Life-time guarantee by knifemakers

golok

golok

Joined
Oct 20, 2000
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I was just wondering if there are knifemakers who dare to offer such a guarantee on their knives.

Some of the bigger names in the area of production knives, or semi-production knives do offer the lifetime warranty. But I am in the dark as to those knifemakers who have made a similar offer.

"You break them, we'll replace them," is a pretty bold gesture by any standard.

Who (if any) are those who have put such a guarantee on their hand-made blades?
 
Me if i can't trust it to be used as a Cutting instrument i won't sell it !! i only guarantee them for my " Working lifetime " I Alway's offer Cleaning and Sharpening free of charge , you must cover the shipping back and forth . if you break it cutting something i will re make it free . :)
 
Strider will replace their knives, no matter what you manage to do to the knife, even if you have grossly abused the blade for things that it was never intended to be used for.

As far as I know, they have the best guarantee in the business. "If you manage to break it, we'll replace it" is their guarantee.
 
I offer a lifetime warrenty..mine of course.

It is not too difficult to make a high quality knife that will last a lifetime so why no do it.
 
I'm still new to the knifemaking arena, but I offer my "no BS guarantee", as long as I'm able to work on it, I'll fix it. I've had to repair a tip so far. I feel that you need to stand behind anything that you put your name on.

Will
 
Originally posted by george tichbourne
I offer a lifetime warrenty..mine of course.

It is not too difficult to make a high quality knife that will last a lifetime so why no do it.
Click to expand...
 
I am a new knifemker, and I have wondered about this. I feel that my warrenty should be as long as I am able to make or repair knives. But as a new maker how many customers will believe me. Obviously people come and go from knifemaking. Guys who have been around for a while who have shown that they will be there to fix your knives years down the road obviously have more credibility than I do just starting out. I have thought about this a lot, and as long as I am able to make knives, and have the equipment to make knives I will warrenty my blades against anything, short of just trying to break the knife. I want my knives to be used, and if one of them doesn't hold up I would like the opportunity to replace the blade. I just don't know how I should word the warrenty. I don't want to mislead the buyer and say life time warrenty when I am aware that life can change in a hurry when you least expect it. I am 25 years old I intend to make knives forever, but if I am forced to sell my equpiment, or it is destroyed in a natural disaster(already happened once), or my life just takes a drastic change I realize I may not be able to live up to what people expect that warrenty to be. What would you guys say or do? I am definately a man of my word, and if I sell a knife tomorrow that is flawed in some way, and then get mangled Saturday, I would feel realy guilty about not being able to fix the knife, you know what I mean?
Kyle Fuglesten
 
Warranties are interesting. The fact that a maker is willing to put a lifetime warraty on a knife tells me that he/she has confidence that their knives will stand the test of time. What I tend to find are that warranties are needed when a knife is fairly new. That is when problems usually arise, if they are going to happen at all. I have never expected a maker to warranty a knife against abusive usage and a well made knife is likely to last a lifetime when used properly.

One thing that really impresses me is when I see a maker put a lifetime warranty on folders. With folders having parts that are prone to wear with age, warrantying one for life is being very confident indeed.
 
I'll go along with George too. I've never worked up a written warranty statement or certificate to send with a knife when I ship it out but I always make sure my customers know what my warranty policy is. When you warranty a knife you have to extend a certain amount of trust to the buyer. And I figure my simple warranty will keep honest folks honest and so far it's never been abused. I have no problem guaranteeing a knife for my 'knifemaking lifetime'. As far as what's covered in my warranty, I just leave it up to common sense and don't try to get too detailed. My step-dad and teacher, Bob Ogg, always made a point of saying his knives were gauranteed for 'his' lifetime, not yours. That works for me too.
 
The Strider warrenty has an abuse clause. I know because it was cited to me when I damaged one of their knives duplicating testing they use to promote their knives. Threads can be seen in the archived forum.

In respect to warrenties, all custom knifemakers I have dealt with that are open about what their knives can do have no problems with warrenties. This is only a concern when the promotion of the tools differs from the functionality. It is a hype issue mainly.

To be fair to custom knifemakers, it is a lot easier for a production ship to have an unlimited warrenty (covering abuse) because as price goes down warrenty costs drops as well. This is why it is very easy to find excellent warrenties on very cheap products in general.

-Cliff
 
Cliff Stamp: The Strider warrenty has an abuse clause. I know because it was cited to me when I damaged one of their knives duplicating testing they use to promote their knives. >>>

Cliff,
Thanks for letting me know this, as I was not aware of it. Strider does not ship a warranty with their knives, and I was going off their quote on the website.

What kind of test did you perform on your Strider, and what model was it? Did they ever wind up replacing it?

Thanks for any info, Cliff.
 
This brings up another intriguing thought - if a custom maker says they will replace it and they maintain a one year plus wait, do you go to the end of the line and wait for your replacement?

I would also imagine a limit would be placed on "one per customer", meaning you might find someone who is so abusive to knives that they break more than one knife from the same maker.
 
Boink, those are both good questions. The way I see it, if I get a knife back from a customer and the damage is obviously my fault, that knife work takes priority and I will stop whatever I'm doing and take care of the problem. But that's just me and my shop rules. When a knife is already paid for, I want to keep that good customer happy. Of course, I'd push myself to get that work done in record time too so I wouldn't get too far behind. I'm notoriously slow and methodical with my knifework so that's saying something for me. On the other hand, if I'm unsure about the reason for the failure I might have to think about it for a while! :D

As far as abusive customers, that can be a tricky bit of business. Some folks really don't know just how far they can push a given blade before it breaks or is damaged to the point that it's no longer useful. Luckily, none of my customers have ever found that point in the knives I've sold (to my knowledge) so far. But I'm prepared for that eventuality. I figure that since I made the knife I'll have a real good idea what caused the failure. Honesty always pays off and it's no different with warranty work. If someone were to send back a knife I'd made with obvious abuse as the cause but were honest about it I would most likely service the warranty because it's in my best interest to do so. However, it would be with the stipulation that Mr. Customer learn from past mistakes and 'let's not have this same problem again please'. We all make mistakes and I've been on the dumbass end of deals like that a time or two. An understanding knifemaker can make a friend for life by showing that they're human and can understand at least one mistake. Honesty and integrity works both ways between customers and makers and when each has a good measure of both there's not much room for problems. Of course, that's just my opinion.
 
I too offer a lifetime(MINE)warrenty..regarding workmanship & materials, common sense does apply...exotics like Ivory Stag,& most unstabilized woods require a guarantee that they will change or move, or shrink over time. I will however resharpen,& return the knife as long as I am funtioning as a knife maker with out further cost to the customer.
 
Hi kids: I have offered a lifetime guarantee since I started making knives in 1980.
I get about 1-2 knives per month back from customers who usually want a re-finish or up grade on handle material. (two jobs I hate to do). I charge for these services as this is a customer choice situation.
Occassionally, maybe once every two months I get a knife for lock adjustment, this is done at no cost (except return shipping) whether it was customer damage or not. I want my knives to keep working and my customers to be happy!
In my 23 or so years of knifemaking, I have never once had a knife returned with a broken blade, spring or handle. Broken clips? maybe one every year, always from customer abuse to date, but replaced at no cost any way.
I have seen knives badly abused or just plain worn down (blades sharpened so much they did not look like the original profles) but I can honestly say that I do not know of a single event in which the knife failed or broke from normal, even rough use. Because of this I offer the guarantee to replace or repair a damaged knife.
Hope this answers some questions. BOB
 
Turnkey, the edge was damaged by hitting a concrete block, the tip was later cracked off by prying. No it wasn't replaced, however it was an evaluation piece, these would only be replaced if found to be defective, or the review was cut short by unexpected behavior, which wasn't the case here.

naturalslave, read a little further in the same thread and you will note Mick clearly states the warrenty is voided under such actions. There is also the level of personal attacks which hardly is inline with the promoted warrenty. Bill Martino and Jerry Busse both offer actual full warrenties, and don't publically get into a name calling and personal attack fest with individuals when the warrenty is applied.

Many other custom makers do the same, most don't publically promote such guarantees though.

MaxTheKnife :

Some folks really don't know just how far they can push a given blade before it breaks or is damaged to the point that it's no longer useful.
Click to expand...

That is the really difficult part. I have bought a lot of custom knives (in the sense they were origional designs), when asking a maker to work with a steel, hardness range, or geometry they are not familiar with, I think the user has a shared responsibility with the maker. There is also a responsibility to discuss scope of work with the maker, it doesn't take much time to outline what you intend to do. It is much better to discuss something before you do it, than after.

-Cliff
 
Cliff: Turnkey, the edge was damaged by hitting a concrete block, the tip was later cracked off by prying. >>>

Cliff, just wondering if you hit the concrete block on purpose, or accident.

I checked some archives, and observed that Strider warrantees their knives for pretty much everything. However, if there is a case of blatant, obscene abuse, they'll mark the knife and won't replace it again. The case I'm thinking of is one in which a reviewer purposely tears into a cement block to see how much abuse the blade could take.

Obviously, there's not a knife on the plaent that's going to chop through a concrete block, so I can see Strider's reluctance to replace such a suicidal blade "test".
 
Lifetime except for outright abuse. The first knife I sold came back to me by the buyer. The blade was in terrible shape, left in the exposed bed of a pickup all winter with deer gut blood and slime all over it. Beleive it or not, the osage orange, silver,antler sections handle held up good. The carbon steel blade was in terrible shape. The fancy handmade sheath was ok. The client's brother that owned the knife was the culprit. The client was a solid guy, just wanted to know what I could do. I cleaned it up and buffed what I could. It didn't look brand new because of the original mirror polish and the neglect rust pitting. The customer left happy, fortunately. Normally I would not have gone to this trouble for free, but the customer was my first one, and I at least owed him for a lot more than just a free fix it job. He has referred much business to me, and I am eternally thankfull for his thoghtfullness.
 
since i sell alot of culinary knives i do tell people that putting them in the dishwasher voids the wannranty on wood handled knives. my line is! ITS A DISHWASHER, NOT A KNIFE WASHER! :D
 
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