Wow. Some strong and very unprofessional leaps on this post. This is why I stopped participating in forms many years ago because of the people who say things behind the cloak of the internet and can pretty much be complete jerks when someone asks an innocent question.
I will respond though.
As far as the ethical thing is concerned, I am a West Point graduate and have served in our armed forces for 28 years and counting. I will not say more because my opinions are my own and not that of my service. I value ethics and integrity.
I also have worked for the last 20 years or so in the Army developing requirements for, testing, evaluating and managing programs for the development of new weapons systems. I apply this approach to my own field tools as well. In my profession I want the best equipment that will make our Soldiers effective in an operational environment. Period.
For a knife, I want an effective tool that performs the job I want. I don't know much about Mike Stewart and I don't have any facts to support any of the accusations against him. I cannot pass judgement on him one way or the other. In fact, the guy is innocent until proven guilty. That's the law of our land....right?
If I made every purchase decision based on the perceived integrity of the seller I would probably never own anything of much worth. I do agree with supporting good people, but at the end of the day I am a consumer and an end user looking for a tool that performs effectively and that I enjoy owning. A knife is a tool and I want the one that performs best.
That is my right. I don't criticize your choice to buy from whom you want based on accusations out there on the internet. I respect your decision. Respect mine. We can agree to disagree. That's America, right? Last time I check it was. And that's what makes it great. We all can have different opinions and I am happy for that.
I just want a good knife. I asked about which knife you thought was the better knife. That's all.
Last, I have not read all of these comments closely, but somewhere along the line it seems people have gotten confused by what I said. I mentioned meeting Dozier and how he treated me. My point was that I have an actual personal experience with one of these two knife makers. i would guess that most of the people on this thread have not met either of them. Dozier was rude to me -- it did irritate me and in some ways make me not want to buy a knife from him. But you know what? It seems that he makes great knives. No sense in being a fool and letting the fact that he was rude to me stop me from buying a knife from him that may be the superior tool. I will put emotions aside. Maybe we all should do that. I am asking about the product, not the maker.
For those of you who buy knives as a hobby I respect that. I buy them as effective tools that have attributes that make them desirable to me to appreciate. An effective and beautiful knife is just that whether made by a jerk or otherwise.
Good luck on your search, I hope you get a knife you like regardless of the source. Just go be happy, life is too short for anything else.
