990121ajo

Knife Store Has Cutting Edge

Albuquerque Journal
01/21/99
By Donna Olmstead For the Journal
Page 3
1 non-Xena graphic

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Article about knife store mentions is sells knives like those found on XWP and HTLJ.

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   * From pocket knives to swords, the shop is stocked with something for
everyone

   The point is that New Mexico Knife Works & Trading Company in Bosque Farms
has something sharp for everyone -- from survivalists to collectors.

   Although the inventory of the hundreds of items in the recently opened shop
runs from ceremonial swords to key-chain pocket knives, it's all serious steel.

   "We get everybody in here, from collectors and hunters to the guy looking for
a good knife for work," said Jamin Martinez, who was running the shop Tuesday
for his brother, Sean, who was in Taiwan on a trip, for buying and pleasure.
"We've been very busy." 

   The shop is at 600 Bosque Farms Blvd.

   Everything in the shop is high-quality steel, ranging from a 400 grade to 440
grade -- "top of the line," he said.

   For collectors, the store has ceremonial swords, like a dragon-handled,
samurai sword, traditionally carried as a badge of authority and power, to
replicas of movie and television heroes' knives, like the knife from "Rambo,
First Blood, Part II," and, of course, the swords of Xena and Hercules, used in
the television series.

   One popular collectible is The Talisman, a lethal-looking double-edge dagger,
with a red aluminum-cast handle that has a small skull sitting on top. The
Talisman sells in the store for $68.

   Another popular seller, for $26, is the Survivalist, which has enough gadgets
to get anyone out of the woods. The knife unscrews at the handle to reveal a
compass, wire log cutters, a whistle, a sling shot, an extra skinning blade, a
wire cutter, fishing line and hooks, matches and a metal piece that reflects the
sun powerfully enough to be seen from airplanes passing overhead.

   The store also features a fist-handled skinning knife that allows strength in
the shoulders to guide the blade, he said.

   The shop also has plenty of concealed blades -- knives in pens, curved blades
packed in a lipstick tube and a plastic knife sheathed in a wide-tooth comb
handle.

   Also popular is a Knifetech switchblade for $66, a blade that comes out at an
angle with the touch of a button on the handle. Martinez said the knife is legal
in Valencia County.

   The shop also carries Paintball guns and accessories. Martinez said the shop
has a sign-up sheet for a group of people that plays with the Paintball guns on
Sundays.

   It also has a stash of laser pointers -- off limits at many indoor public
places, like movie theaters. Martinez said the laser pointer beam goes on as far
as the eye can see and comes with different attachments that write messages in
red light, like, "I love you."

   It will soon be offering Y2K dry food, in case the millennium computer glitch
means short food supplies.

   He said the wheat, bean and other dry-food products have been difficult to
get with back orders delaying the supply from two weeks to as long as eight
weeks.

   "It's wise to have it, just in case," Martinez said. "If it doesn't happen,
you can still eat the food."

   In an interview Monday before his trip, Sean Martinez said that he opened the
store several months ago with his father, Manny Martinez, a longtime knife
collector.

   "I had the space and he had the knives, so it seemed like a natural," Sean
Martinez said.

   He said he keeps his prices substantially less than the malls in Albuquerque
because he has a lower overhead.

   Sean Martinez specializes in brands like Smith and Wesson, Harley Davidson,
Colt and others.

   Shop hours are Tuesday through Saturday from 9:30 a.m. to 8 p.m., and Sunday
from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. The store is closed Mondays.

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