Mistwalker
Gold Member
- Joined
- Dec 22, 2007
- Messages
- 19,038
I posted this in the community thread as well, but just in case some of the people I was talking to do not read that thread for a while...I wanted to make a separate thread on it. I hope no-one minds this.
I haven't posted much if any in this thread, but many of you have been aware of the struggles I have faced the last couple of years. Many of you were more helpful to me in those times than you will ever realize.
I thought I would do a different type of post, because even with all the bad in this world, I feel the group of people who hang out in this forum are a bright shining example of just how much good there is in this world.
It has been a long struggle for me, and it isn't going to stop being a struggle I imagine, such has been my life. I have been fighting to stay alive and get somewhere in this world since the winter of my fifteenth year. But some of the things I have worked very hard for behind the scenes are finally coming together for me. So I thought I would share that.
Back in 2008, having experienced up close and personal the bubble busting in and the career changes it brought for many of us. At the time money was extremely tight for me, and many of my friends here. There was one week where 12,000 people were laid off from their jobs permanently in one day. Finding affordable options for durable knives at a price a struggling father could afford was not an easy task. Irritated and annoyed I wrote an email to the president of Taylor brands expressing my chagrin at that fact, and the fact that the company whose knives I had started my earliest survival studies with, Schrade / Old Timer, had not only stopped being an American manufacturer, but had stopped using the steel that had originally made their affordable US made knives so great at such a good price for what was gotten at the time, and that they were using the moniker "Extreme Survival" on knives made of such steels and such designs to be in my opinion unworthy of that moniker. So... I was then asked, since I seemed to have so many ideas on the subject, if I would be interested in designing some knives for them. To which I of course said I would love to, as long as we could use 1095 steel and it would not be made in China. I have no real problems with Taiwan, we have babysat them from the beginning and they may as well be a US territory. I was told we could do that, but that if I were going to insist on those terms then we would do the one design and see how it did. That if it did well enough I would be asked to design more in the future. I was fine with that and the Schrade SCHF9 was born, the first knife to bear my Griffin Design logo. Then we both watched and waited, for four years. They watched to see how it would sell, and I watched to see how it would hold up under the abuse of the Schrade market.
Last year I was asked to do more designs for Schrade. I figured my design must be doing pretty good, and so I designed another more like what I personally wanted in a heavy duty field knife, and the SCHF42 was born. I was pleasantly surprised to learn that my original design had actually done pretty well for them, and today there are just over forty thousand Schrade SCHF9s in use around the world.
The next design was the SCHF42. I learned the first time around I do not care for the TPE handle material anymore than I do Kraton in most cases, so we went with Grivory and I immediately started looking for an aftermarket handle scale maker.
I found one who would work with me on the materials and colors I wanted
Then since not everyone has spent as much time in the tropics and subtropics as I have, and not everyone likes re-curved blades as much as I do, I was asked to do a straight blade design of it beofre doing the smaller edc model I had submitted. and thus the SCHF42D was born. I am guess the D stands for don't re-curve...I'm not sure on their numbering methods really.
Then finally the more edc and youth friendly model I had designed is in production now
These are NOTHING like the heirloom quality knives that are produced by the craftsmen here in this forum, though customs of these designs are in the works through another friend of mine and I am excited about that. But what I am really happiest about here is not that I was successful in getting knives on the market with my name on them, but that I was successful in getting a better quality product into the lower end market for those folks who can not afford the higher end knives. I watched for four years and typically this company, all of the Griffin Design knives are produced in the same facility, has done an excellent job on the heat treat. So I am happy that youths can get their hands on a good quality starter knife or rough use knife in this price category. That is something I worked very hard to bring about, because we all started somewhere besides where we are now knife wise. I know I sure couldn't afford $300 plus knives in my youth. Heck I went without 2/3 of my normal meals for two weeks to get my first SOG Bowie at $150 years ago.
I would like to say thank you, to each and every single one of you, who helped me make it through the worst two years of my life (and if you are among the few who know the whole story you know that is saying something) so that I could see this through. I would have never made it had it not been for several in this forum, or at the very least it would have taken years longer due to the investments necessary.
In the process of that I also had a company make the neck knife I personally wanted, and then spent the next two years trying to get it made in a decent stainless.
And I just got the go ahead for a design for a very similar knife for Schrade for early 2016. So my dream of creating a small line of well made but affordable line of knives has become a reality.
and I am very grateful to all of you who played a role in helping me make that dream come true.
Thank you all, very VERY much!
Brian
I haven't posted much if any in this thread, but many of you have been aware of the struggles I have faced the last couple of years. Many of you were more helpful to me in those times than you will ever realize.
I thought I would do a different type of post, because even with all the bad in this world, I feel the group of people who hang out in this forum are a bright shining example of just how much good there is in this world.
It has been a long struggle for me, and it isn't going to stop being a struggle I imagine, such has been my life. I have been fighting to stay alive and get somewhere in this world since the winter of my fifteenth year. But some of the things I have worked very hard for behind the scenes are finally coming together for me. So I thought I would share that.
Back in 2008, having experienced up close and personal the bubble busting in and the career changes it brought for many of us. At the time money was extremely tight for me, and many of my friends here. There was one week where 12,000 people were laid off from their jobs permanently in one day. Finding affordable options for durable knives at a price a struggling father could afford was not an easy task. Irritated and annoyed I wrote an email to the president of Taylor brands expressing my chagrin at that fact, and the fact that the company whose knives I had started my earliest survival studies with, Schrade / Old Timer, had not only stopped being an American manufacturer, but had stopped using the steel that had originally made their affordable US made knives so great at such a good price for what was gotten at the time, and that they were using the moniker "Extreme Survival" on knives made of such steels and such designs to be in my opinion unworthy of that moniker. So... I was then asked, since I seemed to have so many ideas on the subject, if I would be interested in designing some knives for them. To which I of course said I would love to, as long as we could use 1095 steel and it would not be made in China. I have no real problems with Taiwan, we have babysat them from the beginning and they may as well be a US territory. I was told we could do that, but that if I were going to insist on those terms then we would do the one design and see how it did. That if it did well enough I would be asked to design more in the future. I was fine with that and the Schrade SCHF9 was born, the first knife to bear my Griffin Design logo. Then we both watched and waited, for four years. They watched to see how it would sell, and I watched to see how it would hold up under the abuse of the Schrade market.
Last year I was asked to do more designs for Schrade. I figured my design must be doing pretty good, and so I designed another more like what I personally wanted in a heavy duty field knife, and the SCHF42 was born. I was pleasantly surprised to learn that my original design had actually done pretty well for them, and today there are just over forty thousand Schrade SCHF9s in use around the world.
The next design was the SCHF42. I learned the first time around I do not care for the TPE handle material anymore than I do Kraton in most cases, so we went with Grivory and I immediately started looking for an aftermarket handle scale maker.
I found one who would work with me on the materials and colors I wanted
Then since not everyone has spent as much time in the tropics and subtropics as I have, and not everyone likes re-curved blades as much as I do, I was asked to do a straight blade design of it beofre doing the smaller edc model I had submitted. and thus the SCHF42D was born. I am guess the D stands for don't re-curve...I'm not sure on their numbering methods really.
Then finally the more edc and youth friendly model I had designed is in production now
These are NOTHING like the heirloom quality knives that are produced by the craftsmen here in this forum, though customs of these designs are in the works through another friend of mine and I am excited about that. But what I am really happiest about here is not that I was successful in getting knives on the market with my name on them, but that I was successful in getting a better quality product into the lower end market for those folks who can not afford the higher end knives. I watched for four years and typically this company, all of the Griffin Design knives are produced in the same facility, has done an excellent job on the heat treat. So I am happy that youths can get their hands on a good quality starter knife or rough use knife in this price category. That is something I worked very hard to bring about, because we all started somewhere besides where we are now knife wise. I know I sure couldn't afford $300 plus knives in my youth. Heck I went without 2/3 of my normal meals for two weeks to get my first SOG Bowie at $150 years ago.
I would like to say thank you, to each and every single one of you, who helped me make it through the worst two years of my life (and if you are among the few who know the whole story you know that is saying something) so that I could see this through. I would have never made it had it not been for several in this forum, or at the very least it would have taken years longer due to the investments necessary.
In the process of that I also had a company make the neck knife I personally wanted, and then spent the next two years trying to get it made in a decent stainless.
And I just got the go ahead for a design for a very similar knife for Schrade for early 2016. So my dream of creating a small line of well made but affordable line of knives has become a reality.
and I am very grateful to all of you who played a role in helping me make that dream come true.
Thank you all, very VERY much!
Brian
