People who blatantly and fraudulently sell knives as hand made when they are blanks..

As a maker of knives using premade blades, I can usually, quickly, pick out knives that were made from blanks because I see the designs daily. I've been finding more and more people who are making and selling these knives but fraudulently passing them off as their own designs and ground with their own hands.

One guy in particular sells a kitchen knife using the Prestige Chef's blade offered by Jantz...he has an asking price of $650 for it. Yes, SIX HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS! He also claims that it is ATS-34 stainless, when the blank is actually 440C. I thought well, maybe he just copied the design....trying to give him the benefit of the doubt. Upon closer inspection of the blade it looks identical to one that I ordered from Jantz. There are some that appears to have a corner rounded here and there, but that still doesn't make it his.

After going over his website and then his Facebook page and reading comments he had made about "learning how to make knives from his grandfather" I had had enough and called him out in private messaging then publicly on his page. Instead of responding, he deleted all my comments and then blocked me. If that doesn't scream "caught red handed" I don't know what does.

It really burns my ass that this guy is taking people for a ride for enormous amounts of money and nothing can be done about it.

 

To go further, this maker has an oyster knife that he claims "took years to develop and perfect this blade". Garden & Gun magazine did a write up about it and his site states that he has won accolades nation wide for the knife.

I've found the same blade on eBay and the internet. I was mistaken stating that it was the same sold on Tracy Mickley's site.

 

Reading his Facebook page of visitor notes shows that he has sold quite a few knives of varying, grossly inflated cost. I never go by the "testimonials" page on a site, seriously...how easy is that to fabricate.

 

The site is www.williamsknife.com

Mods, if this is breaking any rules, please do what you have to do.

The only evidence I have is that I can pick out and name nearly every single knife he shows for sale by the name they are sold under on various sites.

 

Example:

The May Skinner is the Hondo Caper blade sold by Texasknife.com

The Chechessee is the Trout Filet sold by Jantzsupply.com

The Cooper is the Keen Edge Chef's blade sold by Jantz.

The Congaree is the Keen Edge Santoku blade sold by Jantz.

The Tugaloo is the Keen Edge Paring blade sold by Jantz.

The Sandy is the Prestige bread knife sold by Jantz.

You get the picture.

 

Good luck with that, he'll probably delete it and block you.

 

Yup. $600. Ridiculous.

Oh, he may round a corner here and there but for the most part they are not touched.

 

Rat, I just looked over Jay's site the other day!! These people must be so self absorbed, so dense to think that they won't be discovered as frauds.