A beneifit of owning a custom knife:

W. Anderson

W. Anderson

Joined
Jun 22, 2016
Messages
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. Last summer I commissioned a knife from Dylan Farnham (Sageblades, look him up, he's not an authorized maker on the forums.)

From the start, the process was enthralling. Constant communication. I send sketches, he sends them back, and so forth, until a design is realized.

When I get word that my knife has shipped, its like Christmas morn x10.

Seriously.



So I've been using this thing pretty hard. Mostly scraping corroded contacts. drunkenly stabbing trees, and cleaning roadkill.

I had to put out some auto glass with it last month, leaving the edge and tip pretty beaten up.

Now, I'm usually good about maintaining my nice stuff, but sometimes things get dickered up beyond your expertise.

I told Dylan (the maker) of this. He had me send it to him for repair, free of charge.

I'll be getting it back tomorrow. He dissassembeled the kydex sheath, cleaned it out, replaced all the rivets and reformed it to hold it as securely as new. The edge was reprofiled for better slicing capability.

I know that Spydercos, and Benchmades, and Cold Steels are quality blades, but damn, what a warranty from Dylan.

Not only do you get an exceptional product by going custom, but you also, dare I say, make a friend who cares about his work and what it does for you.

Just a rant. Thanks for looking.
 
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W. Anderson said:
. Last summer I commissioned a knife from Dylan Farnham (Sageblades, look him up, he's not an authorized maker on the forums.)

From the start, the process was enthralling. Constant communication. I send sketches, he sends them back, and so forth, until a design is realized.

When I get word that my knife has shipped, its like Christmas morn x10.

Seriously.



So I've been using this thing pretty hard. Mostly scraping corroded contacts and cleaning roadkill.

I had to put out some auto glass with it last month, leaving the edge and tip pretty beaten up.

Now, I'm usually good about maintaining my nice things, but sometimes things get dickered up beyond your expertise.

I told Dylan (the maker) of this. He had me send it to him for repair, free of charge.

I'll be getting it back tomorrow. He dissassembeled the kydex sheath, cleaned it out, replaced all the rivets and reformed it to hold it as securely as new. The edge was reprofiled for better slicing capability.

I know that Spydercos, and Benchmades, and Cold Steels are quality blades, but damn, what a warranty from Dylan.

Not only do you get an exceptional product by going custom, but you also, dare I say, make a friend who cares about his work and what it does for you.

Just a rant. Thanks for looking.
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That is really cool
 
I'll get some pics up tomorrow. It is really a masterwork of design and function. Whoever finds this in a thousand years is going to be confused....and lucky.
 
I conduct myself the same way. A custom should be just that. Custom. The buyer should be included in every aspect of the design.
 
I've had it happend more than once that a customer turned into a friend. I do almost anything for my friends.....and my customers.

Awesome that you've had such a great experience.
 
Agreed! Some of my HVAC customers have been with me for over 20 years. Definitely call some of them friends!
Joe

LX_Emergency said:
I've had it happend more than once that a customer turned into a friend. I do almost anything for my friends.....and my customers.

Awesome that you've had such a great experience.
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Great to hear of another maker treating his customer as a valued customer even after the purchase. I have attempted to make ever attempt to make a customer happy. Even on the knives that I took to Blade last weekend that were the model of my folder, I changed things on each one that made them custom and different from others. Had a customer a couple of years ago take about a folder and grease the bearing and got it on the lock. Then complained that the lock was slipping which was coated with a molly grease and was slick. Got it back and cleaned it up and tested it and returned it without charge and discussed with him what to do and not to do and he has purchased two other knives. Was amazed when he said that he was impressed that I didn't treat him as a child and idiot as other custom makers had in the past when asking questions. Heck I am by no means an expert and learn from customers about what works for them in their uses.
 
A maker can have a lot of knives on the street as their career matures. Most makers would rather make new knives than do free repair/refinish. Time is money and postage and insurance cost money. A maker can be a friend, but we shouldn't take advantage of friends. As a collector, I don't mind paying for service on a knife. I always offer to pay. In my experience with 4 customs needing repair, half charge and half do not.
 
The custom makers I have dealt with, have always treated me very well!! In fact, many have become good friends.
 
That has NOT worked for me. I got a relatively new PT knife-maker who was making good stuff. He said I could send him the sketch, parameters, steel choices and such. He make me THREE custom knives over the period of a year or so. Everything was to MY OWN SPEC, and it was all done with great craftsmanship and care. I sold each of those within a month of receiving them.
I have found that I do a LOT better with Production folders, although I'm very picky.
Generally, I bounce back to one of my CRK's, which shows good sense, I believe.
 
I've had a similar experience over the past year with a seller on Etsy.

This guy Dan runs a shop in tandem with his wife Amy, "Hermetic Mountain". They sell all sorts of divination goods and incense, sage smudgesticks, etc. Last August, I had searched for "sgian dubh" (Scottish sock knives, for the layman), and found a bare-bones blade he had for sale. I asked a few questions, snatched it up almost immediately:
il_570xN.1026579583_fiv8.jpg


In September, I was in the market for a second dubh, with an actual handle, so I reached out to him, and he showed me a knife he had been working on that he was planning to list publicly. Similar steel (52100, acid washed, scandi ground), but instead of a full tang, it had a solid white oak handle. He was planning to list for $110, but said if I was interested, he'd reserve it for me for $85 with free shipping. It arrives, and I find he had also include a hand carved wooden pendant with the othala viking rune burned into it. I knew this was going to be my go-to guy for custom knife work forevermore:

il_570xN.1040177838_4wdy.jpg


Fast-forward to January, I had an idea in mind for another sgian dubh, but I had some sketches I'd drawn out. By this point, his wife and I were friends on Facebook, and we kept in touch regularly, so I messaged her and asked if he'd be okay with commissioning a custom order of my own design. She immediately gave me his number and said to text him, so I did. I sent the sketches, and he kinda backed off at first, because he had never done a dagger-style blade before. He took it as a challenge, and within 3 weeks, after a multitude of correspondence, including daily progress pics, etc, I had my "magnum opus" sgian dubh:

il_570xN.1171010221_ht0g.jpg


With the above knife, he sent a "Christmas care package" of some really potent incense and a quick deploy hammock, and a few other personal items. Since then, we've kept in touch regularly, and I've even extended invitations to have him stay with me at Grandfather Mountain, etc etc.

It's always good to find a friend in the search for a beautiful blade :D
 
palonej said:
Was just going to request some pics brother!!
Great post!
Joe
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Agreed! I want to see this mythical blade for myself, haha. It's really refreshing to see a post that is hyping up the maker rather than beating them down. Don't get me wrong, cheats and scumbags deserve every last bit of bad press, but I love seeing posts about how awesome the blade smith and his wares are.

Great post, man. I enjoyed it. Can't wait to see it!
 
Sonnydaze said:
He said I could send him the sketch, parameters, steel choices and such. He make me THREE custom knives over the period of a year or so. Everything was to MY OWN SPEC, and it was all done with great craftsmanship and care. I sold each of those within a month of receiving them.
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Why?
 
Charlie Mike said:
In my 7 years, I've only had 3 sent back for spa treatment. Its my policy to go above and beyond. Regrind, re-etch, sharpen, and new kydex.

Keep Coming Back
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You're a good man, Charlie Mike. I'm gonna order something from you one of these days. Doing any double grinds?
 
I do the same kind of stuff in my business Matt. It never hurts to throw a good customer a freebie every so often.
I love the reaction I get!! It seems a good customer will never forget stuff like that!!
One of my customers is the morning talk show host on the radio........great customer, him and his fam are fantastic people!!
I was installing an outdoor AC unit for him and there was a power outage when I was charging the unit with freon. The power came back on at 11:00 PM. I went back and finished the job.
He NEVER forgot that and has given me countless shout outs on the radio!!
Do the right thing and people remember!!
Joe

Charlie Mike said:
In my 7 years, I've only had 3 sent back for spa treatment. Its my policy to go above and beyond. Regrind, re-etch, sharpen, and new kydex.

Keep Coming Back
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