It'd be nice if I had seen this thread back when you started it, because I surely would not have allowed it to go this long unanswered, but I just got home again and had an email from another customer letting me know about it. Geoff, if you've called me 8 times in the last 4 months, surely you know the phone line has not been in service. Secondly, I did NOT sell your knife to AZCK. They don't even have an M250 Scout M5 with all Brushed Stainless, a Blue Clip, and OD-Green G10 anywhere on the site.
I currently only offer two knives: the Button Lock Cobra and Scout in either Black, OD-Green, or Desert Tan. So it's easy for someone to see a Scout or Cobra pop up and think "Oh sh*t, that's MY KNIFE!!!!", when it most certainly is not! It may RESEMBLE a knife you ordered, but it definitely is NOT your knife!
This situation I'm in, dealing with this disease is not my Dealers' fault. They have absolutely nothing to do with this, and if anything they have been great at helping me somewhat maintain myself financially while battling this Dermatomyositis. This isn't a common cold or a small case of the sniffles, it is an Idiopathic Inflammatory Myositis that destroys muscles and organs. I'm real lucky to even be alive right now, but I know that's not your problem, you just want your knife - understood. Look man, I'm sorry about this, not only to you, but to the other 30 or so people I'm still building knives for. When that Tornado hit me I was in the process of building approximately 120 pre-paid ordered knives, and I lost every fricken one of them. I'm down to about 30. Why do you think there isn't a 120 threads here and on other forums claiming I haven't delivered their knives yet? I'm sure there are plenty of my customers who don't even frequent the forums, and not everyone who has received their knife decides to log onto a forum and start a new post telling everyone, either. It may not be 100% total progress, but it's progress, is it not? It may not be progress to YOU at this point, but believe me, I've made some progress since then or I'd probably be in jail by now.
I jumped into this CNC thing not knowing anything about it. I tore up more knives than I can fit in a 55 gal. drum from mistakes I made learning to operate this rig, which led to me having to start many knives, frames, blades, grips, etc., completely over again. Anyway, I know excuses sound best to those making them, but it is what it is. I'm going to be gone this week for another treatment. I'm taking the Colostrum and it is helping a bit. I'm not dealing with as much dizziness and feeling is starting to come back in my legs where they don't feel so heavy. I still have this insane rash, but I can tell my muscles are starting to properly fire again and my brain isn't so foggy, and my hands aren't trembling as much, and I have about 50% less tingling in my hands and feet now. The stuff is $99.00/pound for the Liposomal Delivery version. It's probably going to take 20-30 pounds of this Colostrum to completely heal up the gut lining as I explained before about the "leaky gut syndrome" that's causing this Autoimmune process, so I just have to buy what I can as I can afford it. But I'm seeing some decent signs of improvement, which is good.
When I get home this next weekend I will get your Scout finished up, Geoff. All I have left to do is machine the larger Allen pivot bolt head for the front side, and finish out one of the spacers if I remember correctly (I'm not looking at it at the moment) and I think I have to finish up making the lock-bar for it and putting the final edge on it. I know there isn't much to do to get it complete, so I'm kind of guessing off of memory at the moment. I know I upgraded you and many others to the new Button Lock Design. I'm sorry, brother. This disease has eaten me alive and I've been fighting to survive it. I know my communications with everyone has been a lot less than desirable , which is out of the norm for me. I'm sorry to anyone who has sent me an email or called and I haven't gotten back to you. This entire process has been very overwhelming and difficult to deal with.
George, I will get those two Tunnel Ratt's out to you the following week as well. Thanks to you, Dave, Julie, Ryan, and everyone else who has stuck by me through this. Those knives you've been seeing popping up AZCK's site are OLD knives (they are new from me but made several years ago) that I had stashed back that I've had to sell to try and stay alive because I haven't been able to work much at all. That Apache is probably 15 years old (not direct from me), and if you recall, I discontinued the Tunnel Ratt's when I launched the Scout and Cobra Frame Locks, so how old are those?
And George, you said "His logic was that if he didn't sell a knife here-and-there to a dealer to maintain a cash flow, no one would ever see any of their knives." ...... that's not the full and entire statement. The other part of that statement is, "Because if I didn't survive this disease, no one would get their knives." I wasn't being a d*ck about it, I was simply stating a fact that if I don't have the cash to fight this and pay my bills, I was probably going to die. This disease isn't a silly stomach ache, it's a life destroyer.
Anyway, when I get back I'll get your blade finished up, Geoff. I'll get George at least the two T-Ratt's shipped and I'll get the other one's finished up as soon as I can for you. I've got to ship a few Tunnel Ratt's to Dave that he already paid for as well that he's been waiting on. I know, everyone is waiting around for me to get my shit together and I'm doing the best I can, believe me.
I apologize to all of you for the inconvenience, this has been no cakewalk, that's for sure. I know it sucks that some of you have not received your blades yet, and I really do apologize for this. I've been doing this full time for 20 years, and this last 3 since the Tornado has been an uphill climb, and the last year or so has been shit to say the least. The phone line is turned back on if anyone needs to call and leave a message. I'll be back next week and hopefully feeling even a bit better than I feel now, which is better than I've previously felt, that's for sure. Trust me, I want to get back to work more than anyone.
Again: please don't take this out on my Dealers. This isn't them condoning any "bad behavior", they've been helping me survive, literally. Geoff, I'll get your blade finished up next weekend or the following week when I get back. Send me an email with your shipping address if you would so I know it's up to date (my email is "
tripwire7@cox.net "). George and Dave, hang tight, I'll get your knives out that following week as well. Everyone else, I'll be back in the shop that following week and getting back to work on your knives, too.
And for any of you who don't know what's actually going on with me and this disease, here's the Facebook post I left on Geoff's other thread:
https://www.facebook.com/carrillodesign/photos/rpp.153960364781785/888519374659210/?type=3