Survive!Knives - Is interest waning? Replacement Blades?

I am not sure if interest is waning in Survive but more manufacturers are using steels like 3V and M390 than ever before. Six or seven years ago, I could not find many production knives that used exotic steels. Now everyone from Cold Steel to Lion Steel uses these materials. I can go to an online retailer and find almost any steel I wish from numerous makers built to a high standard without waiting.
 
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Adam Kornalski (Jamall here) is a top maker! Great steel choices (Vanadis 4 extra, A8mod, K600 for big monster Knives), great designs, great guy, I’m on my 7 knife from him.
 
I don't think ebay sales indicate anything. At all really, ebay is a decaying dinosaur. There are only so many GSO's out there. If I wanted to sell any of my Survive! knives I could sell any one for a nice profit, I just prefer using them instead. I'm a fanboy but I've been putting a lot of money into CPK which has been amazing, ordered a few Busse's, bought Fiddlebacks, Osprey, Adventure Sworn, Big Chris, some other customs, etc. I've yet to be as happy with a knife purchase as I have been the day a new Survive! shows up. I'm not canceling orders or losing faith.
 
For what it's worth, three GSOs were posted and purchased in two days or less here on the exchange.

Hale Storm Hale Storm check Facebook for a 4.1 because two of then were already sold this week.
 
I am strictly about CPK these days and currently have no skin in the Survive! preorder but this is where I developed my penchant for knives made out of "super steels". So I will chime in:

CPK's marketing and sales is not for everyone and it can be very frustrating for those who do not have the time, the patience or the increasing level of keyboard ninja skills required to score a CPK in their now & then Fridays sales. It is good to see that Nathan has warmed up toward doing preorder lists to meet the demand from the folks who have hardship scoring one of his knives otherwise, although a preorder / prepayment goes against everything ingrained with Nathan. I am one of those luckier ones who is willing, able and capable of scoring CPKs, so woohoo to me :rolleyes:

Apart from CPK, I had tried some other makes such as LTWK & BRKT which are of higher echelon as compared to the 1095 steel varieties such as ESEE & TOPS. TBT, none hit the sweet spot although I would not denigrate many of those readily accessible patterns for those who MUST have perfectly functional knives. However don't forget that we are talking about a bit of steel snobbery situation in here with quality F&F as the cherry on top ;)

I believe that those who vehemently denigrate Survive! Knives the business, let their hatred of the Company cloud their judgement regarding the Survive! Knives products. If S! can streamline their production operation whereby I feel confident that I can and will receive orders within 60-90 days from when orders placed, or even sooner which is much better, they will see renewed business interest from me. My recent harsher posture toward their business practices which has been atrocious at times, has nothing to do with the quality of their products which I had experienced from them in the past. If the quality remains high plus the aforementioned requirement for transparency, I will be back because IMHO $ for $, this Co has shown very high quality output. They will not replace my CPKs, but they will satiate my appetite for an alternative choice as it is always smart to not put all eggs in one basket. Competition is always good and it is healthy because otherwise fanboyism sets in and that dulls critical thinking.
 
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Trends and business ethics aside, they're great cutting tools.
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Otherwise I use what everyone already mentioned; I plan on taking the Huntsman Fell Beast to the gangling berry bushes later today.
 
The delay in knives getting out has really curbed people's enthusiasm for them. That and the high price tag on them.

I still like Busse, ESEE, and I'm getting into Lionsteel; just got a T5 that is fantastic (had an M4 but it was kinda small for my hands).

All of which will deliver in less than 2 years sooooo....

I love Survive knives but the wait time is really hard to swallow. I still have preorders with them though so I'm trying to hold out. We will see how they line up next to the newest Busse and Lionsteel stuff.

As far as Bark River...hell naw. Those knives are so slippery, the treat is weird and the owner is a dick.
 
Casinostocks said:
I believe that those who vehemently denigrate Survive! Knives the business, let their hatred of the Company cloud their judgement regarding the Survive! Knives products. If S! can streamline their production operation whereby I feel confident that I can and will receive orders within 60-90 days from when orders placed, or even sooner which is much better, they will see renewed business interest from me. My recent harsher posture toward their business practices which has been atrocious at times, has nothing to do with the quality of their products which I had experienced from them in the past. If the quality remains high plus the aforementioned requirement for transparency, I will be back because IMHO $ for $, this Co has shown very high quality output. They will not replace my CPKs, but they will satiate my appetite for an alternative choice as it is always smart to not put all eggs in one basket. Competition is always good and it is healthy because otherwise fanboyism sets in and that dulls critical thinking.
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I like Survive! Knives, but I simply don't understand how they managed to screw up a wet dream as bad as they did. The knives themselves still have a decent reputation and people like them. When they once again become reasonably available more people may once again care.

Fanboyism with brands can be a little ridiculous. Back when Bark River had an active forum over on the now defunct knifeforums they were pretty bad. Unfortunately a lot of online forums seem to attract fanboys. I have seen it on forums for guns, knives, cars, and even optics.
 
I think that what has happened to Survive is a result of the owners being really committed to doing business on their own terms.
As a result they've sort of thrown out the rule book on how businesses "ought" to be run, which has annoyed just about everybody.
I think that eventually they'll arrive at a business model that makes sense for them and their customers, and I think (and hope) that they are currently working in that direction, but the last couple of years have been rough on them and rough on many of their customers. Since they have a good product at a very competitive price many folks have stuck with them so far. Fingers crossed! :)
 
Fancier said:
I think that what has happened to Survive is a result of the owners being really committed to doing business on their own terms.
As a result they've sort of thrown out the rule book on how businesses "ought" to be run, which has annoyed just about everybody.
I think that eventually they'll arrive at a business model that makes sense for them and their customers, and I think (and hope) that they are currently working in that direction, but the last couple of years have been rough on them and rough on many of their customers. Since they have a good product at a very competitive price many folks have stuck with them so far. Fingers crossed! :)
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Thrown out the rule book? Even without a rulebook some things just don't fly. They have a supply and demand bottleneck. If you make promises, can't deliver on those promises for an extended time, and have their money tied up in a preorder, what is the likely effect of the cause? This bottleneck would have worked to their advantage if they hadn't over promised what they could deliver.
Hopefully they will get caught up. I will probably get another S!K when they become reasonably available.
 
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I agree that the situation really isn't desirable, and I don't think that Survive arrived here on purpose.
I suspect that what we are dealing with has been an extended period of excessive optimism which has just recently ended.
I think that there has been an expectation by Survive for the past couple of years that the backlog will clear up in a few months if they just keep working harder.
Obviously that never happened, but the big development for the GSO line has been that they ceased taking orders.
That guarantees that eventually they'll fill all the outstanding orders.
I do wonder how much of the backlog they will get through before they start taking GSO orders again.
 
Fancier said:
I agree that the situation really isn't desirable, and I don't think that Survive arrived here on purpose.
I suspect that what we are dealing with has been an extended period of excessive optimism which has just recently ended.
I think that there has been an expectation by Survive for the past couple of years that the backlog will clear up in a few months if they just keep working harder.
Obviously that never happened, but the big development for the GSO line has been that they ceased taking orders.
That guarantees that eventually they'll fill all the outstanding orders.
I do wonder how much of the backlog they will get through before they start taking GSO orders again.
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I hope they get through ALL the backlog before they even think of taking new orders in.
 
I see that Fiddleback Forge has a few 3v or S35V blades that look very similar to the GSO 5.0 up for sale and also I found William Collins can hand make a 3V blade in 12 months with the Peter's Heat Treat and he also has other designs and can make your own design in 12 months so I am done with Survive now. I got a LT Wright 3V knife that works like a charm in the woods too. You get more for your money from LT Wright and the sheaths are great too. I see that Bark River has started with other steels like the 4V but I am not sure about the company. I returned one of their knifes because it was too dangerous to use as it was too heavy and handle was slippery. I wonder if the A2 steel is a good steel as I like the LT Wright Gen 6 and Larry knows what he is doing and helped with the design of this knife. As of right now I want a Master Woodsman and a Kephart by William Collins.
 
ndmiller said:
Love the Survives I have and use, can't buy any more at this point. Fiddleback production knives in s35vn are my goto's for hard use at this point.
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How is that Fiddleback S35VN knife? I want to order one while I still can. I think it will replace the GSO 5.1 in 20CV for me as after 1.5 years they have not even started that Knife. I don't want to wait another 2 years to get it.
 
Love my Fiddleback S35VN's, 2 Dukes, a Kephart and Runt as well. Great heat treat, sharp and stay sharp......My favorite hard users as the Fiddleback Customs are sometimes too pretty...I pick up users of them as well with the seal already broken.
 
I’ll tell you what , I’m not excited about Survive at the moment, they want all the money up front and take forever - never ending story for ever. Hard to be pumped on a blade that is an unknown amount of time out. Seems also that production updates like grenades they are with in 30 meters of the real time line.

Not trying to bash I have a 5.1 and think the price vs quality is remarkable. Designs and heat treat are great.

But I have 2 on order which are 600$ of my money that will probably take a year to receive. That’s not exciting. I really think they should go the way of Busse , make an order charge a dollar. I hope they kick it up a notch. I will say if the SK line is good and are actually avalible I will not wait for another GSO
 
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