Knife Trader

You know, I often don’t stop in the Army/​Navy surplus kind of shoppes, but for some reason I did today-​and wow!
There are ALL kinds of knives here. Probably any type you’re looking for except for kitchen-it’s not a Bed Bath and Beyond, for sure.
Antique, new, small, large, all different styles. Lots of the folding tanto point style. I think I even saw a katana or two.
There are also tons of pins, patches, gear bags, t-shirts…pretty interesting stuff.
Nice owner and a really cool place! Def worth a look see if you’re in the area.
TIP: FREE parking in rear– only meters out front!

Just got all my kitchen knives sharpened. Ready same day and they cut everything like butter now.

Everyone should try to stop in and have their knives sharpened here… as well as have your keys cut!
Support the little spots when you can especially when they are as wonderful as this place!

Very helpful gentleman that owns and operates this business. Been coming here since I was a young boy with my father and I’m still coming here for my zombie/​dooms day prepping supplies ;-))

I’ve been going here for at least 20+ years and the old man is still the best knife sharpener in the valley… maybe that’s why he’s the only knife sharpener in the valley!

First off, this shop DEFINITELY has a huge selection of knives.
Unfortunately, the customer service sucks.
We stopped in here to look for used mag-​pouches as a cheap alternative for skeet/​trap shell pouches — they didn’t have any. No big deal, the shop has limited space, so they can only carry what sells the most.
Not finding anything, we moved on to the knives — he had a great selection of almost everything you’d want — spiderco, S&W, even some OTF knives, and Cold Steel throwers. I was about to ask about looking at some, when my girlfriend called me over to see a rack of patches the guy had by the front door, that were relevant to her dad’s service in WW2 though Vietnam. She had maybe 4 – 5 patches that she liked, when the owner started eyeballing us from across the room. The GF asks if he’d do 5 patches for $ 20 — basically seeing if he’d do no tax on the 4.99 pouches.
«No.» he says from across the room.
So she puts one back, and he gets up from across the room, to walk over, to tell us «you better put those back where they belong.»
Really? We read the item number on the patches, and put them on the right place on the rack.
We can understand if he has to deal with younger kids from the local High School coming in and messing up his inventory, but we’re in our 30’s and he’s treating us like we’re children.
She ended up buying two patches from him, I ended up never asking about the knives, since his little shop is too good for most people in there.

Came here today simply because I was driving around without a blade and felt uncomfortable being knife-​less. So I thought I’d pick up a new edc.
In all honesty, without the vast assortment of knives, the «store» is pretty much empty. Aside from some morale shirts, random booklets and pamphlets and a stack of hats, there’s not much to shop from.
As far as the knives, I’ll admit, there are cases and cases of blades, but as far as quality blades, there is maybe a single case full. Everything else is either «imported», no-​name and trash.
They do carry some Benchmade, some Spyderco, some Byrd, some CRKT, limited Cold Steel, LIMITED Sog and Kershaw.
All in all, I did happen to buy an all stainless Byrd Robin 2 that I am quite happy with. There are probably three or four other knives I’d like to buy from him.

Stopped in with my favorite knife — which my friend’s daughter wrecked when «helping» me prepare a meal. (You cannot CANNOT hack through a bone with a chef’s knife! Grr!) I asked the gentleman behind the counter if it could be fixed and to my delight, he said yes, it could be, but it would take a lot of grinding of the blade. «Uh oh,» thought I, «bet that’s code for, ‘This is gonna cost a lot.’» But nope, was only $ 10, and well worth it!
Ned was polite, professional, and most importantly, did a fantastic job of repairing my chef’s knife in about 10 minutes. I highly recommend this place and I will definitely be back next time I need a knife or pair of scissors sharpened.
And if it matters, he’s got quite a number of interesting items from wars past — not sure if they are for sale or just decorative but they were very interesting to view.

Yay for combat boots!
As some of you know, I’ve been searching for mid calf combat boots for a while and finally found it here for less than 50 bucks! Score! The best part, it looks like the Rick Owens boot that sold for about $ 2000! Double Score!
A lot of the Fall 2008 RTW runways showed the pants-​tucked-​into-​boots look so I figured it was my sartorial duty to give it a try. Some of you may shudder at the idea, but after many sleepless nights of considering such idea, I decided that yes, I had to do it. Being the supportive person that he is, Jaychan said the best place to get a great deal on genuine combat boots would be a military surplus store. And, I hate to admit this, he was right.
Jaychan joked/​warned that many of the people that work at these stores are at times scary. So, I had some trepidation about entering this store. But, the thought of the boots for fall pushed me fearlessly ahead and in I went. Within 10 minutes, I was walking out with my new boots.
The salesperson was actually quite nice and nonchalant. He allowed me to manhandle and try on the boots at my leisure. Most importantly, he wasn’t creepy or scary!
The store was well organized. They had a lot of military gear and of course, knives. I didn’t know if the pieces were authentic or they were just replicas so I can’t really comment on that. But, it was real enough for me! The store had an «interesting» musk when I first entered… take «interesting» however way you want to take it.
Overall, my first military surplus buying experience was a success! Knife Trader also offers precision knife and scissor sharpening services. I’m sure I would be back to sharpen my scissors. And you never know, I might pick up a gas mask next time too if maybe Comme De Garçon decided that it was the next in thing. Or not.