REKAT Forum Closing!

I stopped going there ages ago because of lack of MFG support.

I love the 2 REKAT's I've kept but if it closes it closes. I feel bad for the people who thought it was of use but Christina said it best, nothing but negatives come out of it.

Well, when a company has no presence on their forum, has no new products to rave about and is struggling with QC to boot it is hard to talk positively.

Good luck to REKAT in their future endeavors but those kinds of outbursts from a company executive can only harbor ill will and sour tastes for all three of the REKAT fans left out there.

:):) sorry for that last part, it was a cheap shot:):)

And now for the violins...
 
I do not wish any ill will towards R.E.K.A.T., I quite like a few of their knives. It does seem though that Bob and Christina never really wanted to moderate a forum in the first place. The last time Bob posted was October 18th and until today the last time for Christina was August 16th. A manufacturers forum is going to be filled with questions best answered by representatives of the company. Either that or someone who knows as much about their products as a company rep would. That did not seem to be happening on the R.E.K.A.T. forum. If they don't have the time to spend to answer these questions then it is probably best that they shut it down.
 
I won't miss the rekat forum much at all due to almost NO manufacturer involvement. I like most of the knives they put out - their designs are great... However, due to their lack of participation, I don't think their forum will be missed all that much anyway.

It is a damned shame it has to be like that too. I really like rekat's knives! I just wish they would've gave a sh*t BEFORE a guy got mad because he bought 8 sifus and 6 turned out to be defective. That seems to be the case. Maybe it became too tiresome for them to spend the 10 seconds every other month they spent answering questions from their customers and moderating their forum. :rolleyes:

I do like their knives, but a venture like this needs active participation. They could learn a thing or two from the Spyderco forum.
 
so who are the 3 fans lol - i was one, glockman two, but who is 3? certainly not JW anymore lol............sorry, just couldnt help it


sifu
 
Sorry to hear about the closing of the REKAT Forum. I own three Sifu's and all have served me well. I still think that it is one of the best combat folders around.

I would agree that since there is no or very little imput from the company it would be best to close it down. With that said, it is to bad that the reason for closing it is because a customer (and from what I can see a pretty loyal one) has some complaints that were not addressed. It's kinda sad, because sucessful businesses take care of the people who buy their product.

I wish REKAT the best and good luck.
 
Just like Cold Steel...:(

22 replies takes the mick:confused: .

Would anyone really miss a forum that had no real suport from the company for a long time anyway?:confused:

A shame, but now at least its official. The General Forum became the place to ask about REKAT as the official forum questions seemed to go unanswered. No real loss IMHO. But then REKAT have yet to bring out a product to interest me and they need to get my interest if they want to sell knives. IF I am not interested, you can bet quite a few agree.

You don't see Spyderco sitting on five or six models.
 
We do not know the whole story behind what is going on with those 6 possibly defective Sifus. I say possibly defective because most manufacturers consider the spine whack test as abuse and if the locks were damaged because of this, and not just defective, then it is the fault of the customer not R.E.K.A.T. for what happened. We may all think that a knife should withstand this test, but that does not mean that it is accepted as normal use of a knife by the manufacturer.

It is easy for a manufacturer to tell if the locks were damaged by this or defective, but they must have them back to be able to investigate. JW has stated that he does not kow where to send the knives. I would think that retuning them to the company would be what is required and if they have not moved it should be pretty easy to figure out where that is. I find it hard to believe that Christina will not send him the address to ship the knives to. It seems that JW has contacted Bob Brothers and been informed that he was the only person that fixed Sifus and that he no longer works for R.E.K.A.T.. If this is the case R.E.K.A.T. are in a lot of trouble. It is very likely that someone else at the company can fix his knives. It also seems the JW wants a guaranty that the knives will be fixed under warranty. That is not a reasonable request, in my opinion, as R.E.K.A.T. have as of yet to determine if the knives were faulty or were abused. Too many customers think that it is them that has the right to determine what is abuse of a product and what is not. If it was left up to the customer, nothing that they do to a product would be their fault. "Hell, I was only using it to pry manhole cover open and for me that is everyday use". I know that that is an extreme example, but believe me, in the industry in which I work I have seen people abuse products in a similar manner and expect them fixed, or even more rediculously, replaced, for free.

I am in no way employed in the knife industry. It just seems to me that far to many people think that for the sake of customer relations that a company should fix everything for free. I saw this awhile back when a member of this forum, who eventually realized that he did abuse the knife by modifying it, complained about the customer service of CRK. It seemed that almost everyone that responded to that thread thought that Chris should fix the knife for free to keep this customer happy. If you do that, you set a precedent and then you have to do it for everyone. That is only fair, right? If a company does not provide an unlimited warranty then they must stick to their guns and charge for abuse. If you don't do this then sometime down the line you are going to either be out of business due to the added costs of service, or your knives are going to have to increase quite a bit in price to cover the extra costs. People that think that a knife company should provide both a low price and an unlimited warranty are viewing things in a very self-serving manner.

Now that I have said all this, it may well be that the knives in question are faulty, but only R.E.K.A.T. can make that diagnosis. If a customer does not trust that they will do that in an honest way then he should not purchase their knives.

If the knives were broken by the spine whack test then JW is going to have to pay to have them fixed. I am sure that this will mean that he will never purchase another knife from R.E.K.A.T., but at this point I doubt that he would anyhow. He should not however expect his knives to be fixed for free just because that is the way he thinks it should be handled.

Well, if any of you got this far, sorry for being so wordy. I know how hard it is to read a long post like this.
 
I don't agree 100% with you Keith. Given that REKAT has marketed their knives as being ultra-tough, and that the spine-whack, abusive or not, has become a standard for testing folding knives (in many people's opinion), it would seem to be their responsibility to advise the customer that a common test many don't consider overly abusive would ruin their knife and void the warranty. Just my opinion, please don't flame me. :)
 
Ben, I would never flame you for having an opinion that differed from mine.

You are correct in saying that R.E.K.A.T. do claim that their knives are tough. The problem with the spine whack test is, how do you tell how hard the knife was hit? The customer can say that he just hit it lightly, but it might be that nothing could be further from the truth. How do you allow this test to be done to your knives and also put a limit on how hard the spine can be whacked? Can the owner of the knife be expected to know how hard is allowed and how hard isn't?

This would be a very hard thing for a manufacturer or maker to explain to a customer. The customer is never going to think that he hit it to hard and is going to have to depend on the honesty of who he bought the knife from to tell him if it was abuse or not. The customeer is going to have to accept that he may have damaged the knife by going overboard with the test. If he/she is not willing to to accept this fact then they should not do the test in the first place. They should also be very, very careful in how hard they hit the knife.
 
Maybe I'm spoiled, but the knife companies I'd do business with will fix or replace a knife, no matter what. Maybe they charge for postage, but in any case, they want a failed knife back, and they want a customer happy.

Bladeforums is a place to say that a company is proud of it's products, and appreciates it's customers. If REKAT is't willing to stand up and be an exceptional company, then establishing a presence here was a mistake to begin with. There are too many companies here that are exceptional, and too many knowledgeable knife users that will call them on their failings.
 
Brian, just for interest sake, which are the companies that you deal with? I know that Busse is one that has this type of warranty, but I would like to know what others.
 
The problem with the spine whack test is, how do you tell how hard the knife was hit? The customer can say that he just hit it lightly, but it might be that nothing could be further from the truth. How do you allow this test to be done to your knives and also put a limit on how hard the spine can be whacked? Can the owner of the knife be expected to know how hard is allowed and how hard isn't?
Click to expand...

I definitely agree with you there. I wouldn't feel that locking a folder in a vise and whanging on it with a sledge was an appropriate test, unless the manufacturer advertised this as being a test they had performed. However, I think REKAT has established a history of tolerating spine-whacking:

In which a forumite is told to send back a lightly spine-whacked knife:
http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=122907

Some more talk about spine-whacking, with no criticism from REKAT:
http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=122959
http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=173942
(This second thread is from JW Kilpatrick, who had 6 of 8 SIFUs fail a second spine-whack test)

I think this is interesting because of the back and forth between Cliff Stamp and Bob Brothers, in which Bob explains that multiple torquings of the lock system can induce lock instability (much in the same way that running your car's engine at the redline won't kill it immediately, but will eventually reduce its useful life):
http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=122630

I've owned several REKATs and I've been happy with all of them. I had a little bit of wobble in the blade of a Pioneer I; REKAT told me I could send it back but I decided I could live with it, and eventually gave it to a friend. I had a SIFU I like a lot but eventually sold it. I miss it, and have been thinking about getting another. I also have a Utility Neck Knife, which I carried for some time and still have, and at one time owned a Hobbit Warrior which I traded away (might get another of those too). Overall, I've been very happy with the quality of my REKATs and the offer of service I received regarding the Pioneer I. I spinewhacked the SIFU several times and never felt anything approaching lock instability; the Pioneer after several years of hard service with my friend is missing a handle screw, but still locks up just fine. I am a happy REKAT customer, but I think all the facts regarding what appropriate treatment of a folder is should be brought to light.

Keith, I know you won't flame me. I was just funnin' ya. I hope nobody else decides they need to flame me over this post.
 
Burke,

I'm standing right next to ya buddy! I LOVE my 8 REKAT knives...EVERYONE of them!.:). I have NEVER found ANY of the locks on ANY of my REKAT folders to fail in any way, and I trust MY fingers to ANYONE of them.

It will make me VERY SAD to see the REKAT forum close, simply because they don't feel wanted or viable here.:(.
 
Originally posted by KWM
Brian, just for interest sake, which are the companies that you deal with? I know that Busse is one that has this type of warranty, but I would like to know what others.
Click to expand...

I've had this service from Kershaw and Spyderco - No questions asked. Not to say that they'll do it for ever, and for free, but they've gone above and beyond to earn my praise and loyalty, and I haven't heard more than a very rare exception in either case who wouldn't agree.

No, Kershaw doesn't have a forum, but they do monitor here, and through their web site they will respond promptly.
 
Originally posted by KWM
We do not know the whole story behind what is going on with those 6 possibly defective Sifus. I say possibly defective because most manufacturers consider the spine whack test as abuse and if the locks were damaged because of this, and not just defective, then it is the fault of the customer not R.E.K.A.T. for what happened. We may all think that a knife should withstand this test, but that does not mean that it is accepted as normal use of a knife by the manufacturer
Click to expand...

true. My personal impression after reading the threads in question is that the tester expects his knives to perform like fixed blades. I don't understand why he didn't send them in to be checked. I'm personaly not a fan of the spine whack test. I try to always have a fixed blade on me, but if I can only have a folder, it's a lockback.
 
Regardless of what he did being right or wrong, REKAT should be willing to work with him on it. If they get the knives back and they appear to be damaged the should offer to repair them for a fee. From what I can tell they are basically telling him to pound sand.

What is really being debated here is the fact that REKAT is throwing a temper tantrum because they have failed to moderate their forum and it has steadily gone down hill to the point where it's just a big bitch session.

I personally have posted 50-60 times in their forum and quit going when REKAT never showed up.

The last 2 times I have seen Christine post were times where she complained that everyone was spreading rumors.

I'm sorry, as much as I like their products I do not feel bad they're leaving. It's a situation they've brought on themselves by lack of participation in the forum and for allowing things to go down hill.
 
oh well.

If it was an active forum, it would be a loss.

I guess that'll save spark 100kb per month.
 
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