New custom is dull - definitely a downer

[liamstrain]

I know if one of my customers was unhappy, I would want to know. Even if there wasn't a good resolution to offer, it would be vitally important to avoid it in the future. How are we to learn, if we don't get honest feedback.

If the buyer is unwilling to ship it back, maybe there could be an arrangement made with a local craftsman to do the sharpening/or re-profiling where the maker might offset some or all of the costs?

 

[John M Cohea]

Well I will admit I have even let one slip out like that,but I was told about it and made it right,as I am sure this maker would.Shit happens,plain and simple,but most of us will correct mistakes like this if we are told about it.

 

[2knife]

This is way too much unnecessary drama. Sharpen it, and enjoy.
David

 

[Ben Seward]

From what you say it was never sharp. It would be one thing to forget to do the final sharpening, but you have to sharpen it at some point in order to test it...sounds like it was never tested:thumbdn:

 

[MDQBox]

This is way too much unnecessary drama. Sharpen it, and enjoy.
David

 

[betzner]

Won't mention the name, but just received a small fixed blade that I will use as an edc, and it's dull. Very disappointing. That's just something a custom maker absolutely cannot let happen. It's the first custom I bought that is dull. I'd really like to tell the maker I wasn't happy, but I just don't feel comfortable. Plus, I don't want to go through the time and hassle to send it back.

Note: edits made after posting to correct typos

I think it's important to provide all the choices:

1) Have the maker sharpen it properly; or

2) have the maker sharpen it properly; or

3) have the maker sharpen it properly; or

4) all of the above.

 

[Ernie1980]

I am speaking from experience here: learn to sharpen. This happened to me before and it upset me and cost me a lot to ship it back and forth to get it sharpened. Then I finally learned to just sharpen my knives myself, and it saved me time and money in the long run. Now I can take care of all of my dull knives:thumbup:

 

[keithf]

I think it's important to provide all the choices:

1) Have the maker sharpen it properly; or

2) have the maker sharpen it properly; or

3) have the maker sharpen it properly; or

4) all of the above.

Gotta agree with Betzner here. End of story,,,,,,,,,, next.
Cheers Keith

 

[Battle Creek Knives]

I'm positive your hard earned cash and your purchase was much appreciated by the maker and if it was a seasoned maker I'm sure he just did a batch a thru the shuffle somehow missed this final detail, not sure really as a paper test before boxing any knife should be mandatory at the minimum...

if its a newbie maker I think perhaps he may have just jumped the gun and shouldn't even be selling knives at this point..

either way I'd want to know, with no hard feelings.....

I disagree that this is to much drama for the knife, in a production environment stuff does happen with mass employees and poor QC, but this kinda thing turns some people off from buying hand-made knives...

take care,
rob

 

[Kevin Jones]

This is way too much unnecessary drama. Sharpen it, and enjoy.
David

Unnecessary? Custom knives cost quite a bit of money and the least a purchaser can expect is a blade that edge
geometry is correct and sharpened to perfection.

 

[Kohai999]

Unnecessary? Custom knives cost quite a bit of money and the least a purchaser can expect is a blade that edge
geometry is correct and sharpened to perfection.

What Kevin said.....and....if a maker somehow lets a piece leave the shop without an edge....that's called falling down on the job..."shit happens" or not....it is a failure to complete one of the most important AND basic aspects of professional knifemaking.

Unless we are talking about art knives where it is clearly explained by the maker to the buyer that the knife will not have an edge that can readily cut.

Best Regards,

STeven Garsson

 

[2knife]

From what you say it was never sharp. It would be one thing to forget to do the final sharpening, but you have to sharpen it at some point in order to test it...sounds like it was never tested:thumbdn:

Ben,
You bring up a good point. Knife should have been tested before it left the shop. If it wasnt, it shows that the maker doesn't care about the quality of his work.
David

 

[The Amazing Virginian]

I am with everyone else here that says "Let the maker know!" There could be a lot of reasons why this happened, and Lord knows none of us are perfect and we all make mistakes sometimes. But regardless of what the reasons are, I bet the maker wants you to be happy with the knife and would want to know about this.

I received a custom knife several months ago and I was very, very disappointed with the fit and finish. There were several issues, and I knew they were substantial problems and I was not just being "super-picky."

I let the maker know about the issues with the knife, and he thanked me profusely for telling him. Turns out he was dealing with some issues when he made my knife, and that knife really should not have gone out the way it did. And in my case it was a lot more than just not being sharp. I knew that this knife had issues that were beyond repair and that to address these issues, he was going to have to scrap this knife and start over from scratch. Still, when the maker received the knife he was very apologetic and put me right at the top of the list to make another knife. Within a few months, he sent me another knife. The new knife was soooooooooo much better than the original. I was and am happy. And from everything the maker told me, he is happy to have had the chance to fix something that went wrong and turn an unsatisfied customer into a happy one. It was a good thing for everyone all around that I contacted the maker about the issues I had with his knife, and gave him an opportunity to make it right.

I really think you owe it to the maker and to yourself to politely let him know why you are not happy, and to offer him an opportunity to address it.

Good luck!

 

[Lorien]

^that says everything that anybody needs to know about this topic.
This illustrates good business practice perfectly. No matter the business.

 

[Kevin Jones]

I am with everyone else here that says "Let the maker know!" There could be a lot of reasons why this happened, and Lord knows none of us are perfect and we all make mistakes sometimes. But regardless of what the reasons are, I bet the maker wants you to be happy with the knife and would want to know about this.
I received a custom knife several months ago and I was very, very disappointed with the fit and finish. There were several issues, and I knew they were substantial problems and I was not just being "super-picky."

I let the maker know about the issues with the knife, and he thanked me profusely for telling him. Turns out he was dealing with some issues when he made my knife, and that knife really should not have gone out the way it did. And in my case it was a lot more than just not being sharp. I knew that this knife had issues that were beyond repair and that to address these issues, he was going to have to scrap this knife and start over from scratch. Still, when the maker received the knife he was very apologetic and put me right at the top of the list to make another knife. Within a few months, he sent me another knife. The new knife was soooooooooo much better than the original. I was and am happy. And from everything the maker told me, he is happy to have had the chance to fix something that went wrong and turn an unsatisfied customer into a happy one. It was a good thing for everyone all around that I contacted the maker about the issues I had with his knife, and gave him an opportunity to make it right.

I really think you owe it to the maker and to yourself to politely let him know why you are not happy, and to offer him an opportunity to address it.

Good luck!

^that says everything that anybody needs to know about this topic.
This illustrates good business practice perfectly. No matter the business.

I don't agree. Good business practice would be suppling the customer with a 'top quality' custom knife 'the first time', not supplying a knife that was so bad it had to be scrapped, making the customer deal with the issue and having to wait a few months for a replacement. We are discussing Custom Knives here which are supposed to be the best of the best as far as knives are concerned. These types of issues reflect badly on custom knives in general.

 

[Kohai999]

I don't agree. Good business practice would be suppling the customer with a 'top quality' custom knife 'the first time', not supplying a knife that was so bad it had to be scrapped, making the customer deal with the issue and having to wait a few months for a replacement. We are discussing Custom Knives here which are supposed to be the best of the best as far as knives are concerned. These types of issues reflect badly on custom knives in general.

I mostly agree with you, Kevin. For a neophyte collector, a screwed up custom knife can really be a kiss of death to their satisfaction with and pursuit of custom knife collecting.

It's when we are talking about collectors with some mileage that there is some allowance for "uh-oh". Both Ken and Lorien are fairly savvy collectors and can see past the financial aspect and gain joy from the personal connection that you get when dealing with a custom maker.

Don't get me wrong, my personal thing is that I like knives that are just about perfect, which has led me to the wonderful ocd world of learning how to fix the things myself...and have a garage full of knifemaker grade equipment like carbide faced filing jigs, buffer/grinder, belts from Germany and the USA in grits from 36 to 1000, drill press, thread checkers, calipers(both digital and analog), indexing fixtures.......

That said, I'll give SOME allowance for uh-oh.....but not that much...my latest peeve is makers who insist on soldering guards and then can't seem to get the flux neutralized....sold a knife for a loss at Blade after pointing out the problem and am happy to get rid of it....the maker is an "A" grade a-hole....and I have no idea why I ever got work from him in the first place.

Best Regards,

STeven Garsson

 

[Kevin Jones]

I mostly agree with you, Kevin. For a neophyte collector, a screwed up custom knife can really be a kiss of death to their satisfaction with and pursuit of custom knife collecting.

It's when we are talking about collectors with some mileage that there is some allowance for "uh-oh". Both Ken and Lorien are fairly savvy collectors and can see past the financial aspect and gain joy from the personal connection that you get when dealing with a custom maker.

Don't get me wrong, my personal thing is that I like knives that are just about perfect, which has led me to the wonderful ocd world of learning how to fix the things myself...and have a garage full of knifemaker grade equipment like carbide faced filing jigs, buffer/grinder, belts from Germany and the USA in grits from 36 to 1000, drill press, thread checkers, calipers(both digital and analog), indexing fixtures.......

That said, I'll give SOME allowance for uh-oh.....but not that much...my latest peeve is makers who insist on soldering guards and then can't seem to get the flux neutralized....sold a knife for a loss at Blade after pointing out the problem and am happy to get rid of it....the maker is an "A" grade a-hole....and I have no idea why I ever got work from him in the first place.

Best Regards,

STeven Garsson

Steven, a maker forgetting to sharpen a knife before sending it out can be a "uh-oh". A maker sending a knife to a collector with multiple fit/finish issues to the point it can mot be repaired sounds more like the maker created a knife that was below his/her usual standards and sent it out anyway "hoping" the collector was going to pay for and accept it.

I don't see where it makes any difference whether the knife was sent to a novice collector or a seasoned collector they should not have to dealt with the trouble, anxiety, time and sometime extra expense in getting an issue like this resolved. Good business practice should start with the knife order and creation of such, not with the resolution of an sub-standard custom knife being rejected by the customer.

 

[crimsonfalcon07]

I would absolutely want to know if one of mine wasn't sharpened to the customer's satisfaction. Funny thing is, I feel like some of the blades I've made have gotten duller over time, and that's without use. I'm probably crazy, but for that reason, I always touch the edge up before a blade leaves my shop. It's easier for someone like me though, because I don't have tons of customers, and I definitely prefer it that way.

 

[Lorien]

the problem is not the problem, the problem is how you deal with the problem.
That's what makes or breaks a business, (or a life for that matter). That's all I'm saying.
Ken's case illustrates this rather well, as he the customer seems content with the eventual outcome.

 

[Kevin Jones]

the problem is not the problem, the problem is how you deal with the problem.
That's what makes or breaks a business, (or a life for that matter). That's all I'm saying.
Ken's case illustrates this rather well, as he the customer seems content with the eventual outcome.

I'm sure Ken is content with the eventual outcome as he was not stuck with a poor quality custom knife, but as president of the CKCA, I'm concerned with his and other collectors aggravation in getting there. Or even more important, collectors being put in this position by the small % of custom knifemakers that reflect badly on the thousands of excellent knifemakers and the customs community.

I grow aggrieved with the lame 'should have never left the shop' stores that are sent to the CKCA. The knifemaker is the only one whose in control of what leaves his shop. So my issue with your original post was your praising a knifemaker's business practices because he was forced to deal with a problem he should never had created.