Survive! Knives GSO series losing their appeal?

I think this is a time we should be rallying for the Survive! crew. They've obviously had a lot of challenges even breaking into the market. I think Guy is certainly on to something in terms of answering problems in the fixed blade outdoor/hard use category in fun new, non BS ways. They've been great to work with, answer my emails in a timely professional manner, alert me to production issues. It's the whole reason I supported them in the first place, I'm a small business owner myself, so I appreciate the honesty, the approach, and the quality. Sure, we could all benefit from better communication, process and change management, but I think they're giving it their best. That said, I am really excited for the arrival of the GSO 3.5. Something tells me they're worth the wait.
 
If you do not develop a following that borders on a cult (like Busse), than I think it is pretty much impossible to keep the hype train going on fixed blades because they are intrinsically less interesting than folders and less usable for 90% of the market. I, for one, have only bought fixed blades as impulse "oh this looks so cool" or "I'm totally going to be in a fictional wilderness survival setting in the future" buys, because if you live the average, white collar suburban life they are almost entirely useless. And for most of us, knives that don't get used don't get kept.
 
Misanthropia said:
If you do not develop a following that borders on a cult (like Busse), than I think it is pretty much impossible to keep the hype train going on fixed blades because they are intrinsically less interesting than folders and less usable for 90% of the market. I, for one, have only bought fixed blades as impulse "oh this looks so cool" or "I'm totally going to be in a fictional wilderness survival setting in the future" buys, because if you live the average, white collar suburban life they are almost entirely useless. And for most of us, knives that don't get used don't get kept.
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Is "backpacking / camping" considered a "fictional wilderness survival setting"?
Cuz if so, I do plan on being in one of those in the very near future.
 
Rasco said:
Is "backpacking / camping" considered a "fictional wilderness survival setting"?
Cuz if so, I do plan on being in one of those in the very near future.
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Same here. I'm taking my 4.1 out this weekend. It'll be used to split out my kindling. :thumbup:
 
Rasco said:
Is "backpacking / camping" considered a "fictional wilderness survival setting"?
Cuz if so, I do plan on being in one of those in the very near future.
Click to expand...

Shotgun said:
Same here. I'm taking my 4.1 out this weekend. It'll be used to split out my kindling. :thumbup:
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That's great, but how many of the Survive! knives do you think actually get used? Very few, I suspect. Just take a look at the knives for sale
here and in other places. What do you see? Unused, NIB, Never Cut Anything, Never Sharpened, etc, etc. The same goes for Busse and kin.
The same goes for Fiddleback, Fletcher, Gossman, Koster and any number of other knife makers.

What percentage of knives from custom knife makers ever get used? Again, very few. I know that someone is going to say that they use all
their knives, but I suspect that they are in the minority.
 
goodeyesniper said:
If you need a sharpened pry bar to survive it, then yes.
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No hijack intended, but for anyone interested, I find this to be the best "sharpened pry bar" made, a 5/16” full tang spine, blade length: 7", I have one.
(If that's what you really need)

hoffner-knives-beast-blade.jpg

hoffner-beast.jpg
 
UffDa said:
That's great, but how many of the Survive! knives do you think actually get used? Very few, I suspect. Just take a look at the knives for sale
here and in other places. What do you see? Unused, NIB, Never Cut Anything, Never Sharpened, etc, etc. The same goes for Busse and kin.
The same goes for Fiddleback, Fletcher, Gossman, Koster and any number of other knife makers.

What percentage of knives from custom knife makers ever get used? Again, very few. I know that someone is going to say that they use all
their knives, but I suspect that they are in the minority.
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When it comes to fixed blades, I don't have any collectibles.
I never really thought about it much until now, but I think I have a totally different criteria for what I want in a fixed blade Vs a folder.
It wouldn't even occur to me NOT to use a fixed blade, and use it hard. It's what they are for. Why am I buying a fixed blade knife if I'm not looking for strength? What good is strength if you're not gonna use it?

I could see myself never actually using a beefy ass folder like a Medford Praetorian, but if I had the fixed blade version (Emperor, I think?) I would beat the hell out of it. But that's just me.
 
chambelona59 said:
No hijack intended, but for anyone interested, I find this to be the best "sharpened pry bar" made, a 5/16” full tang spine, blade length: 7", I have one.
(If that's what you really need)

hoffner-knives-beast-blade.jpg

hoffner-beast.jpg
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hahaha! i do have a couple of Hoffner Tactical pants for concealed carry.
 
UffDa said:
That's great, but how many of the Survive! knives do you think actually get used? Very few, I suspect. Just take a look at the knives for sale
here and in other places. What do you see? Unused, NIB, Never Cut Anything, Never Sharpened, etc, etc. The same goes for Busse and kin.
The same goes for Fiddleback, Fletcher, Gossman, Koster and any number of other knife makers.

What percentage of knives from custom knife makers ever get used? Again, very few. I know that someone is going to say that they use all
their knives, but I suspect that they are in the minority.
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I agree with you Uffda, which I often do even when I don't take the time to say it, but let me add this to what you said...

Most people on knife forums have more knives than they know what to do with, or could use in a lifetime. Anyone who spends time here clearly has a passion for knives on one level or another, and obviously finding and buying new knives is a large part of that. For those without the extra discretionary income to buy and buy and buy, that means selling some prior to buying more. I think for some people, buying and selling is half the fun or more. And lately, it seems that for a lot of the popular high demand brands just like S!K, little money, if any at all, is lost in the process making it more appealing to buy/sell/trade for blades you'd like to have.

Just some observations.

And I'll be honest, every time I look in my mailbox and see that box, all I hear is...

[youtube]SSR6ZzjDZ94[/youtube]
 
I think it is as simple as supply and demand. They were hard to come by for a long time and the people that did own them seemed to think very highly of them so other knife nuts wanted to get there hands on them. So people who had them would sell them for inflated prices, but now that they are becoming more available the price will settle back down to reasonable levels. If you want to see supply and demand at its finest look at Busse and kin knives. There is a reason people pay what they do for some of the models and that is you simply can not get them anymore, what do you think would happen to the price of the 4.1s if Guy decided he was no longer going to make that model.
 
UffDa said:
That's great, but how many of the Survive! knives do you think actually get used? Very few, I suspect. Just take a look at the knives for sale
here and in other places. What do you see? Unused, NIB, Never Cut Anything, Never Sharpened, etc, etc. The same goes for Busse and kin.
The same goes for Fiddleback, Fletcher, Gossman, Koster and any number of other knife makers.

What percentage of knives from custom knife makers ever get used? Again, very few. I know that someone is going to say that they use all
their knives, but I suspect that they are in the minority.
Click to expand...

Same can be said for folders. How many pristine pics of folders do you see? How many pics of scratched and scuffed folders do you see? Same thing.
 
Originally Posted by Hale Storm
I got lucky when my first S!K wasa 4.1 in M390. One of my favorite camp knives. I would love to have one in CPM-20V.
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Pretty much the same steel.
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I realize the steels are similar but I still want one. :D
 
Hale Storm said:
I'm just curious why the secondary market seems to have slowed down and/or dried up? I finally found a GSO 7/7 and paid handsomely for it so I could put my hands on it. It turns out it wasn't for me and I would like to get out of it for other blades - Who hasn't done that here :D.
No takers and I even listed it at a loss.
I don't care about the money becasue it's a few dollars but I don't want to give it away if that makes sense.
IS there a new holy grail out there I haven't heard about yet? I want one!!!!
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I wish I could just buy knives to try and if I don't like them just sell them again.
I just end up keeping all the knives I have bought :D

Maybe you could try some knives made by lionsteel.
The M7 and the Knife Research Enki.
The Vanadis 4E from the Enki is a nice balanced steel.
In Europe the GSO 5.1 would be more expensive than those two: around $460 :grumpy:

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