Please suggest a one stop shopping for Knife building.

I knew I'd open a can of worms up but I'll leave you with this IF someone could work together to get a on line business model for such a relatively small group of buyers such as knife builders to offer a one stop shopping online buying experience on a major internet shopping network you wouldn't care if you hit the lottery this weekend.

The issue is that it requires a lot of expertise. I am relatively close to a one stop shop for fine hardwoods, and it takes a lot of time to prep all the material, im very knowledgeable and it requires a reasonable amount of shop space, time, and work to get it. NJSB is basically a one stop shop for steel, and its a lot of work.

Most of these businesses are a single person, a family and a few employees at most. The more diffrent products you stock, the more space you need for storing, the more incoming orders you need to handle, the more things you have to look after, the more suppliers you have to work with, and so on.

The wider the selection the shallower the options.

I will say in this day and age, the lack of a one stop shop is not due to a lack of the idea. you say you would surely buy from them, but in my near decade of selling to knife makers and collectors, people saying what they will buy rarely has any overlap with what people will actually put down money for.

This is an industry of passionate experts, I love fine timber, Chuck loves fancy steels, true grit and co have a love for abrasives.
 
I use Jantz for the bulk of my material, and then fill in with others. They’ve got to be the fastest shipping company I’ve ever dealt with. I ordered early yesterday morning and it’s in the truck to be delivered to me today. I always get my stuff from them within two days. Pops has been great as well, they’re just usually out of stock of the things I need. I just ordered a pile of belts from tru grit yesterday, so we’ll see.

If given the option, I always select UPS or FedEx for delivery. The post office has just become too hot and miss for me. It’s worth the extra couple of dollars for me to know I will get my things in a timely manner.
 
I will say in this day and age, the lack of a one stop shop is not due to a lack of the idea. you say you would surely buy from them, but in my near decade of selling to knife makers and collectors, people saying what they will buy rarely has any overlap with what people will actually put down money for.

.

Oh yea.

Try and curate your own list of local suppliers. Lots of things are available near you pre-knifemaker supplier markup
 
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To the OP, you know that’s the great thing about this country, is that you’ve defined the problem and actually have a solution and now you are free to be an entrepreneur and go out start a business and help everybody. And no one will stop you or get in your way. Good luck it’s not easy.
 
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I blame Amazon for shipping costs. I'm a happy Amazon Prime customer, but all those "free shipping" and free boxes has moved the costs over to other places. Also it has always been a sales tactic to list an item at a very low price, and then "get well" on the shipping and handling. I bought a $20 gadget on Amazon, with free shipping, and then paid $25 to ship a box of wood to K&G.
 
That's the economy of scale coming into play there!! You can afford to give free shipping if you are selling billions of dollars of merch per year...
 
here's another one for you.

I made an $800 order in April from Alpha and trugrit. I have a us postal box in niagara falls NY only 15 minutes away. My order has been sitting there and I can't get it because of the border closerure. I don't even know if the place is still in business at this point and I have written the order off. As a hobbiest that one really sucked.
 
here's another one for you.

I made an $800 order in April from Alpha and trugrit. I have a us postal box in niagara falls NY only 15 minutes away. My order has been sitting there and I can't get it because of the border closerure. I don't even know if the place is still in business at this point and I have written the order off. As a hobbiest that one really sucked.
Ouch

Hoss
 
I think USA Knifemaker has the most complete selection of products.
 
Yeah no one stop shopping exists for this outfit. AKS for steel, Tru Grit for abrasives and some other things, Jantz for some misc stuff, Sally Martin for mosaic pins, AZ Ironwood, and Culpepper for handle materials, Hide House for sheath leather and On Line metals for bolster material. I know who has, what I'm looking for and for the best prices as I've been riding in this rodeo for more than a minute now. All of these outfits ship fast. Occasionally, an order won't show up in the normal 2/3 days that I usually get stuff from Tru Grit. I've learned that after three days I give them a call. It's always because they are out of something and haven't had a chance to call me yet to see what to change out. We get er figured over the phone and bam, usually have it the next day. If you pushing a month I'd of called about two weeks ago.

This is our 20th year in business and I'll grant ya shipping this year with all carriers has been wonky!
 
I think USA Knifemaker has the most complete selection of products.
IF they had what you need in stock. Last time I ordered from them I had made a list of 14 things I wanted- 2 things they didnt sell, no problem there but 10 of the 12 other things were out of stock. I dont even bother looking there anymore.
As for high shipping I shipped a box yesterday, I usually ship USPS but the guy wanted this shipped UPS because of the postal delays. An Ames hardness tester, box give or take 4x8x12 and weighed 7 pounds from NC to IL UPS ground they charged me 58 bucks.

EDIT: By the way I have never been dissatisfied with Alpha's shipping prices :thumbsup:
 
my recent order from jantz . during checkout, it stated they were not shipping things regular mail because people were complaining about how long it was taking. this was the cheapest shipping i was offered on the drop down menu selection. what a great way to get people to shop elsewhere lol. 73A59BC2-3913-4780-9BDF-15397EAC0241 by john april, on Flickr
 
i just rechecked jantz, they are offering the $12 shipping again. before xmass they were only offering priority express..
 
Pops is really good, they ship quick and are always getting new products. I think they are trying to gear up to be like a jantz eventually
 
Good to hear. I'll have to go back to them.

I will always miss Jim and Kay, though. When you called and Kay answered the phone, I am pretty sure it was the kitchen phone. She'd say, "Jim's out in the shop, I'll tell him you called. What was it you needed?" Jim would call back and tell me he would get it together and call me with a total. Most of the time he had mailed my stuff off before I paid him for it.
 
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