Not defending him one way or another but I can report that my experience with him from Ebay was perfect. Shipped fast and fit and finish was dead on.
I've bought a few different scales on ebay from him with no problems. Super solid work, total bummer to hear about all the issues..
It took exactly 10 months from starting the conversation to having it in my hand, but he came through for me on some custom work. Communication was not confidence inspiring, but the end product is great and I'm happy overall.
Seems to me he's aware of his tattered reputation and is somewhat behaving...for now. Count yourself lucky to be made whole.Took 2-3 months for him to get the material, then he said it would be another month, that was the end of May... Didn't get the finished product until the last week of December. Didn't give him anything up front except for my donor knife (end of February). No money until the end (PP G&S) and he gave me a better price than he quoted because it took 10 months. Just thought I'd share my experience.
He didn't like it when I posted this thread here
https://www.instagram.com/p/BfPCQmynSFb/
The op didn't seem to care about his history.
I was promised that my Manix2 would be completed in about 3 weeks. Well after 4 months I started to lose my patience. EXCUSE after excuse and more promises of my knife being done in a few days and shipped by the weekend never happened. I finally told him to just send me the knife back that I no longer had interest in the knife and now I didn't have the extra money for the work that I had 6 months ago. 2 days later he tells me the knife is complete after me telling him I don't have the money anymore. So he keeps my knife and the next day I see it for sale. This was a brand new Manix2 that I just bought from Spyderco and sent directly the Shepard. The guy does great work but he's a total douche.