Survive! Knives 5.0 or Ambush Knives Alpha?

[johnnyraggs]

Here is my Ambush. I have not used it so I really have no opinion yet. I typically prefer a smooth handle but I stepped out of my personal comfort zone and tried the sculpted handle. All I can say is it's a different feel. It's absolutely locks into your hand for hard use but without giving it any actual sustained field use I can't give an opinion. The sculpted handle feel a bit more squared off than the typical rounded edge contours of Bark River. It's very comfortable but it's just a different feel. This one came laser sharp out of the box!

Bad cell pic

Why Dave Why, Got threw FB friday without spending any cash only to come home last night and pick up an AA.
Now these are staring me down. I want one but I got to wait. Are these handles similar to the bravo?

 

[archieblue]

I would choose the Survive! for a few reasons. They are made in fairly small batches & their QC seems to kick a lot of slight imperfections down to "Second" quality and pricing. The blade shape is better for me. I don't find a lot of "belly" in a knife to be more usable but I do find it more difficult to sharpen, so the Survive wins there. I also find the Survive! to be more aesthetically pleasing.

 

[squarebox86]

Please explain bark river qc issues
I would like to know more before I buy one

I've owned/sold/used over 100 Bark River over the years. I currently own about 40. I personally haven't had a single issue. I'm not saying others haven't had issues but I haven't had a one.

I've owned 4 Survive knives and sold them all. It's personal preference.

No doubt their blades are hand grounded but do they even do a visual inspection before sending them out? Uneven grinds and poorly sharpen spots.
I mean we are paying well above $200 and it would be nice to see it more evenly ground blade. I have no trouble fixing the poorly sharpen spots but it sucks to have to fix a knife out-the-box.

None of them are deal breakers but it hurts their value-per-dollar because of their qc...
$200-$400 is a lot of money to most people and sucks to see such low QC from one of the top rated fixed blade companies(BRKT).

While Survive!Knives is a fairly new/small company, their knives are so well-made, crazy sharp out-the-box and very competitively-priced.

Side note: Fancy wood handles and leather sheath do not appeal me as local tropical forest here will cause them to deteriorate quickly without much maintenance. So for me to own a BRKT knife, I have to spend extra money to get a kydex and only to have at the end of the day, a poor value-per-dollar knife.

 

[MatthewSB]

This is a line of knives conceived and planned by Jason at DLTtrading. He worked with Mike at Bark River to make them.

Jason is one of the good guys. He wanted to try his hand at making his own line of knives. He is trying to do things right--right materials, right manufacturing, right sheaths. He asked me if we would be interested in selling them and I jumped on board with nothing more than his vision.

I think they are going to make their way out into dealer hands soon. As of now DLT is the only place to get them.

I am excited to get my hands on them.

As for their website...it is just in its infancy. Believe me, there is a ton that goes on in creating a brand and website. If you go to the Northwoods website, you will see what I mean. No website because I couldn't keep up. It is on my list of stuff to do, but I am more occupied with the business of getting selling and distributing them.

Anyway, that is my take.

Thank you for clearing this up.

I can't wait to try one, it looks like a Bravo series knife, but with a conventional beveled edge.

 

[Twindog]

I generally like BRK. I did get one with the handle separating from the tang. The company fixed it for free, but I had to pay postage.

My only Survive knife came perfect, with an excellent edge.

When I received an email ad for the Ambush, I thought immediately that it was a knockoff of the Survive design and lost interest for that reason alone.

 

[MajorD]

I generally like BRK. I did get one with the handle separating from the tang. The company fixed it for free, but I had to pay postage.

My only Survive knife came perfect, with an excellent edge.

When I received an email ad for the Ambush, I thought immediately that it was a knockoff of the Survive design and lost interest for that reason alone.

The Bravo 1 spear point blade was out before the Survive knives. The Ambush handle is clearly more "Bark River-ish" than Survive GSO. I don't see the knock off philosophy to a GSO.

I'm not comparing the Bark River to a Survive. The Survive is a great blade and it's still personal preference. That's what's great about having multiple knife companies. For me I would purchase which one I like better for my purpose. Bark River produces many more knives that Survive. There will be a few that slip through QC. It's not justification it's just the nature of producing thousands of knives but in all of my years of Bark River I personally haven't had an issue and I'm pretty picky.

Again the Survive is a great knife. Too bad there aren't any available.

 

[RX-79G]

Both are made with CPM3V steel, and have similar blade length and shape.

The handle on the Ambush looks more ergonomic to me.

What do you guys think?


SURVIVE! knives GSO 5.0


AMBUSH Knives Alpha

The ergonomics of the handles look nearly identical to me. The knives appear to be generally more alike than different.

 

[Rasco]

This is a line of knives conceived and planned by Jason at DLTtrading. He worked with Mike at Bark River to make them.

Jason is one of the good guys. He wanted to try his hand at making his own line of knives. He is trying to do things right--right materials, right manufacturing, right sheaths. He asked me if we would be interested in selling them and I jumped on board with nothing more than his vision.

I think they are going to make their way out into dealer hands soon. As of now DLT is the only place to get them.

I am excited to get my hands on them.

As for their website...it is just in its infancy. Believe me, there is a ton that goes on in creating a brand and website. If you go to the Northwoods website, you will see what I mean. No website because I couldn't keep up. It is on my list of stuff to do, but I am more occupied with the business of getting selling and distributing them.

Anyway, that is my take.

Fair enough!
Thanks for the clarification Mr Bohn, I had never heard of them and had nothing to go on other than what I could Google.
Might have to give them a try, they look pretty solid.

 

[okbohn]

Fair enough!
Thanks for the clarification Mr Bohn, I had never heard of them and had nothing to go on other than what I could Google.
Might have to give them a try, they look pretty solid.

Yep, not much to google yet... I know Jason and that will change soon.

 

[Skrapmetal]

No doubt their blades are hand grounded but do they even do a visual inspection before sending them out? Uneven grinds and poorly sharpen spots.
I mean we are paying well above $200 and it would be nice to see it more evenly ground blade. I have no trouble fixing the poorly sharpen spots but it sucks to have to fix a knife out-the-box.

None of them are deal breakers but it hurts their value-per-dollar because of their qc...
$200-$400 is a lot of money to most people and sucks to see such low QC from one of the top rated fixed blade companies(BRKT).

While Survive!Knives is a fairly new/small company, their knives are so well-made, crazy sharp out-the-box and very competitively-priced.

Side note: Fancy wood handles and leather sheath do not appeal me as local tropical forest here will cause them to deteriorate quickly without much maintenance. So for me to own a BRKT knife, I have to spend extra money to get a kydex and only to have at the end of the day, a poor value-per-dollar knife.

From BRK, I have had a stacked leather handle that wasn't glued at all and rotated in the hand... more than one uneven grind like you have shown... unevenly ground handle scales... one bowie that had a crooked/warped blade...

I have owned a lot of BRK's but I only own one now, and it was one of my first and one of the few that I didn't find some QC issue with. All of the rest are gone, and I wont buy any more. Those flaws ARE deal breakers for me.

The Survive! Knives I have had have all been flawless, on the other hand. Well, they have the machining marks on the spine, but Guy tells you about that before you ever buy the knife.

 

[Mike-The-Knife]

I have a Survive GSO 5 and a GSO 4.1 .I can tell you that they are both very sharp and very tough . My GSO 4.1 is recent but my GSO 5 has been taking a beating for more than a year with no problems and only touching up the blade with a ceramic rod .

My vote would be Survive all the way !

 

[Neo]

I see the ambush knives are differentially heat treated.
This make them interesting to me.

 

[BMCGear]

This looks to be a great knife. Having Bark River make them makes me a bit hesitant to buy.

 

[KG4ULR]

Thanx for the info. Will support "Ambush🎅"

 

[skyhorse]

This is a line of knives conceived and planned by Jason at DLTtrading. He worked with Mike at Bark River to make them.

Jason is one of the good guys. He wanted to try his hand at making his own line of knives. He is trying to do things right--right materials, right manufacturing, right sheaths.

Mike makes some outstanding knives. The last time we talked on the phone I asked him if he'd ever make the Bravo 1LT in A2. I'm a big fan of his A2 for it's ease of sharpening. He told me that he gears his production towards what dealers want and if any dealers were to request the Bravo 1LT in A2 he'd build them. I hope Jason will read this. :thumbup:

 

[mlmcasual]

I have a full collection of both Barkies and GSO knives.. all in 3v and love them both..
Bark River have a lot more "by hand" work on them esp. the grinds so will not always be machine spec perfect like the Survive! but I have never gotten anything unacceptable and always happy with Barkies..

I laughed out loud when I saw the Ambush Alpha knife.. I mean come on, it looks a LOT more like a Survive! GSO then a Bark River and I don't think that's an accident.. Fact is, while Surive! are awesome- they are NEVER and HAVE never been in Stock!!!! The have been consistently 100% out of stock for YEARS now.. when they get a few out, they sell out within hours to Ebay scalpers..
Look, Survive! are awesome.. but they are not making rocket engines.. they are machining slabs of steel. There really is no excuse for them to never have stock- and Mike Stewart, and DLT are just smart business men who see a HUGE opportunity to fill a void.. and more power to them I say..

Love Survive! and respect them as artisans..but business is business and if they can't even keep a SINGLE factory made knife in stock.. (lets not forget they are factory repeat machined not hand hammer forged one off's) (shrugs) they deserve to have their lunch taken and eaten..

 

[FTR-14c]

When this thread started the Alphas were fully available. I checked two days later and a huge pile of them were out of stock.
It is amazing that one post on BF is responsible for selling a shit load of knives in less than a week. Because of this thread they are flying off the shelves.

 

[1Hiker2]

Exactly right on the back ground set. I don't own an Ambush but would hope the quality of it's blade grinds are better than Bark River's, not impressed with their steel.

 

[Skrapmetal]

I have a full collection of both Barkies and GSO knives.. all in 3v and love them both..
Bark River have a lot more "by hand" work on them esp. the grinds so will not always be machine spec perfect like the Survive! but I have never gotten anything unacceptable and always happy with Barkies..

I laughed out loud when I saw the Ambush Alpha knife.. I mean come on, it looks a LOT more like a Survive! GSO then a Bark River and I don't think that's an accident.. Fact is, while Surive! are awesome- they are NEVER and HAVE never been in Stock!!!! The have been consistently 100% out of stock for YEARS now.. when they get a few out, they sell out within hours to Ebay scalpers..
Look, Survive! are awesome.. but they are not making rocket engines.. they are machining slabs of steel. There really is no excuse for them to never have stock- and Mike Stewart, and DLT are just smart business men who see a HUGE opportunity to fill a void.. and more power to them I say..

Love Survive! and respect them as artisans..but business is business and if they can't even keep a SINGLE factory made knife in stock.. (lets not forget they are factory repeat machined not hand hammer forged one off's) (shrugs) they deserve to have their lunch taken and eaten..

They have an email list where you can be notified when things come in stock, infact they had some available last week. They are also running a kickstarter to try to upgrade their business to be able to keep things in stock. They are at the capacity of what they can do with the money they are currently making without changing the product they provide.

Many knifemakers do not have a stockpile of their knives available to ship out, and the business model works. I'd much rather Survive! continue to run their model the way they currently do than take up the Bark River policy of pumping out knife after knife with quality-control issues. I'll take great knives that are harder to get ahold of over that any day.

 

[Rasco]

When this thread started the Alphas were fully available. I checked two days later and a huge pile of them were out of stock.
It is amazing that one post on BF is responsible for selling a shit load of knives in less than a week. Because of this thread they are flying off the shelves.

Imagine how well they might do with some positive user feedback....

I just messaged Jason via the DLT Trading Facebook page about a possible pass-around for the Alpha. I know I'm not the only one who would be interested in seeing how the Alpha and the GSO compare.

We'll see if he replies.......