Bark River knives?

Wow. Just wow, some serious logic there. Lol
 
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KingMC said:
When I purchase a knife I make sure beforehand the company I'm buying it from is worth supporting, if more people did the same we wouldn't have to constantly talk about the crap certain companies keep pulling.
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May I ask you few rethorical questions why this only applies to knives? How in-depth of research do you make? It is solely based on who yells lowder on few forums?
What about other purchases you make?

It does not take much to realize that the longer you are in business and the bigger you get the more likely controversy will arise.

Are there any info on how the people the work for BRKT are treated? Are thier compensation and benefit package decent? Are they treated like people or just "replaceable cogs". Do they work 60hr/week with no overtime?
 
I have read about and seen pictures of Bark River knives for years but have never handled one because nobody in my area sells them but a few weeks back I walked into a survival shop and they are selling a few so I asked to look at one, man it was nice, very nice. I cant afford Bark River stuff but if I could I would be buying them.

I don't know Mike Stewart but I do remember seeing his post on a different knife forum and I will say right now that the man is an encyclopedia of knife knowledge and he knows how to make a knife. On his post I noticed he was a very nice guy who wants to teach you but since people have different opinions we often do not want to hear his wisdom.

If I was to buy a Bark River knife I would just look at the categories that he makes them for and chose the one that fits what you will be using it for most and then narrow it down from there.
 
Gradyw said:
Do you do that with every thing you buy? Where do you purchase your gas and oil? Also if bark river was a shitty company like people say this wouldn't even be a topic.. there would be no question and they would not have as many supporters as they do.
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Yes, as a consumer I do my best to purchase goods from companies I would like to support, I wish more folks did he same.

Why is it always gas/oil that gets brought up as a counter-argument?

"I try to buy from companies that so want to support."
"Oh yeah!? Where do you buy your gas from?"

It always happens, the oil monopolies that exist make it impossible to buy gas from a company that isn't linked to prior issues, nobody in the entire world can escape that and to treat it as a counter-argument validating your poor purchasing habits in other parts of your life is misguided and childish.
 
Ruso said:
May I ask you few rethorical questions why this only applies to knives? How in-depth of research do you make? It is solely based on who yells lowder on few forums?
What about other purchases you make?

It does not take much to realize that the longer you are in business and the bigger you get the more likely controversy will arise.

Are there any info on how the people the work for BRKT are treated? Are thier compensation and benefit package decent? Are they treated like people or just "replaceable cogs". Do they work 60hr/week with no overtime?
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Knives are something I have the ability to control where my money goes. I may not control that my money when I buy gas goes to some dirt bag, but that doesn't mean I throw in the towel and support every scum.

It's a hobby, and many of us like to know where our money goes in our small corner of the universe.

I've ran into enough crappy people in my life that if I have an option, I won't monetarily support a crappy guy/gal.
 
Ruso said:
May I ask you few rethorical questions why this only applies to knives? How in-depth of research do you make? It is solely based on who yells lowder on few forums?
What about other purchases you make?

It does not take much to realize that the longer you are in business and the bigger you get the more likely controversy will arise.

Are there any info on how the people the work for BRKT are treated? Are thier compensation and benefit package decent? Are they treated like people or just "replaceable cogs". Do they work 60hr/week with no overtime?
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When you hang out on Bladeforums for a long time and just pay attentions to threads and posting trends you always see companies that stand out and poor examples of how to run a business. Bark River, Survive!, Koster, they all made a name for themselves in a poor way throughout many different customer encounters and ongoing issues, it doesn't take a lot of research to find said issues.
 
My question here is does knowing all this stuff about Mike Stewart and Bark River make us better knife enthusiast or does it just dirty up the water and cause divide.

Mike makes beautiful knives and that is what we are here for, knives not business practices so lets concentrate on the knives.

This is bladeforums.com not business practices.com
 
Just another opinion here, take it FWIW:

The thread title states, "Bark Rivers Knives" so it is par for the course that it has brought about the kind of activism and passionate opinion whether as a fan or not at all a fan. Personally, I had owned a couple of BRKTs which I have let go because again of personal choice and preferences rather than the politics of it all. IMHO, convex edges are one of the easiest ones when a Co is producing a mass number of units and again if I wanted a convex edge, I would most likely go with Fallkniven being a Japanese / Swedish hybrid as opposed to BRKT, although if all were equal I would side with the U.S. based Co.

Regarding being a puritan and holier-than-thou so much so that we must scrutinize everything and anything lest gawd forbid we buy something from a conglomerate mega Corp which exercises "shady" practices. Speaking purely for myself, when it comes to a lot of things which I consume, I rather not purchase from an entity which (mal)practices child labor. Having said that, I am no SJW activist and fully well know that even some Cos with impeccable products do exploit labor force in the more unregulated labor markets. But when it comes to my tools, certain factors matter to me which I am more strict with than some other items. Why? Because there is always that pesky little reason that my life may depend on that certain tool. While BRKT products will most likely not fail me and acceptable within this organizing principle, IMHO there are better options out there some for more $ and some even less $. It's a personal choice.
 
Ruso said:
Is there any info on how the people the work for BRKT are treated? Are thier compensation and benefit package decent? Are they treated like people or just "replaceable cogs". Do they work 60hr/week with no overtime?
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Does it matter how well the employees are treated when their business activities are fraudulent? Are you justifying abhorrent business practices simply because the employees like their jobs? I judge a business based on all public knowledge, but certain practices pull more weight than others; good employment practices pull their own weight but they shouldn't be used as an excuse to ignore every other business practice they have.
 
JamesofArc said:
My question here is does knowing all this stuff about Mike Stewart and Bark River make us better knife enthusiast or does it just dirty up the water and cause divide.

Mike makes beautiful knives and that is what we are here for, knives not business practices so lets concentrate on the knives.

This is bladeforums.com not business practices.com
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Beautiful knives that say CPM-20cv on the blades but are actually A2? Is that worth ignoring because they look good?
 
KingMC said:
Beautiful knives that say CPM-20cv on the blades but are actually A2? Is that worth ignoring because they look good?
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I've also heard about that but how do we even know it's true unless you were the one who made the purchase? And if it is true there are many different possibilities that could've led to the fuck up. If someone had that problem they should call bark river and get a new knife or at least see how they deal with it before everyone starts talking shit and assuming things
 
KingMC said:
Beautiful knives that say CPM-20cv on the blades but are actually A2? Is that worth ignoring because they look good?
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The only way you can tell the difference between steels (unless your a metallurgist) is to do a spark test by grinding them.

So somebody took their $200 knife and did a spark test. They had a piece of CPM 20cv and held it against a grinding wheel to see the spark pattern and they took a piece of A2 and held it against a grinding wheel to see the spark pattern and then they ground on their $200 knife to see which spark pattern it matched. How many people have a block of CPM 20cv and A2 laying around to do spark pattern test?

Also if this happened it sounds like the production line messed up and not the management.

I am new to this story, please enlighten me, I would love to learn.

Lets try and find the truth here and not just spread rumors.
 
Gradyw said:
I've also heard about that but how do we even know it's true unless you were the one who made the purchase? And if it is true there are many different possibilities that could've led to the fuck up. If someone had that problem they should call bark river and get a new knife or at least see how they deal with it before everyone starts talking shit and assuming things
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JamesofArc said:
The only way you can tell the difference between steels (unless your a metallurgist) is to do a spark test by grinding them.

So somebody took their $200 knife and did a spark test. They had a piece of CPM 20cv and held it against a grinding wheel to see the spark pattern and they took a piece of A2 and held it against a grinding wheel to see the spark pattern and then they ground on their $200 knife to see which spark pattern it matched. How many people have a block of CPM 20cv and A2 laying around to do spark pattern test?

Also if this happened it sounds like the production line messed up and not the management.

I am new to this story, please enlighten me, I would love to learn.

Lets try and find the truth here and not just spread rumors.
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Not rumors, 20cv doesn't patina like A2 does, so spark tests aren't necessary to determine that a super stainless steel isn't stainless and has the same kind of reaction to acidic materials as one of the other steels that the same company sells that is not fully stainless.

http://www.bladeforums.com/threads/normal-20cv-behavior.1461700/

http://www.bladeforums.com/threads/bark-river-again.1463481/

Wanna do some reading? I already have, Derrick at KSF posted in the second thread saying he was confident it wasn't 20cv and was contacting BRKT about it personally.

Wanna know what BRKT did about it? Denied there was a problem and said that patina on a super stainless steel was normal when cutting fruit. Does that strike you as a company you can trust?

I provided links for you, if you care to read a bit that's up to you, but I'm not just making stuff up.
 
shinyedges said:
Oh, I see. Lots of bad out there so who cares if the guy who I support screws people over. Makes perfect sense!

Opinions will differ, don't like differing views? Boy, you're in for a doosey.
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I guess you still aren't buying BP gasoline yet? ;)
So far I have been pleased with the few Bark River made knives I own. I get a bit overwhelmed with all the choices frankly. I love their handles. I was almost ready to buy their modernized Kephart with the guard, but honestly I wanted something with a slightly longer blade. Whether Bark River politics (honestly Mike Stewart politics sort of like Strider but different) made it never really entered my mind in terms of decision making. I eventually get what I want and it likely will be custom made for me unless I find one of the makers who happens to build what I want as one of their normal offerings.

Stewart hasn't done anything to hurt me or make me feel negatively toward him personally.
 
JamesofArc said:
The only way you can tell the difference between steels (unless your a metallurgist) is to do a spark test by grinding them.

So somebody took their $200 knife and did a spark test. They had a piece of CPM 20cv and held it against a grinding wheel to see the spark pattern and they took a piece of A2 and held it against a grinding wheel to see the spark pattern and then they ground on their $200 knife to see which spark pattern it matched. How many people have a block of CPM 20cv and A2 laying around to do spark pattern test?

Also if this happened it sounds like the production line messed up and not the management.

I am new to this story, please enlighten me, I would love to learn.

Lets try and find the truth here and not just spread rumors.
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This machine works fine to tell what steel it is? https://fotki.yandex.ru/next/users/cut77ler/album/547239/view/1444919?page=0
 
Gee,
some folks on here sure have lots of spare time to engage in all this useless drama.
I own several BRKT knives and have no issues with them whatsoever. I do not give two s#@ts what kind of person Mike is or the beef he might have with some of the folks on this forum
The bottom line is BRKT makes good knives if they look appealing to OP I would not hesitate to obtain one.
 
KingMC said:
Not rumors, 20cv doesn't patina like A2 does, so spark tests aren't necessary to determine that a super stainless steel isn't stainless and has the same kind of reaction to acidic materials as one of the other steels that the same company sells that is not fully stainless.

http://www.bladeforums.com/threads/normal-20cv-behavior.1461700/

http://www.bladeforums.com/threads/bark-river-again.1463481/

Wanna do some reading? I already have, Derrick at KSF posted in the second thread saying he was confident it wasn't 20cv and was contacting BRKT about it personally.

Wanna know what BRKT did about it? Denied there was a problem and said that patina on a super stainless steel was normal when cutting fruit. Does that strike you as a company you can trust?

I provided links for you, if you care to read a bit that's up to you, but I'm not just making stuff up.
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There are charts that show what kind of steel throws what kind of spark. Can you please guide me to a patina chart so I can compare it to the pictures in that thread.
 
JamesofArc said:
There are charts that show what kind of steel throws what kind of spark. Can you please guide me to a patina chart so I can compare it to the pictures in that thread.
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Ah, I see you've decided to play the technical fool, I will take no part in your ignorant shenanigans.
 
Matt, there is a good chance he has zero experience with 20cv,204p,m390 and thus has not the tiniest clue about the stain resistance of them. Cutting fruit causing staining on any of them? Yea right.

KingMC said:
Ah, I see you've decided to play the technical fool, I will take no part in your ignorant shenanigans.
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