Is this normal for Bark River Knives?

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OBX351

OBX351

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I just bought my first two BRKs a 1.25 Bravo and a 3v Aurora. Both with stag handles, colored spacers and mosaic pins. They are beautiful but functionally, the Bravo has an asymmetrical bevel and neither were what I would consider sharp. The Bravo didn't carve very well and the Aurora had a TERRIBLE scandi edge. I own a ton of knives and I was very disappointed with the edges on both of these knives. In contrast I've recently bought a LT Wright GNS in 3V and a Survive! Knives 4.5 Bushcraft. Both came CRAZY sharp out of the box. Also, why is the 1.25 so thick and the bevel so wide? It's made of 3V and the extra weight just adds unwanted ozs. To make the edge symmetrical I used a Work Sharp precision adjust sharpener. I was able to get the edge to about 17.5 to 18 degrees but because the bevel was so thick I ended up scratching the mid part of the bevel. Now the knife is sharp but looks like crap because of the scratch marks.

I want to love these two BRKs, they are the prettiest knives I own and both feel great in the hand. But wtf, for almost $700 for the pair, I should be able to carve and cut wood with them out of the box. I know BRK will stand behind their knives and I'll send both back to Mike to get freshened up and have the Aurora reprofiled. Is this normal for BRKs or am I just unlucky?BRKs 1.jpgBRKs2.jpg
 
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Hello,
I have a few BRK, counting them real quick...13? That's not counting one's they made for other companies.

Out of those knives, all except one came very sharp, I bought it supposedly "like new" second hand, so not an issue. One came with a crap heat treat, and one came with what I assume to be contamination during grinding (big rust dots/pits on a stainless after mild water).

I have a Bravo 1 and 1.5, both are thick boys with thick grinds. The 1.5 is monstrously thick, but can still cut. I use it for chopping and batoning. I have never sharpened that 3V, and it's still sharp.

I recently bought the Aurora in Magnacut, and it came...meh quality after a long wait. The pins and lanyard tube were rough (can cut your finger) and the edge was so-so. The tip was a little too rounded, but overall I was okay with it.

I would say what you're experiencing is unfortunately pretty normal for them. I sent the staining/pitting knife back and it came back fine...still stains a little but not nearly as bad. The bad HT knife is in Michigan now getting warrantied...I'm curious how they can fix that one lol.

I have not given up on them yet, but I would encourage anyone buying their knives to do some rudimentary tests before counting on them for serious tasks/situations....
 
Dergyll said:
Hello,
I have a few BRK, counting them real quick...13? That's not counting one's they made for other companies.

Out of those knives, all except one came very sharp, I bought it supposedly "like new" second hand, so not an issue. One came with a crap heat treat, and one came with what I assume to be contamination during grinding (big rust dots/pits on a stainless after mild water).

I have a Bravo 1 and 1.5, both are thick boys with thick grinds. The 1.5 is monstrously thick, but can still cut. I use it for chopping and batoning. I have never sharpened that 3V, and it's still sharp.

I recently bought the Aurora in Magnacut, and it came...meh quality after a long wait. The pins and lanyard tube were rough (can cut your finger) and the edge was so-so. The tip was a little too rounded, but overall I was okay with it.

I would say what you're experiencing is unfortunately pretty normal for them. I sent the staining/pitting knife back and it came back fine...still stains a little but not nearly as bad. The bad HT knife is in Michigan now getting warrantied...I'm curious how they can fix that one lol.

I have not given up on them yet, but I would encourage anyone buying their knives to do some rudimentary tests before counting on them for serious tasks/situations....
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Thanks for sharing but that's disappointing. Magnacut is a premium material and QC should be paramount for the price. they charge. Hopefully they replace your knife with the bad heat treat. Thanks again for your feedback.
 
BRK and Mike Stewart suck - decades long history of criminal, immoral and unethical acts of the owner, and a disproportionate amount of quality and defect issues with his knives.

Suggest you do some reading/searching on this forum.
 
I think had you not added character marks and just returned them as you received them they would make it right at no charge to you. However, they may now have a charge associated since they now have to undo what has been done, Troy
 
pholder said:
I think had you not added character marks and just returned them as you received them they would make it right at no charge to you. However, they may now have a charge associated since they now have to undo what has been done, Troy
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I picked the knives for their combination of handles, pins and spacers. In theory their warranty and "spa treatment" will cover the issues. The Bravo blade is now symmetrical and I'll send it back if I scratch it up again. However I'll probably not buy another BRK.
 
shane45-1911 said:
BRK and Mike Stewart suck - decades long history of criminal, immoral and unethical acts of the owner, and a disproportionate amount of quality and defect issues with his knives.

Suggest you do some reading/searching on this forum.
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What are the basis for your claims? I'm legitimately curious since you seem to have a negative comment in every forum that's asking for a review on Bark Rivers.

I own around 60 Bark River knives and haven't had any manufacturing issues with any of them. The one Tope Recon I bought from a third party seller on ebay had small micro chips in the blade but they took care of it via spa treatment for free, and it's held up under hard use for the past year.
 
Here we go again...

FWIW, I've owned probably at least 2 dozen (?) BRKs over the last decade+. Not once have I ever felt like I was "taking a chance" on any of them (at least not any more than any other knife purchase in which I wasn't able to handle the knife in person beforehand), and all of mine have performed well and been razor sharp out of the box. I've never had a reason to send one back. I have 10-year old BRKs that are users and still perform as well as anything else I own. I'm not denying that there have been people who have occasionally received a disappointing product, but the same could be said for many manufacturers. My sample size and experience have been consistently good. I don't buy a lot of BRKs anymore as there are other knife makers I'm at least as interested in, if not more. But I purchased a PSK EDC and a Bravo LT 1.25 earlier this year, and every detail on them is excellent - they arrived extremely sharp, there was no uneven grind, and everything was finished smoothly.

I'm not going to wade into all the "he said/she said" silliness of allegations that have been leveled at Mike Stewart over the years, but I can't believe how much this has been perpetuated based on little more than hearsay. :rolleyes:
 
Out of the 7 or so bark rivers I’ve owned - all had small imperfections. Slightly uneven grinds, tips that were too far to the right or left.. all of them came shaving sharp though ( or were made shaving sharp with croc stick and leather ). Great user knives, maybe not collector knives though.
 
Also, maybe it's just the light in that photo, but the more I look at it, there's something particularly odd about the edge on that Bravo 1.25. I have never seen a micro bevel edge like that on a factory Bark River - they are all full convex.
 
Scsontos said:
What are the basis for your claims? I'm legitimately curious since you seem to have a negative comment in every forum that's asking for a review on Bark Rivers.

I own around 60 Bark River knives and haven't had any manufacturing issues with any of them. The one Tope Recon I bought from a third party seller on ebay had small micro chips in the blade but they took care of it via spa treatment for free, and it's held up under hard use for the past year.
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Again, the truth is in those NUMEROUS threads that I have commented in. Since you seem to know that I have a negative view, then why don't you actually read those threads? Then you would understand.

Oh, and it's NOT just me with those views.
 
Smithhammer said:
I'm not going to wade into all the "he said/she said" silliness of allegations that have been leveled at Mike Stewart over the years, but I can't believe how much this has been perpetuated based on little more than hearsay. :rolleyes:
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It is public record, if you care to take the time to find it. Mike S. is a convicted liar, cheat, con artist and scammer. FACT.
 
Smithhammer said:
Also, maybe it's just the light in that photo, but the more I look at it, there's something particularly odd about the edge on that Bravo 1.25. I have never seen a micro bevel edge like that on a factory Bark River - they are all full convex.
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I put a new edge on the B1.25 because it didn't slice or carve very well. That's when I noticed that it was asymmetrical.
 
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