BRKT: Fit & Finish?

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Out of 5 Barkies, here is a pic of the only imperfection I've seen. 2 very small spaces between the tang and right slab. I'm sure Mike would have replaced the handle if I wanted. Just wasn't a big deal. My latest, a pommel version of their Manitou looks like a custom knife.
 
Well after reading the thread in GBU I don't believe I will ever spend any money on a Bark River. I can't support a compnay with business practices like that.
 
I own 9 of these knives and the quality is certainly variable. 2 Nebulas are very different from each other having different thickness of scales and general finish/appearance AND cutting power. Colonial Patch had scales that shrank back within months,Mikro Slither had holes and pitting on the supposedly upscale wood scales-this was returned and after a good wait it came back with entirely different scales and half of the notches on the top of the blade ground off.No explanation.No response to my enquiries.Blackwater Bootknife,lost a pin very quickly but given the previous experience I decided not to bother returning it. The Classic Lite Hunters (2) are very well made knives with few imperfections,so is the Woodland(but I don't care for its thick short blade,but it's a good knife) The Northstar is a good knife but the finish on the tang is rough and the pins are a bit proud,the mini Northstar is well finished but not that sharp. The sheathes on BRKT are pretty awful and impractical in my view. At first you like the knives but after a while the thick blades and not that ergonomic handles in often very slippery material begin to jar. Perhaps this is one reason they are often sold on quickly in the For Sale section:D
 
I have 7 and have no complaints with any of mine. In fact, after I used the first one I found I liked the convex edge so much that's what lead to my other purchases. Some of them were sharper than others but they were all acceptably sharp. I have tested them and was very impressed by their performance. There are what could be considered irregularites which some people make consider an unacceptable defect. That edge isn't one of them though.

I have a bocote bravo 1 and really like it. My favorite is the canadian special though. I really like that shape of blade, it's very versitile.

The handles are hard and slick but when I actually used them I found that to be a non issue.
 
B Hess said:
Well after reading the thread in GBU I don't believe I will ever spend any money on a Bark River. I can't support a compnay with business practices like that.
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Reading that I can understand how you would say that. However my personal experience with Bark River has been the exact opposite of that example. Mike Stewart has always been easy to get a hold of and very nice. So while I might feel the same way had I only read that or had some bad experience, I have to go with my own personal experience over stuff I've read, and my personal experience has been overwhelmingly good.

Not saying that that dude is lying or that any people on here complaining are full of it. I just go by how someone is personally to me and how the knives perform cutting stuff.
 
B Hess said:
I think I'll look into a Charles May instead.
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I like his blades. I had to send both of the ones I bought back for rework. One came back great. The other is on the way back. Edges were great. Fit perfect. Finish good.

Comparing his blades to Bark River he uses thinner steel so they are great slicers. His scandi grinds are great. He doesn't do convex grinds though and his handle slabs are real thin unless you really impress it on him you want thick ones. He won't contour the handles like Bark River either. He pretty much does flat scales although he takes the corners off them. One of mine went back to him for thicker scales and the other went for thicker scales and better wood. The curley maple had almost no figure so I sent him some new scales to use that had good figure in them.
 
Brian Jones said:
Weird - all of my Barkies have been custom-knife-level fit and finish. I must be one of the lucky ones!
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yeah me too. I have had well over 50 Bark Rivers cross my hands, and currently have 43 in my possession after a couple trades or sales, and I have had 1 or 2 out of all of them that are HAND FINISHED, not machine finished, that did not meet my expectations...one was fairly dull, which is an odd thing, and one had cracked Amboynia burl handles from improper drying from the supplier. Every single Bark River that I own has an imperfection of some kind or another and Mike plainly comes out and says they do not strive to make cosmetic perfection, but USER perfection. In that, the company is a success. I also have to look at how many people own one out there and the VERY small percentage of those that are not satisfied. Any business has to deal with this. You want perfection done by hand, go spend $5000 on a Bob Loveless.
 
I guess I judge fit and finish by different standards than some.
I really don't care if the scales are exactly the same width, or if the bevels ont he scales are exactly the same from one side to the other.

However, I do consider things like "Can I feel the transition from scale to tang to scale?" "I the grind of the blade symmetrical?" "Are there any cracks in the scales, or worse, the blade?"
Judging by those criteria, the Aurora I bought is perfect. Even dragging my fingernail, I literally cannot feel the transition from scale to tang. There are no cracks and the edge was symmetrical and razor sharp.

Even with my distaste over recent events, I won't fault the knives, BRKT makes some damn fine blades.
 
I bought an Aurora and Canadian Camp and both were not as I expected right out of the box. The Aurora didn't shave and it took a while to fix it with the usual mousepad/sandpaper. The Canadian Camp was somewhat sharper but the antique ivory scales had a cut in the front (right where they met the blade I mean). Seemed like a notch from a saw or something.

I live in Spain and this things are just cosmetic issues so sending them back was not an option. They were bought to be users as well so I don't care much about them.
Mikel
 
TwinBlade said:
yeah me too. I have had well over 50 Bark Rivers cross my hands, and currently have 43 in my possession after a couple trades or sales, and I have had 1 or 2 out of all of them that are HAND FINISHED, not machine finished, that did not meet my expectations...one was fairly dull, which is an odd thing, and one had cracked Amboynia burl handles from improper drying from the supplier. Every single Bark River that I own has an imperfection of some kind or another and Mike plainly comes out and says they do not strive to make cosmetic perfection, but USER perfection. In that, the company is a success. I also have to look at how many people own one out there and the VERY small percentage of those that are not satisfied. Any business has to deal with this. You want perfection done by hand, go spend $5000 on a Bob Loveless.
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All good points, agree 100%

Andy
 
I have 2 BRKT knives and both are great quality. The only problem is that one came with a less than sharp blade. It doesn't concern me much since I think most factory knives come with a less then ideal edge.
 
orrey45 said:
I have 2 BRKT knives and both are great quality. The only problem is that one came with a less than sharp blade. It doesn't concern me much since I think most factory knives come with a less then ideal edge.
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I don't know. All of my Spyderco's have come from the factory with a scary-sharp edge. Maybe I've just got lucky, but most other people I've heard say the same thing.
 
My Spydies have all been very sharp, some amazingly so, but out of over a dozen Barkies owned or handled, I haven't found on that was any kind of dull. Not that I would shave with them. (I don't shave anyway !!!)

I have used Bark Rivers as kitchen knives for a long time now. OK, the micro Slither and the Forester are funny sizes for that ... but the others slice very, very well.

Perfection? High end customs. Working knives? That's Bark River's focus. Sheaths? agghhh ... what can I say? Like Busse, great knives but buy your own sheaths. :D :D :D
 
Well I've never owned a Bark River and never will but I do know that the fit and finish on the customs I had made by makers in this forum has been excellent. They were all cheaper than a Bark river.
 
Its a lucky dip bag of F&F with BRKT, I have seen some shockers, why some people defend this is beyond me. I work hard for my money and the dissapointment then the f**king around contacting people and sending it in and yada yada yada makes it a PITA. I just buy Fallkniven and am done with it.
 
They say to send it in and they'll compensate me for the shipping.

I've got to say though, in the back of my mind I'm a little concerned that my less than supportive opinions in the GBU thread might result in some kind of petty retaliation. In light of all everything I wouldnt entirely put it past them if they went back on their word and decided to charge me for the repairs and return shipping for spite, and there wouldnt be a whole lot I could do besides cough up the money to get my knife back.
 
sketchbag said:
They say to send it in and they'll compensate me for the shipping.

I've got to say though, in the back of my mind I'm a little concerned that my less than supportive opinions in the GBU thread might result in some kind of petty retaliation. In light of all everything I wouldnt entirely put it past them if they went back on their word and decided to charge me for the repairs and return shipping for spite, and there wouldnt be a whole lot I could do besides cough up the money to get my knife back.
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Sketch- I sent my first 2 barkies back after doing an intensive post with pics of them and complaints about the flaws on KF. Mike Stewart said send them back. I sent them. It DID take a while for them to get back to me and I resurrected the thread several times complaining about the time lag. However when they came back they were perfect and Mike Stewart has always been totally nice in all my dealings with him since, so based on my experience I'd say go for it.
 
IMO yes knives will often have little imperfections but that should be the extent of it. If I produced a knife, user or not, with the fit and finish like I posted in those pics, I'd be embarrassed to even give it away let alone sell it at full price.

I've handled hundreds of knives over the past 30 years I've been collecting and I've never, even in $10 Chinese rubbish, seen fit and finish this bad. Maybe the odd uneven grind (by a mm or two) or a scratch/rub mark but that should be it.

Add to that the edge problems I've seen on several knives and my recommendation is to look elsewhere for user or collection pieces.
 
Thats good to hear HD, I'm going to go ahead and send it in as soon as the other Mikro I ordered shows up.



I hear that apsilon, I've always been bugged by how some can dismiss and excuse poor fit/finish, especially when it comes to the edge. You hear them all, from "it would cost more", which is a piss poor excuse considering Mora can afford to sell knives with mirror finished flats and razor sharp edges for $10, to "it's a working edge" wtf is a "working edge", it's just an obscure way of saying it doesnt cut well.
 
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