Alrighty, 15 phone calls later and I've finally managed to get through this. Good luck reading it all, I feel like I've just written a book, hahah.
Reasons NOT to Preorder a GSO-5.1:
- There is no guaranteed delivery date so placing a preorder will require patience. This run will go faster because the setup is already done rather than starting from scratch, but they do still need to be made.
Wonder what time frame?---- 6 Mo's?
6 months from when? From right now? From when they start production? We won't be seeing more 5.1's until they're all the way through the 4.5 and 10 and 12, right?
All I can say is there is no guaranteed delivery date. Also, this:
Much like the Navy doesn't talk about submarines and the CIA doesn't talk about spies, I'm pretty sure that Survive no longer talks about production time frames.
So.... is that GMT, East coast, West coast, or Idaho time ?
Pacific Time (North Idaho is PST while Southern Idaho sticks to the mountains)
Will the next round of 5.1's happen after all the models that are already in the production schedule are finished or will you sneak them in between models that are already scheduled?
Most or all of us here are totally at peace with whatever wait times lay ahead because we know it is always worth it, but if a new person is ready to jump on this preorder for a 5.1 and then has to wait for all other models to get through production, is it fair to say they should be prepared to wait several years?
After recent discussions here, I'm NOT asking for an estimate, just trying to give an idea of what brand new people are signing up for.
If you had a preorder for another batch of 4.7's with the delta heat treat, I'd put money down today, but there seems to be enough people on Facebook that were not prepared for a one year wait for 4.7's or later models.
Hopefully these questions are able to be read in the light of trying to clarify rather than jackassedness.
I see no jackassedness. But years! Whew! I totally understand where your logic is coming from, since it has been a year and we are only to the GSO-4.7 as far as fulfilling orders. However, these first few runs took longer to complete because: everyone was getting used to a new way of doing things, there was new heat treating to figure out, things went wrong along the way, etc. As things are settling in, production goes more quickly, with less hiccups. This is evidenced by the fact that we are actively working on 3 models right now. GSO-4.7s are shipping, GSO-2.7s are just waiting on one last item, and GSO-4.1 materials are in the final stages of being made. Thats not including what is going on with the heavy machining right now. You will start to see more things going out as the last of the materials arrive and Guy gets the blades finished and sharpened.
Silver,
Has anyone complaining put their money where their mouth is?
I'm sure they could cancel their order, or even sell the spot if Ellie is down with that.
I'd give someone $20 for their trouble and completely pay out their order today if they were that upset and wanted out now.
We should see if Ellie is OK with people taking their spot.
If thats how people want to run things Im not going to say no, but I want no part of it. If someone is willing to take your money and walk away thats fine, they can just contact me with an updated shipping address.
I am ok with waiting. At least I know my spot is secured. I hope pre-order is available for the 4.7. I like my 5.1 but I think I am preferring choiless.
We will see how this goes and also how the regular GSO-4.7 sales go. So far I have been getting a lot of Thank you messages so if it makes sense to continue with this sales model we will consider it for future models.
I tried to resist but failed
Really tried securing a 4.7 second but evidently spent too many seconds deciding on the handle scale color and was dropped out of the cart when I was proceeding through the checkout
There will definitely be more available in coming weeks. Keep an eye on the Production Schedule page.
Now for the question of the hour:
Silver, I would be surprised if they jumped a new 5.1 production run all the way to the front of the line.
That would likely upset the folks that are patiently waiting for their existing orders to be filled.
It is possible that they think that the second production could be completed quickly enough to not upset their existing production schedule very much.
If they plan to finish all of the existing orders first it will obviously take quite a while before any more 5.1's ship.
I also very much doubt that we are going to get a firm ship date.
I interpret that position on the webpage as meaning "next after the GSO-8 enters production".
Edit: If they get more orders for the new 5.1's than the existing orders for the 6's or 4.5's I guess they'll come next.
I suppose we'll see soon enough.
So....are these gettin made before all the others? I knew I was gona have to wait but it sk! Is now adding more in front of my order that is bs. I want my 7/7 I ordered 8 months ago before new orders go out if I'm wrong sorry for my rant but if I'm right....wow just wow. In a bad way
Before deciding to run the preorder, our plan was to get a batch of GSO-5.1s into production after the other models have started production. Unless there was an opportunity to slip them in sooner. For example: if there is enough machine time to do a run, but not enough time to do a full, from scratch setup.
Even with the GSO-5.1 starting production after the last of the other models, they would still probably ship out sooner. This is because the handle and sheath templates are already made. We were planning to order the GSO-5.1 handles in the same order for the GSO-6 handles since they are the same thing. Meaning those materials would be on our floor just waiting for blades to finish. Meanwhile the GSO-10 and GSO-8 would probably still be getting templating done for their first rounds of sheaths.
However, this preorder may change the order of when production starts. We already have more preorders placed for the GSO-5.1 than for the GSO-8 or GSO-10, by a bit. This just happened so we are going to need some time to talk and figure out our next move. I cant say one way or another right now. I can say that these will not go ahead of any of the SURVIVE! Starter models that are in production now. They likely wont start before the GSO-6 or GSO-4.5 Bushcraft.
Of course, this amount of orders means we are probably going to need to order more GSO-5.1 steel, which can take a few months to arrive. So maybe we wont even have the materials to start production until after the others have all been started.
To further complicate things, there are minimum run requirements for grinding, which we are not close to meeting on the two bigger knives. Being that they are larger models, they are the most expensive to produce after the GSO-12. We actually have smaller margins on the big knives, so that it isnt so hard for you folks to get an order in. This all means that the preorders placed havent really been enough to justify starting a full production run yet. So, remembering that we are not a non-profit, do we invest in carrying the rest of those runs with less orders or make more of the GSO-5.1? We will definitely be getting production moving on the GSO-10 and GSO-8 as soon as we can, but we also need to keep the lights on while retaining enough capital to pay our service providers. With a manufacturing company the investment is up front and our return doesnt come back for another 3-4 months, or sometimes 6-8 months with these new setups. We will need to figure that all out once the preorder closes and we have a final idea of where we are at on these GSO-5.1s.
I hope this helps answer some questions without creating too many more questions.
