Sonoma Cutlery - Petaluma

Our vintage embroidery scissors weren't doing the job so I took them into Sonoma Cutlery. Picked up the pair just a few days later and the price was right. They little scissors are now working and cutting as they should be.
Never been in the shop before and now I know they sell more than just kitchen knives. They have a little bit of everything and the staff are super helpful.
Worth a visit even if you don't need sharpening services.

Bought this recently at Petaluma cutlery. I usually buy online, but I wanted to support a local shop. I didn't go online and price compare, but I assumed they were not price gouging. I paid close to $100, later I checked Amazon and it's going for $23! Never buying from these guys again

What a great find in Petaluma. They have literally every kind of knife and cutlery that you could ever need. I stopped by to pick up an oyster knife but I think I want to come back and just ask for a tour before buying a new knife that I never knew existed but would forever change my world.

One of the few cutlery stores around.
They are knowledgeable with all of their products and will recommend a knife that best suits your budget and needs.
We bought a great Japanese knive and we totally love it.
They offer free yearly sharpening to any knife they sell you!
Love this place!

This shop is great.

I lost my Chris Reeve's Sebenza under about 1000 yards of earth a couple of weeks ago so I've been in the market for a new everyday carry knife. I hate buying online as there is no tactile feel without handling, which is so much of the experience with such a critical personal tool. The girl at the counter- Rayna- said hello and asked if she could help, but was respectful of my desire to just look for a bit and left me alone. After about 10 minutes when I was ready, she came over and spent about 45 minutes with me while I hemmed and hawed and went back and forth over about 20 different makes and manufacturers. I handled (and re-handled) a ton of knives trying to be sure. Besides being extremely patient, she was VERY knowledgeable about all the products and clearly had a love and passion for knives. I ended up walking out with a Benchmade mini Osborne. It wasn't an easy decision to make, but I'm very happy with my purchase. I also found another knife there that I'll be back for shortly!

The service was great, they're a local company and not a giant online corporation, and you can see and handle the products they sell. Most importantly- - they care. What more do you want?? When I checked online later, the price was within a few bucks of online retailers.

I'm so happy I made the time and went down to Petaluma and bought local. A happy customer. Thank you Rayna and Sonoma Cutlery!

Update 4 years later...

Still a shitty, overpriced store. Here is a list of great online retailers for your knife purchasing needs:

BladeHQ.com
Knifecenter.com
GPknives.com
SMKW.com
DLTtrading.com
Indianaknives.com

Buy from any one of these places and you'll be way better off than Sonoma cutlery.

A nice shop with wide variety to knives, however not the best costumer service. Went in there on a Sunday for knife sharping, the store was packed! With no particular order, people were just standing around hoping to be helped. There were no, thank you for waiting we will get to you soon or any system at all for the people waiting. Anyway, not a huge deal. My bigger disappointment is the quality of their knife sharpening service. Two of my knifes had a little bend at the tip when I dropped them off. one came back without the tip at all and the other came back still bent. The worst one was the bread knife. The waves on the knives came back half way gone! I know it's a free service and all but with their high price, I'd rather buy it cheaper else where and pay to get the knives sharpened by people who cared about doing a good job.

Petaluma has everything, including a cutlery store where the proprieters give you stand up comedy along with your purchase!

Our hosts in Petaluma were gifted a full halibut, but they had no knife with which to scale and clean it. Lo and behold, Sonoma Cutlery had a wide variety of knives appropriate for just such a task! We also purchased an oyster knife.

A quick browse in the store revealed a variety of items, such as baking supplies, hunting knives and switchblades.

They have a great selection of high end knives and kitchen implements and the prices seemed reasonable, but their service left much to be desired. I purchased 3 knives there for a total of over $300. After a few days I decided that one of the knives was not what I wanted. Luckily, my receipt advertised that returns are accepted within 10 days of purchase. Great! I went down with the knife to be returned, original packaging, and sales receipt, and they informed me that the knife was not returnable as it had been used.

The return policy on my receipt did not specify that only unused knives may be returned. I asked to see their return policy that specified this detail, and they told me that this condition was not printed anywhere but that they were going to add it going forward.

The clerk was rather rude, and questioned me why I expected to return a used item. I informed him that nearly every other store I shop at accepts returns of lightly used merchandise, and those which do not clearly state this fact at the time of sale.

Again, I asked them to accept my return, in full compliance with their own policy. Again, they refused. Repeated calls to the store's owner were not returned.

I ended up filing a compliant with my credit card company, and the credit card issued me a full refund. I got to keep the knife for free, which I guess is okay. I still would rather have returned it, but that was not my choice.

The whole point of going to a local store is for exceptional service. To this end, Sonoma Cutlery was a major disappointment, and I will not return in the future. I plan on purchasing future knives on amazon or at Macys where I know return policies will be clearly published and followed. Not to mention, Amazon has much lower prices than Sonoma Cutlery.

I urge Sonoma Cutlery to remember that their customers are what keeps their business alive, and in a small town such as Petaluma, these types of bad experiences spread far and wide. I made a good faith effort to resolve the situation, and the store owner and employees were completely unwilling and unable to work with me.

Save yourself the trouble and buy your knives elsewhere.

We were checking out the carving knife. One of the well adjusted and charming staff members sidled up silently behind us. We asked if that was indeed a carving knife. He said, "Yeah. It's for carving large roasts and turkeys and...other things." "Like what other things?" I asked. "Like um..." We didn't stick around the for the answer, bought our knives, and left. It's an experience.