survive gso d3v 4.1 ugly betty

[jharpphoto]

What Busse were you looking for?

I'm looking for an ASH-1

 

[hhmoore]

Someone from the forum has offered the ugly betty 4.1 in D3v for trade and I'm not sure this is a good trade. Any of you have feedback on this knife and trade offer?

Unless you're desperate to get rid of the Winkler, or actually WANT the 4.1, my recommendation is to pass. The 4.1 is a less expensive knife, and I'm pretty sure the Ugly Betty versions are priced lower. There are some that will pay increased prices on the secondary market due to the difficulties with buying direct; but, as you have seen, there are many that have chosen to take a hard pass on survive knives. (I begin that because, between lower price and prevailing attitudes, you may take a hit if you decide it isn't for you.

On a personal note, I've become more selective on what I'll take in trade - it's got to be something I WANT or something popular enough that I'm confident I can get my money (the asking price of the item I was selling) out of it.
I did take a survive knife in trade a few years ago. Didn't like it...and it didn't go away as easily as I expected. (Offered it in trade several times without success, and had to post it a few times before somebody bought it.)

What it comes down to, though, is does the knife appeal to you? If so, decide if you are willing to trade down. If not, you can always ak the other person to kick in some cash

 

[edge13]

Company aside. I have a 3V Factory 2nd GSO 4.1 from the Gettysburg years. Its a great knife for camping and has ridden in my truck since I got it from Survive. I don't condone how they do business and I'll leave it at that. Knife wise though its built like a tank and has taken a beating from me. Even though its a second it is of the higher tier seconds that doesnt look bad. I will never sell it either as it was a gift from my parents for my 21st birthday.

All that being said, save some more pennies and get a Carothers field knife or HDFK. I have my first hdfk coming in the mail now from a forum member. Hope that helped.

-Edge

 

[craytab]

Company aside, from the posts I have read, the knives themselves are solid. Mind you that comes from reading a LOT of posts, rather than from personally handling them.

The answers need to be about the question, not what you want the question to be.
Is the knife reasonably well made or is it junk?
The poster is not "supporting Survive" by buying a used knife. So belay all the responses about what a scumbag company the outfit is.

Frank, I'm not trying to step on your toes here but it is extremely difficult to separate company from product for several knife related reasons in this question from the op.

As Casinostocks stated, given the behavior of the company. How do we know they have high enough standards to follow through with proper D3V all the time. As a knife user, that would be a concern for me. Am I getting proper value of what I am buying or trading for? Sure testing as been good but given the track record of the company, can you really trust every knife comes out as sold? In a trade, this could be particularly important.

If a warranty is important to the op, the company standing behind it is very relevant to the question. Given the track record, are we sure survive will be around to warrant the life of the knife? That's something to consider if it is important to the trade for the OP. I'm fairly certain the Winkler carries more value in a trade in this respect.

Last, in respect to the knives themselves, I've had an original 7/7. I was not blown away. Good knife but nothing special. I had to send it back as it came with a rounded blunt tip.

I have seen customers show off their warranted knives, so that isn't an issue either.

If the OP cares about a warranty, it would be my advice to not even look at survive. They are proven to be untrustworthy and also financially troubled. They likely will not be around for the life of the knife.

OP, stick with trying for the busse or look at cpk if you want D3V. Those are two knife companies backed up by trusted individuals that provide higher quality cutlery than survive. Just my opinion of course.

 

[Casinostocks]

Not sure what D3v is but my Ivan Campos-made American Standard Tanto in D3 -- 1/4" thick awesome chisel grind -- is an unbelievably tough steel. Chopped through a 2x4 and it would still shave. I keep it handy in case I ever need to cut/chop/pry into a vault (and then shave).

Kinda OT to this thread topic and I am certainly no steel geek in terms of understanding all the technical stuff, but Nathan Carothers who is the proprietor and the main wizard behind the moniker D3V ergo Delta-3V came to the conclusion that the industry standard 3V heat treat while maybe optimal for tool and things which use 3V did not turn out to be optimal for cutlery so he did his own research and experimentation and concluded that with some extra steps (low temp quench?) he could vastly improve application of 3V to knives but he has some very strict protocols in place for this. Basically D3V is a trade-marked 3V, but the steel being used is still CPM-3V.

 

[Quiet]

One more thing I'll add to this thread and anyone who might be curious about S?K and their business practices. Keep in mind that they have retreated to a very tightly controlled private Facebook group as their sole customer-facing contact portal (that I'm aware of). All commenting ability is turned off on their IG, and they do not interact with people ANYwhere where they (and their few Stockholm Syndromed fans left) cannot control the narrative or where they do not have the ability to silence all dissent.

If that sounds like a company you're good doing business with, then by all means, have at it.

Secondly, as someone who owns a 4.7, I'll state that no, the knives aren't great. They aren't the best at any one thing. The ergos are on the small side, plenty of other knives come with better edges (and edge geometry), and plenty of other knives come in 3V (and I place no value in their 3V-Delta configuration, because I don't trust that Guy wasn't cutting all possible corners), to the point where I really cannot give an objective reason that anyone could have for choosing a S?K product over one made by a reputable company/smith. In point of fact, they don't even make any of their own knives. Guy literally sharpens the delivered knives and bolts on scales and does finishing....a job that somehow takes three or four years. I don't think he even makes the sheathes.

OP, I'd pass on that trade every day that ends in "Y" and twice on Sunday.

 

[Danke42]

So it's all been said but I'll say it too. First my perspective is that I have a Winkler Belt Knife. I like it a lot, it's a nice knife from an ethical and approachable company that I am happy to support. I don't have a Survive knife and I've never seen one. But the company created a huge amount of static on this site in recent memory.

They started out not doing anything that a lot of other knife makers don't do. Long long waits, prepurchasing knives and waiting as the delivery dates were pushed back time and time again is nothing new. The common wisdom is that if you want that knife from company X you just dug in and toughed out the wait. But the waits kept getting worse and the excuses kept getting more fantastical and the company rep was a ghost when it came to providing solid answers.

They kept trumpeting new models and taking in cash for preorders on these amazing new versions. People who'd been waiting years started to loose patience and started to demand refunds. The company became even harder to contact if you wanted a refund. This was before they added restock or cancellation fees to their terms. And they kept coming up with announcements how they were just about to turn the corner on the bottleneck with their huge new facility. But the new factory burnt down just as they were moving. That meant more delays.

Despite all of this they still hung onto a hardcore group of fanatical fans. Anyone who posted in their sub about how to to get a refund would be savaged. A lot of customers were jumping ship at this point and worse they weren't getting any buyers for the next model that was coming soon. The revenue stream was shrinking.

And at this point they verged into what you could only term as Cartoonish Supervillainy. They had been selling their factory seconds knives as "Ugly Betties" ahead of the promised delivery knives for a while. But then they started offering pre-oders on the factory seconds. You could pay to get onto a wait list to get the stuff that wasn't good enough for the people who'd been waiting for years.

A while after that a guy who doesn't post a lot on here anymore compiled a list and timeline of the details and presented that to the site owner. They were kicked off the site as a result.

I definitely would not want one of their knives. If it had a problem the maker couldn't be trusted to solve it. If the OP traded his knife for one and found he didn't like it he'd likely have little luck finding someone else who wanted it now. Everything about the company's ethics and more importantly about the quality of their products is tainted. That'll never wash off.

 

[evltcat]

FWIW, I owned 3 GSO's and after the insane behavior with orders and customers, I sold all 3 and never looked back. Sell your Winkler and buy an ASH-1. Mine is a massive hunk-o-INFI that I will never part with.

Good luck!

 

[knarfeng]

"People unclear on the concept".
Some folks have reading comprehension problems. Too full of self-righteous indignation to follow instructions.

Closed.