I am Andrew Clifford.
I have refrained from saying anything regarding this forum thread post simply due to not having the time as my attention was better spent elsewhere. The situations have all been resolved. I will take the time to address each claim.
FIRST OFF
.I am obviously on Bladeforums. Rez_dawg is my handle, as was it my screen name on eBay after changing it from Andrew Clifford Knives. Rez_dawg was my first maker moniker.
Jleebron and I have since worked out this difference. He was not aware of my wifes cancer situation at the time he originally posted this thread. Marty Gastons ignorant claims of my wifes cancer situation being a lie, which he did state many times (as many things he has said which made it back to me), are false (visit my website andrewcliffordknives.com, the proof is there!). Marty Gaston also claimed that our #Traceysfight knife raffle to help pay for medical costs was also fake, or a lie. Marty Gastons claims are completely FALSE
right on down to what he says about the quality of the knives I make PLEASE READ ON. By all means if you are going to chime in, read what these people have said then you would, should want to hear the other side of the story, right? . Marty Gastons intuition is much like his knowledge of knives, false, nonexistent, or delusional, at best.
My first communication with Marty Gaston was when he contacted me via my website wanting to trade his heavily modified Randall #18, among several other heavily modified knives, for one of my ACK Sly II STYLE survival knives. I was hesitant to make a trade with this person due to the stigma of people modifying another makers work. When I take trades the knives are not always kept or added to my personal collection. I sell, trade with local collectors, friends. Modified knives of well known custom makers are like the hot potato no other knifemaker wants to touch for fear of being accused of doing the modifying themselves. When you modify a makers custom work it is not YOUR name on that knife! It is the name of the original maker! Any changes that render it useless, changes to the geometry in any way that does not present the makers work as intended it looks bad for the maker NOT the person who modified it. It is something you do not do. Marty Gaston is known for doing this be it himself or by commissioning other makers via Bladeforums. If he were to keep the knives, take the blame for their performance after making ignorant changes, nonfunctional modifications there would not be an issue between myself & Marty. I would not have any issues beyond a shipping mixup, delay (partially due to having had to ship the knife to Canada I.e. -customs delay). The traded knives that I decide to sell typically go on eBay. I would not feel comfortable passing off any modified knives to buyers. EBay is a place for many to dump these types of knives. Its all about buyer discretion.
I outright TOLD Marty Gaston that my nephew currently had an early version of the ACK SLY II listed on eBay that he could communicate with him on it. As I was reluctant to make a trade as I sensed he may have been concerned about the fact that I was concerned. I even gave Marty the eBay screen name to find it. He thanked me and jumped on the opportunity. He bought from my nephew whom was using the eBay account owned by my wife and I so naturally it had my wifes information, our Paypal account info. Which is the reason Marty thinks that he was buying directly from me, well, he partially was! Whats the big surprise? Especially since I told him about the knife, gave him the exact eBay account. Why he is pretending it was his sneaky sleuth work that obtained all this information that was blatantly given to him outright is beyond me..?
The eBay account normal_folk is in fact an account owned by my wife and I which was opened by my wife who has purchased items via that account in the past. She does not shop on eBay much anymore. This account basically remained dormant until I allowed my nephew to sell from it. Like an ordinary customer, my nephews also buy knives from me. He has listed his own knives from his personal collection from this account. He was also given the okay to list knives for me that I owned. It was part of his job details. There is nothing secretive about this nor was it ever intended to hide anything from anyone in a negative sense. When I had my personal account Andrew Clifford Knives up and running, which I still have, I was overrun by eBay emails asking about buying, ordering knives directly. I was warned by eBay at one time about using eBay to make outside of eBay transactions which was not initiated by me. I was merely responding to an inquiry. I was also continuously contacted about repair, modification jobs (which I do not do any modification work on custom knives). When I had listed items on my personal eBay account I would be flooded with numerous emails which had nothing to do with my listings. I also had people simply wanting to shoot the shit. I referred them to my myspace page as a means of contact (this was prior to Facebook, instagrams emergence and before I had my own website). The move to change my eBay screen name was due to these reasons, not to hide from anyone for any negative reason. This is also the very reason that many makers who buy on eBay do not always have their screen name identifying who they are. It isnt to hide in the negative sense. I have had several celebrities buy from me on eBay under screen names that gave no clue as to whom they were. This was also their reasoning for having an eBay screen name that did not outright identify who they were. Jesse James bought some vintage car parts from me on eBay, I would have never known unless I didnt happen to be searching through my Paypal transaction history. When someone purchases from my current eBay account they will see my information identifying exactly who I am. If it is a knife purchased by a person that is well rounded in the knife community they may recognize my name, who I am. It happens almost every knife sale.
The reason I prefer to lead a more private life, as many other makers do, is due to this type of BS! Customers that tend to think every little mistake is intentional, those that do not understand what a backlog is, how it works. I have never had any issues with peoples attitudes that make contact, purchases through my website. I have only had problems with 4-5 big egos on eBay in the last 17 years. I have never had these types of issues until dealing with those infatuated with the Rambo First Blood, SLY II style knives & hollow handle knives in general. I have been doing this for over 25 years with the exception of the 6 years which making knives was not a priority due to my motorcycle accident in 2000. Two years prior to my motorcycle accident I did not make very many knives. A few here and there for myself, family, friends thats about it. From my motorcycle accident date, September 6, 2000 I did not make knives again until 4 years later in late 2004. Which brings me to another rumor that I have never felt the need to address but will mention it here just because I have been asked many times. Yes, I am physically handicapped. I have stated so many times on my old Facebook knives page, my like page and on my website. This is not new information. If you take a look at my work you will see that it in no way hinders my work or quality nor does it play any factor in me being behind. Just an FYI I am also a mechanic, I build motorcycles, restore, customize, fabricate and repair both motorcycles and vehicles. I am a welder, ex-general contractor apprentice. I am also working towards my gunsmithing license at the moment. I restore, rebuild, customize, dura coat firearms as well as make kydex holsters. Next year I will also be going back to school for political science, Native American Sovereign law. I am a FIRST American and 1/8 English/Scotts Irish. My wife is full blood Navajo (Dine) We are both enrolled members of our Federally recognized tribes. I only state this information here because reading through some of the replies to this thread I see a lot of intuition, assumptions and ignorance of/about exactly who I am.
I have had the pleasure of working with some of the best people I have ever met (Jleebron is one of them! He is a delightful soul and a very understanding man as well as a fellow OKLAHOMA SOONER FAN) I have worked with customers from all walks of life, from all over the world. I am proud to have had so many people want to own the knives and/or sheaths that I make. Completely awesome people for the most part. I cannot say Marty Gaston or Renegadeknives fit in that category, to put it nicely. Both individuals were seemingly delightful , nice via personal communication, but not so very delightful behind my back. I overcame the incidents, got the goods delivered to the each of them and this is what they have to say in return. I cant please everyone, and not everyone is willing to be pleased. But those appreciative of my efforts, work will always have a place on my list of contacts, those I will do future business with.
Many already know how ignorant Marty Gaston is when it comes to knives. Please refer to the Hollow Handle Knife Thread started by Sam Wilson in which Marty first popped up bashing a friend, well known knifemaker, a proven knifemaker, Vaughn Neely. As you all know Neely is the maker of the Lile Next Generation First Blood, First Blood Mission RAMBO knives. Marty commissions Josh at Razors Edge knives to do much of his knife altering. He had purchased a Neely SA9 (I believe it was the SA9) hollow handle knife and attempted to commission knifemaker Sam Wilson to modify (or repair after Gaston had severely damaged the knife due to his modifications) to my knowledge Sam Wilson refused to touch the Neely knife and referred him back to Neely. Marty blamed Neely. Even going as far as saying that Neely had no idea what he was doing in his knife making when the blade failed under his modifications So, how is it fair that Neely be blamed for Marty Gastons ignorance, failed modifications? Marty gave the SA9 a bevel fitting for a chefs knife! The same type of bevel/edge he had given the ACK SLYII so grossly modified that the edge curled over when he went out on one of his RAMBO missions to chop tree branches off frozen trees in his home area of Canada.
The ACK SLY II survival knife Marty purchased from my nephew via eBay he sent to Josh at Razors Edge Knives of South Carolina. I spoke to Josh myself over the phone during the first Baldeforum bashing by Gaston. Josh put a steep degree edge/bevel on the ACK SLY II. Josh stated that he was only doing what Marty Gaston told him to do, what he paid him to do, which was give this knife an edge more fitting for a kitchen knife. The very same type of edge Marty had given Vaughn Neelys SA9, which then it failed. You already know where I am going with this! ? When the ACK SLY IIs edge curled over after chopping he blamed me. He made a post here on Blade Forums which was ultimately closed for further comments by BF mods that got tired of the repetitiveness. I felt compelled to respond the way that I did because Marty Gaston was attempting to kill business. In that post it is evident that Marty not only holds a personal vendetta against me, for unknown reason, but he also likes to continuously run to every post stating what he has in his replies. What he always routinely fails to mention is his heavy altering, modifications he made to the knife I made that he bought from my nephew! He also fails to mention how he has already apologized TO ME, DIRECTLY, via email for bashing me over his failed heavy modifications he had made to this knife. The knife had a utility edge that was fitting for chopping, cutting. The knife blade was made from 440C and a razor like edge is not best for the type of work he claims he puts his knives through. He has been told this by several knifemakers on his previous posts in both the Hollow Handle Knife thread as well as the complaint thread he opened about my work. Marty lays out what he had done to this knife by his own words, admittance! The complaints of the sawback, it was an early version which functionality was meant for light duty use. His attempts to saw down a tree are not what the sawback was meant for. The shallowness of the hollow handle means that there is more tang in the handle which makes it stronger than just about any hollow handle knife out there. It would seem that Martys idea of functionality is so that he can replicate Sylvester Stalones characters uses for the First Blood Knife in the Rambo movie
.and buttoning frozen timber.
