• The BladeForums.com 2024 Traditional Knife is ready to order! See this thread for details: https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/bladeforums-2024-traditional-knife.2003187/
    Price is $300 $250 ea (shipped within CONUS). If you live outside the US, I will contact you after your order for extra shipping charges.
    Order here: https://www.bladeforums.com/help/2024-traditional/ - Order as many as you like, we have plenty.

  • Today marks the 24th anniversary of 9/11. I pray that this nation does not forget the loss of lives from this horrible event. Yesterday conservative commentator Charlie Kirk was murdered, and I worry about what is to come. Please love one another and your family in these trying times - Spark

Keep it Alive in 2025

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yablanowitz said:
I'm not Spark, so I can't say for certain, but if I *were* the HPIC, 2024 would be the last Bladeforums forum knife. Huge headache for him, tens of thousands of dollars tied up in inventory for months, marking them down just to get rid of them, seeing people bitching about the price when he may not even be covering his overhead...the whole thing is just not worth messing with.
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I'm curious. How much do you imagine these knives cost him?
 
I wasn't around for this last infamous 2024 Bladeforums knife, but I will say that it doesn't interest me in the least. I even like large stockmans. But the 2024 is kind of a dud. No sexy grinds or pulls. Anemic coloring on the bone, with rather uninspired jigging. A spey blade I'll never use. I'm not saying that it's a bad knife, it's just not special at all. Even if it were offered for a normal GEC production price, I'd be skipping over it. It offers little to the collector other than the nifty tang stamp, and it's far too expensive to be a user for the common man. It appears to be a perfect storm of mediocrity, where the whole somehow amounted to less than the sum of its parts, utterly devoid of a soul. Maybe pure happenstance, or possibly a simple lack of understanding into the fundamental forces that drive the members of the porch.

SoansoMcMasters said:
Did I do it right?
View attachment 2962201
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But this I like!!! Even better might be a more interesting blade shape than the average Opinel. Possibly the No.07 Folding Scoring Knife. But of course I'm walking into the middle of this discussion, without 30 pages of prior research.
 
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Quiet said:
With four months remaining in 2025, that's going to be a very fine needle to thread. I personally do not think it's happening, unless you do as others here have done and order something else and have it engraved. I do not think there will be a GEC made Forum knife in 2025.
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Ya I can't see it getting done this year,it's mind boggling that the 93 is the catalyst for this,I wish there was an economical solution to it,but I don't think anyone expects spark to eat the costs at a loss.it is such a great tradition.
 
Jacques Mi said:
To be honest, I think his first mistake was to take away the members say in the general design of the BF knife/knives. I know it caused some drama in 2021 but at least the knives that were made with the involvement from the community were - and still is - highly desirable. This is nor me bitching or anything like that but just my two cents.
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GEC takes the lion's share of blame (such as it is) for this. There came a point where our options (to my understanding) were whatever they offered to build for us.
 
SharpBits said:
AAPK got a GEC 93 Ramsfoot in Kingwood. I assume they have more influence?
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AAPK has been having GEC do their knives for quite a long time. I don't know the first thing about how GEC does business, but it's possible that AAPK's much smaller runs allow them to request specific builds in a way that Bladeforums and its requests for 500+ just can't be accommodated. My point being, candidly, is that this isn't on Spark. Spark graciously went with what was offered, and ordered enough to try to make sure that all Porch members who wanted one could get one, in case we had yet another case of a bunch of double-digit never-come-to-BF-unless-a-new-GEC-forum-knife "HELLO FELLOW MEMBERS!" tourists swooping in to try to order them all up.

I did not love last year's knife, but bought one all the same. It's actually funny because I think in some number of years, collectors will be after them, considering it was the only "proper" Stockman, as all the other releases of this frame were oddballs with four stodgy sheepsfoot blades. No idea what that was all about (those also had trouble selling and are also still available, in fact.).
 
Quiet said:
AAPK has been having GEC do their knives for quite a long time. I don't know the first thing about how GEC does business, but it's possible that AAPK's much smaller runs allow them to request specific builds in a way that Bladeforums and its requests for 500+ just can't be accommodated. My point being, candidly, is that this isn't on Spark. Spark graciously went with what was offered, and ordered enough to try to make sure that all Porch members who wanted one could get one, in case we had yet another case of a bunch of double-digit never-come-to-BF-unless-a-new-GEC-forum-knife "HELLO FELLOW MEMBERS!" tourists swooping in to try to order them all up.

I did not love last year's knife, but bought one all the same. It's actually funny because I think in some number of years, collectors will be after them, considering it was the only "proper" Stockman, as all the other releases of this frame were oddballs with four stodgy wharncliffes. No idea what that was all about (those also had trouble selling and are also still available, in fact.).
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Not throwing any shade on Spark. Just wondering about the disparity between the two club/forum knives.
 
SharpBits said:
Not throwing any shade on Spark. Just wondering about the disparity between the two club/forum knives.
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As I stated, my theory is that the smaller numbers allow GEC to offer a more premium, special product. There are a ton of other SFOs they've done, all in very limited numbers for various small knife shops and collector groups, whereas, again, Bladeforums was needing 500+ (550ish, I think) of a knife. It's probably a lot easier on GEC's process flow to kick out a run of 50 here, 100 there, than to have to turn their whole team's output to a huge order, especially something like a Stockman which requires additional hands on care so that all the blades fit into the handle correctly.
 
Quiet said:
As I stated, my theory is that the smaller numbers allow GEC to offer a more premium, special product. There are a ton of other SFOs they've done, all in very limited numbers for various small knife shops and collector groups, whereas, again, Bladeforums was needing 500+ (550ish, I think) of a knife. It's probably a lot easier on GEC's process flow to kick out a run of 50 here, 100 there, than to have to turn their whole team's output to a huge order, especially something like a Stockman which requires additional hands on care so that all the blades fit into the handle correctly.
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Well, that's all on GEC again since it's claimed they told Spark what he could order. They could have said here's a single blade spear point in jigged bone, right?
 
Buzzbait said:
I wasn't around for this last infamous 2024 Bladeforums knife, but I will say that it doesn't interest me in the least. I even like large stockmans. But the 2024 is kind of a dud. No sexy grinds or pulls. Anemic coloring on the bone, with rather uninspired jigging. A spey blade I'll never use. I'm not saying that it's a bad knife, it's just not special at all. Even if it were offered for a normal GEC production price, I'd be skipping over it. It offers little to the collector other than the nifty tang stamp, and it's far too expensive to be a user for the common man. It appears to be a perfect storm of mediocrity, where the whole somehow amounted to less than the sum of its parts, utterly devoid of a soul. Maybe pure happenstance, or possibly a simple lack of understanding into the fundamental forces that drive the members of the porch.



But this I like!!! Even better might be a more interesting blade shape than the average Opinel. Possibly the No.07 Folding Scoring Knife. But of course I'm walking into the middle of this discussion, without 30 pages of prior research.
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Unrelated to the subject at hand- but glad to see you back Buzzbait Buzzbait . It was your postings of your 98 camp knife that inspired me to track one down.
 
Quiet said:
As I stated, my theory is that the smaller numbers allow GEC to offer a more premium, special product. There are a ton of other SFOs they've done, all in very limited numbers for various small knife shops and collector groups, whereas, again, Bladeforums was needing 500+ (550ish, I think) of a knife. It's probably a lot easier on GEC's process flow to kick out a run of 50 here, 100 there, than to have to turn their whole team's output to a huge order, especially something like a Stockman which requires additional hands on care so that all the blades fit into the handle correctly.
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AAPK had their 1st, 2nd, and 3rd preferred choices submitted, and all were rejected. Bill gives the same "take-it-or-leave-it" approach for all club knives it seems.
 
Quiet said:
As I stated, my theory is that the smaller numbers allow GEC to offer a more premium, special product. There are a ton of other SFOs they've done, all in very limited numbers for various small knife shops and collector groups, whereas, again, Bladeforums was needing 500+ (550ish, I think) of a knife. It's probably a lot easier on GEC's process flow to kick out a run of 50 here, 100 there, than to have to turn their whole team's output to a huge order, especially something like a Stockman which requires additional hands on care so that all the blades fit into the handle correctly.
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The super small runs also don't really give Bill and GEC any useful market feedback. If they make a 50 piece run of a super obscure and boring pattern and it's super pricey, it will still sell out. If every pattern you make sells out instantly you could mistakenly believe anything you offer is destined to do so. If you want a successful business, when the market speaks you have to listen.

GEC is not immune to market forces. They haven't had to go with them because the limited quantities never met the demand. There was always a missing piece of knowledge. They are great knives but not great enough to sell hundreds of expensive and low interest patterns at will. And that's ok, so long as they listen.

Some of the stories about why the pick what they do leads me to believe they should either stick with small runs or realize large runs MUST be popular patterns. 3.3 to 4 inch OAL with blades of 3 or fewer inches. Instead they intentionally picked something that just isn't popular, in defiance of market-based thinking because,...? I know nothing and could have told you it wouldn't sell very well. Sometimes going your own way blazes a trail and other times you just end up in a ditch! I ran a business for a decade. It ain't always clear which way to go but when you have to put on the hazard lights you need to learn the lesson. Has a GEC knife EVER just sat like this? EVER? As best I know, the answer is no. In some ways this is a huge defeat, no?

I hope we get forum knives again and I hope they know you don't have to be to clever or cute with them. The Bunny Knife was perfect. Price, design, character, the works! You could add $50 to the baseline on it and it would have sold out instantly as well.

It's so cool that they do these knives. It's a shame to see it end because of a lack of flexibility or options offered to the fine folks who put it all together. I feel for Spark a great deal. If any of y'all like big knives jump in a grab one of these! You know the quality is amazing!
 
Quiet said:
As I stated, my theory is that the smaller numbers allow GEC to offer a more premium, special product. There are a ton of other SFOs they've done, all in very limited numbers for various small knife shops and collector groups, whereas, again, Bladeforums was needing 500+ (550ish, I think) of a knife. It's probably a lot easier on GEC's process flow to kick out a run of 50 here, 100 there, than to have to turn their whole team's output to a huge order, especially something like a Stockman which requires additional hands on care so that all the blades fit into the handle correctly.
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You are probably right that a large stockman require more hands but considering the huge Remington production numbers quantity doesn't seem to matter thaaat much.
 
rcs86 said:
Unrelated to the subject at hand- but glad to see you back Buzzbait Buzzbait . It was your postings of your 98 camp knife that inspired me to track one down.
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I’m so sorry that I influenced you to spend so much money!!! LOL. They are wonderful, wonderful knives, the 98’s. Extraordinary craftsmanship. I have a few of the camp knives, but wish I’d ordered a couple of 98 cattle knives as well.
 
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