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TR:
I completely agree with your assessment of the warranty and what it is worth when you are in the field.
The product design parameters differ between Chris Reeve and Gerber by about 180 degrees. Chris is trying to make the best he can for his targeted consumer with the tools at his disposal. He then prices things to account for this with very good results.
Oftentimes, my design briefs will amount to this: it needs to do x,y and Z, it should make "X" gross margin and it should retail for $29.99. With this information, we try to make the best knife/tool/gear we can under the given constraints. In many cases, the end result (product) was not intended for serious users such as yourself but rather for a certain "casual" user who does not need to rely on the product in life/death situations. Our business was built on providing affordable price-point and consumer targeted items at a given quality level. And of course the quality level always comes down to the value proposition: what do you need and how much will you pay for it?
For our knife category, I try to focus more on the value proposition. For example, if marketing wants a $35 clip knife for the mass consumer I try to make the item the best you can get for $35.
IMO, many knife manufacturers let the marketing hype bury that information. What you end up with are unmet expectations and upset customers, ie:, a product is marketed as the best/toughest/strongest but in reality it was never designed to be that way in the first place.
As for your last question, I assume one chance is all most people will give when there are plenty of alternative options.
JF
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