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Okay, so I don't know how many of us know about Chicago Knife Works here, but for those who aren't familiar, Chicago Knife Works ("CKW" from here on out) is an online seller of manufactured knives & related items that is, ironically, based in Marion, Virginia (which is, perhaps not coincidentally, the headquarters of BladeHQ). CKW is somewhat along the lines of a knife wholesaler, in that they will put restrictions on selling knives you purchase from them -- usually the restrictions amounting to something like "no Amazon sales" or "sell only on your website, no eBay or Amazon sales".
Their prices, similarly, tend to be the best anywhere online for most items (the exception being either weird one-off clearance sales from other sellers or manufacturers, as well as some of the newer Chinese knife brands, such as Civivi, Kizer, and Kansept). Those prices can fluctuate significantly, and without notice. But occasionally they also have items on sale for significant discounts -- and will even advertise those discount codes in the cart so that you'll be reminded to enter that discount code.
Oh, and I should mention that their shipping can be rather slow -- orders can take a couple weeks to ship. This can freak people out, but so far (knock on wood) I have received every order I've placed, and every order has been complete -- which is likely the experience most people have with them, though complaints about CKW are easy to find on the various knife forums.
When I first found out about CKW a number of years back, they were providing free shipping on orders up to 5 pounds. That went away rather suddenly & permanently, for many years, & their shipping charges tend to be a significant amount in relation to the order -- for example, a $100 order could easily cost anywhere from $12 to $15 in shipping. This has frequently slowed down my ordering as an individual purchaser (though shipping also does not rise too horribly from there, which could be great for wholesale purchases).
So I went there tonight only to find that they are currently providing free shipping with no minimum purchase on orders that weigh less than 3 pounds! Conveniently, each item includes the weight both in the item description and in your cart, & the cart also shows a total weight near the total amount.
Granted, 3 pounds is easy to hit when you're talking about chunks of steel. And I have no idea when this sale started, nor do I know when it's going to end. But there's no minimum, so you don't have to work a calculation that requires a certain dollar amount but only a certain, often quite low number of items, because again, that weight adds up fast.
Anyway, it's the biggest piece of news for knife purchasing I've seen since Bark River went belly-up, so I thought it worth passing on to you folks!
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