Old Hickory critique

[Battleship]

I have been buying the Old Hickory line of knives and, i really like these knives. I would like to offer a critique, all the knives i have bought 9 of them where very dull and three had rust. I am sending back a cleaver because of rust and a Skinner that was covered in scratches and rusted. I have been telling my friends how great these knives are, and i still believe that. But you guys need to do a better job of sharpening them.

 

[Toooj]

Battleship,

Thanks for your thoughts. We are working hard on this. It is troubling to me also. Plain Carbon steels rust. We all know this. However, I believe a consumer should have the right to be able to make their own knives rusty without help from the manufacturer.
I also have a dream that one day every single knife that comes from Ontario will be razor sharp out of the box. Unfortunately, for the time being, the margins for our some of our product lines will not allow for extended sharpening times. If our manufacturing side can increase production efficiencies and reduce scrap and waste (Muda for all of you TQM/ 6 Sigma students), we can add the necessary sharpening steps.
We have active projects to stop the rusting and better refine the sharpening....Heck, we have major projects moving to improve the major processes through out the entire plant. We also have a new Quality Dept. that are part Pitbull, they are relentless in there pursuit of Continuous Improvement.

Battleship, Thanks for being a loyal customer. We are trying hard to get better...and we will. If there are any issues with your Ontario knives that you can't live with, please call our Customer Service Dept. They will be glad to help you out. They are very accommodating and will make it right.

Hope this helps.

Best Regards,

Paul Tsujimoto
VP of Engineering
Ontario Knife Company
Hope this helps

 

[kshitij]

Hi,
The old hickory 7 inch butchers is the knife i use most often as compared to any of the other knives i have. I liked it so much i got another one just in case ontario stops making them
Gotta agree that both knives came pretty dull but it hardly takes any work to get them hair poppin sharp. So it is a non issue to me. As far as rusting is concerned, i have been lucky to not have either knife to come with any rust. With use, the knife takes a lovely patina.
All in all, the old hickory line makes for a true value knife for routine task around the house.
Cheers.