Survive knives copy?

It's Bark River's stab at Survive Knives's GSO design as S!K has trouble meeting the demand. Funky sharpening choil, angled pommel(unusable) and Bark River's infamously bad QC... Sounds like a disaster imo.

Bark River's own designs are actually decent if not for their absurd QC but as big as they are, copying is new low...
 
squarebox86 said:
It's Bark River's stab at Survive Knives's GSO design as S!K has trouble meeting the demand. Funky sharpening choil, angled pommel(unusable) and Bark River's infamously bad QC... Sounds like a disaster imo.

Bark River's own designs are actually decent if not for their absurd QC but as big as they are, copying is new low...
Click to expand...

Well, I actually sold both of my Survive! GSO's in favor of Bark River's "infamously bad QC".....

To be clear - this is not meant as a cheap shot at Survive! because they do make a very good product. However, I am sick and tired of seeing posts like this taking shots at Mike Stewart.... If you have a problem with him or his product, grow a pair and call him to resolve it....Cowards hide behind a keyboard....

Edited to add: The pic shown appears to be a knife made by Ambush Knives. Not Bark River....
 
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It is what it is man.

The way I see this is like knifemakers trying to copy Jerry Busse's talon hole.

Ambush knives from what I researched is designed by Jason from DLT trading and manufactured by bark river.

Btw speaking of their QC, their stonewashing is mediocre. I just saw virtuovoce's review of this knife and I can see grind marks popping out of my computer screen. Compare to S!K, you can only see grind marks here and there at a certain light angle and guess what? They are considered factory seconds. Lastly, the kydex sheath, oh my. It's probably made out of .060" thick Kydex and one of the slots were made way too close towards the edge. One drop and its a goner.
 
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knife chop said:
It is what it is man.

The way I see this is like knifemakers trying to copy Jerry Busse's talon hole.

Ambush knives from what I researched is designed by Jason from DLT trading and manufactured by bark river.
Click to expand...

First off, please understand that my point of contention is not with you. Stewart might be making these for Jason - I dunno. (Although these are flat grind blades and Stewart's shop is set up to do convex, so again, I dunno). My point of conflict is with all the folks who talk crap about people online instead of simply calling them up and sorting out their problem.
 
From TKC site:
QGJbW0K.jpg


It's easy for you to send it back to Bark River when you live in the USA. But how would you feel if you live outside the USA and always have to pay >$50 each way?
Sucks to be me? Why dont I move to America? My fault that I wish to support American products and workforce?

The least they could do is a visual inspection. Honestly they are degrading what American quality products used to be.

Whereas, Survive!Knives are trying their best to hold up the torch to American quality products.

Hiding behind a keyboard? Who's worst?
One who call Mike to resolve the issue, not let others know of the problems and waste of their hard earn money
OR
One that suffers a monetary lost but let everyone know about a company's poor business practice.
 
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I dunno, the knife community is just as full of one company incorporating each others innovations. What it boils down to for me is that survives products are field proven and the company seems to listen to its customers. I think that they have built a loyal following regardless of who releases what. Want one of the new companies knives? Go for your life, ain't our business. However it will not be a real GSO....kinda reminds me when I was a kid and some guy would bring a machine man trying to convince us that it was as good as a transformer. No matter what they did it just was not.
 
Doesn't really matter much how many copies or look a like knives come out . It's damn hard to beat the quality , service and dedication that Guy and Ellie put into Survive Knives !
I may not be one to buy every model they bring out , but I will be a Survive Knives customer for a long time to come . Besides , imitation is the sincerest for of flattery ;)
 
Guy has his blades flat-ground off-site, I wonder if BRKT is doing the same with these or if they have the bevel-grinders in-house. Last I heard, BRKT uses Peters HT just like Guy does, perhaps BRKT contracted the same group as Guy to grind these *shrug*. Is it a direct copy? Perhaps more of an inspired revision of Guy's designs with a few different features to distinguish the two, certainly meant to compete with S!K as they fail to meet market-demand due to their relative youth and small size. BRKT is like China ;)

Regarding the GSO-4.1, I commented in my review that it compared very closely to the spear-point Bravo1, but it also evolved from the EDC-4 (image from the web) which evolved from an earlier design which Guy had BRKT help make iirc:

IMG_3395_zps52dce254.jpg


The Bravo 1 is still best known for its original model with the straight point and ignominious 'fin' and sharp jimping and slick round scales and very thin edge prone to failure ... which looks (and behaves) VERY different from Guy's designs. This true "ambush" of S!K is a much closer comparison than anything of Guy's to a BRKT.


I will say that i really like the look of this knife, which makes sense given how much it looks like a GSO. Anyone else notice the aligned bolts :D But Guy is moving away from those bolts due to debris issues, perhaps BRKT will as well. BRKT has a broad enough fan-base and the knives are sufficiently similar to S!K that I do worry about Guy's efforts, but again it's already been noted by those that have had these in hand that the scales aren't as well contoured for comfort and the blades not as well finished *shrug* Folks who find S!K appealing might easily go for one of these based on availability, and that's something Guy must contend with.
 
Seems BRKT found the market Survive! is in too illustrious to not want to play in it.

I wish them the best of luck, but I don't think anyone would confuse these for Guy and Ellie's work as copies. ;)
 
I don't believe that a plain looking spearpoint by Ambush is anywhere near a copy of one of Guy's designs... Like it's been said, Guy has worked with BRK before. People with short memories forget that some were calling out Guy for his similarities of his necker II with another maker's knife. (Not me and for the life of me can't remember the other knife.)
 
I think that there is a tacit implication in this thread that BRK / Ambush did something wrong. I don't see that, but also don't know everything that has gone on behind the scenes.

I do know that when considering whether to buy ambush or S!K, it was easy for me to decide to buy S!K. I did so not just because I like their knife better, but because I appreciate what Guy and Ellie are doing and the individual attention that each knife gets before it leaves the factory. Maybe I am naive, but I appreciate the values and focus of their company. Others may imitate the design, but S!K is a unique company. I am pleased to be a customer for many reasons, not all of which are have to do with the design of knife.
 
To me that knife is Kephart style with a contoured handle. I like that style of knife, and the smaller S!K knives are in that style so I like them, too.
I'm not thrilled with the sharpening choil, but it does simplify grinding the plunge lines so I suppose it has a purpose.
 
Mike-The-Knife said:
Doesn't really matter much how many copies or look a like knives come out . It's damn hard to beat the quality , service and dedication that Guy and Ellie put into Survive Knives !
I may not be one to buy every model they bring out , but I will be a Survive Knives customer for a long time to come . Besides , imitation is the sincerest for of flattery ;)
Click to expand...

:thumbup:
 
Mike-The-Knife said:
Doesn't really matter much how many copies or look a like knives come out . It's damn hard to beat the quality , service and dedication that Guy and Ellie put into Survive Knives !
I may not be one to buy every model they bring out , but I will be a Survive Knives customer for a long time to come . Besides , imitation is the sincerest for of flattery ;)
Click to expand...

Thanks so much for the kind words and support.
 
Mike-The-Knife said:
Doesn't really matter much how many copies or look a like knives come out . It's damn hard to beat the quality , service and dedication that Guy and Ellie put into Survive Knives !
I may not be one to buy every model they bring out , but I will be a Survive Knives customer for a long time to come . Besides , imitation is the sincerest for of flattery ;)
Click to expand...
. Except, I may end up with nearly every model.

I also feel this way. It is why I have bought the following GSO's

10 on the secondary market (which I have sold, just cuz I never really used it)
7/7 preorder
2x 5.1 (my favorite fxed blade of any and all fixed blades ever made)
2x 3.5
2x second gen neckers (which are damn handy)
Necker 2 ( my most recent)

Every one of them was worth the wait.

I actually sold all of my bark rivers to make the switch to Survive!
 
Just going to state a few dealings I have had with Mike Stewart and Bark River. IMHO they have the best production knife on the market which I have used since 2009 without 1 failure. I have even abused them way more than I should have. A few months ago I picked up 2 BRK;s that I wanted the thumb ramp removed. In less than 2 weeks the knives came back with the thumb stud removed along with being cleaned and sharpened. Total cost $15 for both knives. Those of you blowing smoke about BRK must be very desperate.
 
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