Viewed the video with only the desire to see DR's efforts in regards to engraving/scratching his signature to the blade in question. I fast forwarded to the 'signature' section and what I saw wasn't what I expected...........by a loooooooooooooooong shot.
I was holding out on making judgement or having an opinion as to how DR responded to this thread and I felt that viewing his added signature after the initial return and several complaints/issues would give me a clearer picture as to how DR both receives and deals with criticism. In other words, as the OP pointed out........this companies customer service standards, if any.
I can't believe that any knifemaker would place his signature so distastefully on a custom blade as did DR. His 'penmanship' almost gets a pass as mine isn't always very legible, so it is quite possible that DR's is actually that bad. Nonetheless, when I sign important items such as documents, I take the extra time and effort to make my signature as 'nice' and legible as possible. An expensive, custom knife that carries the makers mark and reputation with it............who wouldn't finish a knife off as cleanly and nicely as possible........?
The answer, I think, is someone PO'd enough at another person that they feel disrespected them in one way or another and in the end, has caused them to be somehow inconveinenced. I'm leaning heavily towards this scenario and this type of reasoning/retaliation, but unless this last piece of the puzzle (and IMHO a very obvious one) can be posted in this thread, we are only left to assume the best or the worst.....dependent..
Soooooooooo.....any signed DR knives out there? I expect that there are a few. Obviously, if you own a DR signed knife, you might be inclined not to produce it here for your own reasons. But if you do own a signed DR knife and have no alliances or issues that prevent you from posting a clear pic of your particular DR signed knife, it would likely help to either quell some unfortunate and rather disturbing assumptions or conversely, help BF members to make more informed decisions and all around better choices when choosing a knifemaker to trust with your current 'dream' build and your hard earned greenbacks.
Pictures are worth a thousand words.........such would be the case here.....IMHO.
This request is not directed at only knife, signature bearing DR customers only. If the maker, DR, just happens to have a comparable, $1,000+, higher-end knife at his disposal with his signature attached, that would suffice as well as a fair comparison. It is reasonable, actually quite likely, that DR would have one (or perhaps several) currently in his possession or has, at a minimum, kept pictures of such higher-end, signatured knives, for either sentimental/personal reasons or for the totally expected purposes of advertisement. I don't know of any established knifemakers that doesn't keep such pictures.
It would seem a very positive and prudent move for DR to submit such a picture, or multiple pictures of his current or past signatured knives, so that he can definitively show that the OP's signatured knife wasn't completed any 'differently' than all others before him. DR should think of this as a great opportunity to simply show that his signature on the OP's knife was completed/finished in the exact same manner and fashion as all of his other previous signatured, high-end custom builds.
If I was interested in keeping and enhancing what customer base I could, while also having a great opportunity to show his fellow BF members and likely many others that there was no retaliatory or malicious intent involved in the application of his signature on the OP's knife, I can't imagine any reason whatsoever, except for one, why one wouldn't do so and as quickly as possible..
