I'm waiting on this one

8thsinner · Sep 19, 2010

Coming in from the whipped dog.

I have been doing a little research on this guy and the company he created for himself and his family, and Like what I am hearing.

Mainly only found this though.
http://www.knife-expert.com/benchon.txt

FROM "KNIFE LORE," NATIONAL KNIFE MAGAZINE, NOVEMBER 1988

JACK KNIFE BEN

I brought home one real treasure from the Hawkeye knife
show in Des Moines. It isn't a knife; instead it is a piece
of knife lore. Club member Jim Reinert collects Jack Knife
Ben pocketknives, and he succeeded in tracking down a March
1927 issue of The American Magazine with a great article
about Jack Knife Ben himself, written by a journalist named
Neil M. Clark. Club member Harold Tucker very kindly allowed
me to make copies of the copy that Jim Reinert had given to
him.

Jack Knife Ben was really named Benjamin W. Chon. In 1887,
when he was twenty-four years old, Ben Chon "reached Chicago
by box car busted and broke. It was late fall and cold."
His most recent job had been as an actor in a traveling
theater company playing Uncle Tom's Cabin." He had played
"nearly every role but the bloodhound," but the company had
not earned enough money to pay the actors' salaries.

In Chicago Ben Chon did odd jobs until he had saved eight
dollars. Then he went to visit the giant Union Stock Yards,
then the most notable attraction in the Windy City. "I was
amazed," said Ben, "at the number of farmers, stock-raisers,
cowboys, and cattlemen who came there from all over. The
thought occurred to me that every one of those men needed a
first class jack knife. I asked myself why they shouldn't
buy knives of me, and get good ones!

"Next morning I was on the job. My store was a barrel, my
display case a cigar box, and my entire stock a few dozen
knives I had been able to pick up at a bargain with my eight
dollars. I offered the knives for sale at a quarter apiece.

"At first it was pretty tough, sticking to it through cold,
rain, snow, sleet, and sun. But people got to know me. I
had a line of talk, guaranteed my knives, and took care to
sell good knives, built the way farmers wanted them.
Customers at my barrel store soon included all sorts and
classes, from laborers to millionaire packers and commission
men.

"But I was only a peddler. The policeman on the beat did
not understand my ambitions and hated peddlers -- me
especially. Day after day he'd order me away; and I'd come
back, as sure as the next sun rose. ...

"It was about eight years [1895] before I finally got my
first little shop. Mr. John Ashby was then Vice President of
the Stock Yards Company. That company owned the real estate,
and leased it out, and they wouldn't let me rent any space,
even after I could afford it. But Mr. Ashby noticed I was
persistent, and he had a little shack put up for me. It was
just about big enough to turn around in; but I settled in it,
and made money faster than ever!

"Later on the elevated lines were built and the steam
railroad was abandoned. I rented the old station, and fitted
it up as a store. We're still in it."

In 1927, Jack Knife Ben's store was doing several hundred
thousand dollars a year in business. Besides the old
standby, pocketknives, it also sold razors, diamonds,
jewelry, clothing and men's furnishings, rain coats, leather
goods, and optical instruments. As Ben said, "We aren't
grand, like some of the stores downtown. But that's real
mahogany in those showcases; when a jeweler wants to close
out and quit, I can give him cash for his stock -- twenty,
thirty, fifty thousand dollars if need be -- and get bargains
for my customers.

"One of my sons now manages one side of the store, and
another has charge of the other side, but I still prefer to
stand out in front with my tray of knives, and sell them to
all comers in all weathers. Seldom a day goes by when I sell
less than fifty knives. I have sold as many as seven and
eight hundred in a single day.

"I pride myself on knowing more farmers than anybody else
in the country. ... I have done business with a lot of
famous people, too. Everybody who comes to Chicago comes to
the Stock Yards, and they pass my place of business. The
Prince of Wales has one of my knives. President Harding had
one, and President Coolidge has one."

Benjamin Chon, the little man in the gray business suit and
the blue yachting cap, and with the carnival pitchman's
mesmerizing voice, was for more than half a century almost as
much of a Chicago institution as the Stock Yards themselves.
"Quality, sir?" he often said. "Just read that, if you
please; it says 'Jack Knife Ben' on the blade, doesn't it?
That never goes on a knife unless I stand behind it."

* * *

FROM "KNIFE LORE," NATIONAL KNIFE MAGAZINE, APRIL 1989

JACK KNIFE BEN REVISITED

Mr. John E. Thompson of Illinois read my write-up on Jack
Knife Ben Chon of Chicago in the November installment of this
column, and it brought back some fond memories for him. He
writes, "I enjoyed this issue, my first, especially the piece
on Jack Knife Ben. I have done business with Ben, or with
one of his sons -- a pocketknife or two, but mostly tools of
the stockman's trade, like canes and sorting poles. My dad
bought my mother's engagement ring from Ben about 1919."
Click to expand...

Can anyone add anything to this about the man?

LRD_III · Sep 20, 2010

Larry has a great reputation and has made it possible for many folks to get into shaving with his razors and strops. He understands what minimal needs are and what it takes for people to shave with a striaght razor. I am not familiar with the razor in the picture above, but I am sure it will look much different than that when it arrives.
I hope you get a lot of enjoyment and with the money you save you will be able to get other items as you need them.
Good Luck!

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