DORK OPS at SHOT Show 2005(?)

I'm confused... Whats the deal with all this talk of some Dark Ops knives? I went to their website, doesn't have much really. I also heard the book they send out doesn't even have an order form? Ok I'm really confused? If this is a knife company then why don't they sell their knives? Further more I'm even more confused about well... nevermind.. Maybe I've been under a rock for too long but what the hell is the history of said company? They real, fake, what? :confused:
 
Here's the history assembled by guesswork.

The guy who manages ER USA splits with ER because of a dispute. He takes some of the stock and some money... ER is very unhappy about this.

He begins an ad campaign for Dark Ops knives, using a pr company that is full of bullshit of the worst sort.

He encounters trouble getting his stolen knife designs manufactured, and is left with a lot of negative pr and no knives.

Of course, this may be absolutely wrong. There could be an entirely different explanation.
 
nelsonmc said:
I'm confused... Whats the deal with all this talk of some Dark Ops knives? I went to their website, doesn't have much really. I also heard the book they send out doesn't even have an order form? Ok I'm really confused? If this is a knife company then why don't they sell their knives? Further more I'm even more confused about well... nevermind.. Maybe I've been under a rock for too long but what the hell is the history of said company? They real, fake, what? :confused:

Shhhhhhhh... you fool. Don't ask too many questions or you might find yourself getting covertly deanimated!
 
My employer does product packaging.
(The stuff you've probably seen is: Emerson, Cor-Bon, Buffalo Bore & maybe some others.)

Every year one of our salesmen goes to SHOT to pick up some new business. If he comes back with Dark Ops brochures I'm going to crap myself. :eek:
 
They seem to have their packaging well in hand. Now... if only they had a product.
 
BTTT. Somebody's gotta have a report by now.

Were there DO knives at Shot Show?

What brand of beer were they pouring?

Or was the DO booth so well hidden that you couldn't find it?

We need the information!
 
Back a page or so someone said they had knives but gave no details.

(Or maybe it was in another thread)
 
Gollnick said:
What brand of beer were they pouring?

Or was the DO booth so well hidden that you couldn't find it?

Perhaps FedEx misplaced their beer AND booth material. Sh|t happens y'now ... :rolleyes:
 
I am really sad with the lack of photos from SHOT all together. Where are all the photo threads from this show?? :grumpy:
 
TheBadGuy said:
I am really sad with the lack of photos from SHOT all together.

[All (together)] I am really sad with the lack of photos from SHOT [/All] :D







sorry, just had an Airplane movie moment... And I wanna see pics, too. ;)
 
Ok, I wasn't going to get involved--so I'm just going to give observations, no pics, and no opinions.
I saw the dark Ops booth at SHOT. It was VERY BRIGHT. ( same booth that was at Blade only bigger)
I did see the infamous knives..as I was standing right next to the guy who was said to design them.
The Blades of all the fixed Bladed knives were coated with a black, teflon like coating that was chipping/peeling off in places.
The handles still had what appeared to be injection mold marks ( seams that were not trimmed off) There were no "quartz" inserts on the handles, just a "texture like design."
They were "mildly" sharp. NO shavers.
 
You would think that they would want to impress a lot more than that. Sounds like a pretty poor showing to me. I guess they were just wanting to have anything to show and weren't too concerned with what impression they made.
 
Watchful said:
Either this is catastrophically run business or his claim is complete nonsense.

I'd expect that Ford didn't spend that much for the redesign of the Mustang!

Factoring in R&D, consulting time, machine re-tooling, legal/patent fees (although I'm starting to feel they didn't spend a lot on this!), etc., etc., he'd have to sell about 2,000 units of this particular knife at $500 each to make a profit after costs. This is guesswork based on some quick math and gut business formulas, but even with a big margin of error on my part, only a fool would spend more than $50K on a minor redesign of a knife handle! At least, before your investors and partners said "screw the changes and get that thing made."

I'd be interested to hear from the knife makers on this forum on this claim.
From a knifemakers point of view, I think whoever's in charge of design and spent that much must hav sh** for brains. It doesn't cost me a dime to change my handle designs. :D
Scott
 
injection mold marks ( seams that were not trimmed off)

FYI, technically these are called "witness lines."


It doesn't cost me a dime to change my handle designs.

injection-molded plastic is a different game. Depending on the tool and what your change is, it can cost tens- or even hundreds-of-thousands-of-dollars and take months to make a change. Of course, once you have the tool, you can make tens of thousands to millions of pieces from it. So, it's definitely a mass-production technology. You pay up-front in tooling fees but make it up in volume down the road.
 
Gollnick said:
FYI, technically these are called "witness lines."




injection-molded plastic is a different game. Depending on the tool and what your change is, it can cost tens- or even hundreds-of-thousands-of-dollars and take months to make a change. Of course, once you have the tool, you can make tens of thousands to millions of pieces from it. So, it's definitely a mass-production technology. You pay up-front in tooling fees but make it up in volume down the road.
I was just kidding Gollnick. I understand in manufacturing there is alot of cost in tooling for production. That amount seems a bit high but with all the unanswered questions about this company, who really knows?
Scott
 
Back
Top