- Joined
- Mar 8, 1999
- Messages
- 1,760
Now that the attacks are over, I think I owe the knife community here a window into my heart and soul. Will it make your knife, whatever the origin, cut better? No. But since my motives and character have been the subject of a full frontal assault recently, I figure Ill pull back the curtains and give you a peek at the foundation of my thoughts and feelings about the khukuri business. These are not attacks. They're my thoughts and feelings behind some public statements I have made. Whether or not you agree with me, I hope you will not be offended.
I believe the search for truth and for facts is the noblest and most worthy pursuit. It builds integrity. The kind of integrity that means your ship is watertight and wont take on any water. And to me, one of the most upsetting forms of fiction is that which has no author. Its the crime with no smoking gun. Sure, theres someone who got things started. But sometimes he or she doesnt even know it!
Consider this argument: Since we founded our tire company, tire failures have amounted to no more than 1 ounce of rubber. What does the casual reader infer? That no tires have failed in their mission of keeping you on the road. Well, while the statement that 1 ounce of rubber has failed is technically true, the conclusion drawn from the statement is false. Let me explain. Technically, only the rubber around tire punctures and lacerations fails to perform. But it is the failure of those few molecules that will take the whole car out of service. And for the casual consumer who is deciding what tire to buy, he or she easily draws from my statement about one ounce of tire failure the erroneous conclusion that no tires have failed to do their job. In this case, although the tire company told no lie, it set up the consumer to draw a false conclusion. So when I see someone claim that blade failures have amounted to less than a half ounce of metal, it bothers me.
Something else I believe is that no gentleman should allow the rules of an institution to be broken, no matter how much the man stands to gain from the infraction. Thats one reason that I believe that police officers should not be let out of tickets when they are caught speeding off-duty. By letting the off-duty police officer who is speeding to his daughters wedding get off scot-free, it somehow cheapens the deaths caused by speeders in history, and makes a mockery out of giving tickets to other law-breakers (I have nothing but respect for police officers, and hold them in high regard for the sacrifices they make on a daily basis). Thats why its hard for me to stand down when I see one of our community leaders first post a textbook troll (Messages or threads designed to start emotionally or otherwise highly charged arguments) and then sit back and allow people to post hate filled flames that actually threaten physical bodily harm to another community leader or member (both of these types of posts are against BF rules). If Blackdog flamed somebody on the forum or posted a troll, Id DELETE his post immediately and privately rebuke him. If he persisted, Id ask Mike Tuber to throw him off the forum. My co-moderator, you say? Sure. Hes like my fellow officer, who, if I stopped him for speeding to his daughters wedding, Id treat him no differently than an ordinary citizen. I certainly would NOT thank him for his support.
In the past, when Gurkha House was new, I was criticized for only carrying three models: the Service Number One, the World War, and the Mini-Jungle. Now, I am criticized for carrying too many models, most of which have existed long before any khukuris were commercially available in the US. In the past, I was assaulted for suggesting that I had blessed a khukuri by cutting my finger. Now when another forumite who is one of my competitors friends, says the same thing, no one criticizes. When I go to Nepal, build a website, offer more models, and am invited to start a forum, I am criticized for being a copycat. Are these items not things that any sound businessman would do? Why doesnt somebody criticize me for the articles in Tactical Knives and Blade magazine? You get the point. Theres a double standard here, and that's another kind of thing that gets under my skin. Im a big boy. I can handle a double standard. But you cant blame me when it makes me upset.
In summary, I wanted to let you into my heart and mind to see why I do the things I do. I offer quality knives at an affordable price because I think its the right thing to do. That's my mission.
In closing, I encourage every man and woman here to read "Lt Dan's" post over on the HI forum its from the heart and he does a better job than I ever could of talking about how to do the right thing.
Who am I? Im a decent man who values integrity and honor above all else. Im a man who served my country as a Marine Officer when my friends were all off earning millions at Dot Com companies. Do I value money above honor? No. Do I value success above fairness? No.
I love khukuris and value them as functional tools and works of art. I like selling our khukuris because I believe in them. People like buying them and buying them again because they work, they are affordably priced, and in the rarest cases where something goes wrong or is not to the liking of the customer, we stand behind our product. And our service? We are up-front with our pricing. We employ a variety of technology based services to ensure customers can physically track their order from the time it leaves our office to the afternoon it gets delivered to their doorstep. We hold design contests, raffles, work on fun projects in cooperation with the customers (sometimes they do take a while!). We accept credit cards at a significant cost to us so that customers can shop hassle-free. We often ship out khukuris on approval without payment. We do made to order khukuris despite the considerable time and energy it takes to get it right. When asked, we will hand-pick a khukuri to meet a customers physical or stylistic needs. For those very few customers who have been unhappy and have gone away mad? I can count them on one hand. We sell thousands of khukuris a year. So thats not a bad record.
Thank you for listening.
Respectfully,
Craig Gottlieb
Gurkha House
------------------
Craig Gottlieb
Gurkha House
Blade Forums Sponsor
[This message has been edited by Craig Gottlieb (edited 11-09-2000).]
I believe the search for truth and for facts is the noblest and most worthy pursuit. It builds integrity. The kind of integrity that means your ship is watertight and wont take on any water. And to me, one of the most upsetting forms of fiction is that which has no author. Its the crime with no smoking gun. Sure, theres someone who got things started. But sometimes he or she doesnt even know it!
Consider this argument: Since we founded our tire company, tire failures have amounted to no more than 1 ounce of rubber. What does the casual reader infer? That no tires have failed in their mission of keeping you on the road. Well, while the statement that 1 ounce of rubber has failed is technically true, the conclusion drawn from the statement is false. Let me explain. Technically, only the rubber around tire punctures and lacerations fails to perform. But it is the failure of those few molecules that will take the whole car out of service. And for the casual consumer who is deciding what tire to buy, he or she easily draws from my statement about one ounce of tire failure the erroneous conclusion that no tires have failed to do their job. In this case, although the tire company told no lie, it set up the consumer to draw a false conclusion. So when I see someone claim that blade failures have amounted to less than a half ounce of metal, it bothers me.
Something else I believe is that no gentleman should allow the rules of an institution to be broken, no matter how much the man stands to gain from the infraction. Thats one reason that I believe that police officers should not be let out of tickets when they are caught speeding off-duty. By letting the off-duty police officer who is speeding to his daughters wedding get off scot-free, it somehow cheapens the deaths caused by speeders in history, and makes a mockery out of giving tickets to other law-breakers (I have nothing but respect for police officers, and hold them in high regard for the sacrifices they make on a daily basis). Thats why its hard for me to stand down when I see one of our community leaders first post a textbook troll (Messages or threads designed to start emotionally or otherwise highly charged arguments) and then sit back and allow people to post hate filled flames that actually threaten physical bodily harm to another community leader or member (both of these types of posts are against BF rules). If Blackdog flamed somebody on the forum or posted a troll, Id DELETE his post immediately and privately rebuke him. If he persisted, Id ask Mike Tuber to throw him off the forum. My co-moderator, you say? Sure. Hes like my fellow officer, who, if I stopped him for speeding to his daughters wedding, Id treat him no differently than an ordinary citizen. I certainly would NOT thank him for his support.
In the past, when Gurkha House was new, I was criticized for only carrying three models: the Service Number One, the World War, and the Mini-Jungle. Now, I am criticized for carrying too many models, most of which have existed long before any khukuris were commercially available in the US. In the past, I was assaulted for suggesting that I had blessed a khukuri by cutting my finger. Now when another forumite who is one of my competitors friends, says the same thing, no one criticizes. When I go to Nepal, build a website, offer more models, and am invited to start a forum, I am criticized for being a copycat. Are these items not things that any sound businessman would do? Why doesnt somebody criticize me for the articles in Tactical Knives and Blade magazine? You get the point. Theres a double standard here, and that's another kind of thing that gets under my skin. Im a big boy. I can handle a double standard. But you cant blame me when it makes me upset.
In summary, I wanted to let you into my heart and mind to see why I do the things I do. I offer quality knives at an affordable price because I think its the right thing to do. That's my mission.
In closing, I encourage every man and woman here to read "Lt Dan's" post over on the HI forum its from the heart and he does a better job than I ever could of talking about how to do the right thing.
Who am I? Im a decent man who values integrity and honor above all else. Im a man who served my country as a Marine Officer when my friends were all off earning millions at Dot Com companies. Do I value money above honor? No. Do I value success above fairness? No.
I love khukuris and value them as functional tools and works of art. I like selling our khukuris because I believe in them. People like buying them and buying them again because they work, they are affordably priced, and in the rarest cases where something goes wrong or is not to the liking of the customer, we stand behind our product. And our service? We are up-front with our pricing. We employ a variety of technology based services to ensure customers can physically track their order from the time it leaves our office to the afternoon it gets delivered to their doorstep. We hold design contests, raffles, work on fun projects in cooperation with the customers (sometimes they do take a while!). We accept credit cards at a significant cost to us so that customers can shop hassle-free. We often ship out khukuris on approval without payment. We do made to order khukuris despite the considerable time and energy it takes to get it right. When asked, we will hand-pick a khukuri to meet a customers physical or stylistic needs. For those very few customers who have been unhappy and have gone away mad? I can count them on one hand. We sell thousands of khukuris a year. So thats not a bad record.
Thank you for listening.
Respectfully,
Craig Gottlieb
Gurkha House
------------------
Craig Gottlieb
Gurkha House
Blade Forums Sponsor
[This message has been edited by Craig Gottlieb (edited 11-09-2000).]
