BRKT: Fit & Finish?

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The fit and finish of Bark River knives has always been just as poor as the integrity of the owner.
 
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I buy knives to use, so I'm not that concerned with cosmetic issues.

I have bought 5 Bark rivers and whilst the F&F of the handles on all of them were first class, the edge on 3 of them were not what could reasonable be expected of a knife that is so often talked about as "cutting like a laser out of the box".

Two of these had non uniform edges (ie a protion of the edge very good, the rest of the edge definetly less than sharp).

The third, a trout and bird prototype, was that blunt I couldn't even cut myself with it. And believe me I tried.

I didn't contact Mike for warranty work, because I live on the otherside of the world, and the cost of the return shipping simply was not worth it. So I sharpened them myself. BTW, on each occasion I communicated with the Australian Agent to inform him of my suprise at the condition of the edge on each knife.

I haven't bought a Bark River knife for a fair while now because of my personal experience with the variability in the QC of their edges. Bear in mind as always YMMV.



Kind regards
Mick
 
Cpl Punishment said:
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.
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I guess i am with you on this one. I never really spent that much time looking at it for faults. I just judge by how it feels and cuts. I only have one a bravo one but would not think twice about getting another. It seems some people have custom knife standards for production knives.
 
I think that there is a thread already going for this kind of thing Joe Bob..this is wilderness and survival. Keep it in GB&U guys..lets not go to the dark side in my favorite forum. I know that I have not always been the perfect model for self control in the past..but I am trying to keep myself in check from now on, and something as volitile as what is going on in the GB&U can only divide some otherwise great friend here in our forum.
Some great guys are on both sides of a crappy situation, lets not start firing shots in here..it is bound to wound some great peoples heart, and then we could be losing important parts of our community. This is my take on it, and thats all I am gonna say on it. JMHO Gene
 
KenM K said:
I guess i am with you on this one. I never really spent that much time looking at it for faults. I just judge by how it feels and cuts. I only have one a bravo one but would not think twice about getting another. It seems some people have custom knife standards for production knives.
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I've never had a production knife with an poorly done edge like this. I expect to get what I paid for, and thats the bottom line.
 
I have TEN BRKT's. I have no problem with the fit, finish and sharpness of any of them. Some are not quite the design for me but that is not Mike's fault. The only problem I have found is with a Golok I just bought. The blade has a little bit of a curve to it as viewed down the spine. I don't know if that is the design or manufacturing. All I know is it is a fabulous chopper for me. :thumbup:

When I ordered my second Bravo from DLT Trading, they sent the one I wanted to Mike and he cut off the thumb ramp, no charge. That means to me they are service oriented company.
 
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Most of the Goloks have a bit of a curve due to heat treat..mine has one..it irks me a bit, but the thing is so fun to chop with that I ignore the curve. Gene
 
gunknifenut said:
Most of the Goloks have a bit of a curve due to heat treat..mine has one..it irks me a bit, but the thing is so fun to chop with that I ignore the curve. Gene
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How common is that in longer blades, do they all warp during heat treatment and need to be straightened? I got an Ranger that had to be sent back because it was noticeably bent, and I had to sift though a dozen Tramontina's to find one that was straight.
 
No product made by humans is always going to be perfect. It just ain't gonna happen. I have had three Barks, two of them were not sharp at all. The third was great. It was the Lil Nesssie. I see that I am not the only one that had been less than impressed with the sharpness or lack there of. It happens now and then. Overall from what I read here, the Bark Rivers are a good product.
 
sketchbag said:
How common is that in longer blades, do they all warp during heat treatment and need to be straightened? I got an Ranger that had to be sent back because it was noticeably bent, and I had to sift though a dozen Tramontina's to find one that was straight.
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Pretty common from what I have seen..I believe you can hold a knife flat during the process..I am not an expert. I had a Ranger that was WAY bent..still tough as nails. It is just something that bothers you or it doesnt. Sketch, email me again..I think I am missing one of your emails...Gene
 
joe-bob said:
The fit and finish of Bark River knives has always been just as poor as the integrity of the owner.
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i'm not sure if this is supposed to be a clever way of saying that fit and finish is great as mike stewart is always reported as being...of if joe-bob has a problem with them...

just wanted to put that in there in case of a case of misunderstanding with the lack of facial expressions.
 
I think Gene's response to joe-bob was right on the money. Opinions are all very well, but let's keep this in the spirit of Wilderness & Survival Skills, which is a group experience. We don't need to get into personalities when there's a Whine & Cheese forum doing that. :)
 
I've got 5 Barkies myself and ALL of them came with no F&F issues. Like I posted before, every maker will have F&F or QC issues from time to time. The majority of people that I have heard had issues all had them taken care of well by the folks at BRKT. Everyone makes mistakes from time to time, it's how you take care of those mistakes that counts. I've heard from most people that Mike always takes care of any issues.

Also, to you folks that are having issues with F&F, where are you buying your barkies? Are you buying them through reputable dealers (DLT, KSF) or are you buying them on Ebay or some other site that does not stock them? Where you buy ANYTHING makes a HUGE difference in the quality of material you receive.

I do agree that I would rather see this thread in GB&U. Mods?


EDIT::: PS - All of mine have been purchased in the last month.
 
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I first would like to say that i have been disappoined with some of bark rivers knives. at first i had very good luck with them and then it seamed that the QC started to drop in them. i have alot of barkies and i would say that 70 persent of them have had problems. i my self still like bark river knives but don,t really no if i would buy more of them. as for the service on them if i had to pay for all the shipping to send knives back to be fixed. i would rather pay to buy another one. i think that if the QC was there then they wouldn,t worry about paying the shipping to have there product fix and returned to the customer. we all have to remenber that the customer is allways right un tell proven that he isn,t.
as for me i,am worry about buying another one right now.
i didn,t write this to make anyone mad or to start a fight. i hope that QC get back to the way that it was.

still doin time
 
abiggs said:
I've got 5 Barkies myself and ALL of them came with no F&F issues. Like I posted before, every maker will have F&F or QC issues from time to time. The majority of people that I have heard had issues all had them taken care of well by the folks at BRKT. Everyone makes mistakes from time to time, it's how you take care of those mistakes that counts. I've heard from most people that Mike always takes care of any issues.

Also, to you folks that are having issues with F&F, where are you buying your barkies? Are you buying them through reputable dealers (DLT, KSF) or are you buying them on Ebay or some other site that does not stock them? Where you buy ANYTHING makes a HUGE difference in the quality of material you receive.

I do agree that I would rather see this thread in GB&U. Mods?
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You say where you buy makes a huge difference in the quality of materials, I'm not sure I understand what youre saying. Are you suggesting other dealers are selling manufacturer seconds?? Or do you mean the reputable dealers are inspecting their inventory for fit and finish and sending less than ideal ones back rather than sell them?

Everyone has QC issues, no doubt, but while some are determined that every customer gets a knife built up to their standard I suspect others weigh the cost of fixing every knife with a defect now vs what ever % will bother sending it back to get fixed. Personally I'm not a fan of the latter, even if you get reimbursed for shipping there's still a lot of hassle involved, and I dont think company should make a habit of burdening their customers like that. Dont get me wrong, I'm not claiming BRKT is doing that in this case and I certainly couldnt prove it, but that is the position I find myself in, and it appears I'm not alone.

As for whether this belongs in the GBU, I guess thats up to the mods, but this was an inquiry rather than a review and I wanted it somewhere that will be frequented by a lot of unbiased BRKT users.
 
sketchbag said:
You say where you buy makes a huge difference in the quality of materials, I'm not sure I understand what youre saying. Are you suggesting other dealers are selling manufacturer seconds?? Or do you mean the reputable dealers are inspecting their inventory for fit and finish and sending less than ideal ones back rather than sell them?
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Sorry I wasn't clear.

I did mean that the reputable dealers make sure that only quality products go out the door. Some clown on Ebay who bought a lot of knives from some other clown doesn't care about F&F, he cares about making a buck selling them and that's it.
 
According to Mike every knife that leaves there goes through QC. By that I can only assume that every knife that leaves there has passed QC.

I agree that F&F doesn't matter in the slightest for a user however, if you take no pride in your workmanship and "near enough is good enough" then I can't help but wonder what other short cuts and compromises are made in quality of material or heat treat? Hidden tangs would allow you to hide more than just the tang. Just a thought.
 
abiggs said:
Sorry I wasn't clear.

I did mean that the reputable dealers make sure that only quality products go out the door. Some clown on Ebay who bought a lot of knives from some other clown doesn't care about F&F, he cares about making a buck selling them and that's it.
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I disagree. The manufacturers reputation is whats at stake, it shouldnt matter where you buy their product from, they should know that every item that leaves their factory will find it's way into a customers hand (hopefully) and should take care of their problems right off the bat rather than making dealers or customers return sub par product. As for seconds, they should all be clearly marked as such.


apsilon said:
According to Mike every knife that leaves there goes through QC. By that I can only assume that every knife that leaves there has passed QC.

I agree that F&F doesn't matter in the slightest for a user however, if you take no pride in your workmanship and "near enough is good enough" then I can't help but wonder what other short cuts and compromises are made in quality of material or heat treat? Hidden tangs would allow you to hide more than just the tang. Just a thought.
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Fit and finish isnt limited to cosmetics. The finish on the edge is critical, handle scales that dont line up properly create hot spots on the hand, ect.
 
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