Survive! Knives 5.0 or Ambush Knives Alpha?

I'm sure it would do well, the Alpha appears to be a solid design. The handle looks to be a little more generous than the GSO.

Personally, I'm holding out for the Huntsman Hack Saw. They should be ready soon. It is in the same size range with a thinner blade and super thin geometry. They will be available in 3v and 10v at 64.5rc. Hunters goal with the Hack Saw is to provide the best possible performance with maximum edge retention.
 
FTR-14c said:
I'm sure it would do well, the Alpha appears to be a solid design. The handle looks to be a little more generous than the GSO.

Personally, I'm holding out for the Huntsman Hack Saw. They should be ready soon. It is in the same size range with a thinner blade and super thin geometry. They will be available in 3v and 10v at 64.5rc. Hunters goal with the Hack Saw is to provide the best possible performance with maximum edge retention.
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That sounds pretty awesome.
Is his sub-forum the best way to get ahold of one of those? I dig his work, I'm just unclear on how to order / what's available, etc
 
You could PM him with questions but the sub forum has just been established and could use some traffic. I would post there and wait for an answer. That way you are not pilling up his inbox and everyone can benefit from the discussion.

He has another model that is very close in size called the Fjord Hiker. It may be a better match to the Alpha and GSO as it has a heavier build and is more of a do it all design. The Hack Saw is more of a companion knife for use along with a heavier tool. I believe there was a small sacrifice in strength for improved cutting ability.
 
mlmcasual said:
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..
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i totally get what you said.
also i see mentioned the term QC. if there are issues,quality is not controlled.
Quality Assurance, is what it says. get it!

buzz
 
Let's not forget Survive! is basically one guy, with the handles and kydex and heat treat, etc being done by 3rd parties.

Bark River has a fully supplied shop and multiple employees and has been in the game for decades(?).
So that's not exactly an apples-to-apples comparison when you're talking about stock levels, aka how many knives each company is capable of cranking out per yer.
 
The biggest thing effecting Survive! is the availibility of liquid assets.

It takes money to make money. It takes money to make knives to sell to make money to make more knives to sell...

I can tell you this. The Ambush line doesnt appear to be hand ground as they are not convex, so they will be more consistent than regular barkies. Personally I would buy a Survive!

I sort of feel like the Ambush line is an "homage" (to say it nicely) to the Survive! Style. But lets face it... How many ways can you draw a knife and be completely unique? Its a spear point with a machined Bravo, style handle. It just happens that the Survive! Knives were spear points and had Bravo like handles. So which came first, the chicken or the egg?

And for those who do not know Mike Stewart made the first Survive Knives for Guy anyway. So they are really just not so distant cousins. Maybe Janson's ideal knife is a Survive 5.0, but since he couldnt get one, he had Mike make him a bunch.

As far as quality, Mike Stewart makes a knofe that can perform, so I am sure they will perfom well.
 
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I was recently faced with the same decision. I chose Survive!, and it was not a difficult decision to make. Ambush looks to be a solid knife. Survive! knives are amazing, and by all accounts the attention to detail by Guy is arguably the best in the industry.
 
Riz2530 said:
And for those who do not know Mike Stewart made the first Survive Knives for Guy anyway. So they are really just not so distant cousins.
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I've had a lot of fun following this thread this morning and seeing people's thoughts. One thing I do want to point out though is that Bark River "finished out" my very first knives, not made them. The blades were cut elsewhere, heat treated by Peters heat treat, the handles and fasteners were made elsewhere and Kiah made the sheaths for those blades. Bark River was a last minute professional referral for grinding the bevels, from someone else that I still do work with. Those first blades were supposed to be saber ground but we ended up going convex because the grinding service provider didn't think they could grind the blades to my specifications. Unfortunately since Bark River themselves usually has their production knife bevels roughed out by a machine and then hand finishes them, they aren't used to 100% hand grinding knife bevels. As a result my blades ended up with a lot of the same issues some other Bark River customers had. Crooked blade tips, uneven bevel heights, uneven plunges, microbevels, sucked up edges, uneven finishes and so on. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad he was willing to help us out to get the first knives finished up. If he hadn't, it would have taken a lot longer to get my first runs going. He helped us out in a time of need early on in my company's history but he by no means did it for us. It wasn't a collaboration, it wasn't a partnership, and they didn't do it on commission. It was a service that I paid good money for. We didn't continue after the first run because we just have different expectations.
 
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Went ahead and picked one up. I also have a Survive 5.1 & 4.1. The Ambush Alpha more resembles a longer Survive 4.1. Not really as close to a Survive 5.1 in terms of blade width. Maybe I will post some pictures later.
 
This is a nice photo that Rasco took of the two knives together:

IMG_20150327_170646074_HDR_zpsnthk1evg.jpg


From: http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php/1274620-Ambush-Knives-Alpha
 
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SURVIVE! said:
I've had a lot of fun following this thread this morning and seeing people's thoughts. One thing I do want to point out though is that Bark River "finished out" my very first knives, not made them. The blades were cut elsewhere, heat treated by Peters heat treat, the handles and fasteners were made elsewhere and Kiah made the sheaths for those blades. Bark River was a last minute professional referral for grinding the bevels, from someone else that I still do work with. Those first blades were supposed to be saber ground but we ended up going convex because the grinding service provider didn't think they could grind the blades to my specifications. Unfortunately since Bark River themselves usually has their production knife bevels roughed out by a machine and then hand finishes them, they aren't used to 100% hand grinding knife bevels. As a result my blades ended up with a lot of the same issues some other Bark River customers had. Crooked blade tips, uneven bevel heights, uneven plunges, microbevels, sucked up edges, uneven finishes and so on. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad he was willing to help us out to get the first knives finished up. If he hadn't, it would have taken a lot longer to get my first runs going. He helped us out in a time of need early on in my company's history but he by no means did it for us. It wasn't a collaboration, it wasn't a partnership, and they didn't do it on commission. It was a service that I paid good money for. We didn't continue after the first run because we just have different expectations.
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Confirming why I will never again buy a BRKT.
 
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I would get a GSO. Check out Dr Wako's (virtuovice on youtube "hello knife people") second ambush video. He has to grind the spine and the scales because they are too sharp. For a $250 to $300+ knife that's a no-no. I don't they they do a great job inspecing their product - at least for the one they sent to Dr Wako.

I am sure the ambush is a good knife but even if the fit and finish were the same and I wasn't such a S!K fan (meaning everything was equal) I would still buy the GSO because I like their scales more than the BRKT scales - which is the main reason I haven't bought a BRKT knife. Though I will add a thumbs up for all the handle options that Ambush offers and the above reviews speak to the quality of the 3v steel and handle design. As an observation I think this is an interesting blend of a GSO 5 length plus a tenth of an inch and the height of a 4.1.

Additionally I wanted to add some color to the comments about Survive!'s inability to keep knives in stock. Folks they have fewer than 10 employees and they are a new business. Guy is building up the business organically and is working on expanding production. I've been to his shop in PA 4 or 5 times and he never had more than 4 people working there at one time. He's trying to bring more of the manufacturing processes in house and is buying more equipment. He'll get it to the point where he'll have knives in stock and I bet this happens in 12 to 18 months. Bark River has been around since 2001, is better established and has plenty of stock. So I wouldn't blame Guy for the popularity of his knives - meaning he sells out in a day or two every time he announces stock. Even Busse, and I believe Survive! is more similar to Busse than it is to Bark River, can't get knives out faster than 4 to 20 weeks and they hardly EVER have stock of more than 1 or 2 of a particular model.

Last thoughts if "imitation is the sincerest form of flattery" then Mike is certainly patting Guy on the back. And Guy now has some competition if Mike continues to make similar knives and gets his quality up. This really justifies Survive! in the market. I am looking forward to getting the gen2 GSOs, I've ordered 4 so far. These might be game changers.
 
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This is absolutely no comparison between Survive and Bark River-I have owned both and will take a Survive model all day everyday over a Bark River-PERIOD
SURVIVE! said:
I've had a lot of fun following this thread this morning and seeing people's thoughts. One thing I do want to point out though is that Bark River "finished out" my very first knives, not made them. The blades were cut elsewhere, heat treated by Peters heat treat, the handles and fasteners were made elsewhere and Kiah made the sheaths for those blades. Bark River was a last minute professional referral for grinding the bevels, from someone else that I still do work with. Those first blades were supposed to be saber ground but we ended up going convex because the grinding service provider didn't think they could grind the blades to my specifications. Unfortunately since Bark River themselves usually has their production knife bevels roughed out by a machine and then hand finishes them, they aren't used to 100% hand grinding knife bevels. As a result my blades ended up with a lot of the same issues some other Bark River customers had. Crooked blade tips, uneven bevel heights, uneven plunges, microbevels, sucked up edges, uneven finishes and so on. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad he was willing to help us out to get the first knives finished up. If he hadn't, it would have taken a lot longer to get my first runs going. He helped us out in a time of need early on in my company's history but he by no means did it for us. It wasn't a collaboration, it wasn't a partnership, and they didn't do it on commission. It was a service that I paid good money for. We didn't continue after the first run because we just have different expectations.
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