CRKT Sting

[Jack Black]

So actually CALL the company and request some customer service. That seems to me a lot easier than getting so worked up about the fact that the knife was not properly sharp. It's not as if the Sting is even tremendously expensive.

I don't think I'm getting 'worked up' Phil. This seems like a fairly legitimate topic for a discussion on a knife forum and I'm very satisfied with the advice I've had in reply to my original post. While the Sting wasn't very expensive, it wasn't that cheap either here in the UK, and the bottom line for me is that

a) It's a knife, and it should be sharp.

b) CRKT's catalogue description says it should have been "razor sharp", and my knife isn't even slightly sharp.

I haven't called CRKT because it'd probably cost me more than the knife did. I sent them a polite friendly e-mail, which said that while I liked the design of the knife, the edge was very dull, and wondering if I just got a 'bad apple'.

Email has fast become the preferred method of communication for business to operate. To disregard it as a source of customer service is unwise.

With respect to CRKT and their defenders, you really have to wonder what sort of company ignores e-mails from their customers. Presumably somebody gets paid to answer them?

 

[Phil Elmore]

The only evidence you have that your email has been "ignored" is that you believe the return receipt was acknowledged. This can be an automated function; it does not necessarily mean that your mail was, in fact, read and "ignored" by a human being.

I "really have to wonder" why some people are so quick to denigrate publicly a company's customer service when they've not, in fact, verified that they've actually reached anyone at the company at all.

 

[Josh K]

The only evidence you have that your email has been "ignored" is that you believe the return receipt was acknowledged. This can be an automated function; it does not necessarily mean that your mail was, in fact, read and "ignored" by a human being.

First off, email clients sent a return receipt when the email is displayed on the screen. Not when it's retrieved off of the server.

Second, even if they "missed it" (doubtful now that spam filters have gotten to a point they only catch spam) they are doing their customers a disservice by "missing" emails.

As Jack said, sometimes a phone call isn't possible. If I sent a snail mail letter to a company, I expect a reply in kind.

I "really have to wonder" why some people are so quick to denigrate publicly a company's customer service when they've not, in fact, verified that they've actually reached anyone at the company at all.

The lack of means to reach someone at the company makes me "really have to wonder" about their customer service. Customer service is the whole package, not just the interaction with the representative.

 

[Jack Black]

Maybe the guy who checks the e-mails is the same guy who put the edge on my knife!

 

[SOLEIL]

First off, email clients sent a return receipt when the email is displayed on the screen. Not when it's retrieved off of the server.

Not necessarily. Some very popular servers, IE Outlook, give you two receipt options. One is when it is received or one when it is read. If the received receipt is the only one given it still may not have been read. It could be that they have a lot of e-mails but not a lot of staff to handle them. Even their parts request form states that it takes up to 3 weeks to process and 4 additional weeks to send parts.

Perhaps you could call someone here to help you out JB.
http://www.crkt.com/intretlr.html

 

[Phil Elmore]

The lack of means to reach someone at the company makes me "really have to wonder" about their customer service. Customer service is the whole package, not just the interaction with the representative.

This isn't a "lack of means." The fact that they're in a different country doesn't mean they cannot be contacted.

 

[Josh K]

Not necessarily. Some very popular servers, IE Outlook, give you two receipt options. One is when it is received or one when it is read. If the received receipt is the only one given it still may not have been read. It could be that they have a lot of e-mails but not a lot of staff to handle them. Even their parts request form states that it takes up to 3 weeks to process and 4 additional weeks to send parts.

Perhaps you could call someone here to help you out JB.
http://www.crkt.com/intretlr.html

I use Thunderbird with a couple of interesting add-ons that force a read receipt on the receivers client. Not really supposed to do that, but it works for me.

 

[Josh K]

This isn't a "lack of means." The fact that they're in a different country doesn't mean they cannot be contacted.

That is a "lack of means." They offer support via email (and even claim every single one is read http://crkt.com/webmaster.html). Offering support in this manner and then either missing the emails or letting them get caught in a "spam" filter is just as bad as looking at the caller id screen and saying "I don't think I'll answer that, it looks like a telemarketer's number." A failure on the part of CRKT's customer service department.

 

[fishface5]

Almost any knife can be made razor-sharp, it's the retention of the edge throughout use that sets the steel grades apart. The Sting is not meant to be a utility knife so it doesn't inherently need great edge retention. However as a "sticking" knife what it DOES need is a sharp pointy tip. A forumite called "Possum" did some very interesting posts a while back about killing raccoons in his barn with big knives and his "real-world" experience led him to determine that a knife that can get and keep a needle-tip is very important. So on the sting if you give it a sharp tip you can then work on getting a sharp edge on the bellies, where the edge is less obtuse than at the tip, and that should give you a good compromise.

 

[Phil Elmore]

That is a "lack of means." They offer support via email (and even claim every single one is read http://crkt.com/webmaster.html). Offering support in this manner and then either missing the emails or letting them get caught in a "spam" filter is just as bad as looking at the caller id screen and saying "I don't think I'll answer that, it looks like a telemarketer's number." A failure on the part of CRKT's customer service department.

So you admit that it's possible the e-mail did get caught in a spam filter?

 

[Josh K]

So you admit that it's possible the e-mail did get caught in a spam filter?

I never said it wasn't a possiblity, only that it's doubtful.

Even if it did get caught (again, doubtful due to the read receipts and no replies to my own and others emails) it is still the fault of the company. They are negligent in checking the spam folder. I always do, do you?

 

[Jack Black]

Perhaps you could call someone here to help you out JB.
http://www.crkt.com/intretlr.html

Thanks a lot Soleil, but I think I'm just going to sharpen the knife myself and put it down to experience. I do find it a little strange that the fact that not only was my knife blunt, but that the shipper (Heinnie Haynes - who I think sell quite a lot of knives) say that all their CRKT Stings are like that is not more of an issue for some people. I like the look of a lot of the knives CRKT produce, but I'm bound to take my experience into account the next time I'm looking to buy a knife (right now actually! ) The e-mail issue is of less importance to me, but getting a reply from a company by e-mail isn't usually much of an issue in my experience.

 

[SOLEIL]

Good luck on your sharpening:thumbup:. As it is 1050 carbon it should sharpen up pretty easy depending on your type of sharpener. The 1050 series is really made for durability as opposed to edge retention. Cold Steel uses it on some of their swords made to be abused. It will bend before breaking and can be bent back into shape. It will nick or roll before it chips and is easy to fix up. It will take a razor edge but will not hold it as long as better grades of the "10" carbon series or the higher end stainless steels. I bought mine so my original AG Russell Stings can take a rest. It is a great little design that can take a lot of abuse and still serve you well.

 

[Jack Black]

Good luck on your sharpening:thumbup:. As it is 1050 carbon it should sharpen up pretty easy depending on your type of sharpener. The 1050 series is really made for durability as opposed to edge retention. Cold Steel uses it on some of their swords made to be abused. It will bend before breaking and can be bent back into shape. It will nick or roll before it chips and is easy to fix up. It will take a razor edge but will not hold it as long as better grades of the "10" carbon series or the higher end stainless steels. I bought mine so my original AG Russell Stings can take a rest. It is a great little design that can take a lot of abuse and still serve you well.

Thanks again Soleil, and for all the other advice from everyone else

I remember seeing the AG Russell Sting in the Parallex catalogue 25-30 years ago and really wish I'd bought one then! It sounds as if you carry the Sting a fair bit, any other tips you want to pass on?

 

[SOLEIL]

If you carry it make sure that double edged knives are not illegal in your area. The best thing to do for any knife is to touch it up every time that you use it. That way it never gets dull enough to be difficult to sharpen.The uncoated blade edge being 1050 will rust, sometimes very easily. I use mineral oil on all my 10 series carbon blades. It is very cheap, protects the steel well and is food safe. Actually any of my blades that are used to cut food are protected with mineral oil. If you do happen to bang it up send me a PM and I will do my best to try to explain how to fix it. If I can't I have friends here who know much more than I do who will be glad to help.

 

[Jack Black]

If you carry it make sure that double edged knives are not illegal in your area. The best thing to do for any knife is to touch it up every time that you use it. That way it never gets dull enough to be difficult to sharpen.The uncoated blade edge being 1050 will rust, sometimes very easily. I use mineral oil on all my 10 series carbon blades. It is very cheap, protects the steel well and is food safe. Actually any of my blades that are used to cut food are protected with mineral oil. If you do happen to bang it up send me a PM and I will do my best to try to explain how to fix it. If I can't I have friends here who know much more than I do who will be glad to help.

Many thanks Soleil :thumbup:

 

[Lycosa]

Sorry to hear about the Sting prob. I love the Sting... the original. I thought about having a custom Sting made.
Good luck.

 

[tirod3]

Double edged knives are considered daggers in may jurisdictions and are illegal to carry, sometimes even to posses. AG has mentioned this in the past as one negative in reviving the Sting. Fortunately, CRKT did anyway.

AFAIK, the blade is forged in China, and probably finished there too. It could be that a batch of dull ones got through QC. "Sharp" is a relative condition, subject to the user's interpretation. Lot's of posts exist on the lack of that from new knife owners in nearly all brands except Spyderco. Sal Glesser really cracks the whip on that item.

I wonder how many hundreds of emails the average knife company gets daily. Hiring a staff just to read them would be a huge drag on profits, as the overhead costs of each employee are 2 1/2 times pay. None of the email readers contributes one dime to finished prodict - its all expense in overhead. If management decided to balance expenses at the cost of offending a customer every now and then, it would make sense. There seems to be a lot concern over a very minor problem that will eventually get resolved by use and resharpening anyway.

If I made knives, I wouldn't accept phone calls or emails at all. For a one man shop it would mean starving to death frittering away hours at a screen and never shipping product. HAK has been roundly criticized for that - you can't have it both ways.

Working retail, you learn you simply can't let a customer take up your entire day - you lose more sales in the process than he was worth. The reality is the customer always thinks he's right. Ain't necessarily so, you don't bring it up, you just humor them and move to the next.

 

[neeman]

I have used CRKT customer service and they were very polite and prompt.

I asked about different steels used in out of production knives, and they researched it and came up with a list of steels per knife.

 

[Josh K]

I wonder how many hundreds of emails the average knife company gets daily. Hiring a staff just to read them would be a huge drag on profits, as the overhead costs of each employee are 2 1/2 times pay. None of the email readers contributes one dime to finished prodict - its all expense in overhead. If management decided to balance expenses at the cost of offending a customer every now and then, it would make sense. There seems to be a lot concern over a very minor problem that will eventually get resolved by use and resharpening anyway.

If I made knives, I wouldn't accept phone calls or emails at all. For a one man shop it would mean starving to death frittering away hours at a screen and never shipping product. HAK has been roundly criticized for that - you can't have it both ways.

Working retail, you learn you simply can't let a customer take up your entire day - you lose more sales in the process than he was worth. The reality is the customer always thinks he's right. Ain't necessarily so, you don't bring it up, you just humor them and move to the next.

I don't think it's unreasonable to have someone answer phones and email.

Hours? As a one man shop your knives would have to be in ultra high demand for that to happen.

Products are made for the end user, the consumer. Adopting a little Spyderco philosophy, ignoring the consumer is the opposite of right thing to do, no matter how busy you may be.