whitty
Dealer / Materials Provider
- Joined
- Aug 25, 2005
- Messages
- 6,067
I have to take the time after our Grand Opening this past weekend and just post up my thoughts. These thoughts are not so much about our open house but about knife people and makers in general. I was blown away by the turn out and the support we received from our customers and some of our makers! We had LT Wright of LT Wright Knives, Andy Roy and crew of Fiddleback Forge, Dylan Fletcher of Fletcher Knives, Allen Surls of WA Surls Knives and Todd Hunt of TM Hunt Custom Knives all make the trek from Ohio, Georgia and Indiana. Todd Hunt and 2 friends left Indianapolis at 3:00 in the morning just to make it on time! To say we were blown away by their presence would be an understatement!
I tell you all of that to get to this. These guys were incredible. They either realized we were overwhelmed, or just out of a general love for knives, they jumped behind the counters and started showing/selling knives to customers. You would think, sure why not show off their own work, this was not the case. I saw Andy and Dylan showing customers Zero Tolerance and Kershaw Knives while LT showed people Fiddlebacks, Fletchers and TM Hunts, while Todd and Allen were showing people Benchmades, Tops, Spydercos and Southern Grinds. Then they would all switch around. At different points throughout the day I saw them all showing people each others knives and talking highly about them. This to me was about the coolest thing I have ever seen. I have seen similar type of respect for all knives when I am at Blade Show. Makers respect each other and they all want the best for each other and the industry as a whole.
The other part of this story that is amazing is with all the people that were in the shop, and all the chaos with at times more people behind the counters than in front of it, it would have been easy for a customer to sneak out the door with a knife. I almost felt sure that at some point in time something would get 5 finger discounted. Certainly not by those we knew, but we had a number of people come in locally that we did not know and have never seen before. In the chaos it would have been easy for someone to slip something out. Well tonight I did a full inventory to take all the sales out of our on line system. The only thing that did not match was a small strop, and I am positive that was my fault.
To conclude my thoughts from the weekend I just have to say I think that knife people are some of the best people in the world. I already knew this just based on my past Blade Show experiences but it was even hammered more in to my brain this weekend. I truly do believe if you are meeting or know a true knife knut or maker, there is a 99.9 percent chance they are a damn good honest person.
I tell you all of that to get to this. These guys were incredible. They either realized we were overwhelmed, or just out of a general love for knives, they jumped behind the counters and started showing/selling knives to customers. You would think, sure why not show off their own work, this was not the case. I saw Andy and Dylan showing customers Zero Tolerance and Kershaw Knives while LT showed people Fiddlebacks, Fletchers and TM Hunts, while Todd and Allen were showing people Benchmades, Tops, Spydercos and Southern Grinds. Then they would all switch around. At different points throughout the day I saw them all showing people each others knives and talking highly about them. This to me was about the coolest thing I have ever seen. I have seen similar type of respect for all knives when I am at Blade Show. Makers respect each other and they all want the best for each other and the industry as a whole.
The other part of this story that is amazing is with all the people that were in the shop, and all the chaos with at times more people behind the counters than in front of it, it would have been easy for a customer to sneak out the door with a knife. I almost felt sure that at some point in time something would get 5 finger discounted. Certainly not by those we knew, but we had a number of people come in locally that we did not know and have never seen before. In the chaos it would have been easy for someone to slip something out. Well tonight I did a full inventory to take all the sales out of our on line system. The only thing that did not match was a small strop, and I am positive that was my fault.
To conclude my thoughts from the weekend I just have to say I think that knife people are some of the best people in the world. I already knew this just based on my past Blade Show experiences but it was even hammered more in to my brain this weekend. I truly do believe if you are meeting or know a true knife knut or maker, there is a 99.9 percent chance they are a damn good honest person.
