For those of us who like and use these knives it would be nice to see an option to purchase the knife only at an attractive price. These things ought to be pretty cheap to produce minus any scales or sheath and we could just transfer these things between knives. If you could pick them up for say $25-$30 buying multiples wouldn't be so painful.
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minimalist Izula
- Thread starter sachmo7
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That's about what I was going to say, it's only about $10-15 more with the sheath.
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I'd be willing to bet that the overhead for the sheaths is even less than that. I'd say probably only about 5 bucks being saved by the lack of a sheath. The initial cost of setup for making that type of sheath is substantial, but once you have everything dialed in and the setup is paid for, which I'm sure it is by now, then the cost of producing them goes way down. Just considering labor to operate the machine and materials, you're probably realistically looking at a few bucks per sheath in cost. The rest is just a small margin added to make a profit from doing quantity. I'd even go as far as to say that if you only purchased the knife and you were a kydex sheath maker and made your own for every knife, you're still spending the same amount if you factor in your cost of materials and the amount of time you put into it.
Point being. Just be happy the way it is. If the distributors wanted, they could charge $65 per knife and we'd pay it. Getting the knife and sheath for only $40 plus shipping is a pretty damn good deal already. I personally hate the Izula factory sheath, but luckily I made a few extra on my last custom kydex run so I've got some for any future Izulas I buy, so I don't care either way.
Point being. Just be happy the way it is. If the distributors wanted, they could charge $65 per knife and we'd pay it. Getting the knife and sheath for only $40 plus shipping is a pretty damn good deal already. I personally hate the Izula factory sheath, but luckily I made a few extra on my last custom kydex run so I've got some for any future Izulas I buy, so I don't care either way.
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I'd suggest looking for another blade altogether if you're going by price alone. There's a series that Buck has been selling that looks great for a skeletonized neck knife...I can't remember the name right now, but they go for about $20, made in the USA, have a decent sheath, and that awesome Buck stainless steel...
Someone help me out what's the name of these things?:foot:
Someone help me out what's the name of these things?:foot:
Well first off this knife is advertised as a neck knife and for that the supplied sheath sucks. I'm having a Kydex sheath made for it that will actually allow me to use it in its intended roll so I can take the worthless factory sheath off and pitch it. If you want to belt carry the thing then I suppose the supplied sheath is okay but if I'm going to belt carry a knife it wont be this one it will something a little larger and more capable. It may cost them $5 to produce a factory sheath but its going to cost you about $16 just like it probably costs about $15 to produce a machine sharpened bar of inexpensive tool steel. So why do I want want to spend an extra $16 for something I wont use. how many of us buy the knife and sheath as opposed to to the kit for example. I consider these knives inexpensive commodity hard use items, buy em cheap use em hard.
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With this I partially agree. Being that I made a lot of custom kydex sheaths and spoiled myself with what I know they can be, I'm not satisfied by the factory sheath. However, for the average user, they do seem to break in and a lot of people have absolutely no problem with them. For the people who are unsatisfied, there are plenty of custom kydex makers out there than can make you whatever you want.
I'm a little confused by this statement. Would you mind saying this in a different way? Not trying to be a dick or anything. I'm just not reading it correctly.
If I'm reading this correctly, you're implying that the knife itself only costs about $15 to produce and therefore, the added price of the sheath and markup comes out to quite a bit higher, making your point, why do we have the added cost of the sheath that makes up over half the total cost. If this is correct, then my rebuttal would be to examine further the other overhead involved in the business. You have the cost of labor to run the business in its entirety, the cost of advertising, etc. This is where your extra money is going. The sheath still isn't greatly impacting the final cost to the customer and wouldn't significantly lower the price if it were removed from the product package.
Again, the whole kit is not a selling point for me. The only one I got with an entire kit was a giveaway knife. The kit is currently sitting in my drawer, waiting for it's orders to come through. As far as I'm concerned, you are correct. This is an inexpensive, hard use knife, and it is already priced accordingly.
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Personally, if I bought multiple Izulas I would still want a sheath for each one. It's always nice to have extra options when you go to buy a knife. But it's not a huge deal; like someone else already said, removing the sheath would probably only bring the cost of the knife down by 5 dollars or so.
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lol- Joined
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I am gonna guess that the plastic injection molded sheaths get turned out by the thousands fairly cheaply, it was the tooling and set up that cost a small fortune, i think you should consider the knife cost $45, and the sheath a freebie. I could be wrong, but i think thats about right.
So lets look at this in prospective, the sheath is relatively free, the knife alone is about $45 bucks, and comes with an unconditional lifetime warranty. I still can't believe what people want for their money beyond a great piece of steel and a lilfetime warranty, i have pissed more than $45 dollars into a Tiajuana storm drain, and don't have one fond memory of the event nor a warm fuzzy feeling about it. So how is it people can mange to complain about a highly respectable and quite notably respected knife and one of the few great warranties left in the whole world?
(i see now that Dylside and I kinda agree on this. as usual I'm a little late.)
So lets look at this in prospective, the sheath is relatively free, the knife alone is about $45 bucks, and comes with an unconditional lifetime warranty. I still can't believe what people want for their money beyond a great piece of steel and a lilfetime warranty, i have pissed more than $45 dollars into a Tiajuana storm drain, and don't have one fond memory of the event nor a warm fuzzy feeling about it. So how is it people can mange to complain about a highly respectable and quite notably respected knife and one of the few great warranties left in the whole world?
(i see now that Dylside and I kinda agree on this. as usual I'm a little late.)
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That's funny. I knew a guy who when he heard us talking about New Orleans said, "Ah, New Orleans, I spent a month there one night."
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If you really need a cheap knife similar to the Izula then Condor just came out with some neck knives with an MSRP of $30, which means you should be able to pick them up for Mora pricing when they become available. The Elegan could make a good back-up for an Izula in a non-primary kit or the like.
I'd say that if you can float the price of multiple Izulas then go for it (mine is one of my EDC's) but if that's not an option then it looks like Condor may be a good option. Doesn't have the ESEE warranty, but what else but an ESEE does?
I'd say that if you can float the price of multiple Izulas then go for it (mine is one of my EDC's) but if that's not an option then it looks like Condor may be a good option. Doesn't have the ESEE warranty, but what else but an ESEE does?