Shipping your Knives

Casey Brown

Casey Brown

Well-Known Member
So, how do you ship your knives? I saw a video on Karl Anderson's shipping method (which is an awesome way to ship one). I was curious how most of you sent your knives out in regards to packaging to protect them during shipment. I have heard that Fedex is pretty much the way to go as far as carriers go.
 
I'm going to follow this one with interest. First time I'd seen that video From Karl. Good way to go it looks like.
 
I use USPS Flat Rate. Overall it’s a very good service. However, the postal service is utterly useless if anything goes wrong.

The pros and cons to me are that (pro) shipping out of the US is much cheaper because USPS doesn’t charge you an extra $50 to go through customs. Flat rate is ensured and you can add insurance to cover the price of the knife if it gets lost and you have to make another one for free or refund the money. Shipping is usually 2-3 days anywhere CONUS. Boxes are free. Click-n-Ship from the home computer makes payment and printing the shipping label a snap.

The cons are what i mentioned earlier- if anything goes wrong the most you’ll get from them is a shrug and a hearty “best wishes” and “call us back in 30 days if it hasn’t showed up.”
 
I wrap my knives in brown butcher paper. Then add packing to the box so the knife can’t bounce around. With all the stuff I order, I’m never short on packing material. I keep a plastic storage tote next to the bench. When I receive a package I take all the packing out of the box and put it in my tote. So there’s a mixture of packing paper and those little perforated air bags. I don’t do peanuts.
 
I wrap them in a usps bubble mailer and then wedge as small a flat rate box as they will fit in. I use a small enough box or enough mailers so that there is no movement at all. USPS will deliver both to your house in unlimited quantities free of charge. The only shipping material I pay for is tape because I don’t trust the glue strips on the box to be enough.
 
I like Karl's approach, and if I made knives that large (and certainly for that kind of money) I'd probably do the same thing, especially if shipping out of country.

Personally, I mostly make smaller fixed blades and folders, so usually they'll fit into a small priority box or similar. I rarely ship my knives without sheaths, but an any rate, I make sure there's no way that the point or edge could pierce free of the package. I also make sure that the knife isn't flopping around inside the package. I almost always have a pile of mailers/ad papers that I get almost daily in the mail, and these make great packing materials. Some times I'll even tape the wrapped knife TO the inside of the box for added protection.
Finally, the outside of the package is wrapped in tape such that no box seams are exposed, and the mailing label is printed and taped to the box. I always make sure to put clear tape AT LEAST over the buyer's address and my return address, so that if the package were to get wet, scraped, or whatever, the label is somewhat protected.

I've shipped dozens of knives and 100's of other packages this way, and have never had a problem.
 
Almost all my knives go international but even for internal posting, when there are up to three to the same address I will wrap them individualy in a cotton cloth wrap in their sheaths with the authenticity and care cards, then multi wrap in bubble wrap and post in padded post bags. When more than 3 knives are going then they go into one of the A4 doccument storage boxes rather than the padded bag. I can get 8 in a box like that and with the individually bubble wrapped knives being protected from the box edges by crumpled newspaper they have all got to their destination in undamaged condition. As Drew has said all box seams are taped.
 
All I've ever used so far is the USPS priority boxes, haven't had any problems yet.
on a side note, I recently took a payment by Western Union. I found that odd but hey, whatever works.
that was the first dealing I had with Western Union in about 35 years.
 
Funny story. A couple of years ago I had a customer return a knife to me from Canada. (I personalized the knife with his name.. and spelled it wrong!). I told him to send it back so I could fix it.

I worried so much about how to pack the knives I send to prevent damage from crushing, water, shifting around in the box, you name it.

He had his secretary send it to me. She put it in a plastic shopping bag. Wrapped a few pieces of tape around it, and stuck the label to it.

It arrived without a blemish.

We sometimes worry too much.
 
I generally use usps flat rate boxes.

I wrap it tightly in paper then tape that directly to the box. I use a good deal of tape and make sure it's secure to the box.

This way it won't move around and if any of our fine upstanding postal employees want what's inside they have to destroy the box to get it.

But for very high end stuff, FedEx is the only choice. I've shipped $10,000+ knives through FedEx overnight. It isn't cheap but neither is replacing something like that.


BTW If you're using usps and printing the labels at home, do yourself a favor and pick up some adhesive labels off Ebay. You'll be glad I put you on to them.
 
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