New mass drop knife

Popsickle said:
Yup...... risky doing another without the first one shipping. If it works.... it will pay off big time
Click to expand...

Right now, Massdrop does not have a proven track record in delivering these on time and taking care of warranty/service as the ultimate source of responsibility.

It's a weird model but some may say no different than prepaying custom knife makers which I've incidentally refused to do now the past few years. Guess what, you see a LOT of custom knives on various dealers' websites the past couple of years.

I don't think there's much of a payoff getting these initially direct from Massdrop. With such quantities there'll be plenty available at reasonable prices once you abide your time.

I do wish this model success, since I think it'll bode well for downward pricing pressure. I think it'll tame the inflationary trend in knife prices the past few years with some having to do with MAP pricing.
 
jeffsenpai said:
Sorry but I just had to snicker at this:

GHBJIkv.jpg
Click to expand...

No worries, it has a strong detent. ;)
 
RamZar said:
Very deep carry! Not! Seems like designers of titanium frame locks go out of their way trying not to have the clip land on the lock bar in case of lock bar pressure preventing easier deployment.
Click to expand...

Of course that's a moot issue with a milled clip.
 
Hackenslash said:
As others have already said, this is really going to put pressure on the knife making establishment to re-evaluate their prices.
Click to expand...
No. there is very little others can do to match the prices offered.

the major reasons these are so affordable is 1 labor costs in China are way cheaper than Taiwan, USA or anywhere else... 2 quantity, ferrum forge themselves said in there interview that the only reason they were able to come in at this price point was due to quantity sold. massdrop advertised the hell out of it selling some 3000+ within what 20days or something. think about what other manufactures sell in a month or a year even. 3 all that money paid up front before manufacturing starts allows them to source materials in bulk at lower prices which goes hand in hand with the other reasons.

so unless other manufacturing companies do a similar advertising campaign, the prices won't come down as much. makers like Todd Begg can do this based on his followers/fans and social media. I think he brought several 100 knives to blade show and they all sold iirc... just think how many would have sold in 20 days if he had offers them online in quantity. but that pales in comparison to how many are being sold in the FF+we+MD way.

think what Amazon could do if they did this type of campaign... heck i bet they would have 5000+ made and offer them at sub 3 digit prices with prime no wait.

which again, makes the point about knaf prices and why not everyone is offered as low as can be. quantity is key (among several other factors, but without quantity it doesn't matter).
 
Last edited:
Updated carry pic. It doesn't look quite as bad. Still could have better clip/carry though.

IMG_1909.jpg
 
Last edited:
I got in on the falcon (and the tx0 yesterday) and i gotta say the falcon looks much more interesting... This design is kinda boring
 
i really like the 0900 but sometimes wish it was about half an inch longer without bulking up. This knife seems like it will fit that bill nicely.

A third Massdrop exclusive is really going to have to blow me away to tempt me, however.
 
Mo2 said:
No. there is very little others can do to match the prices offered.

the major reasons these are so affordable is 1 labor costs in China are way cheaper than Taiwan, USA or anywhere else... 2 quantity, ferrum forge themselves said in there interview that the only reason they were able to come in at this price point was due to quantity sold. massdrop advertised the hell out of it selling some 3000+ within what 20days or something. think about what other manufactures sell in a month or a year even. 3 all that money paid up front before manufacturing starts allows them to source materials in bulk at lower prices which goes hand in hand with the other reasons.

so unless other manufacturing companies do a similar advertising campaign, the prices won't come down as much. makers like Todd Begg can do this based on his followers/fans and social media. I think he brought several 100 knives to blade show and they all sold iirc... just think how many would have sold in 20 days if he had offers them online in quantity. but that pales in comparison to how many are being sold in the FF+we+MD way.

think what Amazon could do if they did this type of campaign... heck i bet they would have 5000+ made and offer them at sub 3 digit prices with prime no wait.

which again, makes the point about knaf prices and why not everyone is offered as low as can be. quantity is key (among several other factors, but without quantity it doesn't matter).
Click to expand...
I'm not talking about domestic manufactured knives, or even those made in Europe or Taiwan when I speak of downward pricing pressure. I'm talking about the competition that these WE collaborations offer to other imported options. When we see how inexpensively these well made knives are offered, it exposes the mark up built into Reate, Rike, CKF and some of the other "popular" import brands. I've felt for some time that the mark up on the new Reates was too high and these MD/FF/WE knives confirm that. These knives offer Reate quality at a Kizer price...hopefully that puts it into perspective for you. Contrast the quality of these collabs vs. a same price Kizer or RealSteel premium line and there's no comparison.

The Big Three (Benchmade, Spyderco and KAI) don't have a chance at competing with this kind of price model. These knives are generally better quality in varying degrees than a typical production knife from any of the Three, yet they land at 1/2 to 1/4 the price of a similar offering from the Three. The Big Three will always sell to a loyal fanbase, but it's hard to sell the realistic value of them given this type of competition.

Whereas Amazon might have the logistics and business clout to pull off a campaign like this, they are not knife makers or designers. They're not even EDC enthusiasts. I'm not certain Amazon would be able to offer a financial package that would be any more lucrative than FF/MD/WE. Remember, the vast majority of Amazon shoppers will never pay >$100 for a pocket knife. Likewise, most of those who would spend Big$ won't shop on Amazon. MD has a built in EDC and knife enthusiast community and has slowly garnered some credibility in the knife community. I guess Amazon could go the "community" route, but it would take some time to pull enthusiasts away from here, USN and MD to participate in an Amazon based group.

While this may be good in the short term, I'm not certain that this kind of inequality in price/quality is good for the knife industry in the long run. I stick by my original statement that regular collabs on MD that sell like these could pull 10's of thousands of knife sales away from the Big Three with no clear path for them to fight back.
 
Reate, Rike CKF all dont produce that many knives of one particular model. they are mostly low production numbers. yes there is some markup... but ultimately cant be helped due to the low production. even WE knives have low production numbers as they do them in small batches from time to time. and yes there is some markup there too. so i still dont see your aspect of that at all. its the numbers.

agreed about amazon, but just giving an example that if they were to do it, it could be very successful with the right people involved much like the MD/FF/WE colab.
 
I think you might be surprised at how large a production run these import companies can pull off. You can still buy unbranded Rikes on AlieExpress and we're going to see first hand (hopefully) that WE can handle a 2500+ piece production run. I think you're overestimating the bulk purchase of materials for 2500 pieces of a single model vs the bulk purchase of materials for 500 pieces of 5 different models. Bars of S35VN and TC4 titanium don't know where they'll end up and a computer driven milling machine doesn't care which model it's making from day to day. It's the widespread use of non-human technology combined with comparatively lower human wages that give all these imports a cost advantage.
 
Hackenslash said:
...I've felt for some time that the mark up on the new Reates was too high...
Click to expand...

I agree.

Hackenslash said:
... These knives offer Reate quality at a Kizer price...
Click to expand...

That remains to be seen. Looking at the lockbar insert fitting on the crux, I won't be surprised if the fit & finish of these colabs is a bit lower than some of the Reate/WE branded offerings. I guess we'll know for sure in Nov-Dec.
 
4mer_FMF said:
I agree.



That remains to be seen. Looking at the lockbar insert fitting on the crux, I won't be surprised if the ft & finish of these colabs is a bit lower than some of the WE branded offerings. I guess we'll know for sure in Nov-Dec.
Click to expand...
You know, I almost went in and amended my statement about the Falcon/Crux quality. We really won't know for months and although we have WE models to base expectations on, there is no guarantee that these knives will offer WE quality. Imagine if the quality is still great but more Kizer quality than what we've come to expect from WE. That'll be quite a poop storm:poop:. That's why I may not jump on the Crux; I really want a chance to have one of these knives in person before I commit more funds to them.
 
Hackenslash Hackenslash I hear you. I like the designs and I think the knives will still be good quality for the price.

Hopefully no one is expecting a $125 Stinger. Ultimately though, the FFKW brothers have been working hard to establish a brand name. I doubt they would be willing to jeopardize that by putting their mark on something without thought to manufacturing and quality control. That's my largest personal reassurance.

As for my comfort level in that regard, the first $125 (Falcon) was pretty easy to commit. Going in $250 (Falcon + Crux) is pushing me to the limit--actually probably a bit beyond. That's why somewhere above I said if there's a third kinfe before December, it's going to have to knock my socks off! :)
 
Hackenslash said:
I think you might be surprised at how large a production run these import companies can pull off.
Click to expand...
yea, im not surprised. i believe they CAN... all im saying is they are NOT doing that, hence the prices. im not over estimating anything. some of the reate's on ali/dhg etc are not the same and the price affects that. but iirc there are some models that are cheaper, because they are sold direct. no vendor markup. vendors dont sell knives for free.
 
I passed on this one for reasons several have iterated above - I do not like at all how it rides in the pocket, I don't want deep carry but I prefer a lot less showing and the shape of the exposed bit... I do not like. Until I see what the Falcon I ordered is like I'm not planning on buying another FF/MM collab unless it is some crazy grail knife for me. Not even sure about the Falcon, I'm hoping it won't feel as tiny as it seems - I didn't really realize how small it was when I made my initial order. Probably good for being office friendly though and an inexpensive way for me to try four things I haven't yet - ti handles, S35, flipper, and framelock.
 
Last edited:
Icehawk said:
I passed on this one for reasons several have iterated above - I do not like at all how it rides in the pocket, I don't want deep carry but I prefer a lot less showing and the shape of the exposed bit... I do not like. Until I see what the Falcon I ordered is like I'm not planning on buying another FF/MM collab unless it is some crazy grail knife for me. Not even sure about the Falcon, I'm hoping it won't feel as tiny as it seems - I didn't really realize how small it was when I made my initial order. Probably good for being office friendly though and an inexpensive way for me to try four things I haven't yet - ti handles, S35, flipper, and framelock.
Click to expand...
you could ask FF or even a modder who makes pocket clips if they would make you a deep carry pocket clip. just saying, i dont think it would be difficult, tho it would be extra and take a bit of time.
 
Mo2 said:
some of the reate's on ali/dhg etc are not the same and the price affects that. but iirc there are some models that are cheaper, because they are sold direct. no vendor markup. vendors dont sell knives for free.
Click to expand...

I think you're referring to fake Reates. Also Reate doesn't sell direct anymore.
 
Probably a very stupid question, but as a newbie to knives, I really only want to put money into users. Yard work, boxes, mountain biking needs, camping, etc. I've never had a knife like this, (looks amazing for the price) but is it a user that can hold up to what my PM2 or Manix 2 LW can do, or more of a pretty, not hard use one?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top