How to Buy?

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Crosier

Gold Member
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Nov 15, 2011
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I might get a lot of flak for this for being dumb or whatever. That being said I have never been able to successfully place an order for a Survive! Knife.

I have signed up for the newsletter and read the How to Buy section of the website and yet whenever I try to put together a knife to order it says in red at the top of the page that it is not available in that configuration. What am I missing?
 
Old hats like Silver needle will be more eloquent and specific, but I'll try to sum up my limited understanding:

In a nutshell, they are selling out before you can complete your purchase. There are only a few knives that pop up durring Wednesday sales, and they go quickly.

I'll try to reiterate and boil down what I understand from the How to Buy pages you referenced and my own experience, in case that partly answers your question: They do not have knives in stock at this time, and you can't buy one the day that you want it. You need to plan far ahead. They are starting another product line called SK that they hope to produce enough of to maintain stock on hand. Given the demand to date, I am guessing SKs will sell out just as fast as the GSOs.
http://surviveknives.com/news/big-plans-for-the-future/

They have had pre-orders and presales. You pay up front, and have to wait until they do a production run to receive your knife. This can be many months or in some of our cases, years, depending on demand. Once the ordering periods close, Survive! produces the knives ordered. Sometimes they have extra material available for a production run and have the option to produce some extra knives. At that time, they may open up additional pre-sale orders.
http://surviveknives.com/news-information/

During production, some knives that don't meet their exceptionally high QC standards are sold as Factory seconds. If that occurs, they typicall ypost them for sale on Wednesdays. It is not a reliable way to purchase, and if you are not among the first in line, you will miss out on the very few knives that go up. (noted on the first line of their news/information page, link above)
http://surviveknives.com/knives/factory-2nds/

Once a run is done, there is a chance that some surplus Factory Firsts will also be posted for sale.

Sign up for thie First Friday newsletter and you will get an email each month stating what is happening at the company, and if there will be a chance to place an order before the next production run begins.
http://surviveknives.us7.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=eadc85765dd1915442d1d6274&id=b9305964f6

All most of us can do at this point is to stake out the Wednesday F2 sales or buy on the secondary market. If you are able and willing to wait through the company's growth spurts, which I find to be well worth the wait, place an order whenever a presale window opens up. But read up about the extended wait times to properly set your expectations. If you have a tight timeframe, presales and preorders are probably not for you.

Hopefully that will give you the broad strokes. I understand it repeats some things you may already know, but I expounded in the hopes that it may help another reader. The pros will chime in shortly and correct/get specific. There is some great expertise in this forum, well worth reading through it. GL!
 
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Well, is having them take your money and then waiting a year or more longer than they said you would considered success?
 
It's a pretty awful wait, and I'm pretty disappointed it is taking so long. I'm nearly 2 1/2 years on some of my knives and still waiting (7/7 and 12, 4 special edition, 3.5). I was nearly $2k in since the perorders. Although I am frustrated, I researched what I was buying and knew damn well this could happen. I was hoping not, but it did. Survive isn't for everyone. But I have other tools to use in the mean time, love the knives I have recieved so far, so I will wait it out. Not everyone is willing to wait, or is in a position to wait. Many expect/demand immediate gratification, and there are very good knifemakers that can provide that.
There are many threads set up for venting or expressing and exploring concerns; I only brought it up to partially answer the original quesiton about why it's difficult to place an order through the Survive! website.
If there is a thread that enlightens the OP to your concerns, Andre, let him know. It is a HUGE aspect of choosing to buy from this particular company. I just don't want to take this particular thread off topic any more than I already have. GL all, your grailknife is out there.
 
Crosier said:
I might get a lot of flak for this for being dumb or whatever. That being said I have never been able to successfully place an order for a Survive! Knife.

I have signed up for the newsletter and read the How to Buy section of the website and yet whenever I try to put together a knife to order it says in red at the top of the page that it is not available in that configuration. What am I missing?
Click to expand...

First of all. A very hearty thanks and much appreciation for your well thought out, informative, and concise reply.
This does indeed answer many questions I had. It is nice to get a simple answer on the question that I cannot purchase or preorder a knife at this time.
I think a lot of my confusion lies with the website.
First of all I misinterpreted (coming soon) under each knife to mean that it was still available to preorder due to other knives stating (in production) under them.
This led me to believe that if I somehow clicked the correct handle/fastener/sheath configuration that I could somehow get that little red box at the top of the page to go away and it would let me order. So I would spend a half hour clicking boxes then walk away in frustration and come back and do the same thing 3 months later. I totally understand that this is my fault and it's probably just me. Also my fault for not "staying on it" and refreshing the news page everyday.

To those that replied with warnings about wait times, I also appreciate it. Since I have been trying to place an order off and on forever, I have read the many frustrated threads about wait times since I am one of those people who research every purchase to the nth degree. I understand others do not though and they may find this info helpful. I did not mean for this to become another negative thread about wait times, especially since I am new to the Survive! Community.

Thanks for all the help. I will keep a closer eye on the preorder windows and F2 sales!
 
Don't forget the secondary market; Blade forums for sale and trade pages and facebook has some Survive! pages, all good sources. the Bay is there, but usually scalper pricing.

The knives coming up for Factory 2nd sales on Wednesdays are always forecast/limited by what Survive! has in the workshop, noted on their production schedule page. If/when they don't pass QC, they are listed shortly thereafter. For example, currently:

http://surviveknives.com/production-schedule/
In the Finishing Stages:
(In the SURVIVE! Workshop: being finished, sharpened, built, and packed up)
  • GSO-2.7: Remaining Presale orders will be shipped out over the next couple weeks!
  • GSO-4.1: Starting to ship in larger batches! We will be working on Preorders over the next couple of months.
  • GSO-7/7: Preorders are starting to ship out!
So, only those models will be available as F2s. All models are NOT in simultaneous production. It's not like you might see a GSO 12 this week and a GSO 8 next week, and you never know what might pop up. nuh-uh. They only work on 3 or 4 modelas at a time, max, it seems. Once a particular model is out of the shop, you won't see it produced again for a very long time. But at least you can easily see when the knife you want might be coming up for Factory seconds sales and plan your stalking accordingly.
GL
 
Crosier said:
First of all. A very hearty thanks and much appreciation for your well thought out, informative, and concise reply.
This does indeed answer many questions I had. It is nice to get a simple answer on the question that I cannot purchase or preorder a knife at this time.
I think a lot of my confusion lies with the website.
First of all I misinterpreted (coming soon) under each knife to mean that it was still available to preorder due to other knives stating (in production) under them.
This led me to believe that if I somehow clicked the correct handle/fastener/sheath configuration that I could somehow get that little red box at the top of the page to go away and it would let me order. So I would spend a half hour clicking boxes then walk away in frustration and come back and do the same thing 3 months later. I totally understand that this is my fault and it's probably just me. Also my fault for not "staying on it" and refreshing the news page everyday.

To those that replied with warnings about wait times, I also appreciate it. Since I have been trying to place an order off and on forever, I have read the many frustrated threads about wait times since I am one of those people who research every purchase to the nth degree. I understand others do not though and they may find this info helpful. I did not mean for this to become another negative thread about wait times, especially since I am new to the Survive! Community.

Thanks for all the help. I will keep a closer eye on the preorder windows and F2 sales!
Click to expand...

I would definitely buy one from a another forum member first(or where you can find one for sale), especially if you are thinking about putting in an order. You will pay more, but you will have a very good idea what you'l be getting, and it will help with the wait a little. And like others have said, there are factory 2nds and the new SK line of knives. I put in quite a few orders of factory seconds back in spring, but wanted a knife in between the 4.1 and 7/7, and did not want to wait, so I bought one from a member here. Best decision I could have made! Now I know how great the knives are, which makes the wait harder, yet easier at the same time.
If you look around enough, you will find someone that won't hike the price up too much. Especially here on BF, there are some great people here.
 
Yep, as I was working my way through this thread I was wondering if anybody would mention the currently open preorder for the GSO 3.5 in Delta 3V. :)
As previously mentioned, do not place a preorder if you aren't willing to wait, because we really don't know when any of these orders are going to be filled.
That said, as the proud owner of several Survive knives, I am confident that the orders will all eventually be filled.
 
Crosier said:
I might get a lot of flak for this for being dumb or whatever. That being said I have never been able to successfully place an order for a Survive! Knife.

I have signed up for the newsletter and read the How to Buy section of the website and yet whenever I try to put together a knife to order it says in red at the top of the page that it is not available in that configuration. What am I missing?
Click to expand...
Don't even bother with pre-order because you'll be waiting years for a knife. Still haven't gotten my pre-ordered knife. Their news cast keeps stating pre-orders *** are shipping yet months later it still says the same. I learned my lesson.
 
Fancier said:
Yep, as I was working my way through this thread I was wondering if anybody would mention the currently open preorder for the GSO 3.5 in Delta 3V. :)
As previously mentioned, do not place a preorder if you aren't willing to wait, because we really don't know when any of these orders are going to be filled.
That said, as the proud owner of several Survive knives, I am confident that the orders will all eventually be filled.
Click to expand...
Yes, after more research I saw that it said (preorder) under the GSO 3.5. I was pumped and tried to place an order for one in CPM 20CV which of course was unavailable and resulted in the red box of death lol. Oh well back to the drawing board.
 
JackKnives said:
Don't even bother with pre-order because you'll be waiting years for a knife. Still haven't gotten my pre-ordered knife. Their news cast keeps stating pre-orders *** are shipping yet months later it still says the same. I learned my lesson.
Click to expand...
So I come from Busse land and am accustomed to some long wait times. The difference I see here is that with Survive! you pay the entire cost of the knife up front?
 
Yes.

Survive's goal has been to have stock on hand, but it just hasn't been able to keep up with demand. They effectively sought crowd funding a couple years ago through their "Starter" campaign, to ramp up their production capability. Fortunately/unfortunately, the demand was huge and they have been bogged down completing the orders from that campaign. The knves you see coming up for sale on their website these days are the surplus knives from that 2+ year old campaign, knives they had meant to be stock on hand but are still selling out before they can even be completed. They explain it better than I can, so from the horse's mouth:
http://surviveknives.com/starter/

There are folks unhappy with the unexpected delays, as you can see in the forums. Of comfort to me is that Survive! has continued to produce and ship the promised knives. I have received 8 of the 12 knives I ordered. Three of my remaining orders are in the workshop, and the gso12 is next in line for cutting. A lot of patience is required. They are a young company that has fought traditional investment/control that would accelerate production, so that Guy could maintain a high standard and control of the company to make the best product he can, the way he thinks is best. It is unconventional, and makes some buyers uncomfortable. However, being unconventional has allowed them to innovate quite a bit in a short period of time without investor red tape or corporate controls. Read up in the forums on metalurgy and heat treat improvements, including the CPM3v delta. As I understand it, Guy wants to keep his operation small so that he can continue to focus on design and innovation, and it has taken a long time to find contractors capable of meeting his expectations to produce his designs in larger volumes. The SK line will be a test to see if he has finally found such capable people.

If you are willing to wait and don't want to pay up front for an unknown completion date, the SK line may be better for you. Survive! has effectively outsourced production of Guy's designs so a slightly lesser fit and finish product will be more readily available and stocked (in theory, if they don't sell out quickly).
http://surviveknives.com/news/big-plans-for-the-future/
 
ATJ999 said:
I would definitely buy one from a another forum member first [...].
If you look around enough, you will find someone that won't hike the price up too much. Especially here on BF, there are some great people here.
Click to expand...

^ This

I received my first (and to date only - I have preorders for an SK 6 and a GSO 3.5 in 20CV) S!K (a new spec GSO 4.1 D3V F2) from a fellow forumite relatively soon after joining. It was totally unexpected and I still can't believe my luck. There REALLY are some great people here, as I'm sure you must have noticed reading through some of the threads and based on the replies to your own thread. Don't give up, stick around, and hopefully good things will happen soon.

Edit: the knives generally speak for themselves - even in picture form - but if you ever need a bit of encouragement to continue coming back to this forum, check out the Trophy Room thread. Amazing. These guys are the real deal - unlike this city boy who has started seriously questioning some life choices
:)
 
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