Kershaw Blem

Kershaw began its foray into the knife business sometime during 1974. The company was originally based in Portland Oregon, but most early knives were manufactured in Japan. The first US manufacturing plant was opened in 1997 & the company currently offers knives made in the U.S., Japan, & China. Pete Kershaw (an ex Gerber salesman) started the business.
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sextonknifeworks
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Kershaw Blem

Post by sextonknifeworks »

I recently inquired about becoming a Kershaw dealer but after further studies found out something that seemed fishy to me. What stood out to me is the vast numbers of blem knives being sold on ebay. These knives are marked with XXXX on the back of the blade and a lot of times you are getting a blemish model and it is not advertised as one.

I declined my first order because I did not want to compete with the blem market.

For example the Leek Rainbow blem is being sold on ebay for over $10 cheaper than a top flight sellers cost on the first quality knife. Not to mention what they are losing in ebay and paypal fees

Now the top flight seller pricing was for a $7500 initial order and $75000 sales per anum.

I guess the question I have is why so many blem knives. Is their process so out of control that the produce this many or is it something else.

Here is just one listing where someone has sold over 250 blem off of this one listing.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Kershaw-Leek-16 ... 3a8509beb1
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philco
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Re: Kershaw Blem

Post by philco »

Mike maybe you should get into the blem biz. Looks like there's a market for em. 8)
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sextonknifeworks
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Re: Kershaw Blem

Post by sextonknifeworks »

I thought about it but looks like others have that market sowed up.
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FRJ
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Re: Kershaw Blem

Post by FRJ »

Mike, here's a blem. I couldn't find a thing wrong with it. I could be missing something.
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philco
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Re: Kershaw Blem

Post by philco »

I do know that some of the factory blemished knives from Canal Street look perfect to me. Redtrout sells a lot of them and seldom can I spot anything that would keep them out of the top of the line. When a company has extremely high quality standards, I guess it's inevitible that there will be numerous knives coming off the line that just don't quite make the grade for one reason or another but are still good, quality, functional knives.
Makes me wonder what other companies do with the ones that just don't quite measure up.
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wazu013
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Re: Kershaw Blem

Post by wazu013 »

The ZT/Kershaw blem sales are very competitive. Kershaw Guy (Dave) has been selling blems for as long as I can remember. The knives have very little wrong with them, usually a slight color variation and they're all marked with xxxx. The only downside to buying one is they aren't covered by the warranty. If you're half handy you can order some parts from KAI. Most of the time they just send them to you no charge. I think if you get into selling them you better be ready to come up with creative ways to do it. Just listing them at MAP pricing won't get the volume you need.
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