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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Is Hess knives out of business? And was that due to something involving Mike? Ive been wondering.
 
nsm said:
Jason is sending us a batch of knives to check with our Niton (XRF) gun. It takes about 6–10 seconds per blank to get a reading. DLT has been a great customer, so we’re not planning to charge for this unless the volume gets into the thousands and requires formal documentation. A simple pass/fail check will be straightforward and also gives our operators a good opportunity to get more hands-on time with the unit.
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Just to be clear, my comments about increasing the selling price of a knife by $50 was specifically in response to a member's proposal that EVERY knife from every manufacturer be tested and certified to be the correct steel. That would completely change each dealer's receiving process.

And I think both DLT and the knife buying community owe you a large thank you for your help in this cluster.
 
nsm said:
Jason is sending us a batch of knives to check with our Niton (XRF) gun. It takes about 6–10 seconds per blank to get a reading. DLT has been a great customer, so we’re not planning to charge for this unless the volume gets into the thousands and requires formal documentation. A simple pass/fail check will be straightforward and also gives our operators a good opportunity to get more hands-on time with the unit.
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That is some serious stand-up action on y’alls part. Very cool.
 
knarfeng said:
Just to be clear, my comments about increasing the selling price of a knife by $50 was specifically in response to a member's proposal that EVERY knife from every manufacturer be tested and certified to be the correct steel. That would completely change each dealer's receiving process.

And I think both DLT and the knife buying community owe you a large thank you for your help in this cluster.
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If it was my reply that spurred this confusion I apologize, I'm advocating for testing every brk knife in stock as I think it's fair to say Mike can't be trusted. If the dealer uses the tester afterwards to have an in house certification for all knives, that would be cool too.

It really is just a few moments to use the tester and get results, I can't see it being some giant cost increasing step, but I may be mistaken.
 
Instead of just calling it a day and ending things they bought Chinese steel knife kits in bulk and told the employees to take the "Made In China" label off.
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By doing over 5 operations on each knife - they meet the criteria of Made in U.S.A.
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“We ground the China stamp off, boss. Only four more operations left.”

It’s sickening that so many people were taken advantage of by this company (which evidently it WAS a bunch of people working together to knowingly effect this con, not just Mr. Stewart), but boy that unserious “apology” is the star of the show.
 
The pictures I saw had the made in China stickers on the packaging or tang. It is usually not etched, so there is often no "grinding off" the made in China stuff. So I don't think removing a knife from a plastic bag or peeling a sticker off the tang would count as an "operation" even!
 
Taz said:
The pictures I saw had the made in China stickers on the packaging or tang. It is usually not etched, so there is often no "grinding off" the made in China stuff. So I don't think removing a knife from a plastic bag or peeling a sticker off the tang would count as an "operation" even!
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You're not taking into account the time it takes to get the residue out from under your fingernails. It's not quite as easy as you make it out.
 
White Knighting for a knife company is wild. It's hilarious to throw out the sinner card when the sin in question is worlds beyond what the common person has done.

But I could be wrong. Let he who has never bought goods from China and sold them as Made in the USA cast the first stone.
 
toker said:
White Knighting for a knife company is wild. It's hilarious to throw out the sinner card when the sin in question is worlds beyond what the common person has done.

But I could be wrong. Let he who has never bought goods from China and sold them as Made in the USA cast the first stone.
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anlod1.jpg
 
Don't we just use the knife to clean our fingernails? Wasn't that the "testing" done on the china blades to make sure they were equal to cpm154??? 😁🤣

My fingernails are usually ground down from the belt sander... no special cleaning needed! lol!🤷🏻‍♂️
 
KentuckyBlackBird said:
All of this knife and honor talk isn’t even relevant to what’s punching us all in the face, and very few of you have recognized it, if at all. We have read and seen supposed conversations and accusations on here of possibly real texts etc in this thread that indicate these shitbags were grooming and sexually manipulating people. How the fuck does one talk about a knife’s value or the market value without that being important!! Priorities vary I guess. I’ll gladly show myself out. This is billshit.
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I think it’s due to the thread residing in “bladeforums”. It’s pretty simple. I doubt few think it is anything other than reprehensible. Just not relevant to knives.
 
J. Doyle said:
Is Hess knives out of business? And was that due to something involving Mike? Ive been wondering.
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Last I heard, a couple of years ago, Hess was trying to revamp their process so that they could have more in stock on a website that sold region specific goods. But Hess never seemed to come back and the entire website presence is gone now.

And no, I don’t think directly linked to Mike. But I believe that the Hess craftsmen started the business when Mike ran Marbles under- they were somehow connected to the Marbles factory. After that they started Hess Knifeworks, only to face competition almost immediately from Bark River, run by the guy who got them laid off in the first place lol.

I always got the feeling they didn’t like Stewart- else why wouldn’t Bark River have hired two experienced knife factory workers in the local area?

I digress, back on topic lol
 
Chefget said:
Just like the Bushcrafters that came out for Survive
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From his perspective as a long time friend, I can understand his sentiments and desire to continue to support him, though he’s being quite selective in what he’s choosing to support and conveniently ignoring a LOT. But just a couple of qualifying thoughts on that: #1, I’d be a little more judicious in picking my friends to begin with; and #2, if a close friend of mine escaped my judicious eye and found themself in similarly deep doodoo, I admit I’d probably go on quietly supporting them, but I certainly wouldn’t be quite so public about it. However, I’m pretty sure I’d start keeping my distance at the first sign of such serious character flaws and never get to this point.
 
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