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Life after Becker.......

some les stroud thoughts... gerber too

o street cred - he's walked the walk, and he can talk the talk. he gets out there, and he DOES what he's doing. for reals. self filmed too. that's badass... complete respect.

o temagami - heck of a knife. made by helle... good stuff. so, the thing i find interesting is they licensed / endorsed him and vice versa... that USUALLY means exclusives. his knife hasn't been OUT that long... mmmMMMmmm. since he went with Helle, he can't easily got with Mora or anyone else i would think...

o if we hit the actual camillus website, there it is... doesn't seem to be a fake or early prank... but there's little information...

o for all we know, someone owns les strouds "name" and/or affiliation and sold it to Acme/Camillus. maybe he's not really involved at all, beyond them being a sponsor or something.

o "les stroud signature knife" seems to be a term owned by Helle... maybe HELLE sold the name?

o short article about les stroud and acme:
http://markets.on.nytimes.com/resea...USPRX____BW5099&feedID=600&press_symbol=38144

seems VERY fast to go from Dec 16th agreement, to Shot in a month... who knows what's going on?

o very little google results beyond some news blurbs. can't even find a mention in a les stroud blog yet.

so, for all i know, some corporation that owns the rights sold his name, and it's nothing to do with him.

i do like the misleading marketing that refers to all this non-stick titanium stuff, but doesn't mention 440 a whole lot. heh. nor can i find any information on where they're made, but if it's not China, i'd be surprised...

o gerber: at least they are carbon steel :) they are not BAD knives, esp for the price. yes, you can do so much better for not much more... could be worse :>
 
I have enjoyed Les's show, and have had the opportunity to meet him and talk with him for a brief moment. He is a very nice, artistic, and REAL person.

I'll be honest, I don't really care that he teamed up with Camillus to get these knives out. While I'm at it, I think the Temagami sucks. Les must have some jacked up hands, cause that knife doesn't fit me at all. :D

I've had a craving for some Helle knives, and have made arrangements for an Earth and Eggen to be in my possession real soon. I almost bought the Temagami at SMKW this last Saturday, but I changed my mind after I held it. Not for me, but for others, who knows.

Will I buy one of the Les Stroud Camillus Knives? Hell no.

Do I think less of Les Stroud for it? A resounding Hell no.

I'm not a fan of Bears Grylls manner of "survival", but the man served his country, and has been successful in just about every venture he has applied himself. And he's a tough ass mother, to boot. Show me another man that will swim naked across a frozen river in Sibera or someplace. Then start doing pushups with his wang dippin' in the snow. That's tough.

Do I think is show is over the top? Hell yeah. But he's tough. :D

I wish Stroud all the best, I hope he makes a mint off those knives, and brings in more folks to the knife world.

Moose
 
Ain't got a dog in this fight, but here's Mr. Stroud's say from his FB page.


Les Stroud Hi all - I got to thinkin'....there was a press release already, but other than that there have been just a few questions here and there about me releasing a survival knife line. Firstly - yes - I have already released a BUSHCRAFT knife with the most excellent company: Helle out of Norway. The purpose was to design a high end bushcraft knife that is a one of a kind knife made by hand by the fantastic people at Helle. No two knives in this line are alike. I have even been able to visit the plant myself and sit at some of the machines hand crafting out my own blade. - In fact someone will unknowingly get one of these knives and it will be the one I worked on myself!!! I am very proud of these knives and very proud of working with Helle on them. Now. That said - Helle and I were not interested in developing a knife line together that was more specific to survival - including some survival attachments. That is where Camillus comes in. I had turned down a number of knife companies who had courted me (including one specific line of knives you could probably guess at - they went with someone else) simply because they would not adhere to my strict quality policy: "If I am going to design a survival knife for you to put in your hands - then it better be quality enough to put in my own". They were all more interested in profit and celebrity. Camillus is fully committed to working with my own designs to develop a line of survival knives you can trust with your life. So if you want that one of a kind bushcrafting knife then please enjoy what I personally designed with Helle....and if you want to outfit yourself with a survival knife designed personally by me and tested by me - then you will see the prototype we will unveil in Vegas at the Shot show in January - I think I will be there at the show on the 18th. ....Camillus had no issues with the fact that I designed a beautiful one of a kind bushcraft knife with Helle and Helle has no issue that I am designing a fully loaded survival knife with Camillus......Listen folks - whether I became Survivorman and created a whole new genre of TV or not - I would have eventually tried to write a manual (which I did called Survive!) develop a line of survival knives and develop a survival kit. As an instructor of many years - these three initiatives were always in my heart to do. So now I am able to do so thanks to creating survival for TV - ok fine - buts what's most important to me is that whatever I put my name on - it be of the highest quality. Know this: In my opinion - the survival knife...book...kit that I put on the market will be the best there is. The price point may be a little higher than those who are cashing in on the whole 'survival thing'....but our lives are worth it. For me its not about marketing or cashing in on celebrity....its about survival. Les
 
I've been sitting this one out, but I really think my thoughts on this are worth sharing.

Les is for real and I applaud him on his fortitude, business sense and fearlessly chasing his dream. I really enjoyed his show and thought he did a superb job. Bear has a team of folks with him to bail him out, which is a luxury, but Bear is still a bad ass.

My real issue with this knife collaboration is the fact it is just another feather in the cap of a Chinese company. I live an hour away from Camillus and even did a photo essay on the town last year and how it is basically dead.

There are too many eager, talented and enterprising knife makers in the US for an American to even consider venturing out of the country to team up with a knife company. If it does not say “Made in the USA” on the blade, I will not buy it or stock it or sell it.

Gerber used to be made in the US. Then it all went to Japan in the late 70’s and 80’s. It started to come back to the US for it’s manufacturing as was the trend in the late 80’s and then all of a sudden, just about everything they make is out of China. China equals crap in my mind. I honestly try not to buy anything made there. Not where there are alternatives. If I have to spend more $, then so be it. I will not subsidize communism, child labor, overt pollution of the planet, and the lack of basic human rights. This apparent infatuation with China amazes me. Why in God’s name does a cutlery giant like A.G. Russell feel he has to go to China to have his designs manufactured? It is for that reason; I will not buy anything from him ever again. I’m sick of US dollars being shipped out of this country.

I find it very hard to believe there is not an American knife company that would not like to have an association with Les or A.G. Les, I find it hard to believe you are so willing to be take our American money and ship it to China. We watch your show, support that network, and your target audience is all American. How about showing the US some love back.
 
Murphnuge said:
Ain't got a dog in this fight, but here's Mr. Stroud's say from his FB page.


Les Stroud Hi all - I got to thinkin'....there was a press release already, but other than that there have been just a few questions here and there about me releasing a survival knife line. Firstly - yes - I have already released a BUSHCRAFT knife with the most excellent company: Helle out of Norway. The purpose was to design a high end bushcraft knife that is a one of a kind knife made by hand by the fantastic people at Helle. No two knives in this line are alike. I have even been able to visit the plant myself and sit at some of the machines hand crafting out my own blade. - In fact someone will unknowingly get one of these knives and it will be the one I worked on myself!!! I am very proud of these knives and very proud of working with Helle on them. Now. That said - Helle and I were not interested in developing a knife line together that was more specific to survival - including some survival attachments. That is where Camillus comes in. I had turned down a number of knife companies who had courted me (including one specific line of knives you could probably guess at - they went with someone else) simply because they would not adhere to my strict quality policy: "If I am going to design a survival knife for you to put in your hands - then it better be quality enough to put in my own". They were all more interested in profit and celebrity. Camillus is fully committed to working with my own designs to develop a line of survival knives you can trust with your life. So if you want that one of a kind bushcrafting knife then please enjoy what I personally designed with Helle....and if you want to outfit yourself with a survival knife designed personally by me and tested by me - then you will see the prototype we will unveil in Vegas at the Shot show in January - I think I will be there at the show on the 18th. ....Camillus had no issues with the fact that I designed a beautiful one of a kind bushcraft knife with Helle and Helle has no issue that I am designing a fully loaded survival knife with Camillus......Listen folks - whether I became Survivorman and created a whole new genre of TV or not - I would have eventually tried to write a manual (which I did called Survive!) develop a line of survival knives and develop a survival kit. As an instructor of many years - these three initiatives were always in my heart to do. So now I am able to do so thanks to creating survival for TV - ok fine - buts what's most important to me is that whatever I put my name on - it be of the highest quality. Know this: In my opinion - the survival knife...book...kit that I put on the market will be the best there is. The price point may be a little higher than those who are cashing in on the whole 'survival thing'....but our lives are worth it. For me its not about marketing or cashing in on celebrity....its about survival. Les
Click to expand...


Interesting FB post I am curious on how well they will preform.
 
TAGannon said:
Les, I find it hard to believe you are so willing to be take our American money and ship it to China.
Click to expand...

Les Stroud is Canadian (at least he was born here), so I don't really care that he didn't go with an American company.

It would have been nice if he went with Grohmann knives though (a Canadian company...pretty much the ONLY Canadian knife company).
 
Well, IMO Bear Grylls was kinda hokey anyway, before the Gerber sellout (complete with defective knives, buttcap breaking off WTF?)
This is disappointing. I was fine with Les when he was using a Buck 119, and when he promoted a knife from Helle. Those are both good knives, but this is destined to be the same crap knives as the Gerber BG line, with the same defects. I won't be buying any new Camillus knives.
As far as his FB post, well, I won't believe it 'til I see it. When I see him beating on his knives- any of them from Camillus- and they hold an edge, and don't break, I might get one to test for myself. Until then, I don't think I will be getting one.
 
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The Myke Hawke knife is actually rather nice. It is not a sitting around the campfire knife but I did beat the hell out of it one weekend. The saw actually works,,,,didn't think it would but it does.

I will probably by one of the Cam/Stroud products. I like to test stuff like that.

BLADITE.....the G/F version of the Woodmans Pal is a lot lighter than the WP so you don't get the same oomph behind your chops. The G/F version does have a have a very comfortable handle but it will start to rattle after a while. Rattling handles scare me.
 
Sad that Les did this, but I still like his show. He's cool in my book.

So, is it just me, or did anyone else notice that those aren't knives in the advert in the OP? They're photoshop'd 'knife-like-images'; they look sterile & weird.

Pretty pathetic, really. :(

~Chris
 
BushOgre said:
BLADITE.....the G/F version of the Woodmans Pal is a lot lighter than the WP so you don't get the same oomph behind your chops. The G/F version does have a have a very comfortable handle but it will start to rattle after a while. Rattling handles scare me.
Click to expand...

rattling is bad, but i'm sure that can be fixed :>

yeah, definitely lighter, but that might be a good thing, esp if you have a real WP
 
Lots of people "sell out" but that doesn't mean that the knives are bad or the guy is bad. Look at Dozier (kabars stuff is good but still china produced ), hinderer (there are plenty of hinderer fans that say the ZT line is an imposter), same with onion, and every other production version of a custom makers stuff. It maybe his design like those makers above, and if it is, then well I would have taken my designs elsewhere, OR it could just be selling his name. And like others have said he may not even own enough of his own brand to veto something like this even if he wanted to. Or option three, he is making his money now before he can't do what he does anymore. solidifying his retirement. I won't buy one, but I wish him well in this new endeavor.


Good discussion tho
 
I would drive through Camilus every day this summer for work. ( Chemistry lab at the college) I never went through the town though just the corner of it. The girlfriends family lives like 20 min from there. Perhaps next time we are in visiting I will have to go take a look.
 
I for one am going to get one to go with my costume!

ToyStory3Wallpaper800.jpg
 
Clich, the Dozier folders are made in Taiwan, which is China-ish, but not exactly. A bit better in my mind. Regardless, you make a good point.

I think what a lot of people are upset about is the fact that since Les Stroud is an outdoorsman and survival expert, he "should know better" or "be above" a low end/ low quality knife. I mean nobody bashes George Foreman for slapping his name on an electric kitchen grill, right? Nobody is sad that he didn't team up with Weber to make a higher quality grill. George Foreman is no chef, grill expert, etc... I seriously doubt he had much if anything to do with design of the thing. For the cash he got, you can put my name on the grill. You can even change my name if you want.

Some are disappointed because they have higher expectations. They laughed at Bear Grylls and his ugly Gerber knives, and I remember seeing posts about how "true" Les Stroud was and how he only put his name on a quality knife (Helle).

Personally, I don't really care what the guy does. He has the right to put out a 440 China knife, just like I've got the right to keep my money. I kinda like his show, but I wouldn't call myself a Les fan. I can understand why some people are upset with his choice though.

If it were me, would I try to pair up with a more reputable maker? Yup. Have it made in the USA? Yup. With a better steel? Yup. Not look like a toy? Yup.

At the end of the day I doubt I'll buy one and I certainly won't lose sleep over it.
 
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