Kit has spoken about this subject to me privately as well. His comments to me were in somewhat more detail, but the basics have been covered here, with one exception.
The availability issue has been a concern with Stellite (r) according to Kit (although I didn't mention him by name), as I noted in my post of 2-16 begging for some slack for poor 'joverton,' now known as 'Joe':
Further, although no one has mentioned this, one well known knifemaker who has used Stellite (r) for at least a decade has expressed his opinion to me that the real problem with Stellite (r) is AVAILABILITY, not price. Would you kindly address this issue, sir?
Of course, if you ask Tom Mayo, he will tell you that he has trouble getting Talonite (r). To be fair, not all posters feel as Tom does. Jake Evans posted on 2-20:
You've sure got that right Tom, in the 10 days we've been waiting for these turkeys to quote a price, a guy could have HAD Talonite from Rob.
Jake
Perhaps it would behoove each contender for our money (knifemaker and consumer alike) to address the issue of availability of their product.
Further, DS has admitted candidly that they have, in the past, made doing business with them difficult, and gave specifics in an e-mail to me. Since DS now seems to be interested in responding to the demand for their product, and becoming a more consumer driven company (my words, not theirs), would you at DS mind detailing the manner in which you have resolved these issues?
The issue of irregularity of Talonite (r) billets is news to me, although I do seem to remember Rob saying once that he got a billet of Talonite which was warped, and had to get a replacement. Perhaps Tom Walz would be kind enough to comment on this concern.
So there you have it: some new issues to have answered, some old ones which have yet to be answered, and several pertinent technical questions for which we await Dr. Wu's answers.
I would suggest politely that you exercise diligence and be thorough in your responses(there is, after all a certain retired dilletante who keeps scrolling over this whole thread looking for unanswered questions). After all, you came here, to a forum composed of most of the world's best knife makers. You do have a fair amount of business at stake. For example, a well known knifemaker
said this to me in an e-mail:
I took 7 Stellite folders to the Las Vegas Classic Knife show and they were the first to go. 6 of them went to previous 6k customers.
Heck, even I, the dilletante, own a Stellite knife, so I have been a customer of yours.
I am an old ER doc, and am happy if people just refrain from spitting at me. However, many of the forumites are rather important people who are used to being treated respectfully.
One last item, with the size of my prostate, I must respectfully decline to engage in any micturation contests.
So there you have it. HAPPY MONDAY!!!!
Walt Welch MD (RETIRED!!!)
PS; Kit; if you decrease and stop power to a cloaking device, you 'decloak.'
'Uncloaking' was what got BillyBobJoeDan in all that trouble with the trenchcoat and the schoolyard.
WW
