Ethan called me a few weeks ago, and one of the things we touched on was producing a folder (I, of course, am partial to the one I designed
).
At the moment, producing a folder any folder is problematical for several reasons. One of the biggest is that producing a folder any folder here in the US is an expensive undertaking.
The big problem here is that it's difficult to produce a folder of the quality that Ethan demands, at a Becker price point. Yes, KA-BAR could tool up and produce a lesser quality folder . . . but they won't, because that's just not how they operate (thank goodness). They could tool up and produce the kind of high quality folder that would satisfy Ethan (and me, too, for that matter), but it might be outside the Becker price range. What to do? Well, they could always go offshore to China to have a good quality knife made at a Becker price, but would that be in keeping with the Becker way of doing things? Ethan wants to keep the Becker line all USA made, and I'm certainly in favor of that.
I have to admit that I have seen some very high quality knives made in China (actually, I own one), and I'm tempted to say yeah, let's go ahead and have some folders produced over there so we can have some good, beefy Becker folders, but that's really just because I want a big Becker folder.
But would that be in keeping with the things that Ethan (and all we Beckerheads) want? Probably not. Fortunately, Ethan has very clear visions of what the Becker line should be, and he wants to keep everything made here, by KA-BAR.
All this is somewhat moot at the moment, anyway, because there are simply too many new and exciting things in the pipeline at the moment. I can't speak for Ethan, of course, because I don't know exactly what he has planned, but I suspect that we'll all have to wait awhile for a Becker folder. But someday? Who knows what someday might bring . . . or when "someday" might arrive.
