Physical Cutlery Stores

We have a "House of Knives" in the mall here. Friendly staff but the prices are exactly double what I would pay online. No thanks.
 
PristineDamascus said:
Is that somewhere worth driving a couple dozen minutes to?

Gotta check it out.
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Worth at least the 10 minute drive for me.

The real benefit of going to Plaza is that they carry a large selection of high end productions (Ala. Strider, CRK, William Henry) and hand made knives. As well as carrying a large selection of BM, Spyderco, and Kershaw, they also carry some CRKT and SOG.
 
To elaborate a bit...

I see a pic of a knife and read some about it. It interests me. I drop by a store that sells knives and lo and behold there is the knife. I pick it up and hold it. If I don't like it for some reason I'll pass. If I do and it's $20.00 or so bucks above what I will pay on line, I'll get it at the store.

If the cost of the knife is more and the difference online is much better I'll get it online.

I like stores. I like walking in and looking around and talking to the people. Learning which ones know something and which don't is part of the game.

tipoc
 
Only one here in my neck of the woods. Thankfully, the owners actually know what they're talking about (most of the time, that is). But it's an hour away, so I don't get there often.
 
The Excalibur I went to was in Bellevue, Washington.

As far as places to look at knives, sporting goods stores are okay, and their prices aren't too bad, but they usually only stock cheapo bucks, gerbers, and low end kershaws. The store I visited today had lots of high end stuff, but the price is an absolute dealbreaker. I'm all for supporting local dealers, but at up to maybe 10 - 15% premium. The store today was selling knives at TWICE the internet cost.
 
I just consulted google maps.

For the most part, it's either "The Knife Shoppe" at the mall (if it's still there?), or sporting goods or gun shops.

There is at least one knife shop an hour and a half from here. Looking at their website, at least some of their prices are fair. The drive ruins it, though, and I can't afford knives anyways. Plus I'd spend more on gas than on shipping.

The others on the map are anonymous knife shops that may or may not actually be there.

Meh.
 
There are a couple brick and mortar stores in my city. One of them is quite small, but has decent sales now and again. Their inventory is so limited, though, that there isn't much reason for me to go there. They just don't carry many knives that I like.

The other one is more substantial, but is run by a bunch of mouthbreathers who don't know the difference between a knife and a hole in the ground and have ridiculously high prices (I've never seen them sell a knife for less than MSRP, and they often sell them for a fair bit more). Not mentioning any names, of course...

I called the latter one time about what kind of sharpeners they had in stock, specifically about a Sharpmaker and a Fallkniven DC4. The guy at the other end scoffed and told me that "They don't carry none of those gimmicky junk sharpeners." :rolleyes: All they carried were a few different styles of pull-through sharpeners and a couple random field sharpeners.


Another time I called them up and asked if I could place a special order for a Benchmade 520 Presidio, because they didn't stock that particular model (they only carried the small version, iirc). It said on their website that they could place a special order for knives they don't carry, so I didn't figure this would be an outrageous request...the call went something like this:

Me: "Hello, I was looking for a certain knife. I can't find it on your website, but it says that you guys can do a special order for it."
Them: "Sure! What knife did you want to special order?"
Me: "A Benchmade model 520 Presidio, with plain edge."
Them: "Uh, I'm afraid we don't carry that one."
Me: "No, no... I mean, I know you don't carry it, but your website says you can place a special order for it."
Them: "Oh, yeah...but we don't seem to have any of them right now."
Me: " :rolleyes: Then would it be possible to place a special order for that knife, since you've made it clear that don't carry it in the store?"
Them: "No, we're not going to be placing an order with that company for another few weeks, so we can't order that knife for you until then."
Me: "So you can order the knife? Just not for a few weeks?"
Them: "No, sorry."

What the Christ? :confused: I wouldn't touch that store with a ten foot pole now...

I stick to online knife purchases now. It goes MUCH smoother. :thumbup:
 
Kaizen1 said:
Here in the Bay Area, we have a relatively good selection of B & M stores, at least that's how it seems based on other people's posts on the forums. A few of them even have some competitive pricing. I have found that in a few stores the people at the counters think they know than they do. Probably because they generally do know more than their average customer.

BTW, if you sharpen with diamond stones, VG-10 should be relatively easy to sharpen compared to something like 8Cr13Mov on a ceramic stone.
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Kaizen where are these shops? the only ones i have been to are the shop at the pier in SF or in the South Bay at Vallco Mall. And the prices are pretty high.

:D
 
Many of the online dealers I do business with do have local physical stores. They just aren't local to me. :D
 
intron said:
Kaizen where are these shops? the only ones i have been to are the shop at the pier in SF or in the South Bay at Vallco Mall. And the prices are pretty high.

:D
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Armorgeddon at Valco prices everything at MSRP. They claim that they "have to sell at those prices, or else the manufacturers won't keep them as a dealer."

Steven's Creek Surplus has a bigger selection with *at least* competitive prices (still high, but lower than MSRP.)
 
MORIMOTOM said:
absolutely!

its in costa mesa.
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Yep, Plaza Cutlery is the best knife store iv ever been in. The guys there are very nice and knowledgeable . If you live in California I don’t know way you would go any wear ells. :confused:
 
intron said:
Kaizen where are these shops? the only ones i have been to are the shop at the pier in SF or in the South Bay at Vallco Mall. And the prices are pretty high.

:D
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Redwood Trading Post
1305 El Camino Real
Redwood City, CA 94063

I remember thinking that their prices were pretty reasonable the last time I went there. They have a pretty good selection of production knives, though not as much as We Be Knives in SF. They also have some Surefires.

TAD Gear in SF. They now have 2 locations:
http://www.tripleaughtdesign.com/

They don't have a large selection and they're better for checking out custom or high end knives when they have them in. The 22nd St. store has more knives I think. That may have changed since I was last there. They also have flashlights and other EDC type items.

I usually only go to We Be Knives to check out knives. They tend to charge at or over MSRP and I caught them lying to me on different occasions, so I have no problem checking out their knives and buying elsewhere.
 
THG said:
Armorgeddon at Valco prices everything at MSRP. They claim that they "have to sell at those prices, or else the manufacturers won't keep them as a dealer."

Steven's Creek Surplus has a bigger selection with *at least* competitive prices (still high, but lower than MSRP.)
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THG, what's the address for Armorgeddon? I can't find it in any searches. Thanks
 
I go to the House of Blades and have scince i was a little kid, they are over priced but they have almost any knife you could think of and the owners are some the nicest ppl in the world but some of the punk kids they have working in there are well punks.
 
I too will highly recommend Plaza Cutlery. Great selection and good customer service. Staff may seem uninterested at first but talk to them and they will demonstrate a good deal of knowledge. The only thing they seem to scoff at there is Cold Steel.
 
The infamous House Of Blades in Lake Worth, Texas. (suburb of Ft. Worth) Virtually everything is list price - but they have a 5000 sq. bldfg. with a 50,000 knife inventory. It takes the better part of two hrs. just to browse through their entire inventory of production, customs, and knife related items. I don't buy too many knives from them but occasionally I'll run across a discontinued or really hard to find knife and bite the bullet and get it.

If you're a knife knut and ever in the DFW area it's worth the time to take look at their massive inventory. Look for the big knife in the sky. :D

l
 
I am fortunate to have a B&M store about 1 hour drive from me (Frederick MD) - and the owner is very knowledgeable and keeps up with the ever changing trends in knives.

Every time I go in the store he surprises me by having the latest model(s) in stock. He goes to most of the big shows, and is able to get the newest models in before most others have them. He is also now a Chris Reeve distributor.:D

I buy something from him every time I go - he actually bought the store from the original owner - and I was really concerned several years ago when the "Business for Sale" sign went up in the window. I was glad to see it survive, and he continues to survive even in these tough economic times.

I do buy knives from the internet and from the forums - but I like to try to keep it at a 50/50 mix - 50% from e-stores, 50% from B&M.
 
The only thing I miss about living in Illinois was a knife shop there called Grand Prairie Knives (it's still there, I'm not). They had knowledgeable people, great selection, and great prices.

But all the mall knife shops I have been to definitely suck.
 
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