This post will come as no surprise to anyone who has dealt with Jim @ TSF himself. I just wanted to share my experience and encourage anyone considering a TSF knife to buy one without reservation.
I had been wanting to pick up a TSF BEAST for a while and pulled the trigger on one listed on the exchange mid-February. Prior to shipping the knife the seller unfortunately informed me that the knife's lockup was not solid and that there was blade play because the lockbar was not fully engaging the blade tang. He apologized, but said that if I still wanted he knife he would offer me an additional discount. I took a chance and purchased the knife anyway thinking I might be able to fix/adjust it. Long story short, the knife arrived and the repair was beyond the scope of an adjustment. The lockbar needed more tension and/or a larger stop pin, and there was also some side to side play that couldn't be tightened out because the pivot uses a bushing system.
So I emailed Jim @ TSF and asked what he thought I should do. My thinking was that new (slightly thicker) washers and a new (slightly larger) stop pin would likely fix it. And I offered to purchase replacement hardware if he'd be willing to send me some. But Jim said that I should send in the knife for a $50 Spa-treatment and he'd take care of all of the tuning. That was fine with me because of how much I had saved on the initial purchase of the knife. I didn't mind spending $50 to get the knife back to perfect. So off it went.
The knife arrived in Jim's shop on a Thursday. On the following Tuesday I received this email from Jim:
Of course I said "Sure!" The next day I received this email:
"Holy crap this guy is awesome!" I thought. Later that day I get another email from Jim:
Wow.
I've since exchanged many emails with Jim both knife related and otherwise. I can unequivocally say that service doesn't get any better and that there's nobody more deserving of my future knife dollars. The knife came back that Friday, perfect in every way.
For those who don't already know, TSF is one guy (Jim), with one hand, building these knives himself in Bend, OR. I'm now his biggest fan.
I had been wanting to pick up a TSF BEAST for a while and pulled the trigger on one listed on the exchange mid-February. Prior to shipping the knife the seller unfortunately informed me that the knife's lockup was not solid and that there was blade play because the lockbar was not fully engaging the blade tang. He apologized, but said that if I still wanted he knife he would offer me an additional discount. I took a chance and purchased the knife anyway thinking I might be able to fix/adjust it. Long story short, the knife arrived and the repair was beyond the scope of an adjustment. The lockbar needed more tension and/or a larger stop pin, and there was also some side to side play that couldn't be tightened out because the pivot uses a bushing system.
So I emailed Jim @ TSF and asked what he thought I should do. My thinking was that new (slightly thicker) washers and a new (slightly larger) stop pin would likely fix it. And I offered to purchase replacement hardware if he'd be willing to send me some. But Jim said that I should send in the knife for a $50 Spa-treatment and he'd take care of all of the tuning. That was fine with me because of how much I had saved on the initial purchase of the knife. I didn't mind spending $50 to get the knife back to perfect. So off it went.
The knife arrived in Jim's shop on a Thursday. On the following Tuesday I received this email from Jim:
"Holy crap this guy is awesome!" I thought. Later that day I get another email from Jim:
Wow.
I've since exchanged many emails with Jim both knife related and otherwise. I can unequivocally say that service doesn't get any better and that there's nobody more deserving of my future knife dollars. The knife came back that Friday, perfect in every way.
For those who don't already know, TSF is one guy (Jim), with one hand, building these knives himself in Bend, OR. I'm now his biggest fan.
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