I tend to trust personal experience over the parroted comments that certain folks with an agenda tend to add to these threads.
Big Mike
Sigh...it always comes to this when discussions about BR come up. If you don't like the message, just malign the messengers. OK, I will tell you what happened to ME, not hearsay that I am parroting.
I had a Mini-Canadian with a scrimshaw handle. The very first time I used it, to strip the bark off a small stick, the edge rolled horribly, it looked like crumpled aluminum foil. I promptly sent it back to BR for warranty service. It came back with a decent edge...but the scrimshaw was GONE. So, back it went. MS said that he would send it to the scrimshander to have it redone. I waited and waited. After a few months, I PMd MS to check on the progress...no response. I waited a few weeks, and PMd him again...no response. After the third time a few weeks later (and again no response) I posted a thread on another forum asking what I should do (without naming names or telling what brand). Some fans there quickly figured out what I was talking about and I became the subject of a lot of abuse from the fans for publicly airing dirty laundry. Well, what was I supposed to do when MS was not responding to communication?
After it became public knowledge, MS suddenly found the time to respond, in a childish and accusatory manner. He also accused me of abusing the knife, even though I had only used it to strip the bark off one single stick. Let's just say that the exchanges that I had through PMs after that with MS made it very clear that he is very unprofessional to someone who is not immediately satisfied and doesn't bow before him.
He then told me that he could no longer contact the scrimshander because of a falling out (imagine that). I contacted him directly, and he told me that MS had sent him the knife with no explanation, so he thought it represented a partial payment for work that he had done and for which MS had stiffed him. So he had been using it as his personal knife. When I told MS this, he just sent me a replacement with a burl handle.
It's too bad for experiences like this. I have had very good luck with my North Star, and my son has done well with his Bravo 1. But after this experience I'm not going to be knocking on BR's door any time soon. And I don't know if PMs on that forum have a time out feature after which they disappear, but those PMs that I exchanged with MS disappeared after not very long.
As you already know we have irreconcilable views on BRKT. Just believe me when I say it I have never come across any of the issues you have mentioned nor do I hear about them as often as you make it seem, therefore, based on my personal experience with the knives, I like BRKT and will continua to buy them regardless of your personal opinion/vendetta. Other members of this forum can decide for themselves whether or not to purchase the BRKT knife.
