Please suggest a one stop shopping for Knife building.

L

LCoop

Joined
May 5, 2007
Messages
549
I'm a hobby maker for many years. I can't believe there's not a one stop knife building shopping site.

The closest is Jantz if you want to pay crazy prices. I recently placed orders to AKS, Jantz, Industrial Abrasives and Tru Grit. Like always I'm still waiting patiently for my order from Tru Grit. Probably my last order to them as they are INCREDIBLY slow to ship! The last order to Tru Grit took a month. I'm closing in on that again. SAD.

AKS promptly shipped my simple order in a suit case sized package wrapped in Styrofoam for ridiculous shipping charges.
 
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There is no one stop shop for everything.
USA Knifemakers is good, Jantz id good, Tru-grit is good, Texas knife supply is good. Pop's was great, and I suppose they still are, but I haven't used them since Jim and kay retired.
Most knifemakers use a combination of all of these.
 
Hahahaha one stop shop for knife building, hahahaha !

Seriously, I’m on a hobbiest level, I may work on a couple knives at a time and I swear I end up ordering from two or three places every time. Then I buy GFlex from the big river site but I order 5 minute instead of my usual 24hour because it will ship 7 days earlier then it is lost in shipping for 3 days, tracking picks it up in my state, next day it’s in my home town the drops off the radar again, shows up out of state and disappears again, now I get an email saying I can reorder if I would like. Ok my rant that has nothing to do with you is done.

If you build a knife like you cook you can do it one of two ways. Have a specific meal planned so you shop where you have to to find your ingredients or open up the pantry (one website) and make a knife with what’s there. Stick with it long enough and you’ll have a well stocked pantry of your own.
 
LCoop said:
AKS promptly shipped my simple order in a suit case sized package wrapped in Styrofoam for ridiculous shipping charges.
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I am calling B.S. on the "Ridiculous shipping charges" from @Alpha Knife Supply

I just ordered 1 piece of($34) .25" aeb-l 23" long from them. The shipping was $20.97 which is the cost of a large flat rate box and $2 for handling.

The packaging cost more then $2, and they do a great job.

It is the Post Office that is charging you for shipping not @Alpha Knife Supply.

Other places got hit with Covid and this dramatically slows down getting orders out
 
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So let me get this straight so I'm not misunderstanding. So you bought one piece of steel for $34 Paid $20.97 shipping plus $2 handling and your ok with that. In the past I've done the same thing, one piece of steel agreed with supplier to cut to my length so I'd get the ultimate use of said steel they shipped for $6.95.

For the record this is the second time for Tru Grit being insane late for shipping. Last time they "felt" so bad they gave me a T shirt and some decals. I just want my order when your web site says it's in stock. Not 4 weeks late.

I've dealt with Pop's in the past with great service. I tried them again and according to web site they didn't have crap in stock that I use. From belts to steel.

It's not like I'm trying to save pennies HECK I'd pay more just to deal with one place maybe two if you count leather!
 
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LCoop said:
So let me get this straight so I'm not misunderstanding. So you bought one piece of steel for $34 Paid $20.97 shipping plus $2 handling and your ok with that.
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Absolutely, that is what the cost is from USPS, take the price up with the post office.

If you do not want to pay for shipping charges you can always stop by and pick it up.
 
AKS shipping is usually not too bad for me, but I guess it depends on what you order. Usually I'll try to order a couple more pieces to get a little more bang for the buck.

USAKnifeMaker WOULD be the one stop shop for everything, but every time I go to order a few things from them, half or more of what I had in mind to order is out of stock.

Amazon is about as close as you're going to get for "one stop" shopping, though it's still going to be from multiple shops and sellers, and depending on what it is and who it's from, it might be a little more expensive, and/or not as good quality wise. Then again, some things, they're just not going to have, or at least not the kind or quality that I want.

I've pretty much resigned myself to having to use multiple sellers for things, and just try to plan accordingly. I pretty much use the same few sellers for the same items each time, and for misc. odds and ends there's always Amazon, eBay, or even Etsy.

I think Amazon has spoiled most of us a bit as far as shipping time (and costs), or even convenience of ordering. A lot of people are catching up to an extent, but the mom and pop and specialty shops can only do so much if they want to keep the lights on.
 
Yeah there isn't much to do about shipping 2' long pieces of steel. Just order enough steel to last a long time rather than one bar/sheet at a time (if funds allow). I use pops for belts and AKS for steel but again not just one place.
 
The more you buy the better that shipping price is, that’s how flat rate shipping works. I paid $24 shipping for the below.

AEB-L Stainless Steel, B/U, CRA × 2
( .062 in x 23.5 in x 2.0 in )
AEB-L Stainless Steel, B/U, CRA × 2
( .082 in x 23.5 in x 2.0 in )
Z-Wear PM Carbon Steel × 2
( .098 in x 23.5 in x 2.0 in )
 
Ridiculous shipping from alpha lol!!! Try doing this in Canada where you you basically double your order cost in shipping. With the guys who ship via fed ex or ups add another 50% on top again for brokerage. Its not the suppliers fault but the carriers.

I have zero complaints about the service I get from alpha, tru grit and pops.
 
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.
 
Personally I'm glad there isn't a "knife maker's Amazon.com". I love supporting small businesses. I try to keep my knife making supplies organized so I can be smart/efficient about ordering but I know that I'm going to have to shop from multiple sources to get exactly what I need and want. That's going to involve shipping which I know is just a cost of doing business. I use AKS, Pops, USA knife maker, NJSB, Trugrit and Supergrit the most. I feel they have reasonable prices and shipping rates.
 
You would still have to pay for shipping...LOL

And paying $50 total for a piece of steel that will make me at least $700, then yeah I do not mind paying $21 for shipping
 
Being in this game I can attest to the cost of shipping. We try really hard to be competitive with our prices but shipping cheep is hard. Flare rate is nice for the free boxes but we ran into 2 issues with it. First was trying to fit blade in free boxes and all the packaging and second was getting the boxes. Lots of times it would take weeks and weeks to get boxes delivered and this was befor COVID. So we decided to ship in our own boxes that we have to buy. Boxes are not cheep when you consider it’s just going to be tossed in the trash. It’s not uncommon to pay $1-$2 a box plus packaging materials. We use brown paper we buy on huge rolls. Then a different paper to wrap the blades in. If blades are surface ground thy are individually wrapped and taped. All blades are cleaned and wiped down. Surface ground carbon steel blades are cleaned and wiped with mineral oil and stainless blades get a stainless cleaner. So if you have ever used our services I hope you can see the lv of care my wife puts into your packing. But it takes time and time is money when your a business. Not to mention online payment processing takes a good size chunk of at least 3% of the total. This does not even take into account all the taxes that the big man takes.

So I can understand Shipping and handling prices when I order items.
 
I’m a full time maker and I get 90% of my supplies from Pops, they have great prices and some of the fastest shipping I’ve experienced, I get all of my steel, belts, almost all of my handle material from them. The only things I don’t order from them is occasional handle material when I source certain woods or special handles and loveless bolts which I get from Jantz. They don’t upcharge for shipping it is what the post office/ups/fedex charges, their website estimates shipping based off the size of the order but they refund the difference between that estimate and the actual shipping cost on the same day it’s shipped and processed. I’ve had large steel orders estimate $80 in shipping but only cost me 30-40, usually an order that size on shipping is enough material for me to make 50-100 knives. In my experience they also have the best customer service and are very knowledgeable if you call and have questions. In my opinion customer service and quick communication are the most important aspects to a supplier, Ives not had the best experiences with communication or customer service from several other popular suppliers. Just my experience for what it’s worth.
 
Not one stop for me. I just buy large amount each time to offset shipping.

Pops for Corbys bolts.
USA Knife Maker for Ultrex Micarta and kydex eyelets.
Alpha Knife Supply and Niagra Specialty Metals for steel.
Trugrit for belts.
EBay for bulk Kydex.
 
I've ordered from all of the major knife shops mentioned here and a few others. Never had any serious shipping problems though it does help if you source as close to your location as you can to save on shipping. Thus I now order almost all of my steel from Alpha Knife Supply. They are in Utah and so am I, so there is considerable savings there vs. ordering from say New Jersey Steel Baron.

Overall I think it's a good thing to have smaller shops competing with each other. Plus I like the Mom and Pop style shops. I do order from Amazon but only as a last resort.
 
scott kozub said:
Ridiculous shipping from alpha lol!!! Try doing this in Canada where you you basically double your order cost in shipping. With the guys who ship via fed ex or ups add another 50% on top again for brokerage. Its not the suppliers fault but the carriers.

I have zero complaints about the service I get from alpha, tru grit and pops.
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Yes, yes.
 
I use Tru-grit and Alpha for 80% of my supplies. Luckily, Tru-grit is within 30 miles so no shipping issues, use them for stainless heat-treat as well. I use a guy on etsy for most handle materials or custom orders. Alpha is the fastest shipping of all, hands down. Moving north hopefully this year and will use Jarod for heat treating after, will be within 30 miles of him.
 
I will just say on the topic of shipping delays, man is it hard.

I dont deal in huge volume, generally about 10 packages a day, and in covid times it is HARD to ship out fast. Post office will cancel pick up orders, several are closed or wont even let you in without waiting in a long line, times are much slower, its been nuts.

on behalf of all the suppliers out there, please do be forgiving with us for shipping times.
 
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