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Jeremiah Burbank shares PVK’s trek around the knife world and a return to where it all started.
From a New England gentleman’s gift shop to a legendary—if not notorious—knife outlet on the Las Vegas Strip and online edge tool maven, PVK and PVK.com has carved a unique path in the knife world. We caught up with Jeremiah Burbank, the man behind the radical retail brand, and got a behind-the-scenes look at the company’s growth, cross-country moves and PVK starting a new chapter in its story. Buckle up as he surveys the ever-changing knife landscape, shares online sales insights and his enduring passion for knives.
BLADE: Give PVK’s origin story—how did the store come together and how did it end up in Vegas?
Jeremiah: My brother, Joshua, started with a storefront in 1994 in Amherst, Mass., with Pioneer Valley Knife & Tool. It focused on gentleman’s gifts—Maglites, Leatherman, a real eclectic mix. Over that first year, he shifted to pocketknives because he sold a ton of them. He eventually dropped “Tool” from the name and exclusively focused on knives.
By 1999, he had two storefronts in Amherst, and by 2000, he moved completely online with PVK. I came on in 2001 and joined the team, helping Josh with videos of knives, doing over-the-shoulder videos while Josh talked about the knives.
A lot changed in 2013, when some friends of ours went to the USN Gathering in Las Vegas and said we had to check it out. My brother went the next year and said that it was the future of knife sales. By the next year, we had a store by McCarran International Airport, and by 2017, we moved to the Strip—Las Vegas Boulevard—and became PVKVegas. We got to sell knives to the world.
All good things come to an end. Josh passed away unexpectedly in 2021, and shortly after, our landlord informed us they were tearing down our building for the Formula One race. Now PVK is back in New Hampshire—Hudson—and we just opened our showroom last year.
There’s never been a pause with the store.
BLADE: PVK started as a gentleman’s store but ended up a knife retailer—were you and your brother knife guys to begin with?
Jeremiah: Josh was a knife guy through and through—our mother would definitely tell you he had a knife on him throughout his life and took it where he probably shouldn’t have. Josh was into balisongs and read The Advanced Balisong Manual by Jeff Imada. And PVK carried knives we all know today—Benchmade, ProTech, Microtech (we were their second or third dealer)—way before it was cool.
I was always into knives, too. There was some age difference between Josh and me, so one of my earliest memories was hanging out at the store when I wasn’t in school. Also, I think I might have brought a Master of Defense Lady Hawk to school once—I was really into that knife.
BLADE: For those who never had the chance to visit, tell us about the Vegas store—how was it set up?
Jeremiah: Excellent question because it was notorious on the Strip.
Honestly, the frontage was very small—we had 10 cases, maybe 4 1/2 feet long each… call it a 60-square-foot showroom. We had a red carpet, so it really fit into Vegas. We replaced it each month; it got so dirty. Above the cases, we had TVs showing all kinds of knife videos.
As for what we had to sell, we sold everything from $5 knives to $5,000 knives—we couldn’t just cater to knife people. And we had a 10-watt laser to engrave a knife on the spot if someone wanted to put their name or their spouse’s name on the knife.
There was a center section to the store—the VIP room—you accessed from behind the register. We actually had to move the register to get back there. It was differently lit, had a beautiful coffee table and Eames lounge chairs and ottomans. It was a very private and nice experience.
Back there, everything in the cases were customs, short-run knives and one-offs. There was an exclusivity to it. If a guy showed up in a robe and slippers but had a Rolex on his wrist or he said the right things, we’d invite him back to the VIP room. It was a thing of legend.
In the very back was inventory; it was pretty tight because we had 25 safes.
Out front of the store, I’d hang out with the guys and flip knives to get people in the store. You’d see the world in tourists walk by.
BLADE: Vegas is crazy. I imagine you had everybody from celebrities to guys who hit big at roulette come through your doors. What’s your most memorable stories from your time there?
Jeremiah: First and foremost, since I get asked about this a lot, my favorite thing about selling knives is the people—it doesn’t matter if it’s a celebrity or Joe Schmo. Either way, I love to talk about knives.
But we had a number of well-known people who came to our store. Aerosmith had a residency in Las Vegas, and they’d come in. And Post Malone came in unexpectedly with his security detail, hung out in the VIP room and bought a bunch of knives. Tim Burton, Johnny Depp, a whole range of people.
The thing is celebrities are like anyone else when they came into PVKVegas—they’re just a bunch of kids in a knife store. Steven Tyler devolved when he came in, wanting to see each knife and just having a great time.
We were Post’s first stop in the knife world—he’s big into them now. When he came in, you know what the first knife he headed for? The Swiss Champ—the Swiss Army Knife with some 70 functions. He said, “Ah man, you’ve got this?” and had us box it up.
Celebrities are cool, but it’s cooler seeing them geek out on knives. We’re all collectors.
BLADE: You guys were legendary in Vegas, beyond the knife community—was it tough to say goodbye?
Jeremiah: It was heartbreaking, and it was a hard time for me as a person, knife dealer and brother. I had high stree through it all, especially having to break ties with people around the Vegas community who were close with me—with PVK. Honestly, it really didn’t hit me until USN ‘22. Everyone from USN had something to say about the shop. Being back was a strange ripple in reality. Did that all really happen [with the shop in Vegas]? Or did I just dream it?
Closing the shop on the Strip was a flashback for me—in reverse—of when we came out West. Then it was packing up a Penske truck and driving across the country, and I was doing the same but heading for New Hampshire. Life can be very strange, very cyclical.
BLADE: PVK is now back where it started or close to it, does it feel like coming home?
Jeremiah: I love being back. I’m from New England, and the region has always been near to my heart. I love the cold weather and the passing seasons. Plus, my family is an hour away. Plus, I’m offering something not offered anywhere else around here. I’ll also say, it’s great to sell to people face to face again.
BLADE: New Hampshire is a good place to set up shop, compared with some of the other New England states.
Jeremiah: It is the “Live Free or Die” state. New Hampshire was the first state to repeal its ban on switchblades back in 2010, and now we’re seeing it nationwide.
BLADE: You mentioned selling face to face again; that just came about recently. What’s your new shop like in Hudson?
Jeremiah: It’s very different than Vegas, but in a good way. There is no pressure, very calm atmosphere and no VIP room… yet. We’re a 10 a.m.-5 p.m., Monday through Friday operation, which is very different than Vegas, where we were open to 2 a.m.
We opened on Black Friday last year, and it was great to see the excitement it generated. We had folks drive up from Massachusetts when we opened our doors.
Part of what I did when I moved back was contact Nick Chuprin of NCC Knives, who was based in Brooklyn, N.Y., and offered him space. He moved his operation up here, and he has an entire machining cell in the back of the house.
It’s not a standard store; it’s multifaceted. It’s like a knife clubhouse. What other store can you come and get your knife sharpened by a custom knifemaker? And if you want to make, maintain or modify a knife, you bet your daisies I can get it done.
BLADE: Even with the new storefront, online knife sales remain PVK’s lifeblood. But it’s always been that way, correct?
Jeremiah: My brother was an early tech adopter; he had PVKnife.com online in 1997. Even before that, he was on list servers—Wreck.Knife—talking to people about knives. At first, online sales were a trickle, then in three or four years from going online, it became overwhelming. Josh went from having our parents help us ship to outgrowing their house.
He was clever. He used print media—we still do today with BLADE Magazine—to get the word out. And he mailed fliers letting customers know they could order online and have a knife delivered right to their door.
BLADE: Going from the 1990s, when there were a handful of online knife dealers, to today, when there seems to be a new store going online each week, how much more competitive is it now?
Jeremiah: I’ve been doing this a while and will say all competition is good competition. I am good with the free market; it makes us better.
The knife market has seen incredible growth and so have we. Around 2009 is when PVK saw the online market take off, and from then to 2015, our business doubled. By 2018, it tripled, and in 2019, it quadrupled. Then the pandemic hit, and everybody cared about knives.
The bad part about this is it brought a lot of part-time guys into the market who didn’t take it seriously. For better or worse, there aren’t a ton of regulations in the knife world, so there are some who take advantage of the community. That’s not good for anyone.
One of the things I always tell buyers is to make sure whoever they deal with online has a phone number on the website. If they don’t, don’t buy from them. We’ve always accepted all calls from customers and engaged with them.
BLADE: It seems, from your brother’s days on list servers and videos to your work on social media and your Bladeology podcast, PVK has also found it important to engage and build a community online. What motivates your focus on engaging with and building an online community?
Jeremiah: We’re in a disconnected world, and this is a way to make a connection with people. That’s why I find the online community so crucial. With the podcast, it’s friends talking about knives—me, Nick and Chuck Gedraitis—answering knife questions.
I also love recording history, especially with the knives we bring through the shop. You take the Marfione Dragon Slayer 1, it’s gone, it’s in someone’s collection, never to be seen again. So, I find it important to record knives so someday when someone wants to see them, there’s a video or a picture of the knife.
Same goes for the podcast but with the people in the industry. I had Mike Crenshaw of Knife Rights on six months ago, and he passed recently. But a little piece of him gets to live on.
BLADE: Let’s wrap up with something lighter. You have the choice of some pretty cherry knives to carry or fidget with. Do you have a go-to EDC choice?
Jeremy: That might be my biggest problem—my EDC tray overfloweth. But there are two knives that I go to usually. My first is a Microtech Scarab Executive. I was a huge early carrier of the Executive; there’s just something about it. The second, an exclusive Pro-Tech 3V Malibu. Love that button lock, and Dave Wattenberg makes it in an exclusive 3V. I’ve laughed with him about it before; he has been making autos for 25 years, and his best seller is a flipper. But those are my EDCs for real.
BLADE: Thank you for taking the time to speak with us.
Jeremiah: Thank you.
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