As to WHY great knives get discontinued!

K

klute

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Dec 25, 2011
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So here we are knife knuts and we can't have some of the greatest blades ever known to man due to them being "discontinued".... and WHY? I'll tell you why, it's because the brands want it that way but why is that you say?

IT'S SO THEY CAN SELL YOU, ME, US MORE KNIVES!!!

That's right. Think about it, many of us finally after extensive search and evaluation focus on one or just a few knives that we want to use, that we super like and know what to expect from, collectors aside therefore if we are good with say, a ZT 0500 Mudd, we lose it, break it, whatever we will just order up a new 0500, done deal, BUT NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! they won't be havin that, nope, they want to continue with buzz, more models to answer more "needs" ....more, more, more!! If you lost your mainstay awesome gets it done jabber stick it's TOO BAD except there is this NEW model you might try.....They really would not sell as many knives if they kept the best and brightest, though I suppose there are exceptions to this rule.
Examples: Benchmade AFCK, Cold Steel American Lawman, Spyderco Gayle Bradley 1 the list is of course gigantic, I am just being brief.

Anyways, this pisses me offf!!! I really need and want a ZT 0500 but not bad enough to pay ransom on evilbay!

This is my theory and I am standing by it, the brands don't care a hoot what we want them to keep making, and they know the models will still sell or am I simply an ignorant knave??

Discuss!!
 
Currently my audio is broken, but thanks for the info I'll get to it in the future.
 
If a brand has a knife that's been around forever but still sells well, what makes you think that they'll discontinue it unless the sales slow down to the point where a new knife would sell better? Ka-Bar/Becker has the BK2 that's been their top selling Becker knife for years and is still going strong, and they also had the BK4 which was the OG Becker knife design that they disco'd and even lumped into a package deal with the BK20 to sweeten the deal and get rid of excess stock. Most would argue that the BK4 is the better design overall, but even if it is a universally-loved design if it doesn't sell than why keep making it?

Business is business, if a knife keeps selling at a pace that warrants a company to keep making it, then they'll keep making it; it makes no business sense to keep a poorly-selling knife just because some people think it's their best knife.

Spyderco Delica, Benchmade Griptilian, the classic Ka-Bar USMC, Buck 110, Kershaw Blur, these have been around for a while because they keep selling pieces, if these companies wanted people to buy their newest models they'd disco these antique designs and force them to do so. I don't see that happening, you can have new models alongside old models if the old models are successfully selling still, but don't expect a business to keep making knives that aren't selling well.
 
If companies made it a practice of discontinuing top-selling knives just to make way for new ones that may or may not sell, they would be run by fools and would go out of business before too long. The people who post on bladeforums are not the majority of people out there who buy knives. I like my AFCK too, but clearly BM discontinued it because it wasn't selling enough units. Pure and simple. Regardless of what we may think.

Look at the several Spyderco knives that have been around since the '80s: the SS Police, Delica, Endura, Harpy, etc., as well as the CRK Sebenza.

Jim
 
Just because you like a knife doesn't mean it sells well. Knives that sell out get more made. When they stop selling as fast as other models, they get retired and something new takes its place.

cycle_graph.jpg
 
All about the numbers......if the model sells, it continues to be produced, period.
No conspiracies at all.
Joe
 
I've had that happen to me in a way, but there are so many great options out there that it seems to me the market really does offer nice knives to take the place of "that one". Happens all the time a knife guy gets his grail and soon thereafter he is seeking a new grail.
 
dwdickey said:
Of course none of this applies if you are BM!
Click to expand...

Whatever do you mean? They're still making plenty of their top selling knives: Griptilian, 940 Osborne, 810 Contego, 580 Barrage, 275 Adamas, etc.

Sure, they've disco'd a few of their knives that many people owned and loved, but it still came down to lack of sales as to why they did it. If the 710 and AFCK still sold like the Grip or the Barrage, they'd still be making them. Simple, really.
 
KingMC said:
Whatever do you mean? They're still making plenty of their top selling knives: Griptilian, 940 Osborne, 810 Contego, 580 Barrage, 275 Adamas, etc.

Sure, they've disco'd a few of their knives that many people owned and loved, but it still came down to lack of sales as to why they did it. If the 710 and AFCK still sold like the Grip or the Barrage, they'd still be making them. Simple, really.
Click to expand...


They have a history of discoing many of their flagship models in the name of the new...and of course the new never stays around all that long.
 
"Great knives" get discontinued because they don't sell to the masses who don't recognize their greatness.

A case in point is the Becker BK-15, an absolutely splendid knife that excels in the kitchen, the camp and in the field; it's a great knife! However, trailing points just don't sell to the masses. They are not tacticool, sexy or whatever else it is about the appearance of a knife that makes one pull the trigger.

Me, OTOH, and I would suspect most of us here look at things like the steel, the grind, the edge geometry, the tip, the balance point and whether the knife "works." We also analyse (sometimes too much) the intended tasks for a knife and then evaluate the properties and personality of the steel to see if they mesh. Having comfortable handles - not too grippy, not over jumped ... something that will not develop hot spots over longer use sessions - these are the things we look at. We are a vast minority of knife buyers and obviously didn't buy enough BK-15s or, for that matter, BK-5, a fantastic bigger cousin of the BK-15.

To a woodsman - someone who, you know, really goes out and gets some dirt time now and again, the BK-4 is brilliant. To the uninitiated, it might appear weird and different. long and short, sales numbers killed that "great knife" as well. There are many others, but my familiarity with these favorite Beckers of mine were the easiest to use in commentary without too much deep thought.
 
dwdickey said:
They have a history of discoing many of their flagship models in the name of the new...and of course the new never stays around all that long.
Click to expand...

If their flagship models stop selling well, it makes sound business sense to disco them in favor of better-selling blades. It sounds like their problem is not that they disco'd popular knives but that they failed to make new blades that appealed to their buyers, a separate problem entirely.

I'm sure their top sellers are all still in production, like the ones I listed in the post you quoted.
 
The Buck 110 and 119 will never be discontinued, just as the Victorinox classic and tinker or leatherman micra will never be discontinued.
I love my leatherman fuse, but it got discontinued, just as I love my Victorinox pocket pal which was discontinued.

I don't see a lot of media content regarding them, this and the fact that the most iconic models have stayed in production tells me that they only discontinue those that don't sell as well.
I do think that leatherman was stupid to replace the kick blast and fuse with the wingman line.
 
Sometimes companies will discontinue a model due to manufacturing problems or the have payed attention to their customers and redesigned and released a 2nd version such as Manix 2,Para 2 Gail Bradley 2 etc.
I don't consider those as discontinued, they are modified. I figured I would throw another opinion into the mix.
 
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