I hope they never get to the stage where a Survive Knife is just another knife "off the shelf". I often think those companies that don't over expand and just produce what they can whilst maintaining their standards tend to make things worth having. I do hope their waiting time comes down to a few months though which is more acceptable. I do hope they don't get to the stage where they have to stop new orders while they catch up on demand.
Now I have a couple of the smaller GSO's I do fancy something like the 7/7, annoyingly I was out of boys toys funds when they were last offered. But they will come around again.
Their products are correctly priced for a high end user knife. Lets hope they make a good living from their efforts and keep at it for a good long time. A small team that can put attention to every knife they produce. Only a few companies can manage this attention as once production goes big then there isn't the opportunity for much human input. Hope they just keep doing what they are, which is produce a no nonsense outdoors knife.
Lastly, the price is correct for what they. Anything higher then there are other makes and styles that compete as in lets say a one off true custom. Pay more if you are in a hurry but the knife is still worth only the original price. The original price make them rather good value.
I'll respectfully disagree here GJ. There are lots of knives that are high quality at a reasonable price that are "off the shelf", simply meaning, readily available. Spyderco, ZT, Chris Reeve, Benchmade, Bark River, Emerson, to name a few, and all of which are "worth having" and I own several of all of those brands. Would you say any of those companies over expanded? I wouldn't. I would say they produced a quality product and when demand was there, they increased production. That's good business. Smart business. I won't bore everyone with the math but it's very simple. e.g. I build 1,000 knives and have 20 that won't pass QC. 2% rejection and a lot of unhappy or non existent customers because my knives are never available. OR, I increase production and build 100,000 knives and have 2000 that won't pass QC. Still 2% rejection rate and skyrocketing sales and a market saturation of my products.
I often hear of S!K being compared to Randall on many levels. How many people are willing to wait 5 years for one of their knives? I believe it's not many. They only produce 8,000 per year. With over 300,000,000 people here, 8,000 is a grain of sand on the beach. BUT, you can find Randall's at online dealers and all over the secondary market if you want one right now. Let's not forget the huge amounts of money that is being spent on the secondary market for these same knives.
I believe the balance right now is that the production doesn't meet the demand so the demand is high. Bark River has a huge market saturation and yet they still sell 1,000's of knives and continuously come out with new models. Right now, some orders for S!K are over a year behind schedule. If the wait times continue to increase as they have since the beginning, and they have never decreased, more and more new customers are starting to look elsewhere and more and more S!K customers are moving on. For new customers, once you get enough bad press out there, they will never buy a S!K knife unless they can order one in stock, and have it in a few days. If that balance shifts to here, then S!K might be in trouble.
I LOVE S!K and Guy and Ellie seem to be some really stand up, genuine people; and the groups I know in the forums here are some of the nicest people I've ever met. Some I would even call my friends. The waiting issues and missed production times are just reality, not a slam on my part.
I live in a city with 5 million people and we have zero brick and mortar stores for knives. Just big box stores like Academy, Dick's, and Wally World. I can't go anywhere in person and get any of those mentioned above, off the shelf. I CAN order them from countless dealers and vendors and have most of them at my door in a few days.
So, having said that, I DO hope (along with many others I assume) that S!K will eventually get to that point. As far as quality goes, all of the aforementioned companies have put out a bad knife at some point from a QC standpoint, BUT, the positive side of that is you just send it back, and get another one. Most of the retailers and online dealers that carry those mid-tech lines have a very hospitable return policy. It doesn't appear that S!K has any plans to stop future orders while they catch up. That's okay. It's their company and they can do as they see fit. There are those that will wait, and those that will move on to other brands. That is unfortunate because I would love to see these folks succeed and the knife world will be better off if they do.
For now, I've got another one on order and own a few others. I'll wait (although a little frustrating at times when the wait times always seem to increase no matter what).
