Silver Needle, thanks for moving this conversation over to the chat. It wasn't my intention to hijack that picture thread. Yes, I know the knife you mentioned;it's the kraton handle F/U. Great blade. I have one, but the other two are just like my first one with the leather stacked handle. To be frank, the reason that I've never evolved (although I tried with the RC6) is because with my style of "bushcraft" I've never had the need for anything "beefier". In my experience, for the size vs weight, ergonomics and balance (even though it has a pommel) I'm hard pressed to find anything that beats it. Please understand that I will be the first to admit that it's not as solid for certain tasks than a thicker full tang knife. Batoning is the one that first comes to mind. Here's the thing. I hardly ever baton. Only heard about it about 7-8 years ago. When I was a kid we split branches with a machete (grew up in a tropical Caribbean island), or a hatchet. The almost non existent occasions that I must due to a really soggy spell I follow my own simple rule. I don't baton any stick that I can't saw with my Swiss army knife's saw. About as thick as my wrist at most. My Kabar can safely handle that size wood without any worries. Also, only split enough to get the fire going. Additional wood doesn't get split. With this approach my Kabar has been more than sufficient for all my needs. As far as the other utility tasks required of a field knife, this knife needs no introduction. It seems that it doesn't do any one task perfect , but does them all good enough. And good is enough for me. I'm just a simple man that enjoys simple things.
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The Survive! Never Say Die! Chat Thread
- Thread starter Hard Knocks
- Start date
Silver Needle, thanks for moving this conversation over to the chat. It wasn't my intention to hijack that picture thread. Yes, I know the knife you mentioned;it's the kraton handle F/U. Great blade. I have one, but the other two are just like my first one with the leather stacked handle. To be frank, the reason that I've never evolved (although I tried with the RC6) is because with my style of "bushcraft" I've never had the need for anything "beefier". In my experience, for the size vs weight, ergonomics and balance (even though it has a pommel) I'm hard pressed to find anything that beats it. Please understand that I will be the first to admit that it's not as solid for certain tasks than a thicker full tang knife. Batoning is the one that first comes to mind. Here's the thing. I hardly ever baton. Only heard about it about 7-8 years ago. When I was a kid we split branches with a machete (grew up in a tropical Caribbean island), or a hatchet. The almost non existent occasions that I must due to a really soggy spell I follow my own simple rule. I don't baton any stick that I can't saw with my Swiss army knife's saw. About as thick as my wrist at most. My Kabar can safely handle that size wood without any worries. Also, only split enough to get the fire going. Additional wood doesn't get split. With this approach my Kabar has been more than sufficient for all my needs. As far as the other utility tasks required of a field knife, this knife needs no introduction. It seems that it doesn't do any one task perfect , but does them all good enough. And good is enough for me. I'm just a simple man that enjoys simple things.
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OriginalLawDog said:
You're welcome. I've been looking back through my orders. I've got a 4.7 on order from June 5th, a couple of days before your 3.5 order. The 4.7 is going to be in front of the 3.5 in the production schedule.
So I'm in the same boat, except I'm ahead of you in the production rotation as the 4.7's are set to be produced before the 3.5's. Those 3.5's are going to be a good ways back yet according to the schedule. But I'm not worried about receiving the knife, although the wait is loooong sometimes, especially when I'm really excited for a certain model. Guy and Ellie will definitely make good on it, but I can understand the frustration. I have personally not had that problem with contact, and am not sure what happened there.
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I didn't realize until tonight when I decided to check on here regarding my experience and discovered they are a 3 person company. Guess that explains a lot. After trying multiple ways to reach them and after waiting for a week, I felt the dispute was the only option left other than just waiting for an indefinite time period for the knife to be produced and delivered.
This is the first time I've been on this site in a while and the first time I've ever thought of looking up Survive on here. I have pre-ordered several knives from other makers during this past year. None have required full payment upfront. None have taken over three months in producing the pre-ordered knife. I don't have any knives from Survive. From what I've read I'm sure they are high quality. I'm not bashing the product.
This is the first time I've been on this site in a while and the first time I've ever thought of looking up Survive on here. I have pre-ordered several knives from other makers during this past year. None have required full payment upfront. None have taken over three months in producing the pre-ordered knife. I don't have any knives from Survive. From what I've read I'm sure they are high quality. I'm not bashing the product.
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Not a problem! But now Hard Knocks has to tell me how to really take a quote from one thread and move it to another!
h minus, first, thank you for your military service!
You got (get) serious use out of your knife. All the things you mentioned in your Kabar post are cutting duties that a knife is designed for and that a good knife can stand up to. You used yours for everything! There seems to be 2 divided groups in the knife world when it comes to batoning. Some people say batoning is safer than chopping and some people only want to carry one tool with them and they say batoning is the best way to get to dry wood and the other half say......... just use an ax and save the knife for cutting! Like a lot of things I don't think those two groups will ever agree, but you clearly have well thought out reasoning with more than enough experience to back it up! I have a cousin who has spent more time out doors than anyone I know and he's thrived on all his many adventures with a Leatherman, Kabar F/U and Sven saw. Amen to being a simple man who enjoys simple things
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LawDog, I don't have much to add to Hard Knocks' replies, he really said it best. You now know they're a 3 person company and that explains a lot about response time. The starter campaign was supposed to be a way for customers to help the company get funds and the customer to get his name on a blade and have a "spot in line". They really tried letting folks know that delivery dates were not going to be set at all. This set up doesn't work for everyone and I'm confident they'll get you taken care of.
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OriginalLawDog:
I also have a 3.5 and a 5.1 on order. I have also had a long wait when waiting for an email to be responded to. However, things you need to consider: They are a 3 person company with 1 person answering thousands of e-mails. I have had much larger companies ignore my e-mails completely. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion of or perception of their events, but as others have stated they gave no promise of a delivery timeline other than that they would be delivered. The reason was they knew that it was going to be a while and they had many steps in the chain they can't control (because they are still very very small). There was no 3-6 month guarantee. Not everyone is willing to wait, nor should they if that is there prerogative. I understand your main concern was the response time to your concerns, and I can understand that, but rest assured the company and the people behind it are great. They are trying to grow and learn along the way but they will not screw you out of money. I would give them the benefit of the doubt and be patient.
I also have a 3.5 and a 5.1 on order. I have also had a long wait when waiting for an email to be responded to. However, things you need to consider: They are a 3 person company with 1 person answering thousands of e-mails. I have had much larger companies ignore my e-mails completely. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion of or perception of their events, but as others have stated they gave no promise of a delivery timeline other than that they would be delivered. The reason was they knew that it was going to be a while and they had many steps in the chain they can't control (because they are still very very small). There was no 3-6 month guarantee. Not everyone is willing to wait, nor should they if that is there prerogative. I understand your main concern was the response time to your concerns, and I can understand that, but rest assured the company and the people behind it are great. They are trying to grow and learn along the way but they will not screw you out of money. I would give them the benefit of the doubt and be patient.
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You're not coming across as bashing the product, or the company, for that matter. Just really frustrated with wait time and communication.
I had to get ahold of Ellie last week for an issue of my own creation. I did it on their contact form when logged into my account on their website. It took her about a week to get back to me, which was no problem. But I perhaps knew some things you didn't: Like you mentioned, they're a 3-person company, and they're in the middle of a big run of 5.1's right now.
The product itself is excellent.
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Thanks Hard Knocks. I used to be a member of blade forums about 7 years ago, then I was absent for a long time and when I came back December 2014 it didn't recognized my login. Maybe my absence was to lengthy and automatically deleted my membership. On well, I'm back again, and happy to see that a lot of good friendly people still the majority in this great website. Glad to be here. Thanks for the welcome!
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lot of people responded before I was able to in my above post, and do not want to give the appearance of piling on. To answer your questions as they were originally asked:
Yes: they can take a while to get back to you
No: I have never had any problems with them with any of my orders
Yes: There will be a long wait time and you have to pay up front (both stated clearly on the site)
Everyone likes to do things a certain way, and different people are comfortable with different things. As i stated above, if the wait is too much right now than trust that they will hook you up and if in the future you want to give them another look, they might have a little better footing and be able to get you a knife a little quicker.
Cheers!
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ha! i was watching, which is why it took me so long to respond and i rushed the photo in the photo thread. It's like having an old friend return after a long absence, not the same but still a good time!
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.......Amen to being a simple man who enjoys simple things
Hear! Hear!
h minus said:
h minus, I have read where others have had the same experience as you. I think it occurred some years back that some of that information was lost to the forum. There's a good bunch of people here, especially in this subforum. Thanks for posting about your experience with the Kabar :thumbup:
Not a problem! But now Hard Knocks has to tell me how to really take a quote from one thread and move it to another!
h minus, first, thank you for your military service!
You got (get) serious use out of your knife. All the things you mentioned in your Kabar post are cutting duties that a knife is designed for and that a good knife can stand up to. You used yours for everything! There seems to be 2 divided groups in the knife world when it comes to batoning. Some people say batoning is safer than chopping and some people only want to carry one tool with them and they say batoning is the best way to get to dry wood and the other half say......... just use an ax and save the knife for cutting! Like a lot of things I don't think those two groups will ever agree, but you clearly have well thought out reasoning with more than enough experience to back it up! I have a cousin who has spent more time out doors than anyone I know and he's thrived on all his many adventures with a Leatherman, Kabar F/U and Sven saw. Amen to being a simple man who enjoys simple things
Silver Needle, you're welcome! It was my pleasure to serve this great nation. I'm glad you enjoyed my post in the Kabar thread. It's a true event that I lived during my youth. Back in those days GIs didn't get paid very well (a lot worse than today's army) so combat soldiers had to spend their money wisely. In the 82nd Airborne in those days the Kabar style knife was prolific amongst front line troops. I can close my eyes and think about my company in formation about to head out to the field and 85% of the guys had kabars or Camillus USMC knives dangling from their LBEs. Keep in mind that a brand new Kabar went for about $27 and the Camillus versions for about $19. Everybody used them for the same things and used them hard. None got babied like I see a lot of folks do with their knives in the civilian life. 6 months with field training exercises and the knife looked like it was 10 years old. Anyways, it was out of this personal experience that I continued to use the design ever since. And although it doesn't have the capabilities to split a log or pry like a Becker,ESSE, Tops,Survive!, or Busse, it has taken and dished out mayhem in Tarawa, Saipan, Peleliu, Iwo Jima,Okinawa, Korea, Vietnam, Grenada, Panama, Desert Storm, Bosnia, Afghanistan and Iraq. And I'll be willing to bet that wherever our forces go fight next there will be a few kabars dangling of off some grunt's web gear. Few knives can make that claim.
Thanks bud! I feel welcomed. Let me get acquainted a bit more with S!K. I'll do some research and then decide which model will better suit me.
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Silver Needle said:
Ha! I just caught that. This will officially be the only time I do anything more techy than you!!
But it's not so much a move (only a mod can do that) as some copy and pasting of text wrapped in the html for quotes, not a big deal.Just physically type: [ quote=username ] and then copy/paste the text, followed by [ /quote ]
only leave out the spaces I had to put in between the [ and quote in order for the text to show. Pull the spaces out and it shows up in the post as a quote.
username said:
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h minus, welcome! I know Bragg well, my dad was Air-Force and spent a large part of his career at Pope during two different stints. The kabar knife is a great and capable knife. I Think a lot of people strive to find their one knife solution and never truly find it. It is really cool that you have been so pleased for so long. I wont try and convince you on anything different, but do want to welcome you here and say if you were interested in trying something different these survive! knives wont let you down. so in short: Thank you for your service, welcome, look around, and ask any and all questions!
Thanks Redwood22! Pope AFB is where we rigged and loaded the birds whenever we had to jump. Whether a training jump or a one way trip to a destination unknown. Green Ramp was the name of the section of Pope were we paratroopers got ready. You probably heard your old man mention it.
Standard78
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Welcome to the Survive! threads h minus and thank you for your service. I'm a Navy/Air Force brat so I understand your love for the Kabar USMC knife. That was the first fixed blade knife given to my by my dad and he still swears by them to this day. I offered to buy him a new Survive! knife but he wants a Navy stamped Kabar instead.
For really hard use, you really can't beat a Survive knife. These super steel blades with solid tangs take one hell of a beating and they sell at a bargain compared to the competition. You'll also find that the company is ran by some cool folks.
For really hard use, you really can't beat a Survive knife. These super steel blades with solid tangs take one hell of a beating and they sell at a bargain compared to the competition. You'll also find that the company is ran by some cool folks.
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