Monday, July 19, 2010

Knife Country

I don't care where you hail from in the US, there's more knife shops in the South than anywhere else. Why is this? Are Southerners more prone to buy a knife than anyone else, or are they just more open about their love of knives?

I live and own a knife shop, droppointhunter.com, in Knife Country in the Northeast and I can't believe there is regional bias for knives. There is a rich tradition of knifemaking here in the northeast. Canal Street Cutlery, Camillus, Kabar, and Utica Knife were all born and are all still located here. Walden Knife, Imperial Schrade, Schrade, Napanoch Knife, New York Knife, and Ulster Knife are all famous names that were born and made here. The families associated with all these companies and the lives they have touched are numerous. They have spawned many, many knife makers, knife collections, knife runners and knife lovers, and many a Southern Boy has come up North here to conquer a northern knife collection.

A 2007 AKTIA (American Knife and Tool Industry Association) study says that 60.4 Million households in America, more than half of all households, have either a pocketknife or hunting knife. This is a sure statistical indication to me that knife loving is very widespread. I believe that laws restricting what kind of knives you can carry may make the knife-lover more wary about their affinity here in New York - but there is no doubt in my mind that the Northeast contains as many knife lovers as the Southern or Western United States.

This is why I have opened droppointhunter.com. We Northerners need knife shops too! But I'm interested to know what you think - is knife loving a regional thing?