2018 BF Traditional Knife

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@abbydaddy

I agree with everything you wrote! GEC is willing to make a Forum Knife, and we desperately want to buy one. But we need a dealer’s assistance to make it happen. We all have relationships with various dealers, and we have reached a point where we just have to ask them. Many, or most, of the GEC dealers might not even be aware of this discussion. It certainly cannot hurt to ask.

Although there is no profit involved, the dealer would obviously become the hero of this knife buying community. And I am sure that GEC would be thrilled to see one of their dealers stepping in to help the company and its customers. There certainly would be intangible benefits. The best scenario would be for a group of dealers to rotate the responsibilities from year to year to make it less burdensome. skblades skblades , Stephen has certainly become a hero to us on behalf of Buck. I have already purchased a knife from him as a result of this exposure, and I was not aware of his business before this discussion.

We know that Charlie and Barry are fully apprised of this situation, and we should not bother them. But there are many other dealers. Last night, I contacted a third dealer that I respect tremendously and who we all know. He was interested enough to ask a few follow up questions. I am keeping my fingers crossed that I hear more from him this morning, but it probably is a long shot.

I urge each of you to reach out to your dealer of choice and politely ask them if they would consider helping us. We should not pressure them or make them feel guilty. That would not work. Either they see the benefit in helping us or they do not. We cannot force it. We can only ask.

If we do not find a champion, I cannot see how an individual could take this on. It is not really about the financial risk, because I believe that can be mitigated by pre-payment. I also believe it is not about the labor, because so many people have already expressed a sincere desire to volunteer. To me, it is more about trust. How many people would feel comfortable sending their money to someone they do not know personally and who has no established business track record? Thankfully, Stephen has stepped forward this year on behalf of Buck. But we will probably never have another GEC Forum Knife until a dealer steps forward for GEC. It is up to us to find one. We need a dealer. Please ask the ones you know in a very nice way.
 
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We can cross this bridge when it happens, but I live only 20 minutes away from Titusville. If I can somehow help with getting a GEC order of knives picked up, boxed, labeled, shipped out, etc. I would be happy to help with any of that. Or a group of Porch members who are close by could all get together for 1 evening and share the the work.

The part I am uncomfortable with would be handling the finances.
 
Rookie82 Rookie82 That is a generous offer and would certainly make the dealer’s job much less onerous. B B.F.U also wrote to me that he lives near Titusville and would volunteer his time. I bet a lot of folks would love to visit Titusville and help with the shipping once a year. The ideal thing would be to coordinate the knife delivery with the Rendezvous.

All a dealer would need to do is handle the transactions! And I pledge to any GEC dealer who steps forward that you will definitely get the large majority of my business. That might be the best message to send to your dealers!

BTW, meako meako , I tried to send you a message, but your box is full. I wanted to thank you for keeping us entertained and lightening the mood. You are are very clever and highly respected by me.
 
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Rookie82 said:
We can cross this bridge when it happens, but I live only 20 minutes away from Titusville. If I can somehow help with getting a GEC order of knives picked up, boxed, labeled, shipped out, etc. I would be happy to help with any of that. Or a group of Porch members who are close by could all get together for 1 evening and share the the work.

The part I am uncomfortable with would be handling the finances.
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What rookie82 said, except I'm a bit further away (36 miles).

I'd love to help with everything but funding. I don't find my couch comfortable to sleep on;)
 
I have been thinking over the "MassDrop style" pre-sign / pre-order idea and I really think it could solve a lot of the problems.

So basically you have an electronic document which an individual can fill out to commit to buying x number of knives if the total population commits to buying at least y amount of knives. For Buck it seems y=250, for GEC it seems y=500 generally (which seems to be maybe variable if it is done alongside a large run if knives). They would fill out the form including payment info, bank or card, and sign it to give their consent to charge them once the threshold is met. Those who prefer to use paper can print or be mailed the form and either fill it out or send a money order.

The one issue would be pricing, in that there is often some variability in pricing of GEC knives until they are actually finished and ready to be distributed (as I understand it).
 
B B.F.U That sounds like a viable high tech solution. I am anxious to hear what everyone thinks about it. My personal reluctance to be involved with the finances is my lack of computer and digital ability.

Another idea would be to go old school. What about asking people to print out an online order form and simply mail it in with a check and a pre-addressed stamped envelope? Once their payment is deposited a receipt would be mailed to them in their envelope.

The offers to pick up the knives at the factory and ship from Pennsylvania sure make it seem a lot more feasible that we could do this on our own. It might also result in a small savings.

(BTW, I do not believe GEC has a 500 minimum if we select a knife from their production schedule.)
 
The #14 does not look interesting. Think it's ugly much prefer 154cm or another premium steel to 1095. Don't like the blades on it. A premium steel ffg some special covers 301 put together by the Custom Shop is great getting something you can't really get. A #14 feels boring
 
Leslie Tomville said:
B B.F.U That sounds like a viable high tech solution. I am anxious to hear what everyone thinks about it. My personal reluctance to be involved with the finances is my lack of computer and digital ability.

Another idea would be to go old school. What about asking people to print out an online order form and simply mail it in with a check and a pre-addressed stamped envelope? Once their payment is deposited a receipt would be mailed to them in their envelope.

The offers to pick up the knives at the factory and ship from Pennsylvania sure make it seem a lot more feasible that we could do this on our own. It might also result in a small savings.

(BTW, I do not believe GEC has a 500 minimum if we select a knife from their production schedule.)
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If you look at the production totals you will see they do several short runs a year. If I recall, over the past couple years, they did a small run for Gateway, Horween, several others. If I recall, some of these runs were as low as 20 (twenty) knives. The 500 number to hit is not necessary - depending on the pattern.
 
I'm fine with a Buck knife for a "Traditional" forum knife this year, and thanks to SK for stepping up to the challenge! I find it a bit curious, though, as to why a GEC dealer/member has not stepped up to help out with a 2018 GEC forum knife. I would think that since they probably sell quite a few GEC knives to forum members, and that those members are loyal customers, that they might be a bit more willing to shoulder a little work for the good of the forum community and loyal GEC followers. I'm mildly disturbed by this situation as I think there is more at stake here than making money.

I distributed the Traditional Forum Knife for the last four years and am proud to have worked with Charlie Campagna bringing you some very fine and unique GEC knives, but unfortunately, I don't have the necessary software to handle the task any longer. (My current software is quite bare bones.) Someone that has funds collection and knife distribution capability would have to commit; hand writing all communications and labels is really not feasible. It took me nearly a week last year to mail all the orders, so it's no small task.

Another item that has received minimal attention this year is the box/tube and label art; I hope we can continue the tradition.

Anyway, I'm in for whatever the community decides, as long as it is within reason. I hope it's a remarkable piece of cutlery, whomever produces/distributes it.
 
Remember then to VOTE!!

Barry has done a lot of vital and time-consuming work by distributing the Forum Knives, and I might add with excellent competence. So I echo his surprise that no other dealer seems inclined to help facilitate the GEC project. Maybe they don't know...:rolleyes:;)
 
Will Power Will Power “Maybe they don’t know...”

That is what I find so frustrating about this Will. There are many dealers that might not be following our discussions. I have to believe that at least one of them would come to the rescue of GEC, and their customers, if they knew. Even if they all declined, I would at least feel better knowing that they were aware and made a conscious decision. That is why I called my dealers, but, alas, to no avail. I hope everyone else makes the same phone calls to their dealers. Let’s at least give them an opportunity. Now that we have volunteers in Pennsylvania to handle the shipping, all we need is someone to handle the financial transactions.

Thanks to SKblades, we are okay this year, but next year we will be in the same boat.
 
Maybe, and I'm just brainstorming here, we could work out a way to pay GEC directly.
If we have members to handle distribution, we just really need to figure out a way to get money into GEC's hands (like Leslie basically just said) :)
 
If there was ever a time for brainstorming this is it K Kiteman72 !

Even if we are realistically looking at 2019, it is not too early. I wonder if any members have a business that is set up to receive payments, create receipts and mailing lists, and make disbursements?
 
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