Over the years, we did a lot of engraving for S & W and sometimes it is difficult to keep every project straight – particularly when it was 30 years ago.
I did, however, go back at look at my paperwork on the second knife and found something that I had momentarily forgotten about. Now, however, I remember it well.
Aurum didn’t actually do the 2nd knife although we did the ones after that as well as pistols. It is an interesting story.
The first knife was directly initiated by Blackie Collins at S&W. It didn’t go through their regular purchasing department because it was a new things for them. It was received by the public well and got rave reviews.
For the second knife in the series, it was initiated through their regular purchasing department by the people whose job it is to beat-up on suppliers for the cheapest price. We got a formal request for the second job on the theme of “deer in a forest.” They ask us first for the art and a cost for the job.
I sketched it out and gave it to one of our artist to do the final camera-ready drawing. We sent the final drawing and a per unit cost for etching back to S & W. They said that the art was ok (approved) but the cost of etching was too high. I though this was odd because it was the same as the first job and it was certainly fair. They, of course, had no idea what was involved or if it was reasonable. This was a new experience for them. Nothing happened for several months until we got a call saying if we could do 100 of them at the price we quoted. This was strange because the initial order was larger than that. They said that it was all they needed. I smelled a rat.
Well, they finally came clean. A young purchasing agent had taken my art which still belonged to Aurum, and then sent it out to a dozen or so people who assured them they could do it although none of them had. Ever. The accepted one companies bid [at about ½ my price]. It was an immediate disaster and they destroyed about ½ of the knives the tried to process and the remaining were horrible in quality. S & W finally shut them down but tried to use the poor quality ones they had not destroyed ----because there dealers were beating on them for the second project.
I was more outraged that they stole my art than the fact we didn’t get the job. The young purchase dealer claimed he didn’t know I still owned it. They send me examples of the ones they had accepted and shipped and requested that I make the remaining blades match. I reused because I didn’t want to be associated with the first group of knives floating around on the market. They looked horrible. They were very shallow and had poor detail. They couldn’t control the process. They went back to the first guy and let him finished and promised me the next job if I would not sue them over the artwork. I accepted that because I wanted to have a good relationship with them.
So, the second is of poor quality. I am not really sure how to value it.
Great info Codger, and very interesting topic.
