BladeForums Traditional 2009 Knife Cover Letter.....

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Thanks for your efforts guys! I'm sure it'll work out with you guys taking the lead!
 
Bastid said:
Thanks Steven.
Folks, he has been hard at work behind the scenes on this.
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I believe it, and I certainly appreciate it.:thumbup:

It's a good start. Can't expect to get all you want right out of the gate. It's early yet.:)
 
Canal St can't? I was going to suggest that if they could you could ask them to replace their coin shaped shield with CS in it with a BF motif,that way you could save on the extra cost for tooling up for a bolster stamp-which could be expensive.

Maybe other cutlers could offer a special shield instead?

Pity you can't ask Böker to bid on this as they make a decent Barlow but the shipping costs and import taxes from Europe rule this out I fear.

Nobody keen on a GEC Easy opener? Single blade Barlow style. Short but sturdy and individual.
 
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Steve and Gus. You guy sare truly very cool dudes in my book. I'm in on what ever it is from whoever it is. Its the least I can do, after all that you guys are doing.

-frank
 
Kohai999 said:
The saga begins...

This letter went out to three manufacturers thus far, Canal Street Cutlery, GEC, and Queen:

I am writing you on behalf of Bladeforums Traditional sub-forum. Every year for the past 5 years, we have commissioned a traditionally patterned slipjoint knife from an American manufacturer.

This year we would like the following, in a quantity between 50 and 75 pieces:
1. Barlow pattern slipjoint knife, closed OAL between 3 5/8" and 4".

2. Blades to be made of carbon steel of your choice, premium stainless or D2, provide pricing as to options.

3. 2 blades, equal or close length, spear or clip main blade, wharncliffe 2nd blade, long pull or preferably long match striker pull.

4. If we can get nickel silver liners that would be superb.

5. Bone of maker's choice or stag if possible(would like price breakdown on both)

6. Stamped bolster to read either: "BladeForums 2009" or "BFC 2009"

Please tender pricing and what the lag time will be after approval of design, we are hoping for delivery no later than November 2009. 50% of final cost for deposit is acceptable.

Please advise if you are interested.

Best Regards,

Steven Garsson


This is GEC's position as presented this morning by Christine Tucker in the Sales Department(only company to respond so far):

....brass liners only, barlow is only 3" closed, would not be able to stamp bolsters, engrave BFC on one line, 2009 on second line ONLY.

They don't have a large barlow, suggested other patterns, including large trapper or Moose.....AND they don't currently do a Swayback.

Best Regards,

Steven Garsson
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Please ask them that whatever it is that they end up doing, please make it SHARP...!!!! And please save one knife for me. Thank you a million.
 
I really appreciate the work being done on this. Collecting rejections is harder to take than collecting bids. For what it is worth, if we can get it built to the specifications listed, I'm in for a couple. I just didn't want another short handled knife.
 
yablanowitz said:
I really appreciate the work being done on this. Collecting rejections is harder to take than collecting bids. For what it is worth, if we can get it built to the specifications listed, I'm in for a couple. I just didn't want another short handled knife.
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It does suck to get rejections.:(

That said, we MAY have to go back to the drawing board.....I requested a favor from another company, and will know within a week...that will have meant that we approached 4 companies, and could not get what we want at this time.

I AM encouraged by Canal Street, in that Wally stated that they might look at a barlow for next year.

I REALLY hope that Queen will work with us.

Best Regards,

STeven Garsson
 
The tension!!! The suspense!!! Down to the last manufacturer, can they pull it off?? This is better than reality TV!:D:D

It IS a shame about Canal Street, maybe next year it'll come together. In the meantime, keep up the great work Steven and Gus, I know it aint easy. Hell, the anticipation is 3/4 of the fun anyway, so you're sure making it interesting.

One thing a lot of folks really don't seem to understand, special shields, bolster stamps, and tang stamps cost a LOT of money to produce. There are tooling and dies involved, and they cost bucks. To even have a manufacturer consider it for 50 or so knives is really wishful thinking IMO. For instance, in the case of a custom shield, the die production cost would fall on us, and would likely top several hundred dollars. For a bolster stamp, the die has to be manufactured to fit into a multi ton press and be evenly rammed onto a slanted bolster, likely way more costly to produce than the shield die, so I'd definitely put those kinds of requests on the back burner. The only bright spot I can think of is I recall hearing last year that Queen had some kind of new custom shield thing going on, but I don't know any of the details, nor if it's even true, and if so, is there a minimum?

Eric
 
Thanks for all the great work you are doing on the project. I'm looking forward to seeing what we wind up with!
 
db said:
Can GEC do the second blade as a wharncliffe at the smaller size?
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Possibly, but a 3" closed knife is something that would appeal to a much smaller demographic....it might be hard just to get 50 pieces at that point, and I am convinced we can do better than that.

Best Regards,

STeven Garsson
 
Gus and Steven, I know getting things like this together can be a pain so thank you for doing it, and I look forward to whatever the end result maybe.

Jesse
 
I have to agree that a 3" Barlow would knock me out of this. It's a hard use knife, that's just plain too small. It's definitely a bummer too, I was kind of hoping for GEC. We'll see what bites we get from Queen or any others, fingers are crossed, hehe.

Like all the other acolades, thanks for everything you guys are getting into with this. As always a real class act from the organizers.

Syn
 
Steven and I were thinking that since the first three knives were on the smallish side, that a slightly larger knife might foot the bill this year.

We may have to revisit the pattern decision and if we do, we are going to make it a quick vote.
 
I'd like to add my Thanks! to you guys for all the work going into this!

And a question; Did I miss a vote on blade choices, or How did a wharncliffe get defaulted in? Just curious :) (mainly 'cause I don't like wharnies... )

G.
 
Ice Tigre said:
I'd like to add my Thanks! to you guys for all the work going into this!

And a question; Did I miss a vote on blade choices, or How did a wharncliffe get defaulted in? Just curious :) (mainly 'cause I don't like wharnies... )

G.
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There was no vote on blade choice.....most people seemed to be interested in two full length blades, to keep it interesting.

So Gus and I made an executive decision.....even if most people are happy with what is finally produced....some will not be....it's a club knife.

Best Regards,

STeven Garsson
 
The first vote was for the pattern. Like past years once we get the pattern down the rest is left to the organizers and the company who makes the knife.

As with any club type knife, some folks are going to like the knife and buy it, some are going to buy no matter what because of friendships and relationships in the club, others are going to not buy because they do not like the knife. (All of the above are good and valid reasons as far as I am concerned.)

There is no way we are going to make everyone happy with the choice. This is the 4th year, we have not seen a wharncliff blade yet. A long clip type and a wharnie offers two distinct blade shapes and versatile cutter. The actual blade types will be most likely determined by the maker.

Anyway, that is the story and for now Steven and I are "stickin' to it". :)
 
This was a very "Thankless" job, but you guys did it without shooting either each other, or Us!! ;)

Thanks for doing this project, and it will be fun to see what turns out in the end! :thumbup:

Kent
 
Cool. Not a deal breaker for me, my pref is in the minority, I doubt you'd get any complaints on that choice around here..

Like I said, twas curious.. :)

"no matter what because of friendships and relationships in the club"

Thats about it for me, I've really enjoyed the past year I've had readin' and postin' here, all you friendly folks, the comeraderie... Doin' my best to stay financially up to this so I can carry a knife created by a group of great folks.


G.
 
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