You Get What You Pay For – A Film by Medford Knife & Tool
There is nobody who will look at a knife and be more critical of it than the person whose name is on it. - Greg Medford
I don’t care how much you pay them, nobody will ever look as hard at quality as the people whose names are on the knife. And we are not so far removed from the business that we’re not a real big part of that. And I think that translates into value on the knife.
We want to make a knife that lasts you for your life and for that of someone you leave that knife to.
I want your knife that you buy from us, from me that I designed, that I held in my hands, I want it to go through your hands to someone you love when you’re done with it. As temporary as we all are, the knives are not temporary. They’ll be here a long time.
One of the biggest challenges new people have, would not have, new to the high-end, American-made knife is the money.
They’re expensive. It costs a lot of money. And the reason so much of the cutlery industry has been kind of routed by modern ways of doing business is because it is a labor-intensive product. And you have to connect the hidden costs with the intrinsic costs when you start looking at the value and eye of a knife.
And then for many people, their knife is an extension of them. It’s an extension of their personality or it’s an extension of their personal style or kind of ethos, their view on the world. And all of that personality and individuality and uniqueness and quality starts to add up to the cost versus value.
We’re trying to make an heirloom quality tool. When I walk around the factory and I see some of my grandfather’s and my dad’s tools floating around in guys’ hands, I have a very bittersweet moment as I think about my grandfather and my dad holding those tools. I know they would love them being here, working still under my umbrella.
I had an engineer from Honeywell out of Sacramento called up because he bought his first Medford Knife and everyone was busy and I was walking by and I picked up the phone and the guy was beside himself. He had a scratch on the knife. I kind of explained to him why he wasn’t going to be real easy to get rid of the scratch and he was ready to buy another knife because he was able to call up and reach me on the phone.
“I was already sold on your company but the fact that I called up and got you on the phone, I’m going to go buy another one.”
So the cost versus value is a little elusive from the outside. It’s a little elusive from far away. But once you give someone a tour through the factory and let him see how the knives are built….
I gave a tour to a non-knife person, their son lives on the East Coast and they wanted to pick up a knife for him. So they asked me some questions and we toured the factory. And when we finished up they said, you know, I’m getting a knife for him, but I want to get one for me too.
And to me, inside, it was like a touchdown with a football and I was spiking it at the Super Bowl.
I got a non-knife person
who didn’t get it,
who didn’t know our models,
who’d never seen anything.
They spent $600 on a pocket knife. They connected the dots at the factory and they were blown away.
So how do I reach out to the rest of America and help them connect the dots for me and everybody else who makes really cool American-made stuff.
-Greg Medford
Medford Knife & Tool
MKT USA
