Though I absolutely LOVE the Rask and the creators' craftsmanship, I absolutely DETEST the maker's choice loto system. Just a shame, with such a great product and high demand, I see how this is in place. Great video, Doctor!
The Norseman bubble is popping, so many for sale on the grimsmo owner group on Facebook. People getting upset that they can’t sell a Norseman for 1.5k anymore. Healthy market correction and it needed to happen. An interesting note about the dragon scale pattern on the rask, that is the pattern John used on the PM2 scales he made many years back when he first started his CNC work in his garage
Nate Henneman I’ve never made a penny on any knife I’ve ever sold on the secondary market (and I’ve sold a lot). I did trade a lefty Norseman and it was the worst trade I ever made. I’m glad people can’t sell their Norseman for $1500 . To me that’s just gouging people charging sometimes over double for a product. I know the secondary dictates it, but maybe in the future people can resist paying these outrageous prices and find something else to buy. I don’t mind someone making profit but I think we can do more to control the secondary as consumers. Also from what I’ve witnessed a lot of the Norseman’s that I saw on the secondary were beat to shit and they still wanted well over $1000 for them. No one seemed to complain, but I sell a brand new $550 knife for $300 and people complain that the factory edge is not as sharp as they’d like. This is a knife that’s never been used or carried. Anyway, I think the knife community in general is out of wack in a lot of ways.
Appreciate the information! The Grimsmo bubble should pop. There are so many amazing knives at $1000 now. These were artificially placed there and the market will continue to drop on them.
Here we are In Jan 2020 and the Grimsmo bubble has yet to pop as you say here!! They have about 6 Norseman for sale on their website and no Rask at all. Their prices are $925 for the Norseman and $925 for the Rask with standard features( No Damascus or Timascus or special anodizing)!!!!! So I guess you better enter their lottery and start saving your money!!!!
Truly exceptional content and analysis, per usual. Grimsmo knives really do blur the lines between custom and midtech, as if those lines needed any more blurring to begin with. I’ve owned 6 Norsemen, and the quality control is on par with the best production companies around (Reate, WE, CRK, etc). This gives the buyer some peace of mind. Just like u know what ur getting at any Starbucks in the country, when you get a Norseman, you know exactly what ur getting. They have upped their drop prices, but not unreasonably so. It is good that they improved their presentation and packaging as much as they did. It is very similar to CRK, with the Nano oil and cloth. Add in the case and I’d say the current Grimsmo knives offer the second best presentation on the market, just ahead of CRK and just below Sergey Rogovets. With a standard secondary price hovering around 200 dollars above drop price, the once enormous gap has been closed significantly, making the Norseman far more accessible. The Rask seems infinitely harder to find. And ever since seeing this video, i have become infinitely more invested in finding one ! Great review, Doc. (Ol’ Sluggy)
I love this one, hope to get it someday. Probably time to off my Norseman while there's still demand. I've been on the makers choice "lotto" for ages. Always find it odd the same people keep flipping brand new ones on BF, are they really _that_ lucky? 🤔
Beautiful knife. Best polish on a blade that I have ever seen. Buying Italian knives now for the most part but may have to have one of these. $$$ though. Thanks for the excellent video.
As nice as it is, the rask is not something that I will chase after like a Norseman. It's too generic of a design, at too high a price. Couple that with maker's who don't really respond to customers, and it's just not something I'm willing to pay for. Now, if these were maybe 200-300 hundred bucks less and more widely available, I'd pick one up, but in my eyes it's not earned the hype. At least the Norseman was a completely unique design which somewhat justified the price.
I find this to be the realization of the Grimsmo philosophy. I agree with you on all of your points. I will say its a nice knife, but the industry has come so far since these were released. Time for a new model plz.
Overpaid for my Rask but I would do it again. Love it. Not sure how random that list is they have. Seems like the same people get picked multiple times. Oh well I got my Norseman and Rask and I’m fulfilled.
People are mad but they have families to feed and support. Give me one person who would sell the knives at $500 even though someone would buy it at $950. Imagine you are selling your house. The real estate agent says you can get $950,000 for your house. “Nah I think I’ll just sell it for $550,000 because I want to make it more accessible to everyone.”
Joseph A one of the major appealing qualities about the Grimsmo knives were their accessible cost in the custom knife world. I'm not saying the bros shouldn't raise their prices, but it was a massive shift in this philosophy. It needs to be mentioned in a quality review. To ignore it would be a failure on my part.
So because they can get more money from their customers you are saying they should? Look the Grimsmo brothers make good knives, there is no doubt about it. And they have came a long way in their cnc career, but they are in a consumer field that has competition. Some custom knife makers are offering custom knives for $950 or in that price range. Any Chinese company with the ability to cnc can make a knife with high tolerances and sell it for cheaper in the knife market. Reate, WE, just to name a few. Having the ability to CNC your product usually allows you to produce it faster and at cheaper costs.
Matt L Their knives might be over priced but people obviously don’t care because they still buy them. I think that anyone would do the same thing the brothers did with pricing. As long as people are willing to pay $950, that’s what the brothers should charge
So glad to see the Norseman market bubble has popped, regularly going for $700 to $850. Lord I wish the Rask bubble would pop, these things are going for like $1,800+ regularly, God only knows how much that gorgeous dragon scale pattern would go for.
And some reviewers work in industries/jobs with non-knife people who might not be very supportive or understanding. They hear knife and the think ‘weapons’ I flicked open my Military in front of my brother in law and saw that reaction lol.
Always preferred it over the Norseman (looks like a pain in the ass to sharpen and is unique, but I agree, kinda funny looking). Too bad both are incredibly hard to find and pretty damn expensive (last Rask I even saw was $1200). Also, I'm not crazy about the bounce that occurs from the fall shut action. Either way, if it was an option I'd rather have the Rask, no question. The Norseman is definitely unique (and has a cooler name), but the Rask looks far more practical.
Nice knife. As far as price is concerned, they can charge whatever the market will bear. I’d feel kind of dumb if my products sold for 4X more on the secondary market, unless I was a dead artist. Shirogorov charges $900 plus for his knives, so is this knife just as good? Thanks for sharing!
i'm not gonna lie i think that rask is perfect in every way it's everything you need in the perfect package it really is and i want one..BUT, i don't think it's worth more than $750 -$800 at the most...and it's selling 1,100 and up....no way i would ever pay that .....but great video ...and i see you adding one to you're collection
I think the Rask in that layout was more likely requested by the owner, only assuming this because my Rask is a later number and was fully my custom design.
Hey! I’m the original and current owner of the Rask. I bought it in August of Last year straight from the Grimsmos themselves. It was indeed a maker’s choice.
You should get a Holt Specter Doc. You could compare it to some of your other half high end knives (Koenig, Shiros, Nadeau). And th Specter is only 500 ish lol.
Doctor Frunkey 3:40 into this video. And you are such a nerd, but I am right there with you. Delrin is an awesome material. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-R6kq2vG7H8E.html
It seems that the longer that you are on the waiting list then the more that you start to hate the knife! Whether it be the shape of the blade or the price! If you watched their videos then you will see that John even says that he designed the knife for himself and his own liking and thought that he would make it available for others to purchase and was even surprised that so many others liked it as much as he did and were willing to pay high prices for it!!! So he kept on making it and selling it!!! Can’t blame him one bit now can you!!!! To bad you haven’t won the lottery so far!!!!!
i agree 100% it's a sweet knife i had the norseman and i ended up selling it..and i don't see me buying the rask i cant see paying what they are asking
You can't really fault the Grimsmo's for charging what the market will bear. Lots of people with disposable income will continue to buy a Grimsmo based partly on scarcity - "worth" and "value" are relative terms.
I'm not blaming them so much as I'm making people aware that it is a thing. This wasn't really justified in the same way as the Spyderco price hike. But I totally understand, if people will pay it, why not? I think it unintentionally popped the bubble.
Yeah, but I was disappointed when my name came up on the Makers choice list in December and they wanted close to $1000 for a Norseman. I could do $600 and sell some blades, but $1000 I simply couldn't do.
Great looking knife, I think the most practical and aesthetically pleasing model from the Grimsmo family. To be honest though, how Grimsmo approaches the market and bringing their knives to the customers also their communication with customers with that "random list", is a little disheartening. I don't understand why they lock out the community from these beautiful knives! Just my two cents.
