Alternative to Bark River knives?

AntDog said:
Amen, hallelujah. It might not look as refined as a Bark River, but you won't be able to break it on wood. Probably not even petrified wood.

If you do, Jerry Busse will be happy to replace it. He said himself that they've NEVER once denied a warranty claim.
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That's not true anymore. There was one recently that was not warrantied.
 
Quiet said:
What was the situation?
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I can't remember the model but he let someone use it who tried to refinish it and must have messed up the heat treat.

But to me that should have still been covered because it was UNINTENTIONAL damage.
 
jeepin said:
I can't remember the model but he let someone use it who tried to refinish it and must have messed up the heat treat.

But to me that should have still been covered because it was UNINTENTIONAL damage.
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that is really interesting. do you have a link, or can you recall where the story was posted?


Not trying to derail the OP's thread. I have read many threads over the years about BRK blades suffering edge failures, followed by BRK denying warranty coverage, and even attacking the customer. They have so many great looking designs that have tempted me, but the horror stories keep me away.

Having said that, I did get a BRK Golok many years ago, and chopped some really hard maple with it (you could hear a funny pinging sound with each chop), and it help up just fine, even though the edge geometry was not at all fat. So, kudos for that.
 
resinguy said:
that is really interesting. do you have a link, or can you recall where the story was posted?


Not trying to derail the OP's thread. I have read many threads over the years about BRK blades suffering edge failures, followed by BRK denying warranty coverage, and even attacking the customer. They have so many great looking designs that have tempted me, but the horror stories keep me away.

Having said that, I did get a BRK Golok many years ago, and chopped some really hard maple with it (you could hear a funny pinging sound with each chop), and it help up just fine, even though the edge geometry was not at all fat. So, kudos for that.
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It's in busse's page here. I don't have a link but you could probably find it pretty easy.
 
resinguy said:
that is really interesting. do you have a link, or can you recall where the story was posted?


Not trying to derail the OP's thread. I have read many threads over the years about BRK blades suffering edge failures, followed by BRK denying warranty coverage, and even attacking the customer. They have so many great looking designs that have tempted me, but the horror stories keep me away.

Having said that, I did get a BRK Golok many years ago, and chopped some really hard maple with it (you could hear a funny pinging sound with each chop), and it help up just fine, even though the edge geometry was not at all fat. So, kudos for that.
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For me the alternative to BRK are Fällkniven knives and I hold the NL-series in very high esteem!
That said I bought most of my FK's before the steep rise of their prices.

I have a BRK Golok since 2008 and it's my best chopper!
However it had a nasty chip early on and I sent it in under warranty, including pic's of how it happened.
Mike Stewart said I was a "hardhitter" like one of his friends, who did the same to Mike's own Golok.
He also said that the edge was ground too thin and reprofiled it into a thicker geometry.
This made the profile much slimmer and this looks funny for a Golok.

The weight was also reduced, but the new geometry and lower weight made miracles to the efficiency of the knife!
It works a lot better after the regrind and I can chop for hours without fatigue in the arm or hand.

I learned a lot by studying the new geometry and by comparing it to my Fällkniven and Solingen knives.
I now know better what edgegeometry I prefer and how to replicate that geometry.
Today I do all regrind work myself and don't need to use the warranty for failed edges.

Lesson learned: BRK sometimes make the edges too thin or perhaps overheated, but it's is fixable.
Irritating but fixable.
I have other BRK's with thicker edgegeometry already out of the box and those have performed flawlessly!
The edge failures didn't stop me from buying more from BRK, simply because I enjoy their knives very much.


Regards
Mikael
 
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Unfortunately there aren't that many good knife companies that have such a wide variety of blade styles and steels. There also aren't many companies doing convex edges . With that said fallkniven would be the closest thing available for you
 
I just want to say if you have some misgivings about Bark River call Mike Stewart at his shop during bussiness hours and talk to him.I did maybe 2 years ago and had a pretty long conversation, he answered all my questions about his knives.
 
I'm going to say look at LT Wright but look around at a bunch of dealers they have some dealer specific knives. I have a bravo 1 LT that has shown the same thing after working on fat wood. I thought it was just me
 
OilMan said:
There have been some close calls with the Busse warranty though.. And Bark River seems to have the same/better warranty although I've never used it. Did the OP address it with Bark River? And did they NOT stand behind it?
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Close calls? Like they almost didn't honor the warranty when someone shot the knife?
http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/s...-New-BLADE-Magazing-Ad-Busse-Warranty-Content

Or they almost didn't honor the warranty when someone chopped through a chain?
http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/s...ipped-my-Triple-Cut-Sterile-Steel-Heart-today

Say what you want about Busse, but you definitely can't call their warranty into question.
 
Sorry for the thread derail, but it looks like jeepin has to respond. Jerry Busse has disputed your claim. It seems to me that you can either:

1. Stand up, and say 'I'm sorry, I must have misremembered' (you could say that you were drinking at the time, that is the all-purpose excuse for the rest of us)

or

2. Find the thread that supports your claim.

Thank you.
 
Mikael W said:
For me the alternative to BRK are Fällkniven knives and I hold the NL-series in very high esteem!
That said I bought most of my FK's before the steep rise of their prices.

I have a BRK Golok since 2008 and it's my best chopper!
However it had a nasty chip early on and I sent it in under warranty, including pic's of how it happened.
Mike Stewart said I was a "hardhitter" like one of his friends, who did the same to Mike's own Golok.
He also said that the edge was ground too thin and reprofiled it into a thicker geometry.
This made the profile much slimmer and this looks funny for a Golok.

The weight was also reduced, but the new geometry and lower weight made miracles to the efficiency of the knife!
It works a lot better after the regrind and I can chop for hours without fatigue in the arm or hand.

I learned a lot by studying the new geometry and by comparing it to my Fällkniven and Solingen knives.
I now know better what edgegeometry I prefer and how to replicate that geometry.
Today I do all regrind work myself and don't need to use the warranty for failed edges.

Lesson learned: BRK sometimes make the edges too thin or perhaps overheated, but it's is fixable.
Irritating but fixable.
I have other BRK's with thicker edgegeometry already out of the box and those have performed flawlessly!
The edge failures didn't stop me from buying more from BRK, simply because I enjoy their knives very much.


Regards
Mikael
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It's great that things worked out for you. OTOH, there have been many threads by people who didn't have such a good resolution from BRK.

But I am curious ... Mike said that your edge was ground too thin? So, he sells a knife made for chopping, in North America, where there are a lot of hard wood species. And when a customer has a problem, he says that the edge was too thin?? why did it leave the shop too thin? what did he expect people to do with a chopper?

While I can certainly see how your reground, lighter blade would cause less fatigue, it is not clear how a thicker geometry could be more efficient. Geometry cuts. Thinner profiles cut deeper and clear more wood, no?

Can you please share your prefered geometry, and what kind of wood that you typically chop? I regrind my too thick Bussekin edges down to a more effective geometry.

Or, one could simply get a Carothers blade, that simply works as is, according to many reviews.
 
Just for the record.......the OP has vanished. His last post was in this thread. We're recommending knives to the invisible man! I'm still wondering which blade he bought.
Joe
 
palonej said:
Just for the record.......the OP has vanished. His last post was in this thread. We're recommending knives to the invisible man! I'm still wondering which blade he bought.
Joe
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Surely there are lots of other interested readers. I like the looks of BRK knives and after extensive looking haven't found good alternatives. Falknife is a foreign brand, their steels seem cheaper to what BRK uses, and their handles are not as nice. I look at custom makers but most of what I find is too blunt. I have a lot of custom knives I bought in the past and most of them have edges that are too thick. The BRK models seem to be the best combination of features and price.

I'm still looking though.
 
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