Knives are not an investment - except for a very few knowledgeable professionals who know when to sell. It's blatant puffery to suggest the average Joe can even make a buck on it, like they could retire to Florida on the vast sums to be made. You're better off selling Bibles.
It was a joke there fella. Mick & Duane=Milli+Vanilli.
Like we could invest in Knife Futures on the board and get rich. Frankly, if you think you can, remember not to spend the egg and butter money, investments are money you can lose - Rule #1.
It was a joke. Nevermind.
Second ridiculous misconception in this thread: Military Service in Combat = Anointed Omniscience as Knifemaker. This crap started a long time before SKI got in the game, and they didn't invent it.
I don't know about that one. Name somebody who traded off of unearned military COMBAT experience to puff up some knives before stride-wrong did it. Even if they didn't invent this snake oil, they sure had refined it.
Let's just remember some facts first - the military worldwide pretty much doesn't teach knifefighting as a skill at all, they teach marksmanship with a firearm. They also don't teach the individual skills as a MOS to make knives. Tool design, ergonomics, layout, shop practices, forging, grinding, soldering, material selection, etc are certainly not military combat skills, and not taught in the traditional combat track leading to service in a real bullets flying environment. It would be an obviously stupid thing to waste a soldier's time on, and reduce his/her survivability on the battlefield.
That must be why mickey ray burger took on training military folks in knife fighting. For a time, he was well regarded as an expert anus stabber. Many jokes about prison could flow from here, but I have the good sense not to go there.
If you believe combat gives some heightened karma knowledge about knife design and construction, please take a pause for a serious reality check. If it still doesn't click that there is NO relationship, then ok, remain deluded. I can't change your mindset. You drank that koolaid, live with it.
Who drank the kool-aid? It wasn't me. Who is it that claimed to be in tune with what was required of a COMBAT knife, due to-ahem-fake COMBAT experience? It was the stride-wrong company that is who.
At least consider the major knifemakers who never served - Scagel, Randall, Loveless, and thousands of other designers who have been turning out knives for centuries. And please consider this: if combat service were required for weapons design, then where did all the firearms designers come from? Industry, not the service. Colt, Browning, Winchester, Glock, to name a few.
I did consider it. I brought it up. You are also wrong. Designers come from all walks. There are examples of weapons designers having military experience. Wiiliam Fairbain, Gen. John T. Thompson, the men of the First Special Service Force, who designed the V-42 stiletto, Kalashnikov, Major Uziel Gal of the IDF, and some I am sure to have missed.
However, they'd "been there and done that" unlike some subjects of this thread.
If anything, prior servicemen making knives is a rarity. They start late acquiring knowledge and skills, and attempt to compete with school trained manufacturers already in business for decades - who have massive distribution networks already in place.
Who's the guy running Ranger Knives? Besides, many bladesmiths are not in fact "school trained." Many are self taught or apprenticed with someone else. Just yesterday I learned of a bushcrafting knife maker, Rod Garcia, whose very first marketed knife, the Skookum bush tool Mk.1, already has a 5-6 month back log.
You should visit his site for a refreshing change of pace from hype--there isn't any.
http://www.skookumbushtool.com/
Here is all I need to know about Mr. Garcia. He read Mors Kochanski, he went to one of his classes. He tried to find a knife as described by Mors and didn't find one that suited him, so he sold avehicle, made a shop, and practiced knifemaking until he made a good Kochanski style knife that he could sell.
And by gosh, people want his knife too.
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All hat and no cattle is a poor description for guys who hand forge damascus, invented the nightmare grind, the gunner grip panel for firearms, and stays in business in spite of the microburst of negative attention a business competitor started.
In terms of weather, it's a blizzard of negative publicity. All hat referred to their tactical puffery that positioned them where they are today.
And I wouldn't say a business competitor started all of this, a bunch of tall tales and outright lying statred it all.
Any knife newby asking "What's better, a SnG or Sebenza? is a unvarnished testimony to the skills, design, and marketing insight these guys have demonstrated. They compete with the acknowledged best.
Since when does totally lying to the knife buying community get called "marketing insight?" Kinda reminds me of relabeling genocide as "ethnic cleansing" so that folks don't get too guilty about not stopping it.
If there is a problem with this thread, it starts with two false assumptions, and builds on them to overlay a gilding of enormous deception that knives are some kind of holy ornament only the True Believer can appreciate.
I'd say the fundamental flaw of this thread is excuse making for two apparently lying hucksters.
Anybody up for a trip to Guyana? 1280 posts tells me there is lots of potential customers here. Frankly, Hill and Obie are more entertaining right now.
At least Jim Jones was an actual preacher before he annointed himself the messiah. If anything, the cult of multiple personalities is in San Marcos, CA
