A letter to Andy:

Joined
Jun 11, 2008
Messages
1,409
Guys, I just sent this email to Andy but decided to quote the whole thing and post it here.






Hey Andy,
My name Is Kevin (Md25v on bladeforums). I know that there are a lot of satisfied customers on your forum that really use their knives but I think something I went through is kinda unique. I had wanted your knives for years and a few months ago I was able to buy three at once, a Snubnose, Small Nessmuk, and a Lady Finger. The Lady Finger quickly became my favorite "bushcraft" knife and I use it more than any I own.
Anyway, I happened to have the Snub on me today when something happened. I volunteer for an animal sanctuary and recieved a call from a woman that lived in an old house that used to be part of a farm property. She said there was some kind of animal in her wall. Thats not really uncommon but since she wasn't far I decided to go over and see what it was. Turns out that her cat, which was pregnant and missing for a couple days, was stuck in the wall and had had kittens. I figured this would be an easy fix since she said that cutting a hole in the wall wouldn't be a problem. This woman didn't have so much as a screw driver and although I hated to do it I cut the hole 12in square hole with my Snubnose. The wall was the old style thick plaster, not modern drywall. I inspected the edge and it seemed fine at that point. I was relieved and went about the removal of the cat and kittens. I pulled up the cat and two of the kittens while a third fell through a broken part of the subwall and into a ragged HVAC pipe that was not sealed and looked to be unused as I couldn't find anything it connected to. I was wrong! The heat turned on and the new born kitten was hit with very hot air. This would have quickly proven fatal. I ran down to the lower floor and without thinking shoved the knife through the HVAC, even though I knew I was destroying the knife it was just instinctual to act on it quickly. I used a can opener motion on the HVAC and got just enough opened to peel it down and reach up in to get the kitten.
The kitten is fine. There was a few scary minutes but everything worked out in the end. The woman who called me had a 12 year old daughter who was there. The cat was a family pet and they had decided to let the girl keep one of the kittens. It would have been a very sad story if this had turned out differently while the girl was there watching. She decided to name the kitten Lucky and that was the one she is keeping.


Now, on to why I am emailing you:
I did terrible things to my knife. I knew the consequences when I was doing it and couldn't even look at the knife when I was done. I just put it back in the sheath and went home. I am looking at the knife now.

The blade is scratched up like crazy but.....

THE DEEPEST CHIP MEASURES ONLY ABOUT 3MM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I don't know what to say. Andy, your steel and heat treat is amazing. I am truly moved by the fact that I grossly and terribly abused this knife, thinking I would have to buy another for a replacement or at least pay you for a regrind. I am about to go up to my 1x30 and fix the damage. It is so minor that I will have the whole edge shaving in about ten minutes.
Andy, your knives are truly amazing.
 
Cool story!

Note to any cats who might be reading, I ain't shoving my Snubnose through ductwork to save your sorry rear, so stick close to MD 25V if you are gonna get stuck!
 
Update:
I have all the chips ground out and the knife sharpened. It shaves again and you can hardly tell that anything was done. The scratches are prtyyu deep but I'm gonna start polishing them out.

Andy, the maker's mark is pretty good but if it is damaged while I am sanding out the scratches I'll send it to you to get the mark put back on. I want EVERYONE to know who made this knife!
 
Awesome story. But I dont think your should get rid of the scratches. If anyone sees the knife and sees those scratches and asks you can say that saved a kitten. You also will always get reminded of what you did. Its like a little piece of history. Why throw that away in the name of aesthetics? Just my 2 cents

-Mark
 
Yeah, definately leave the cat scratches.

OK, I kinda like the sound of that. I have about a third of the scratches out. None that are left are deep enough to be a rust concern. I'll just leave it like this. I'm stropping the knife right now. It is wiping the hair right off my hand with no pressure at all. I'll leave it like this, sharp but with a little reminder.
 
Excellent story! Stuff like this makes me wish Andy would quit playing with those machetes that no one likes and start my knife (joking). Seriously though, even though I don't have mine yet, its obvious that Mr. Roy and his knives are first class all the way.

I'm with chainring on the cats though.

Brandon
 
I'm with chainring on the cats though.

Brandon

It was really about the little girl, not the kitten. When it fell down the Ductwork the kid's look just about broke my heart. You could see she was fighting back tears. In the end the knife ended up alright, which is the real reason for the story.
 
Lol, its an awsome story! I was just giving ya down the road.:D

I hear ya on the girl, if my daughter (or anyone elses) gave the "save the kitty, please Daddy" look. I'd have ruined damn near any tool I own to get the thing out.:thumbup:

Later,

Brandon
 
FYI - I am not a cat person, and saving cats voids the warranty on Fiddleback knives.:eek::eek::eek::eek:




Just kidding. Jeez. Please don't go sicking peeta on me. Thats pretty cool to know. Ductproof. And still ground thin also!!! To hell with grinding thick ass edges! Use knives that cut!

Great to hear from you Kevin. Glad the knife is serving well. 01 is the most underrated steel on the market.
 
No one who read this will underrate O1 again. :)
Or underrate Kevin, either. That was really stepping up when it mattered.
 
FYI - I am not a cat person, and saving cats voids the warranty on Fiddleback knives.:eek::eek::eek::eek:

Just kidding. Jeez. Please don't go sicking peeta on me. Thats pretty cool to know. Ductproof. And still ground thin also!!! To hell with grinding thick ass edges! Use knives that cut!

Great to hear from you Kevin. Glad the knife is serving well. 01 is the most underrated steel on the market.


You're not kidding Andy. I was absolutely amazed at the lack of damage. You do grind thin edges, like a real knife should be:thumbup:. To have your thin edges stand up to that kind of gross abuse just blows me away. For the record, I'm a dog person myself. But, I do have a soft spot for kids.

P.S. I have two more Fiddlebacks since those three I bought from you directly. I can HIGHLY recommend Derrick at KnivesShipFree for Fiddlebacks if you need a "quick fix":D
 
Awesome story MD, I read this to my cat as a cautionary tale of wall spaces and heating ducts....I hope she heads the warning;)

I am glad to hear your knife did so well and walked away with only a few dings. Goes to show what kind of quality Fiddleback puts out:thumbup:
 
I took a few pics. Don't know why it didn't dawn on my to take some of the original damage but I just didn't think about it. I wasn't in "internet mode" at that point.

Here are the scratches after a little sanding. I'm gonna leave these on the knife as they are not deep enough to be a rust concern.

Snubnoseposthvac009.jpg



After grinding out the damage and sharpening on a 1x30 up to 9 micron, I hit the edge on a buffer and this is what it looks like at 120x through a microscope. The lighting is off but the edge is very smooth.

Snubnoseposthvac014.jpg



This is the edge next to a window after I finished stropping. The two dark spots are the edge reflecting the window divider bars. The last few mm of the actual edge is mirror polished.

Snubnoseposthvac019.jpg
 
Looks fine. I wouldn't take the scratches off if it was mine. They tell a story.
 
Yep, the scratches will stay. They don't show up much in the last pic but you can see them well when I use the flash or hold it a certain way. They do no harm and will serve as a reminder of just how bad-ass this knife is.
 
Dude, you gotta post pics of the whole Snubnose, they are so scarce and so fly! :) I love the scratches - got character!

Here's mine:

DSC06074.jpg
 
Dude, you gotta post pics of the whole Snubnose, they are so scarce and so fly! :) I love the scratches - got character!

NICE snub you got there. Whats the handle material?
I love the little-big-knife feel of mine. You can tell these things are meant to do serious work. The third pic is the sheath. Its the dark tooled leather in the middle. I think the sheath really compliments the knife.

camping014.jpg

camping008.jpg

camping001.jpg
 
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