I'm sure the livelihood of all the EKI employees is based on that price point. I guess it is just a different method of marketing. Just seems like it would be better for a company to stand behind their excellent quality rather than a name and the mystique/hype attached to it, but that's just my opinion and counts for little.
Actually, your opinion DOES matter. It's just as important as anyone else on this forum, except for some of the obvious dimwits that come along once in a while.
If you were Ernest Emerson, you started the company in your garage, never advertised, and could not keep up with demand for WHATEVER reason, simply because people liked your product, why in tarnation would you lower your price? That is not how the supply and demand model works.
People want your widget, you sell so many that people have a two year wait. Without advertising. That is the situation the man was in. Something must be good about what he had created. His widget was in high demand with NO marketing.
So he partnered, after careful consideration, with a well-established American company with the ultimate decision based on the honesty and increased production capability to meet the unrelenting demand for his product. With an emphasis on the word honesty, he mentioned it twice addressing members of this forum.
And as a result, his products will now be available at a lower price point, due to the increased manufacturing ability of the new partner. Who has a well-deserved reputation for producing high-quality items on its own right.
What more could you ask for? No problems there, my friend, with what the man has done up to this point.
Myself, I will continue to buy only EKI-produced knives. Because he deserves my money, as he did things the honest, American way of using your talent and craftsmanship to produce something that people actually wanted. And supported his family with what he has done.
The problem in this country right now is there are not enough Ernest Emersons in this country any longer. They used to be all over the place. Think WWII. He's a throwback.
I could not do what he has done, and I'll bet you could not do it, either.
If you can, I'll take a look at what you are doing and if it is good enough, I will buy it from you.
And I won't beat you up for paying $250 for something that will last me a lifetime, if you model can stand up to the proven performance of what his has.
So no whining. If you don't think it's worth what others do, hey, that's your decision, not theirs. You didn't earn their money, they did.
Some guys like heavy girls, whereas I like thinner ones. But I don't knock them for choosing a heavier gal, because they need someone, too. So that's cool all around.
Same thing brother.[/QUOTE]
You don't think Emerson talking up "my knives were on the seals mission to kill bin laden" "I was in a fight!" stuff isn't marketing? It's direct marketing, viral marketing, but it's still marketing. I think the big complaint about Emersons is the quality you get for the money. I get they're a small company that does a lot of handwork on their knives, but really why? They've been around for this many years and not heavily invested in new equipment? They still use 154cm on $200 plus dollar knives, even then they could switch to the CPM variant of that steel and it would perform better across the board, cpm 154 at what they harden their 154cm at is much tougher. CPM 154 at a higher HRC is probably as tough as 154cm and will hold a better edge. It just seems lazy and complacent. The other part is about the chisel grinds, so they can be "easily sharpened in the field". Unless I need to do serious edge repair, I can get a traditional v ground edge back to being sharp with a coffee cup and a piece of cardboard. You couldn't really do serious edge repair anyway with the side of a rock anyway. It just seems like bad design and an arrogance about the design. They haven't changed their entire template of their knives in a decade, and a decade of innovation has made them look antiquated.
