Will I ever buy a knife of another brand other than SURVIVE!?

Interesting post, I've bought a bunch of different knives over the years (other than my S! Knives) a Blackheart Gunner 10, Busse - Hellrazor, SFNO, SOB, SJ TAC CG, Tankbuster, SAR 6, BATAC LE, INFI Ratmandu, Battle Horse Woodsman pro (old stock Blind Horse blank), K-Bar USMC, Fallkniven F1 and S1, Viper Golia & Setter, Koster MUCK and a few others. The point is that I am going to sell most of these knives when I get my new batch of gen 2 GSOs. I just like the GSOs better. Don't get me wrong I really like all of my knives and all are top shelf excellent knives made by expert knife makers. But of all of the knives that I own I tend to reach for my GSOs first when I want to carve, whittle, cut, baton put in my car, my EDC bag, go camping, etc. Then I look at what would be comparable to the GSO I am using, I grab it and A/B (sometimes C/D/E) the two/three/four/five and I find that I just about always go back to my GSO. The only knives that are close enough to keep in the rotation are my INFI Ratmandu & my SJ TAC SG. Busse has the ergonomics over S!K but I think the new grips on the gen 2 GSOs will get S! caught up. Guy, Ellie and crew have a winning combination of materials and design.
 
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OBX, I love it. Very thoughtful input. Dang, you have nice taste in knives. I came into S! from the opposite and much cheaper side of the knife world so it is cool to hear your thoughts and experience.
 
OBX351 said:
Interesting post, I've bought a bunch of different knives over the years (other than my S! Knives) a Blackheart Gunner 10, Busse - Hellrazor, SFNO, SOB, SJ TAC CG, Tankbuster, SAR 6, BATAC LE, INFI Ratmandu, Battle Horse Woodsman pro (old stock Blind Horse blank), K-Bar USMC, Fallkniven F1 and S1, Viper Golia & Setter, Koster MUCK and a few others. The point is that I am going to sell most of these knives when I get my new batch of gen 2 GSOs. I just like the GSOs better. Don't get me wrong I really like all of my knives and all are top shelf excellent knives made by expert knife makers. But of all of the knives that I own I tend to reach for my GSOs first when I want to carve, whittle, cut, baton put in my car, my EDC bag, go camping, etc. Then I look at what would be comparable to the GSO I am using, I grab it and A/B (sometimes C/D/E) the two/three/four/five and I find that I just about always go back to my GSO. The only knives that are close enough to keep in the rotation are my INFI Ratmandu & my SJ TAC SG. Busse has the ergonomics over S!K but I think the new grips on the gen 2 GSOs will get S! caught up. Guy, Ellie and crew have a winning combination of materials and design.
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Well said OBX
 
While I will not buy another knife in the same format as S!K, I will buy other configurations from other companies, especially smaller companies. I just purchased 3 from Shadow Tech. While I do love 3V. I still enjoy the properties of 1095, CTS, D2, 01 ect. Everybody except douchbag makers get considered on their merits and ethics.
 
Silver Needle - Thank you! And actually I did too. I had several Buck knives and a benchmade folder before I had any of Guy's knives. I came across S! about 2+ years ago. It was hard to find S! Knives so I bought a Falkniven F1 and S1 because they were close to the 4.1 and 5. Then I found the Vipers and the woodsman pro. Shortly thereafter I found a 6, my first GSO, on ebay and I lucked out that Guy had a leftover 5 and then a few months later a 7/7. I was just hooked. Soon after I got several 4.1s, a 5.1 and a 10. I ended up getting the Koster, USMC and the Busses last year just to get some variety and to see how they felt and performed. Initially I fell in love with the Busse knives because of the look, the steel and the choils. I was really excited to try them out based on how tough they are supposed to be. They make great choppers and diggers but unfortunately I find that the longer Busses are heavy and too tall for any fine use. I also hate their blade profile, they don't cut and carve very well out of the box - I had to get ALL of them resharpened AND I had to get sheaths for them. But I got to say they are also some of the coolest looking knives on the market - especially the SFNO! I also tried out the Blackheart Gunner because of the grips/choil and the blade profile. It's a good knife and Rich's A2 is very tough, almost as tough as 3v. It's easy to maintain and batons like a fiend. It has the BEST ergos of any knife I've ever used but the blade is a little too tall for me for fine work (there's a theme here). The Fallknives and woodsman pro are great knives but they can't keep up with my 3v S!s, they dull much faster and the Fallknives take forever to strop out micro folds. I think the Fallknives are better at light to med duty. Heavy duty work will create a LOT of resharpening afterward. The woodsman pro is 01 and it comes back pretty fast but it just dulls faster than the S!Ks and I prefer it to my Fallknives. The Vipers are great knives but Golia D2 gets micro folds with heavy use and it's hard to get them out. It's a great looking and very tough knife with great ergos but I am really anal about keeping the blade as perfect as I can and again I have to work pretty hard to get this knife back to factory. The MUCK is a very interesting knife and very well made knife. It's light, made of 3v, has great scales and ergos, has a good length and it's a great looking knife that cuts, carves and batons well. I don't like the swedge, I wish it was a tad heavier and of course I wish the blade was a little less tall. The sheath is very disappointing it works but is cheap. The MUCK can do some fine work without fatigue because of the weight of the knife and great ergos but I grab my 7/7 before I grab the MUCK. Which brings me back to the S!Ks. I love the blade profiles, I love the design, I love how tough 3v is, I love the different blade lengths, I love the weight, I love the blade height (for fine work! - my 7/7 can do 85% of what my 4.1 can do & no other long bladed knife that I own can do this!) and even though the Busse and the Blackheart have better egros the S!K grips are good enough that I can work with them for long periods of time without hot spots or hand fatigue. They are pretty easy to maintain and on the occasion I do get micro folds I find that they don't take that much longer to bring back then the above mentioned knives. I also love that I can remove the S!K scales, clean them up and or change them out very easily. Additionally they come with fantastically useful kydex sheaths that are well made and of high quality. Finally they are reasonably priced.
 
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Great input OBX...I esp. like your reference to the Viper Golia - I love mine, and my Viper Carnera even more, great Italian knives....Anyhow, like Silver, I too started with relatively inexpensive blades, mostly folders for me...then moved to mid-level stuff and more fixed, and now I exclusively collect higher end fixed blades, and I consider SK to be higher end. Also like you, I have other brands, many other brands, and I'm more than happy with them and will continue to purchase knives outside of the SK line, even though SK has become my favorite knife brand.

Variety is the spice of life - Albert Einstein said that of course, and if it's good enough for the brilliant mind that gave us the light bulb and wrote most of the United States' Declaration of Independence, you better damn well believe it's good enough for me.

My point is, and I do have one, is that yes, I will continue to buy from other knife makers even though I share the popular opinion that SK "figured it out" so to speak. I enjoy comparing and contrasting my other blades to SKs, and to each other. It's like I tell my 6yo step son..."while I'll always love your four siblings in a more profound way than I could ever feel for you, you're still my son and I love you....quite a little bit". Oh, and speaking of other cool knives that differ from SK blades, have you guys yet heard of/seen a knife called the Ambush Alpha?...affiliated with a fine small Mom&Pop called River Tree, or Dog Lake...., no, it's Bark River. What a weird name, but ya, it turns out there's a knife from their "affiliated" company Ambush, called Alpha. They have a couple models, but Alpha in particular is a clear & refreshing example of a small, pull yourself up by your bootstraps type of company that just wants to share an original, never before seen product with the World. Yes sir, if you love your SKs, but you're looking for something completely original and different, I humbly suggest this one.
 
VanDammet said:
Variety is the spice of life - Albert Einstein said that of course, and if it's good enough for the brilliant mind that gave us the light bulb and wrote most of the United States' Declaration of Independence, you better damn well believe it's good enough for me.
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Hahahahaha! Yes!

That bit about the Alpha........ blasphemy!!! :p


OBX, right on man! I enjoyed reading your thoughts on all those great blades. What experience and perspective you have. Just awesome.

I think you really understood my original point and that is: there are so many great knives and companies out there but for me personally, S! keeps getting all my money!
 
VanDammet said:
Great input OBX...I esp. like your reference to the Viper Golia - I love mine, and my Viper Carnera even more, great Italian knives....Anyhow, like Silver, I too started with relatively inexpensive blades, mostly folders for me...then moved to mid-level stuff and more fixed, and now I exclusively collect higher end fixed blades, and I consider SK to be higher end. Also like you, I have other brands, many other brands, and I'm more than happy with them and will continue to purchase knives outside of the SK line, even though SK has become my favorite knife brand.

Variety is the spice of life - Albert Einstein said that of course, and if it's good enough for the brilliant mind that gave us the light bulb and wrote most of the United States' Declaration of Independence, you better damn well believe it's good enough for me.

My point is, and I do have one, is that yes, I will continue to buy from other knife makers even though I share the popular opinion that SK "figured it out" so to speak. I enjoy comparing and contrasting my other blades to SKs, and to each other. It's like I tell my 6yo step son..."while I'll always love your four siblings in a more profound way than I could ever feel for you, you're still my son and I love you....quite a little bit". Oh, and speaking of other cool knives that differ from SK blades, have you guys yet heard of/seen a knife called the Ambush Alpha?...affiliated with a fine small Mom&Pop called River Tree, or Dog Lake...., no, it's Bark River. What a weird name, but ya, it turns out there's a knife from their "affiliated" company Ambush, called Alpha. They have a couple models, but Alpha in particular is a clear & refreshing example of a small, pull yourself up by your bootstraps type of company that just wants to share an original, never before seen product with the World. Yes sir, if you love your SKs, but you're looking for something completely original and different, I humbly suggest this one.
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The Ambush fixed blades knives are currently made by Bark River, we have never tried to hide that fact. That brand is owned by DLT Trading and we are affiliated to BRK only in the fact that we are one of their biggest distributors. Just to set that record straight.

To say the Alpha and Brute didn't borrow some of the great aspects of Survive knives would also be untrue. We tip our hat to Guy, he has a great knife but the market has enough room for both and we should all welcome competition.
 
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