Not so recent knife store visit story

Kaizen1

Kaizen1

Gold Member
Joined
Jan 4, 2006
Messages
6,232
So I go into a mall store with a pretty small selection of knives (a few of them are Kershaws and Spydies, so it makes it worthwhile) and of course the worker and I begin talking about knives. And I don't know about you guys, but anytime I start talking to someone at a store about knives, I like to wait and see how much they know so I can kinda speak on their level. No need to go too far if the guy can't tell the difference between a lock back and a liner lock or "440 stainless" and ZDP-189.

We were talking about Cold Steel when he pulls out his Ti Lite and says "You know, Cold Steel isn't nearly as tough as they claim to be...". I'm thinkin "That sounds about right". And he shows me his Ti Lite and says "... See here, I whacked this knife with a hammer and look, this piece fell out.". He was talking about the (zytel?) back spacer. He goes on "I didn't even hit it that many times."

I'm thinking "Should I even try to explain knife abuse to this guy?". Well that's not entirely true. My first thought was "WTF?!? This guy's retarded". I decided to avoid that conversation. So I just nodded in agreement and said "Yeah, they claim to be the toughest and sharpest knives in the world, but they're far from it, though they have some decent products." and I show him my Hinderer-XM18. He seemed pretty amazed at how tough it felt. I was kinda worried that he might throw it across the room to see how tough it really was, in which case I would've had to punch him, not too hard mind you. Anyway, I figured maybe he'd do a little research into the XM-18 and find Blade Forums the way I did a couple of years ago after watching a Cold Steel video.

I opted to avoid a possibly lengthy conversation when he mentioned that he thought it was perfectly fine to hammer the hell out of his knife. What would you have done?
 
Last edited:
When I go into a knife store, I sometimes find I'm asking myself: "Is this guy ignorant or is he just trying to sell me on that knife?", and other times "Does this guy reach the assumption that everyone who walks into his shop knows nothing about knives?"

I think, in your case Kaizen, I would have pointed to a couple other knives and said "Wonder how that one would hold up?" and on and on while he busted up these knives until he got tired of it or until he mutated into some degree of intelligence and stopped. A little evil perhaps, but what fun is it otherwise? ((( :D )))
 
Kaizen1 said:
.

We were talking about Cold Steel when he pulls out his Ti Lite and says "You know, Cold Steel isn't nearly as tough as they claim to be...". I'm thinkin "That sounds about right". And he shows me his Ti Lite and says "... See here, I whacked this knife with a hammer and look, this piece fell out.". He was talking about the (zytel?) back spacer. He goes on "I didn't even hit it that many times."

QUOTE]

Reminds of a line from the movie Forest Gump " Stupid is as stupid does".
Click to expand...
 
expecting a sales person to be knowledgable is a bad idea. because they are. not about the product, but how to sell the product. management principle number one of retail stores is people who know what they want will buy what they want but people who dont know anything will buy what you tell them to buy. why spend a ton of time training your employees to be really knowledgable about products when basic, shallow knowledge is more than enough to convince people that they NEED something.

big stores have people who want jobs, small stores have people that love what they sell. you can see it the best in guitars and cars. you ask a ford salesman about an engine and he tells you its a v6 with 230hp and its totally rad but go ask someone who owns his own place or a guy working at a lambo dealership and they can recite displacement, torque, red lines, shift times, power curves, you name it from memory. go to a guitar center, and watch how confused people get if you ask them questions like "what is the wind like on these pickups?" or "what kind of capacitors are in this?" which are really simple questions in the grand scheme of guitars.

it sucks because you may have a legitimate question that you just thought of at the store and cant ask online or a friend but thats why it pays to be well prepared whenever you are going to shell out your money.
 
I bet the guy was just young and under-exposed to knife-ology. When I was about 17 or so I liked knives, and my idea of the ne plus ultra in knives was an auto italian folding stiletto, which I think now would be a somewhat dumb choice. A few years of using knives and reading about them has changed my thinking. I think my early opinions came mostly from movies and thus was largely magical thinking.

When I go to knife shows and visit this forum, I find that there are still people so much more knowledgable than me as to make me feel ignorant. I've never made a knife, so I know little about that. And I've never studied any knife-based martial art.

Since the clerk clearly had an interest in knives I would haver suggested that he pick up a copy of Blade Mag, and visit bladeforums.com. You had a chance to bring a lost lamb into the fold, and you blew it.
 
wutitiz said:
Since the clerk clearly had an interest in knives I would haver suggested that he pick up a copy of Blade Mag, and visit bladeforums.com. You had a chance to bring a lost lamb into the fold, and you blew it.
Click to expand...

you can bring a horse to water but you cant make him drink. he should have realized the person he was talking to was learned on the subject and asked him some questions.
 
I'd have asked if I could test a few knives before I bought them. :p
 
wutitiz said:
Since the clerk clearly had an interest in knives I would haver suggested that he pick up a copy of Blade Mag, and visit bladeforums.com. You had a chance to bring a lost lamb into the fold, and you blew it.
Click to expand...

"Blew it"? Please. I have no need to feel any sense of obligation to do anything of the sort. If someone really wants to know about something, they can look it up. That's how I found this place. If he gave me an indication that he wanted to know how I know what I know, I would've gladly told him.
 
wutitiz said:
You had a chance to bring a lost lamb into the fold, and you blew it.
Click to expand...

Kaizen1 said:
"Blew it"? Please. I have no need to feel any sense of obligation to do anything of the sort. If someone really wants to know about something, they can look it up. That's how I found this place. If he gave me an indication that he wanted to know how I know what I know, I would've gladly told him.
Click to expand...

That's silly, wutitiz.

When I was young, I worked in a retail store. I expected my bosses to teach me and they expected me to learn what they taught. I did not expect the customers to teach me. If there is a failing here, it is in either the store management in failing to instruct the worker, or the worker, in failing to learn. It is not the responsibility of the customer to teach the worker.

Kaizen, I hope I would be as gracious as you were.
 
I see the strangest things in Knife stores. Mostly people doing dumb things to impress customers. Like flipping a bali, cutting themselves, staring, and then flipping it again so blood goes everywhere, and then cutting themselves again. Also saw a guy almost cut his junk off with a Emerson waved Karambit. Tore a nice rip through his jeans. I tend to avoid them now.
 
Smash05 said:
Also saw a guy almost cut his junk off with a Emerson waved Karambit. Tore a nice rip through his jeans. I tend to avoid them now.
Click to expand...

that would have been a candidate for a darwin award D: in fact, that sort of non lethal but evolutionarily deserving injury probably happens more than you might think at first.
 
Anybody that repeatedly hits a knife with a hammer and expects it to survive that abuse is a fool. In the same vein as people who use knives to pry the lids off paint tins or throw at the ground trying to make them stick. Working at a knife store does not make you an expert on knives. I would have done the same thing as Kaizen1: smile, nod and walk quickly away.
 
I tend to try to avoid all the employees who are there to 'help' me. And that's for all stores, all the time. Home Depot guys usually don't know a compression fitting from a swagelok. Shoe guys don't know a mocassin from a wing tip. Grocery types usually can't find Good Seasons Itallian in their aisles. Have a question ( even semitechnical) while in Walmart, Target, etc?..forget it, go home and research the internet.

As some have said here, they're there to sell, not to help.
 
BTW, you're lucky to have a mall store selling knives at all. All the mall knife stores around here went out of business long ago. Remember Cutlery World?
 
knife with a hammer and expects it to survive that abuse is a fool. In the same vein as people who use knives to pry the lids off paint tins or throw at the ground trying to make them stick.
Click to expand...

I did that! It was what childhood was about! Mumblety peg etc. When you were 8 or 9 y.o. Your pocket knife was your Excalibur and multitool all in one.
 
Here in Wichita we used to have a store ran by a very intelligent couple who would ask you what you were using the knife for and show you several of different price ranges that fit your set of needs. They closed down because they found more profitable things to do. They new knives very well, knew about heat treats, blade shapes, grinds, steel, and could explain the difference. Now we have no good B&M's; the last time I went into a local one I quickly left when he tried to push me away from Spydercos, and towards M-techs. I now stick with New Graham.
 
jlfletcher83 said:
the last time I went into a local one I quickly left when he tried to push me away from Spydercos, and towards M-techs.
Click to expand...

lulz.

seriously if someone comes into the store Im working at and wants to buy some goofy looking knife Ill let them. because Im sure if that guy was working there he would consider my choices to be suboptimal.
 
I agree that the OP handled the situation with a certain grace, and did not intend by any means to slam him. 'Blew it' was a crappy choice of words. But it still say it was a teachable moment that was lost.

I grew up seeing knives being thrown left and right in tv/movies, and in my youth I thought that was what they were for. I remember I had a Gerber dagger was probably the most expensive knife I bought growing up, and I bent the tip by throwing it. Dumb? Sure, but so are all of us at times. This guy probably grew up watching Cold Steel videos.

Since there are always efforts to ban knives, we need all the friends we can get, and we need them to be smart and knowledgable. It is always worthwhile to engage people with friendly education.
 
tomcrx said:
I did that! It was what childhood was about! Mumblety peg etc. When you were 8 or 9 y.o. Your pocket knife was your Excalibur and multitool all in one.
Click to expand...


Ha Ha! Great! So the clerk had the mentality of an 8 yr.old. I rest my case.:D
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top