Hi Jux t,
I understand your frustration, and I assure you it is also frustrating for us and certainly for Lance. I will try to provide you with more information that may help your understanding.
First of all, there is no safety issue. The knife is a mid lock-back and it has what is known as "pop up". This is an issue that many mid lock-backs have. Most of our lock-backs, for the first 15 years we made lock-backs in Seki had some degree of "pop-up". It is a common issue with mid lock-backs. No one has said that their lock has disengaged and no one has been hurt. We have in Golden figured out how to generally avoid the problem as has our Seki makers. It is irritating if it occurs, but it only can occur when the tip of the knife is under enough pressure to slide the lock bar up at the front of the interface. When the pressure is released, the lock resumes its original position. It is the "hook" on the lock bar that keeps the lock from defeating and the "hook" is not affected by the "pop-up" which occurs at the front o the lock bar. I hope that you can understand this principal?
For some reason, this particular design has its engineering challengers balancing the blade lock cut out, the shape of the lock bar "hammer", the pivot location, and spring tension. Our engineers have been working on it steady since the issue was discovered, on some of the pieces. Not all of the pieces have this issue. Testing a fix is not like cooking a hamburger. There are many steps in development; cutting, surface grinding, heat treat, milling, wire EDM, test fixtures, etc. These take time and our factory is quite busy on top of this issue. Running a manufacturing plant has many issues going on all of the time.
We sell to dealers and distributors, and end line users. Our distributors sell to many dealers that we do not know. Literally thousands all over the world. there is no way, nor is there any reason to do, as you say, a recall.
The factory manager that authorized the engineering, and cut many thousands of more blades and lock bars (that didn't work) has been discharged and Eric has taken over the position as factory manager, in addition to his normal General Manager position.
We stopped selling the knife, but there are many that have and are using the knife with no problems. Some have the "pop-up" issue, which is irritating when it occurs, but does not affect the function of the "hook" on the knife.
I really feel bad for Lance that it had to happen to his design, but we will get on top of it and we will replace the knife for anyone that wants their knife replaced. There are many that have been using their knives with no issues. We have been honest and transparent about the issue since the thread began.
I hope that helps you understand the issue with the model?
sal