| The Birth of the Zero Tolerance Series.
Where did these great blades come from? Just as
bread was invented by the unintentional introduction of yeast
into the dough. . . so was the Zero Tolerance line born from an
unplanned incident. These Ergo models were actually part of the
first group of Ergos that were made. At the same time that we
were getting ready to introduce the Ergo models, we were also
running a batch of Lean Mean Streets for a rather large team order.
While at the grinding facility where our Blanchard grinding was
being done, the directive on the Ergos was to do a simple clean
up of the flats and bring them to .250" (1/4 inch). The directive
on the Mean Streets was to grind them down to .187" (3/16ths
of an inch). Well, needless to say, when we went to pick up the
Mean Streets, we discovered that the company that was doing the
grinding was in the process of grinding the Ergos down to .187
(3/16ths). They claimed to have not received the second page of
the work order and were under the impression that ALL of the blades
were to be ground down to .187" . Our man stopped the grinding
and brought all of the blades back to the shop. Not only did they
screw up more than 1,200 Ergo blades but none of them were at
the same thickness! We were in an immediate scramble to fix the
problem and proceeded to finish out the remainder of the first
batch that had yet to be Blanchard ground. We boxed up the half-ground
blades and put them in our steel stock room where they have remained
out of sight and out of mind for the past year and a half.
I recently ran across them again and to be honest
with you, I had almost forgotten that they were in there. . .
.almost. In group discussions to decide the fate of these blades,
several of our team members suggested that we put out a limited
edition "lean" version of these very popular Ergo models.
We could then offer these Lean LE's at a premium price due to
their limited number and recoup some of our original loss. Jennifer,
who handles all of our marketing, suggested that with the opening
of our new website, and our record breaking sales, that it might
be nice to offer these knives as a customer appreciation piece.
She suggested that we grind them differently from the regular
models and offer them at greatly reduced prices with special pricing
for on-line ordering. Her idea sounded great and the Zero Tolerance
line was born. We sent the blades to a different Blanchard grinding
facility and had the thickness of all of the blades reduced to
.187 (3/16"). These models are only offered with tan handles
and do not come with a sheath. There is an optional sheath available,
which will be added to our website within the next couple of days.
There is a Zero Tolerance (tan handles, 2/3 grind
with swedge grind) Satin Jack model but it is at the regular SJ
thickness of approx. 1Ú4" and is priced at $347.00 There
will only be 100 of this model made.
None of the Zero Tolerance models are serial
numbered.
These knives are much lighter than the regular
models by approximately 30 - 35% (6 oz.)
They have a satin finish and zero edge geometry.
These knives should be priced much, much, higher than they are..
. . . and I am sure that they will quickly rise in value in the
years to come. We can NEVER afford to offer them at this price
again. There will only be 400 of each model (BM, SH, NO) made
and this offer will only be available until the end of July. Personally,
I would buy at least three sets. Use one set and put the other
two away for investment purposes.. . . Of course, that's just
me. . . . and I'm objective. . . . I am!
At the rate that they are selling, we don't expect
them to last for long.
Yours in nuclear deals o' da' day,
Jerry Busse |
