Just saw this.....Bark River is no more?

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AdamFuzzyballs said:
I just hope both teams are having fun.

Just kidding, sheesh

Truth is, I have only owned a few BR. I have owned a few Marbles from Stewart’s tenure at that company, and I don’t have any complaints about those. Of course, they aren’t Mike’s designs, and two of them were old stock blanks, so essentially Mike simply oversaw the construction of the knives.

However, the moment i found out about his previous scams and distrustful actions, I dropped interest all together. Even trying to separate the man from the product, I quickly saw how he would talk to people, even fans, if they had any concerns or even voiced opinions that could be misconstrued as anything aside from glorious.

I’ve heard about how he is a “master of heat treat” for years, but then again at least once a month I see someone asking about chipping 3V on a thin pine branch, or rusty Magnacut.

I’m only sad for all of the great people (not current employees) who have run in with Mike before and had to deal with him swinging weight around that he never should have had in the first place.

Hess Knives, Brian, many more decent people who are no longer in the industry. Whether it directly has to do with Mike or not- well, if you run into the devil on an empty street…makes you wonder who would be around and who might have had more success if they weren’t drug down in Escanaba.
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No one cares about that crap.

Pay attention to what your maker did outside of lying about a sh*t blade heat treat.
 
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K.O.D. said:
I've never owned a BRK, never will, and now I will not shop at DLT or KSF. There are plenty of other vendors, plus I mostly buy custom and mid-tech now.
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I know this might not be a popular opinion, but frankly I think it's slightly slimy to have butted up to Mike Stewart the way some dealers did. Money is money, I get it, but at what cost.
 
shinyedges said:
I know this might not be a popular opinion, but frankly I think it's slightly slimy to have butted up to Mike Stewart the way some dealers did. Money is money, I get it, but at what cost.
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Bark RIver Knives made both DLT and KSF. Without Bark RIver both companies would not exist. Both companies were smart to branch out and sell other Makers and other products, but it was Bark River that started them. I remember Jason the owner of DLT asking people for money to help pay for his dog's vet bill on KF when he was starting out. He didn't have a pot to piss in back then. I have a hard time believing that they didn't know who Mike Stewart really is.
 
Fox940 said:
Bark RIver Knives made both DLT and KSF. Without Bark RIver both companies would not exist. Both companies were smart to branch out and sell other Makers and other products, but it was Bark River that started them. I remember Jason the owner of DLT asking people for money to help pay for his dog's vet bill on KF when he was starting out. He didn't have a pot to piss in back then. I have a hard time believing that they didn't know who Mike Stewart really is.
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Ah knifeforums, I had an account there though never spent much time but I agree 100%.
 
Fox940 said:
Bark RIver Knives made both DLT and KSF. Without Bark RIver both companies would not exist. Both companies were smart to branch out and sell other Makers and other products, but it was Bark River that started them. I remember Jason the owner of DLT asking people for money to help pay for his dog's vet bill on KF when he was starting out. He didn't have a pot to piss in back then. I have a hard time believing that they didn't know who Mike Stewart really is.
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I used to talk to the owner of Knives ship free before he died (rip) He was intimately friends with BRK .. i had a few knives that i bought there and BRK did some extra finishing etc and talked to both KSF and BRK .. any of these companies claiming " i dont know him" are lying
 
I'm surprised DLT and KSF still have BRK available for purchase on their sites. I would not want anything going out the door until this gets all figured out.
 
draggat said:
Who is Bill Janke and how does he know that the knives he listed were actually made with Chinese kits?

I probably should have done my homework, I recently picked up a few BRK's with no knowledge of the company or any of the controversy. Genuinely clueless. I guess I just hope the steel is okay. 😵

Good luck to the employees! I genuinely wish them well.
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I can vouch for Bill Janke, he and i have gone BRK for their grind-in events. He was almost like an employee during the events.
 
Another problem with this Bark River fiasco is that it will effect all those knife companies that had their shop work done for them by Bark River, putting them at the event horizon of a black hole of mistrust. There are a number of brands that had all or some of their fixed blades made by Bark River and now they risk being similarly tainted. Not because they necessarily did anything wrong, but because they had their knives made in a sketchy shop that did sketchy things for decades. I currently have more knives from other companies that I found out later to be made in the Bark River shop than the one Bark River I bought years before joining this forum.
 
I am of the opinion that if you have a BR knife and it performs as expected then keep using it. No need to second guess it.

I only have one left in my possession, an original run North Star with tapered tang. I sold off all my other BR knives long ago and swore to never buy another after a catastrophic edge failure led to a personal exchange with Mike Stewart on knifeforums in which he showed his true scummy character. And after that I had conversations with someone who was screwed by Mike when he ordered and paid for a special run of Kepharts (IIRC his forum ID was Snarlslayer).

As far as sympathizing with the BR employees who were complicit in the fraud, don’t expect it on my part. I once took a job that promised to be lucrative with full partnership in a testing lab. After starting there I discovered that the owner was not following standard SOPs that were promulgated by the state and I made it clear that I wasn’t going to do that, even though I had a family to support. So the lucrative offer was rescinded and I moved on. My integrity is worth something.
 
Jdottinger said:
Jim made his statement, not sure it’s been posted here yet. View attachment 3142472View attachment 3142473
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qujN1fU.jpg
 
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