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

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Larrin said:
Those are two Bark River knives. And the compositions shown on the screen are totally different than what he reported in the AI readout. For example, it says tungsten was not detected, the element you asked about before.
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After reading this, I went back and watched again and you're right. Tungsten is shown in the "Not Detected" category for both readings. I've asked the author if he's cross-checked the screen-shown amounts against the Excel file he got from the tech, as something is fishy there.
 
chevyrulez1 said:
Most of this thread has focused on the ethics surrounding BR and others, but there is another aspect of all this that I want to mention. The root cause of all of this mischief was that the company got in financial trouble. This goes back to comments I have made in other threads about the sustainability of the current knife market, pricing, etc. Sounds like to me (regardless of the unethical way they handled it) the law of supply and demand caught up with them and Bark River's business model failed.
I am afraid there are going to be more knife makers falling by the wayside soon due to economic factors. As fuel and everything else gets more expensive, I suspect many of these "premium" companies are going to find their revenues suffering as demand for premium/luxury knives will start to decline.
People only have so much money, and sometimes they have to make hard decisions about how they are going to spend it. I personally have never purchased a Bark River knife because I couldn't justify the price for what I was getting. Apparently I was not the only one.
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I strongly disagree. Chicken or the egg? I believe the root cause of the business failure is his financial wrong doing and his unethical business practices not the market going sour on him. If he had run the business in an ethical manner he wouldn’t have the problems that caused all this mayhem in the first place.

As you can see just in this thread, he has a long history of sketchy dealings.
 
StuntDouble said:
The depressing thing isn’t that it’s happened, it’s that I’m seeing people actually justify what he did and continue to support him.
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It's been that way the entire time, before this whole debacle broke public, bringing up what Mike Stewart had done to Brian or the steels being "mislabeled" would illicit fans to come out the woodwork to defend him aggressively. They don't even want you bringing it up at all. Like it's a myth an we're slandering a legend.

This is an epic I told you so, but one that I don't get any joy in, it's sad it went on for as long as it did, that Mike was able to stay open as long as he did, that all the people he screwed over through the decades just slinked away without recourse, that all the other things we won't go into depth were taking place. Because people kept supporting him from dealers to fans who he could do no wrong in their eyes.
 
toker said:
"Each one of us, to a man, to a woman, I can say with absolute certainty, have also done things that are inconsistent with character."

I've never seen his videos before, but I'm positive that I won't be watching any of his other videos.
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Same. Could only watch a few minutes, skipping here and there. Not gonna watch a gotdang crybaby rooting for a shyster.
 
Mitchell Knives said:
I'd normally be shocked at this kind of revelation, but he has a history of scamming people going back at least 2 decades.

It's amazing the levels of dishonesty people will stoop to.
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Agree, I remember even back probably around 2006 how sketchy mike and his company was. I never got near the things since finding out. This isn’t a shock to me, and really shouldn’t be for anyone else who was paying attention.
 
jlauffer said:
Check post #838...he says he knew.
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Danny Linguini said:
Actually he has admitted to knowing, but then went on to say that his father had the final say in those business decisions and they were just following his orders. And then further justified it claiming they did it to keep the business afloat, and he has a family with 5 kids to support, blah blah blah. The problem is, there’s so much more to the story leading up to them being in that financial position at all that he also had to be a contributing part of going back many years. So I take this as just so much horseshit.
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Wow. That's just as bad or worse.
Thank you both for the clarification.
 
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FoxholeAtheist said:
After reading this, I went back and watched again and you're right. Tungsten is shown in the "Not Detected" category for both readings. I've asked the author if he's cross-checked the screen-shown amounts against the Excel file he got from the tech, as something is fishy there.
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Or if the AI misread or hallucinated its own values.
 
Danny Linguini said:
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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I don't understand this take. As a close friend, or even a family member, your responsibility is even greater to hold them to account. I do not care who you are, whether you are a brother, a close friend, a professional partner; if you are engaged in immoral and unethical behavior, I am 100% going to be calling you out on it and will not be supporting you, quietly or otherwise.

To cite an example (not knife related so my apologies): One of my best friends had a tumultuous relationship with his then wife. The pressure got to him and he stepped out on her. I called him out on it and dressed him down pretty good. We didn't speak for a long, long time. I acknowledged that the relationship with his partner was unhealthy but there is a right way and wrong way to go about addressing such things. He chose the wrong way and I didn't mince words.

The point being, just because you are friends or family with someone who is out of line, it doesn't warrant tossing your integrity aside when it's inconvenient and uncomfortable. Hold them accountable until they change their ways for the better.
 
WedgeAntilles said:
And this is part of the reason I'm such a fan of Chris Reeve Knives. Despite all the complaining about availability online, they've taken a carefully measured approach to growth, fully aware of the ebbs and flows of this industry and the economy at large.

Unscrupulous people do unscrupulous things. It's why those that saw Mike Stewart lacking scruples weren't surprised when this happened. Quite often, people show you their propensity for douchebaggery long before they get caught.
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I've read that Chris Reeves is the reason why Mike Stewart never went to Blade or other Knife/Outdoor shows. Stewart screwed over Chris Reeves like he's screwed over many other Knife Makers.
 
mtice1 said:
Sadly the cost to verify your BRK knife steel will exceed the value of the knife (with shipping costs and charge for steel testing). Bark River’s are what they are to whom ever owns or buys one. The unsavory reputation is now set in stone.
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I think it would be fairly easy for most Bark river owners on this forum to call several of the pawnshops in their area and ask if they have an xrf tester in house to check metals. If they do I would bet if you took your knives there and maybe paid them a buck or two per knife they would test each knife and you could take a picture of the composition shown for each knife as they tested. From what I have seen it only takes maybe 10 to 15 seconds to test each knife so figure a minute or so per knife to include the picture taking of the composition. Pawn shop guys like easy and quick money. Someone should then start a dedicated thread and each person should post what each knife model they tested was and year of purchase if remembered. That info could be updated daily on a spreadsheet and at least provide some sort of database to document the type of steel likely used and how widespread the problem might be.

I would bet most for the earlier Bark River models made years ago from A2 are probably A2 or even if the fraud was ongoing from the beginning probably 1095 or 5160 which are very cheap, easy to heat treat, perform well, and cheaper than bringing in steel from China. Most folks would never be able to tell the steels apart in use as long as the knives had a proper heat treat. If you have used your knives and sharpened them a few times you already know if they held up to whatever cutting/chopping duties you put them to and if they performed well or not. I only have a very early Gameskeeper in A2 and one of the early Goloks marked Prototype which I think were 0170-6c (Camillus designation for 50100B or cold steel"s Carbon V) and they both hold a very good edge and are easy to resharpen with the convex grind. Whatever steel they might be if they are not A2 or 0170-6c doesn't really concern me since I am not a collector but a user. If I was a collector and owned more than 1 or 2 I would be royally pissed and I would not blame you if you wanted to form a lynch mob.

If DLT and KSF and other dealers were smart they would rent an xrf tester and test each blade in stock for those that might still be interested in buying one if the price was lowered substantially.
 
Larrin said:
I don’t hear anywhere in the video where he states that but if you would like to give the time stamp I am happy to listen again.

Edit: Nevermind. My listening skills are working just fine. He said in the comments he hasn’t tested any other MagnaCut knives.
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I think this is key. His testing equipment and regime, and then combining that with current AI seems like an unreliable method when dealing with a highly technical issue.

My experience with LLMs so far is that they have a way of rounding off the edges of everything to the point of rendering its opinions on technical matters rather worthless. I think this would include tiny % in powdered metallurgy.
 
Sharp & Fiery said:
Kids google and read BF. I’m all for outing the shady practices of BRK and any other bad actors out there.

With all the content in this thread in GKD…I wouldn’t want my nieces or nephews or anyone else's kids to be reading some of this stuff.
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LOL, anything in this thread is tame to what kids see and hear everyday.
 
DMG said:
I would bet that Mike is doing fine financially. I'm a business owner so I wind up friends with other business owners. I have watched a few gradually take more and more money out of the business until it is just a skeleton of what it once was. Then they disappear and pop up later in a warmer climate near the ocean.

Employees, vendors, creditors, etc are left wondering what happened and trying to get paid. Most of them don't get paid because this has been planned for years. Money has been moved over time. The owner has made sure not to PG any credit. The company has taken on more debt than would make sense. People look at the balance sheet and say you can't get blood out of a rock and forget about it. Unless they owe a lot of $$ to a big bank, they aren't worth chasing. So they get away with it.
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There are ways to go after personal finances if the owner of an LLC has committed fraud. I guarantee that Mike Stewart was paying himself handsomely.
 
I keep thinking of the few random bits I've had direct ship from China. HDMI cables and such. The packaging is very obvious. The paperwork is very obvious. The company name was very obvious. The labels were very obvious. So unless the recieving floor is a mile away from everyone and the recieving office was all out certain days this would be next to impossible for people to not know about. And people in the workplace talk. Word gets around.
 
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