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

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vjb.knife said:
I wonder if this includes Vehement Knives. I am not sure of the entire relationship between Vehement and Bark River but I really like many of the designs out of Vehement.
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I love Matt and Jenna, and also Jason and Tara. I may talk to them privately about this because I am still a little bothered that everyone had these experiences with BRK and yet everyone also... Mostly just said nothing, and then more people got burned.

But then I think about it, and I did more or less the same thing.
 
I'm just a regular guy and don't know very much, especially about the knife making industry. I don't know the interconnectedness of everyone, but I feel terrible for people like Lon who don't even want to be in the industry anymore because of Mike Stewart. It actually makes me incredibly angry. I hope he gets prison time. He deserves it.

I recently found out about Lon Humphrey's work and acquired a couple of his knives. Excellent work! I am saddened that there won't be more.
 
Mistwalker said:
There is a funny storry behind how this knife, the Strike Force 2, came to exist. It goes back to July of 2016.

I made a post about it in my own group on Facebook in May of last year.

Two things to bear in mind about Mike, he tends to play on egos, but he apparently doesn't know as much about the people he approaches as he lets on.

In the spring of 2016 when he approached me with all sorts of compliments about my work, I thought he must have been following my work. And I had definitely been following his history.

So when I sent him this rendering from Morgan Taylor of Schrade. I had no intentions of giving him any info on new designs I had drwan out.
...
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Which I originally drew out as a knife to be made by TOPS
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As a much larger version of the Tibo design TOPS had been making since the spring of 2012
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Which Taylor didn't have the tooling to do, and it turned out like this
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So, I assumed when he sent me this rendering back he understood the dark area was the flat and the lighter area was the grind. There was nothing there to denote a fuller of any kind to my thinking.
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2v2ZTg5Snx6KqN5.jpg

........

And the conversation went on from the spring of 2016 through the spring of 2017
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And then nothing else was said through 2017, I assumed he decided the old design wasn't something he was interested in and wrote it off. I wasn't interested in working with his anyway. I had just sent him the drawings to see what he would do with them.

Then on Feb 14 of 2018 I was sent a link to this by a friend who knew what I had done.
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And when I saw the depth and design of the fuller he put in it, I had never in my life been so glad that someone didn't give me any credit for a design idea they got from me :rolleyes:🤣
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Because apparently it's not selling very well....
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......
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I don't see the resemblance. /shrug
 
tltt said:

Long post By Anthony Lombardo, who was a salesman during the BlackJack Years. He goes by Bladeandbarrel Bladeandbarrel here. It's an interesting historical look at Stewart -​

​

Anthony Lombardo​



• Supplier & Customer Issues: Vendors have noted that BRK had been liquidating stock through massive "clearance sales" and "waffles" for months, which many now see as a last-ditch effort to raise cash. Customers who placed deposits on long-delayed pre-orders (some dating back to 2021) are now reporting difficulties getting refunds.
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Waffles?🤨
 
knarfeng said:
Just for clarification, if they did use a belt which had been used on carbon steel, then used that belt on stainless, it is indeed possible that they contaminated the oxide layer on the stainless steel, making corrosion of the stainless blade possible. It is a known issue when processing both carbon steel and stainless steel in the same shop.

Stainless steel is stainless because of the adherent oxide layer. If you contaminate that layer with bits of non-stainless steel, corrosion of the steel is possible.

So, the supplied explanation could have been actually what happened.
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Something like that happened to me once with a titanium alloy sword blade. It had accidentally been wet-ground at 36 grit with a belt I'd used to grind some mild steel. The next day it looked like it was rusting all over!

Now whenever I need to grind carbon steel, I just grab the most worn-out belt and when the grinding is done that belt gets stomped on so it never happens again. 😆
 
tltt said:
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Link to a vid he made, may or may not work -
https://www.facebook.com/reel/2727980110912084 .

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Add - Martin was referencing knowing the ''Ripoff Report" lady's husband, who posted the 2006 blade blank post.

Lon has been posting kudos for people outing BRKT. He mentioned he's much happier in his new job as a historical blacksmith at Roscoe Villlage.
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Thank you for posting this.








madcap_magician said:
I love Matt and Jenna, and also Jason and Tara. I may talk to them privately about this because I am still a little bothered that everyone had these experiences with BRK and yet everyone also... Mostly just said nothing, and then more people got burned.

But then I think about it, and I did more or less the same thing.
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When all complaining about being shafted does is place someone in the crosshairs of the zealots, and the onslaught of knife community Karens get to attacking someone on social media, it doesn’t matter what the facts are. So yeah, you’re right - more people got burned. But the folks you just listed as friends didn’t have to continue hearing about how awful THEY are because they took Stewart to task. They could just as easily have risked losing customers from being the target of this lunatic angst. Frustrating as hell, but it shouldn’t be that much of a surprise - even just as it relates to Mike Stewart, it’s been 50 years like this.
 
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One thing that has not been mentioned in this thread is thoughts on whether Bark River Knife sales on the secondary market through BladeForums Knife Exchange will be permitted? Given many dealers have pulled them down from their websites but DLT & KSF continue to sell them it is a fair question where does Bladeforum stand on this? Certainly circulating these potentially fraudulently marked blades in the secondary market through BladeForums is also a concern.
 
Matthew Gregory said:
Thank you for posting this.

When all complaining about being shafted does is place someone in the crosshairs of the zealots, and the onslaught of knife community Karens get to attacking someone on social media, it doesn’t matter what the facts are. So yeah, you’re right - more people got burned. But the folks you just listed as friends didn’t have to continue hearing about how awful THEY are because they took Stewart to task. They could just as easily have risked losing customers from being the target of this lunatic angst. Frustrating as hell, but it shouldn’t be that much of a surprise - even just as it relates to Mike Stewart, it’s been 50 years like this.
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It's true. Plenty of people did raise the issues, and it made not one bit of difference because the leopard wasn't going to change his spots.
 
Never a good thing when your knife has a spontaneous disassembly.
mtice1 said:
One thing that has not been mentioned in this thread is thoughts on whether Bark River Knife sales on the secondary market through BladeForums Knife Exchange will be permitted? Given many dealers have pulled them down from their websites but DLT & KSF continue to sell them it is a fair question where does Bladeforum stand on this? Certainly circulating these potentially fraudulently marked blades in the secondary market through BladeForums is also a concern.
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I’d say that maybe a sticky post in the knife exchange section might not be a bad idea. Just an announcement of what happened, the pertinent details, and buy at your own risk.
 
mtice1 said:
One thing that has not been mentioned in this thread is thoughts on whether Bark River Knife sales on the secondary market through BladeForums Knife Exchange will be permitted? Given many dealers have pulled them down from their websites but DLT & KSF continue to sell them it is a fair question where does Bladeforum stand on this? Certainly circulating these potentially fraudulently marked blades in the secondary market through BladeForums is also a concern.
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StuntDouble said:
Never a good thing when your knife has a spontaneous disassembly.

I’d say that maybe a sticky post in the knife exchange section might not be a bad idea. Just an announcement of what happened, the pertinent details, and buy at your own risk.
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I agree with StuntDouble. As long as there is disclosure then let people make their own decision.

I have had both good and bad knives from BR - one had a catastrophic edge failure from doing what Mike Stewart said the knife was ideal for, and yet the one that I still have performs as advertised. So anything sold on the exchange should be viewed in that light - it's a crapshoot and buyers should go into it with full knowledge of the situation. A link to this thread would be a good way for the disclosure to be made.
 
madcap_magician said:
I love Matt and Jenna, and also Jason and Tara. I may talk to them privately about this because I am still a little bothered that everyone had these experiences with BRK and yet everyone also... Mostly just said nothing, and then more people got burned.

But then I think about it, and I did more or less the same thing.
Click to expand...

People tend to look the other way unless they are directly affected. I mentioned Strider previously, but plenty of makers have had low moments like Dustin Turpin, Will Moon, Frank Fischer, Tony Marfione, Elija Isham, etc… all while continuing to have a following within this community despite their personal issues.
 
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