knives too.

On one of the piers in san francisco california there is a dedicated knife shop too.

My sporting goods store sport chalet in san jose at eastridge mall carries BM, SPYDERCO, VICTOINOX, gerber, BUCK, aNd KERSHAW.
 
HWF said:
Best one I've ever been to was House of Blades in Ft. Worth. My candy store when I lived there.
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+1.
Also, Matt, the best titanium anodizer in the world, works there. That's a big plus.
 
True North Knives in Anchorage, AK. Not huge, but good collection of your standards (Kershaw, Benchmade, etc) and a pretty diverse group of higher end productions (Chris Reeve, Busse), and a decent collection of customs. They even have a pair of shop dogs that wander around, add to the friendly nature of the place. Recommend them highly if you're in the area.
 
Smokey Mountain Knife Works has a LOT of stuff, but a lot of it is just el-cheapo stuff that I have no interest in. New Graham is a regular trip for me and a couple of my friends. Not a huge store, but it's all quality stuff.
 
rth548 said:
Smokey Mountain Knife Works has a LOT of stuff, but a lot of it is just el-cheapo stuff that I have no interest in. New Graham is a regular trip for me and a couple of my friends. Not a huge store, but it's all quality stuff.
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Yup.

Cecil Clark is a store front shop in Newport Ky., just over the river from Cincinnati. He has an online presence as BladeMatrix so his prices are competitive to any other online price.

Great shop. Has used slipjoints and such also. Prices on those are quite fair.
 
Back in the day, TAD Gear was the place, the new Triple Aught Design stores, not so much. Victory Stores in Vallejo, Ca is production central, awesome selection. Nordic Knives in Solvang (mentioned earlier) used to be the place, lots of customs and Randalls. Plaza Cutlery is always a must stop as well.
 
I love the anticapation that I have as I park at a knife store and wander to the front door.... what will I find today? How much money will I spend this time? It is much the same feeling I have going to a gunshow as I stroll towards the front door. Good stuff.

In recent years, the only two knife stores of any size and inventory that I have visited are Smoky Moutain Knife Works in Sevierville TN and New Graham in VA. I have enjoyed every visit. I'll probably visit One Stop Knife Shop in Louisville KY if I have some extra time.
 
Smokey Mountain Knife Works is the largest I've been to. However like others have all ready pointed out most of the inventory is low end stuff. The CRK display only contains about 4 knives. Great place to shop if your looking for reasonably priced traditional folders though.
 
Yes, there is a lot of "junk" sold at SMKW. If I want to look at Rough Rider or Mora knives, that's the place. Case and SAKs, that's the place. They carry a limited selection of the higher end knives as I suspect they mostly sell those online anyway in terms of volume. But that is where I handled my first ZT's. Good place for axes and hatchets. It really is an interesting store.

It is my primary store for buying kitchen knives and odd kitchen nick knacks. I enjoy that store a lot as long as they aren't too crowded. Then you have a hard time even handling a knife unless you "stand in line" for the opportunity. Their manufacturers weekends are quite good.
 
Bladerunner Knives in Tucson, AZ. Richard is one of the most knowledgeable guys in the business, as well as tops on customer service.
 
Bigfatts said:
The only dedicated knife shop in my area that I know of is Razorsharp Unlimited in Port Richey, FL. I've done a lot of business with Dave and he's always treated me right. In fact, I was just there today and picked up a Kershaw/Emerson CQC6-K. Lots of ZT and Benchmade, tons of Microtech, a little Spyderco. A little Cold Steel, Sog and various other lesser brands. A good few customs. Also a dealer for both Southern Grinds and White River Knife and Tool.

Shooter's World in Tampa just upped their knife selection. They now carry Kershaw/ZT, Spyderco, Benchmade, Protech, Cold Steel, Sog and a few hokie brands. Prices are a little high but not out of line.

Shoot Straight also carries Benchmade, Spyderco, ZT, and a little Microtech. Used to carry CRK but last time I was there they didn't have any. Prices are high.
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Thanks for the information. I live in Dunedin so it's only about 45 minutes to Razorsharp and only 20 minutes to Shoot straight. I'll check them out next week.
 
SMKW was the place where I noticed the racks of key rings (cloth) with people's names on them.... Karla, John, Peter, Mr Fix it, Drama Queen etc. I suspect mostly families with kids buy them... a tourist thing. But, I contacted them and had some made up for my business. Really cool marketing freebie! These big stores also give you ideas.

Sorry about getting off topic.
 
AKC said:
Plaza Cutlery in South Coast Plaza in Orange County CA is fairly impressive, not too far from Disneyland if that's where yer headed.
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I've been there. It's a nice little shop with a ton of knives. I had the opportunity to check out some really high end stuff that I would otherwise never get my hands on for being too expensive to outright buy. Their prices are a tad steep, however. I'm all for helping out a little family owned shop, but I can't resist the deals online.
 
AKC said:
Plaza Cutlery in South Coast Plaza in Orange County CA is fairly impressive, not too far from Disneyland if that's where yer headed.

For the folks going to the Santa Barbara area, ya gotta hit Nordic Knives in Solvang. But you don't go there for production stuff...
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Nordic Knives is particularly impressive to me. They've got the finest selection of custom knives I've ever seen and their production knife selection isn't too bad either. (I picked up a Kershaw Groove there a few years ago.) They're well worth the side trip to Solvang . . . as if Solvang weren't worthy of a side trip all by itself. Check it out:

http://www.solvangusa.com/

:)
 
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Blade HQ is my local knife shop, only about 4 blocks from my house in Lehi UT. Very friendly staff, and they have just about anything that you want to play with. They don't ever mind going and getting knives out for me to look at or to handle. Prices aren't too bad on most of their knives, pretty competitive with others.
 
The Bladegalley in Kirkland, WA is tops on the West coast to the best of my knowledge: Van Herdeen, Bill Burke, Dunkerley, Thorburn, Winkler, Fritz, Bingenheimer, and many more. Also CRK, Emerson, Spartan, ZT etc. In the kitchen customs plus MAC, Wustof, Asai etc. just had their first International Blade Show end of April - tremendous!

KSF storefront in Hillsboro, OR also a great place to visit - great people and product.
 
Bigfatts said:
The only dedicated knife shop in my area that I know of is Razorsharp Unlimited in Port Richey, FL. I've done a lot of business with Dave and he's always treated me right. In fact, I was just there today and picked up a Kershaw/Emerson CQC6-K. Lots of ZT and Benchmade, tons of Microtech, a little Spyderco. A little Cold Steel, Sog and various other lesser brands. A good few customs. Also a dealer for both Southern Grinds and White River Knife and Tool.

Shooter's World in Tampa just upped their knife selection. They now carry Kershaw/ZT, Spyderco, Benchmade, Protech, Cold Steel, Sog and a few hokie brands. Prices are a little high but not out of line.

Shoot Straight also carries Benchmade, Spyderco, ZT, and a little Microtech. Used to carry CRK but last time I was there they didn't have any. Prices are high.
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Im going to have to check out that place in PR, what are there hours? You might wanna check out Nicks Knives at the Oldsmar fleamarket. Hes been there for a few years, not a fly by night china knife novelty shop. He has a lot, a little bit of everything from ZT, CRK, Randall, Buck, Sypderco. His prices arent that bad at times. If you like Case XXX, theres a hardware store in Land O Lakes, that has an almost mini Case museum plus an unbelievable about of Case's for sale. Only checked it out once by accident but it was an impressive display of Case knives
 
mars5l said:
Im going to have to check out that place in PR, what are there hours? You might wanna check out Nicks Knives at the Oldsmar fleamarket. Hes been there for a few years, not a fly by night china knife novelty shop. He has a lot, a little bit of everything from ZT, CRK, Randall, Buck, Sypderco. His prices arent that bad at times. If you like Case XXX, theres a hardware store in Land O Lakes, that has an almost mini Case museum plus an unbelievable about of Case's for sale. Only checked it out once by accident but it was an impressive display of Case knives
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I've been to the Case hardware store. Very impressive collection of Case knives indeed. Razorsharp is open Tues-Sat. I think he's open to 5 or 6 and might close an hour early on Saturday. I will have to check out the guy at Oldsmar. It's been years since I've been to that flea market!
 
I travel a lot, so I've seen quite a few. The most resent discovery was Red Hill Knives in Elisabethtown, KY. They had a large number of the factory brands, weighted towards traditionals. Case, Benchmade, Canal Street, etc. Also had a couple hundred used "collectable" knives, which was nice. They have a museum too, not as big as SMKW but stuff I had not seen before so well worth the trip. It's kind of hard to find though. Not advertised and not on GPS. I found out by talking to an antiques dealer.

The best knife shop (by far) I've been in is Marks Outdoors in Birmingham, AL. Mark has everything, but set up about 100 YARDS of knives a few years back (before he passed). They carry every major brand (yes, ever hard stuff like Strider, William Henry, CRK, GEC, etc) as well as several hundred customs from local and national makers. I've meet a bunch of makers in this shop and the guys behind the counter really know knives.

There's a pretty good place on I40 between the painted desert and Flagstaff. Biggest problem there is the pricing tends toward full retail. Still, I have bought from them when they have something hard to find.

Almost forgot Shepard Of the Hills in Lebanon, MO. Right off I44. Case factory outlet and they also order special runs for their store. Carries a selection of stuff, including the only Granfors Bruks discount I've found.
 
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