DORK OPS at SHOT Show 2005(?)

Oh, you're on the right track.

A half-million bucks would be to change a huge mold. A mold that large to make knife handles might have a couple hundred cavities, i.e. it can make as many as 200 handles at a time, "in one shot." Maybe something like Swiss Army knives might have a tool like this. But, a manufacturer making specialty paramilitary fixed-blade knives looking at a market of maybe 5000 pieces is gonna make a single-cavity mold probably in Aluminum (Al tools are good for several tens of thousands of hits). Creating that mold might cost as much as $30,000 and take a couple of weeks... probably less on both accounts. No change will cost more than about $15,000 or you'd just throw the old tool away (or try and sell it) and start over.

Of course, you have to pay a tooling designer to design the tool for you and probably and industrial designer to design the handle. You'll probably go through several itterations of prototypes made with something like CNC or SLA. Such prototypes cost thousands of dollars each.

But, even with all those costs, the idea of a half-million dollar change is ridiculous. $50,000 maybe.
 
ok..opinion time. There's still no excuse for poor quality, especially at a trade show where you hope to sell your knives to the company reps.
 
At least someone who was actually at the show saw their knives... That's a start, although a poor one.

Anyone else see their booth? How was the beer? Did you see the advertised demonstrations?

-Bob
 
SShepherd said:
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.
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Are you at all familiar with Extrema Ratio's comparable models? Could these have been painted and rehandled ERs?
 
Bob W said:
At least someone who was actually at the show saw their knives... That's a start, although a poor one.

Anyone else see their booth? How was the beer? Did you see the advertised demonstrations?

-Bob
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It shows alot that you consider the facts as poor....a poor start, as a knifemaker, I'm trying to be as diplomatic as I can. I followed the show rules and did not take a camera . The only reason I posed what I did is because alot of people have been wondering about Dark Ops. I saw it, and relayed the pertinant info.

Sean
 
donutsrule said:
[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. ;)
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Shirley you can't be serious... :)
 
Just to clarlify, I meant a poor start for DarkOps.

So far you're one of the very first people to ever see a DarkOps knife in real life, so your brief review is much appreciated.

Best Wishes,
Bob
 
Bob W said:
Just to clarlify, I meant a poor start for DarkOps.

So far you're one of the very first people to ever see a DarkOps knife in real life, so your brief review is much appreciated.

Best Wishes,
Bob
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You know I hate the internet, because sometimes what was ment, and what was read can be so different.
I didn't seek out dark ops, but I knew alot of people were asking about them.
the fixed blade knives were sitting in a lexan holder--I picked one up.
Very K-bar like, except for the blacticle coating coming off, where it had been rubbing the lexan knife stand. Hardley hard use to have it coming off.
When I ment it wasn't sharp..thats what I ment. The closest knife i bought to being that dull was a Joyse chen cheap assed chinese cleaver. 30$, and about 5 min later on my grinder and it's now a damn sharp knife.
 
They had a pretty big chunk of floor at SHOT. But there wasn't a whole lot on display (besides the giant Pyramount produced banner).

I think there were two fixed blades and a folder on display in Lexan display boxes. Didn't have a huge interest, so I didn't actually handle the knives.

They alsd had a "tactical" flashlight, that was extremely overbuilt, and featured all the latest light fads, including a pointed bezel, etc etc. I couldn't get it to operate.


--dan
 
SShepherd said:
......I followed the show rules and did not take a camera ...
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Same here. Especially after I saw one of the bicycle security behemoths in yellow jackets, and carrying ASP batons, with "Camera Patrol" stencilled in big black letters on the back!

(funny - it didn't seem to stop the many Japanese attendees I saw madly snapping away at booth bunnies and product "celebrities".)

Sorry, I never made it to the DO booth. Didn't even bother looking for it. I stopped believing in fairy tales when I was 6 years old.
 
Gollnick said:
But, a manufacturer making specialty paramilitary fixed-blade knives looking at a market of maybe 5000 pieces
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I think the mall ninja types come in much larger numbers... there are enough well-paid desk jockeys out there who turn on their DVD in the evening and spend an hour or two longing to look like Bruce Willis in Tears Of The Sun. Bud in hand, watching the cool guys covertly deanimating evildoers... and slicing the sandwich, so those strategically placed blood grooves can fully control the flow of ketchup. I think this is their projected target audience.
 
Oh yeah... And I suspect we all know a few Lazy Boy Commandos. But, how many of 'em are gonna fork out $500 for a knife, especially when Bud K and United Cutlery have such "cool-looking" knives for so much less?
 
Aaron Hallam said:
... longing to look like Bruce Willis in Tears Of The Sun ...
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Is that the one where he (or one of his lads, can't remember right now) has aimpoint mounted the wrong way on his M4 SOPMOD ?
 
faramir said:
Is that the one where he (or one of his lads, can't remember right now) has aimpoint mounted the wrong way on his M4 SOPMOD ?
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Yeah, that movie.
 
SShepherd said:
...except for the blacticle coating coming off, where it had been rubbing the lexan knife stand. Hardley hard use to have it coming off...
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I may have missed someone else's similar comment, but these sound like 11th hour mockups to me... mostly props, because again they didn't have any production pieces to show. They could have been made from wood, for crying out loud, and covered in aluminum and spray-painted black!

Sounds like the maker was up late Sunday night, finishing his kid's science fair project and then getting on to making some knives for the show.
 
Look for the sister company "Fart Ops: the secret to silent but deadly deanimation!"
 
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