Bad knife availability news from our friend Stephen at SK Blades.

[caquino]

Personally, I'm in disbelief that a company would be unable to take orders for product over the loss of just ONE person. Does not make sense, the situation as described is unbelievable.

Not too surprising to me. Not uncommon for a company to become entirely dependent on an experienced long time employee, and not prepare themselves for an eventual departure, by training or gleaning a talented employee from within as a replacement.

After their last Custom Shop gunsmith retired, Smith & Wesson was left in the same situation as Buck. The S&W custom shop lives on in name, but it is a far cry from it's former self as they had no one to step in and fill the vacant shoes.

I was a Senior Mainframe Computer support technician before I retired, and my retirement date was extended by a couple of years beyond what I had intended it to be.

I kept getting "Golden Handcuff" retention bonus offers to stay another year, because of my knowledge and experience, and give them the time to find a suitable replacement from within or outside the company.

That "just another year" turned into 5, I finally had to put my foot down and say no more (which was difficult because it was after all, not a trivial amount).

But in all of those extra years, when they knew it was borrowed time, they didn't position themselves for my eventual retirement, and seemingly thought that they could keep on offering me a significant retention bonus instead and keep me hooked.

So for me, the fix that Buck has gotten themselves into, is understandable for a specialized skilled position.

I too hope that Steve will hang in there with his company, and will just hit pause instead of stop.

 

[sportingspecialist]

I have six of SK knives.

I had seven but I gave a 112 w/D2 steel to one of my sons.

I hope they're able to resume their deal with Buck.