Is there a reason Oregon has so many knife companies?

L

Lucky Strike

Joined
Oct 2, 2006
Messages
131
(Well knife and tool companies) Other then coincidence?

Benchmade, Kershaw, CRKT, Gerber, and Leatherman are all based in Oregon (and mostly the Portland area)...are there any others?

I just find this interesting since i live near most of these companies.

Do any of these companies have a sharpening/repair service where I can just go to their office and drop off my knife? I just bought a leek and live 15 minutes from Kershaw's office. It'd be nice to have it resharpened there if they do that sort of thing.
 
Rifon2 is absolutely correct. Oregon has some of the most lax knife and weapon laws in North America.

As for resharpening. Pretty much ALL those companies you mentioned will resharpen knives for you. I know Benchmade will go as far as replacing joints, cracked parts, reprofiling the blade, etc... for the entire life of the knife for $5 if you ship it to them.

As for just dropping it off, no. I doubt you can walk in, but I'm sure that local mail would cost you near nothing and take little time.

:EDIT:
Not to mention though that a lot of the people that own/founded those companies you listed are friends of each other, or co-founders of other knife companies that split in two. i.e. Kershaw and CRKT.
 
onotadaki said:
Rifon2 is absolutely correct. Oregon has some of the most lax knife and weapon laws in North America.

As for resharpening. Pretty much ALL those companies you mentioned will resharpen knives for you. I know Benchmade will go as far as replacing joints, cracked parts, reprofiling the blade, etc... for the entire life of the knife for $5 if you ship it to them.

As for just dropping it off, no. I doubt you can walk in, but I'm sure that local mail would cost you near nothing and take little time.

:EDIT:
Not to mention though that a lot of the people that own/founded those companies you listed are friends of each other, or co-founders of other knife companies that split in two. i.e. Kershaw and CRKT.
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Hmm...that's pretty cool

Yeah i figured just walking in for a resharpening was pretty unrealistic but yeah local postage would be cheap. I wonder if any of these places have showrooms where i could go and check all their stuff out in person.
 
Benchmade has a lobby with some of their knives on display for sale, but not a showroom really...and you would end up spending top dollar (retail price) on a knife at the factory...But if your close its worth looking at!
 
Since you're that close, how 'bout giving them a phone call?
I also think it's doubtful that they'll do while-you-wait sharpening, but
they may...
If you call you can find out for sure. :)
 
rifon2 said:
Sane knife laws = one reason.
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I wonder if this is actually a reason. It might make sense if those companies only sold their wares in Oregon, but that's not the case. And how many states have regulations specifically against manufacture of knives?

Maybe better business environment than, say California, while still having good access to Pacific ports, a growing concern as more knives and materials are imported from Asia?

And it's a nice place to live, too.

Could be just coincidence, too.
 
Tons of Oregon makers started with Gerber:

Barteaux worked with Gerber in the 1940's.

Pete Kershaw worked there in the 1970's.

So did Al Mar.

Tim Leatherman worked there I believe, he offered them the original design, Gerber passed.

Lone Wolf has an ex-Gerber man, Doug Hutchens.

CRKT was started by ex-Kershaw guys.
 
shecky and bob bowie - those are good points and I think they are some of the reasons that there are several knife companies in Oregon.

But I also think that the reason I first posted, sane knife laws, is also a reason. And I didn't just make it up; I thought I'd seen it mentioned somewhere with some credibility.

Don't recall now exactly where, but there's this:

"Additionally, one of the reasons Benchmade is located in Oregon—as are many other knife makers—is specifically because Oregon has very relaxed laws towards knives in general and switchblades or butterfly knives specifically."

from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benchmade
 
S. Brown said:
Because they dont' like guns ;)
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Oregon law is also very gun friendly. Shall issue concealed handgun license. Class III weapons are also legal. While the Democrats controll the legislature, they know better than to mess with Oregon voters guns. ;)
 
reason being:


y'all are lucky out there! keep it up:foot:


Ron ( opressive state resident )

NJ suxx for these reasons imo
 
bob bowie said:
Tons of Oregon makers started with Gerber:

Barteaux worked with Gerber in the 1940's.

Pete Kershaw worked there in the 1970's.

So did Al Mar.

Tim Leatherman worked there I believe, he offered them the original design, Gerber passed.

Lone Wolf has an ex-Gerber man, Doug Hutchens.

CRKT was started by ex-Kershaw guys.
Click to expand...

Very interesting....thanks for the info...seems to make the most sense.
 
I think that we are missing an important thing here.


Do they do tours?

(wife has been wanting to go back to Portland anyways and this seems like a great reason to, but shhh don't tell her)
 
Good location for American manufacturing.

Land, insurance, taxes, etc are comparatively cheaper -cheaper than California (maybe why Buck moved to Idaho).
 
Hey Guys...

onotadaki writes:

onotadaki said:
As for just dropping it off, no. I doubt you can walk in, but I'm sure that local mail would cost you near nothing and take little time.
Click to expand...

I wouldn't let a mall knife shop, sharpen one of my pencils, let alone one of my knives... :)

ttyle

Eric..
O/ST
 
I wouldn't let a mall knife shop, sharpen one of my pencils, let alone one of my knives...
Click to expand...
I take all my pencils to the mall to be sharpened and they do a fine job at it, now getting my pens sharpened is another story...
 
Bob Bowie is right. Many of these companies were founded by former Gerber employees. As another example, the founder of Lone Wolf was a former president of Gerber. The same thing happened in upstate New York in the last century.
 
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