About the hate for Survive! Knives.

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Obviously I'm not a frequent poster here. Or even a frequent lurker. I don't know if I've ever posted here at all, maybe I just made an account once to use the search function, I don't remember.


I ordered a GSO 5.1 six years ago. SIX (6)!!!

I just received it yesterday. Opened the box today. It is, for me, probably the finest, highest quality object I have ever held in my hand. Every angle perfect, every seam flush. Even the little teeny angles at the very tippy tip are perfectly symmetrical. It shaves hair off my arm. Upgraded to Magnacut steel without charge, which from what I've read it maybe the best overall knife steel in history. I'm pretty sure I could run it through the middle of my refrigerator door very, very easily. Maybe a Rolex watch is finer, I don't know, I've never touched one. I don't care about such things. But this knife does feel amazing. I had to put it away before I did something stupid and hurt myself... or my refrigerator.

I ordered it, long, long ago, because I thought the picture of it looked really cool at the time and I had never had a "higher end" knife. In the meantime I still haven't become a knife guy, I mostly carry a keychain SAK classic, and occasionally a SAK compact or a 30 year old leatherman, which pretty much covers all of my carry tool needs. In the kitchen I have a 25 year old carbon Old Hickory/OKC 9" (?) I bought at WalMart 25 years ago for $5.00, I haven't found anything that I like any better, especially because I grew up with the same knife in the family kitchen.

After a year or two or so from ordering, I started to wonder if the GSO 5.1 would ever show up, and browsed through here a bit. I began to see the hate here for Survive! I understand where that hate was coming from.

But here's the thing: 90% of the time, over the course of my life, especially lately, as everyone seems to be more and more corrupt... anyway, 90% of the time, in situations like this, it seems like whatever company gets behind in its promises, it just folds up, keeps the money, and that's it. Over. People who paid get screwed. I really thought that's what would happen here too. Multiple times I considered calling them up and demanding a refund. I think a lot of people did that and I think they got their money back? Every time I was about to do the same thing, I thought "Oh what the heck, I'm not needing the money, maybe someday the knife will actually show up." And yesterday it did.

SURVIVE! DIDN'T DO WHAT I FULLY EXPECTED THEM TO DO IN THIS CORRUPT WORLD. They actually followed through. They didn't walk away and keep the money like everyone else. Damn.

That guy, whoever he is in the videos, I don't know his name. He actually followed through. He made it happen. He built out a shop, figured out how to do more or less everything himself, and kept his HONOR, didn't steal my money like so many others would have, and sent me this astonishing knife. It's completely perfect. Even the sheath is perfect, not one single flaw.

So I guess you can all just keep hating that company, and that guy, but he did follow through, and he didn't steal any money from anyone. Someone with honor is rare, so rare in this corrupt world now. I think he did a good thing. He's a good man. I'd have a beer with him and tell him that.

Also, I have no idea what to do with this knife. It's far too nice for me to ever use. I'll just keep using what I always have, for decades. They're fine. Maybe I'll put it in a glass box on the wall with a "break only in case of nuclear war!" sign on it.
 
 
Yeah, I've read a bit of that thread, back when it was made. But all of the accusations there, about him being a sociopath or worse... well it's not true now, is it. He's pretty close to sending out every last knife that was owed. He didn't just keep the money. A sociopath would have. Heck, even a regular normal businessman would have declared bankruptcy, kept the money legally, and reorganized and changed the company name and started again. I reassert that the guy learned a LOT of life lessons and became a hell of a many here at the other end of that experience. I wish him well, and I wish him real profit. He makes a damn good knife. The nicest I have ever held. Maybe there are nicer knives out there for $300 (I paid $230 six years ago). I wouldn't know. Like I said, I'm not a knife guy. Maybe that $230 got me the best knife in the world from them, right? If it's flawless and made from the best steel there is, what does paying more get you?
 
Alright let’s see it…whip it out
Sheesh I have to figure out how to post a picture... I'll try...


ETA: do I really have to post it somewhere else on the web, I can't just insert an image directly here?
 
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Not only paid in full, but changed my shipping address three times in the intervening six years lol, I kept worrying that it would get lost in the mail/sent to an old address.
 
I ordered something six months and paid in advance. I was sweated it bad. A lot can happen in six years to a person that could make them unable to fulfill an order (death, illness, financial hardship). I am glad it worked out for you.
 
I am happy that you are satisfied. You must have wanted it bad.
It wasn't that I really wanted it all that much, it's kind of like... well it's like, I just wanted to see what would happen after a while. I've read of so may people getting screwed out of their money, especially stuff like KickStarter things. All the people that lost their life savings in GM stock, stuff like that. I wanted to see if I would actually, ever get it. If I didn't, oh well $230 is like two tanks of gas these days, right? And to my utter amazement, here it is. That poor guy endured every hateful criticism that anyone with a keyboard could ever think of thrown at him, he persevered, shrugged it all off, and made it happen anyway. But all that hate thrown his way had to hurt. He did more that 99% of us would, or even could do. Heck, I don't think I would have gone all the way through with it, and I consider myself a pretty damn good person. I think I would have found a way to just reason out: that good people screw up in business all the time, and that's why there are bankruptcy laws, and taken the easy way out. He didn't take the easy way out. He rode the hard path and made it happen. I'm impressed. I'm as impressed with that guy, as with anyone who ever made any company, great or small, successful. Henry Ford, or the guy with the corner convenience store.
 
OK I can't figure it out. Is there a way to upload an image directly here? If not, which image hosting service is simple, easy, and free?
 
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