how to deal with a dishonest bladesmith?

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sev129

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Hi, first of all this is my first post on these forums and normally I'd contribute more before asking questions, but there's been an ongoing issue with me for the past month or so that I'm trying to resolve. About 6 months ago I ordered a custom karambit from a blade smith that appeared to be reputable from other customers comments on this forum if I'm not mistaken ( http://maniordknives.com/ ). I placed the order with him for a knife I designed myself and paid a $50 deposit, he said that he'd recieved it (by email) and supposedly commenced work. later, also by email, he sent a picture of my knife apparently almost finished and asked for the remainder of the payment. I sent the remaining $175 and... nothing.

At first there was no response or confirmation of receipt of payment, but after 5 increasingly desparate emails or so, came one with a story of how he'd been having a rough time, health problems, he'd be right on it. At this point I was happy for contact of any type and just told him to finish when he could. a week or so later, I email again... nothing. about 3 weeks go by with none of my emails receiving any kind of response until finally one comes with a new story of a bad break up, time in jail, religous redemption and other details. he said he was pretty much done but had no money for shipping. this email was sent from a Blackberry. cue another three weeks to a month of no responses, and I finally get one about how he's been working on a barn and will mail the knife that week and it should be to me soon. I live less than 1000 miles away and in the same country and there's been no knife and no response for weeks. At what point do I yell SCAM! and is there any form of legal recourse for me if I have been scammed?
 
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There may be recourse for you depending on how you paid the guy and if you have any documentation of it. It most definitely sounds like you have been scammed and I wouldn't expect a knife and would purse any legal action that may be available. This post belongs in the Feedback section however...
 
send him an email with the link to this thread. that might get his attention. what is his location?
 
Last I heard he was, in fact, making a barn (see Facebook) in the middle of nowhere. In the past, Mike made some really nice knives out of O1 steel. I had a few which were traded off. They were well made and the sheaths were quite nice also. I think he did have some personal issues which caused him to act foolishly, but this is no excuse for not honoring your order and subsequent payment. It may be difficult to collect from him however if you don't have a receipt or some type of record of the transaction...if you could get a phone number you might try calling him. My first Maniord knife that I ever had was a sweet fighter that I bought off of Ebay from a secondary vendor. I was very happy with it and thought it was made by a very good artist, someone who had significant skill in the knife making business. As mentioned, you might e-mail him these posts and make him aware that his 'business' will be exposed as less than sterling if he does not make good on his former promises. The only way he can regain any real measure of credibilty here on these forums is to contact you, send the knife or pay you back in full. His products won't be worth anything if he is exposed as a dishonest vendor.
 
all knife makers should provide a bill of sale for any deposits and all sales. Asking for this first may help weed out those sketchy characters which seem to permeate all aspects of human society.
 
As soon as he asked for a deposit on a regular model, the word "scam" comes to mind. Hope this will work out.
 
richard j said:
send him an email with the link to this thread. that might get his attention. what is his location?
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Some town in Arkansas. I paid with money orders that I've kept the stubs of, and since we've been communicating exclusively by email I have every email we've exchanged saved, including the ones where he's confirmed that he received payment.
 
Hi

I have had several dealings with Mike..I had ordered a few blades that came off without much of a problem until this past spring..From what the OP says is pretty much what he told me. I was able to collect my money back from him. But although at times there was some push and shove from the both of us it all came down to he paid me back..We still text back and forth about things and I was able to buy a knife he had made already about a week ago. He is a pretty good guy and he means well. I think when he can focus on the business side of things he could make these outstanding knife orders right and move on to what could be a nice business for himself.

But he has to take care of these orders and I hope everything works out for you sev129
 
sev129 said:
I paid with money orders that I've kept the stubs of, and since we've been communicating exclusively by email I have every email we've exchanged saved, including the ones where he's confirmed that he received payment.
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Payment via USPS Money Orders give you the option of mail fraud prosecution should things truly go in the ditch. Hang onto those receipts tightly.
 
Seriously. When a person orders a knife from a maker, they have then made a commitment to purchase the knife and the maker has made a commitment to make the knife to the best of their ability and deliver it as promised. What is one of the greatest things about this hobby, mania, obsession, way of making a living (pick one or more or add your own term) is although the commitments are verbal in most cases they are binding to the vast majority of folks in the knife community.

Things happen in life. Most knife-makers work by themselves. It would be very rare to go through life and not run into times when a maker could not meet their obligations, due to something unexpected or due to who knows what including being too optimistic on delivery dates.

Communication is the key to meeting expectations. Establish the relationship. It is much easier for both sides to work through things when communication is made as soon as anything that would affect the promises negatively on either side rears it's ugly head. ;) Makers, stay in touch with the folks with orders. Drop them a line a month or so before you plan on starting, if something comes up that will create delays - communicate.

If you have a knife on order, do what you can to understand the the maker makes knives so don't be a pest. It is a one person show and if that person is not showing up making knives, knives are not being made. (Pretty obvious huh) Some of these guys have long lists ;). If something pops up financially that creates a problem, let the maker know as soon as you know.

As a general rule, do not send in a deposit on a regular model custom. Most of us have heard it before, but for the new folks - Just do not do it. Some folks may run into occasions when covering material costs should be a consideration on a knife with high end materials or materials the maker does not normally have on hand.
 
the thing is, he really should be done with this. I received an image of how far he had progressed about two months ago and at that point he said he'd be done and have it mailed within a week. which is also when I sent the remaining money. I can't figure out how to post it, but it was for all intents and purposes pretty much done. the only things remaining would have been sharpening and attaching the grip.
 
this is a real shame! I wish u luck and Godspeed on receiving ur knife. Also u might want to consider keeping the lines of communication open between the maker and urself..it certainly won't hurt anything....things happen in life that we don't/can't anticipate...
 
Someone asked why we have (or should we have) a Hall of Shame. It would be, and is, for the protection of prospective buyers. If the offender changes his tone and makes things right then I think they should be removed from the list. Those that refuse to send the ordered knives or refund the money paid should remain on the list. Makes sense to me. Few things in life are more painful than people who lie about business dealings or scam the uniformed/unaware or just plain take advantage of folk who trust people. Again, in the case of Mike Maniord, I think there were various extenuating circumstances which ushered him into problematic waters. I certainly hope he will rectify any problems and get back on the straight and narrow. The Hall would, and does, help us avoid the pain and grief of dealing with less than top flight makers. Life is too short to be scammed by a bladesmith!

And sev129, Mike's last address was somewhere in Siloam Springs, Arkansas.
 
well, I emailed him last week saying that if I didn't receive a message by next friday with an update, I'd proceed with the assumption I've been scammed... It's next friday. no response.
 
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