Is this normal for Bark River Knives?

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Smithhammer said:
I was quite clear above that I wasn't trying to "argue" anything.

Nor do I believe I said anything that would warrant your petty name-calling. Maybe you should chill out.
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Then maybe you should believe people that have had first hand legal dealings with Stewart (incl. myself).

But if you want more names who can attest to and confirm all the "hearsay", Will Fennell (former Camillus VP), or Mike Turber (previous BF site owner), or any number of the ABS Master Smiths would be happy to confirm that it is NOT hearsay. Stewart has a long history of BS and charges and convictions against him.

It's not about who is right or wrong - it is about who we choose to support in this hobby. There are SO many better people and knives around - life is too short to support known, proven and convicted douchebags.

This from a previous post (not mine) on BF regarding Mike Stewart. It sums it up nicely:

"Really? Catastrophic failures of the knives being posted regularly on forums for the last several years, Mike Stewart's decade-plus long history of fraud and lack of ethics, (as attested to by several high-ranking members of the knife community*)... you think all that is completely made up?
Stories of good experiences with Bark River and Mike Stewart don't magically make all the bad ones go away.
*Will Fennell, former VP of Camillus; Jerry Fisk, ABS Mastersmith; Mike Turber, former owner of Bladeforums. Just off the top of my head."
 
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shane45-1911 said:
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.
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Posting in a thread doesn't mean anything. Anyone can spew toxic nonsense if they have a bone to pick with someone. I suggest putting forth actual proof when you want to sling nonsensical claims. If you don't like the brand move on.
 
Scsontos said:
Posting in a thread doesn't mean anything. Anyone can spew toxic nonsense if they have a bone to pick with someone. I suggest putting forth actual proof when you want to sling nonsensical claims. If you don't like the brand move on.
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I had no bone to pick with Stewart until it was PROVEN in court that he deliberately misrepresented the steel that he was using in his knives. Sorry if you weren't part of the proceedings - I was, and I do not have to prove a thing to you.

Again, it is public record if you feel like pulling your head out of your butt and finding it for yourself.

When you support a guy like Stewart, you do everyone a dis-service who enjoys this hobby.

Read this, and keep re-reading it until you understand it:

"Really? Catastrophic failures of the knives being posted regularly on forums for the last several years, Mike Stewart's decade-plus long history of fraud and lack of ethics, (as attested to by several high-ranking members of the knife community*)... you think all that is completely made up?
Stories of good experiences with Bark River and Mike Stewart don't magically make all the bad ones go away.
*Will Fennell, former VP of Camillus; Jerry Fisk, ABS Mastersmith; Mike Turber, former owner of Bladeforums. Just off the top of my head."
 
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shane45-1911 said:
I had no bone to pick with Stewart until it was PROVEN in court that he deliberately misrepresented the steel that he was using in his knives.

Sorry if you weren't part of the proceedings - I was, and I do not have to prove a thing to you.

When you support a guy like Stewart, you do everyone a dis-service who enjoys this hobby.

Read this, and keep re-reading it until you understand it:

Really? Catastrophic failures of the knives being posted regularly on forums for the last several years, Mike Stewart's decade-plus long history of fraud and lack of ethics, (as attested to by several high-ranking members of the knife community*)... you think all that is completely made up?
Stories of good experiences with Bark River and Mike Stewart don't magically make all the bad ones go away.
*Will Fennell, former VP of Camillus; Jerry Fisk, ABS Mastersmith; Mike Turber, former owner of Bladeforums. Just off the top of my head."
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The hilarity of your claims is that if you actually try and search for any type of public court documents, YOUR threads pop up in Blade Forums, parroting all the same things you've said here.

Move on man, you've proven nothing and aren't stopping anyone from enjoying their knives no matter how salty you are.

If you're so beholden to derailing someone's take on whether or not they should get a Bark River, here's a suggestion: build a better brand and better knife to prove it.
 
Scsontos said:
The hilarity of your claims is that if you actually try and search for any type of public court documents, YOUR threads pop up in Blade Forums, parroting all the same things you've said here.

Move on man, you've proven nothing and aren't stopping anyone from enjoying their knives no matter how salty you are.

If you're so beholden to derailing someone's take on whether or not they should get a Bark River, here's a suggestion: build a better brand and better knife to prove it.
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And you keep supporting a criminal and sleep soundly knowing you continue to support fraud, deception, lies and immorality.

I don't need to "build a better knife" - there are dozens and dozens of reputable, respected makers and manufacturers already doing that.
 
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I have had a bunch of Bark Rivers over the years, still have several they are great knives for my carry and use.
 
shane45-1911 said:
And you keep supporting a criminal and sleep soundly knowing you continue to support fraud, deception, lies and immorality.

And I don't need to "build a better knife" - there are dozens and dozens of reputable, respected makers and manufacturers already doing that.
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Buying one knife isn't mutually exclusive to other brands. I have plenty of Work Tuff Gear, Chris Reeves, Fallkniven, Acta Non Verba, Hinderer, Busse, etc.

But apparently if your mind its a HUGE disservice to the knife community because some random on Blade Forums said so, with absolutely no proof other than his own word LOL.

You can call me a fanboy all you want, your opinion means very little to me. OUT. 🤡
 
knarfeng said:
The posters's question was about the condition of his knives, not your posting history and lack of love for Mike Stewart.
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Sorry.

To answer the OP's question, yes it is completely normal for shoddy, inconsistent workmanship from BRK.

Anyone who has been on this forum for any length of time knows that BRK has a very high rate of failures and other QA issues that are beyond the norm of most other quality North American knife companies.

And before the fanboys come marching in again, "Stories of good experiences with Bark River and Mike Stewart don't magically make all the bad ones go away."
 
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shane45-1911 said:
Sorry.

To answer the OP's question, yes it is completely normal for shoddy, inconsistent workmanship from BRK.

Anyone who has been on this forum for any length of time knows that BRK has a very high rate of failures and other QA issues that are beyond the norm of most other quality North American knife companies.

And before the fanboys come marching in again, "Stories of good experiences with Bark River and Mike Stewart don't magically make all the bad ones go away."
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So let me clue you in, "haters" aren't any better than "fans" if they cannot answer a simple question without going off on another tirade.
You are now banned from the thread.
 
OBX351 said:
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?View attachment 1966564View attachment 1966565
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Did you use a pull-through sharpener to sharpen them as well as the Work Sharp? Those marks on the right blade look sorta like it could be from one.

From what I understand about BRK is that they are hit or miss in quality. While they do look nice it seems like too much of a gamble to spend several hundred dollars on a product that had the higher than what I consider normal tendency to have issues.

The lop-sided grinds are not as huge a deal to me, as they are done by humans, and a customer knows this going into it. However, I do expect the knife to come with a usable edge.
 
OBX351 said:
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?
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Yes, it is normal for BRKs to have small to significant issues new out of box. They've even been known mark the wrong steel and not fix the issue when a stainless knife is clearly not. Sometimes they stand behind their product an sometimes they don't. Mike Stewart is a proven liar and criminal. I hope you get your knives made right. Next time do your research on a company before buying and certainly before sharpening. Should have sent those knives right back and bought from a reputable company. Lots of threads here and other places on the decade plus debacle that is BRK.

Here's a recent thread with lots of info:

Bark River- who’s fault?

I used to lurk on here a lot. Haven’t been on here in a while, and never really had anything to post about until now. I have a BRK Edwin Forrest Bowie. Long story short I cut a 1-2 inch limb and the blade behind the edge bent in three spots. It most likely bent because I didn’t pull it...
www.bladeforums.com www.bladeforums.com
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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Read the OP again. He sharpened it.
 
MolokaiRider said:
Did you use a pull-through sharpener to sharpen them as well as the Work Sharp? Those marks on the right blade look sorta like it could be from one.

From what I understand about BRK is that they are hit or miss in quality. While they do look nice it seems like too much of a gamble to spend several hundred dollars on a product that had the higher than what I consider normal tendency to have issues.

The lop-sided grinds are not as huge a deal to me, as they are done by humans, and a customer knows this going into it. However, I do expect the knife to come with a usable edge.
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After using the WS precision adjust, I strop using the GRE strop bat. The scratches are due to the thickness and angle of the bevel. I've used it on a bunch of knives including a .25" thick Greg Covington Model 15 Bowie, and it never left scratches. I don't mind a slightly non symmetrical bevel, what was frustrating with the Bravo was by how much. When I inspected it for about 10 to 20 seconds I could see that the blank was asymmetrical. This should have been checked in QA. It also had a chisel blade edge.
 
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