Tell Me About Bark River Knives, Please.

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I'll add my vote to those supporting Mike's work. I've had several Barkies, still have two. They've all been excellent in every way. I currently have a mini-Fox River that's a woods carry for me and a City Knife in CPM154 that's a dress knife. I carry small FBs for daily use rather than folders now and BRKT is one of my two fav companies for FBs, the other being ESSEE.
 
I keep hearing about inconsistant HT issues, chipping, bad rolling etc.

Been staying away from them.
 
Ankerson said:
I keep hearing about inconsistant HT issues, chipping, bad rolling etc.

Been staying away from them.
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Seems like bad form to post a reply purely on hearsay...Joe-Bob had a bad experience with them so I can respect his comments.
 
I own more Barkies than any other brand of knife. I started out with a Colonial Patch, then a Little Creek, the collection mushroomed from there. I've never had fit or finished problems, and all of them have arrived at my door far sharper than any other knife company I've bought from. As for heat treat, rolling ect, I've never had any serious problems. I had a slight roll in a very thin Mini Northstar when I lent the knife to a friend and he literally wiggled the blade through a knot in a stick he was working with. The edge was easily restored. The edge and steel, 12C27, both performed as they were designed to, my friend is an idiot.

Edge holding and overall durability have been great, through some fairly hard use on hikes and camping trips, and through edc tasks for the smaller flavors.

I've got barkies in A2, 154CM, 12C27 and 52100, and I have to say that i like the carbon steels (A2 and 52100) better, but that's true for me with any brand of knives.
 
DocWilly said:
Seems like bad form to post a reply purely on hearsay...Joe-Bob had a bad experience with them so I can respect his comments.
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Not when I see photos and videos. ;)

The designs are good from what I have personally seen and held in my hand.

The blades are usually pretty thin ground, also good, but I don't trust the HT enough to spend money on them.

The HT has to be right when the blades are that thin or very bad things will happen in a real hurry.

Not going to roll the dice and hope I get a good one, not with my money I won't.

Too many other options out there with much better reputations.
 
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Mike Stewart is a very controversial figure in the knife world -- some people love him, some hate him, but almost all agree that he knows how to produce a good knife. Every dealing I had with Mike Stewart turned out well, and my communications with him were helpful and informative. I can say that all my experiences with him have been postive ones.

I first become aware of his product when he produced the original Blackjack knives. The line which has become known as the "classic" models -- the #1, the #5, the Trail Guide, etc., are all excellent knives. After Blackjack closed, he went to Marbles when it was still American owned in Gladestone, MI, and the knives from Marbles from that period are, imo, the best to ever bear the Marbles name. After he left Marbles he started Bark River, which struggled quite a bit at first, but now seems to be solidly entrenced. As has been mentioned, the knives are semi-custom -- the blanks are lazor cut, but then the knife is hand finished, and they can be ordered with a wide variety of handle material, and Mike is very good about making individual modifications if you ask him about it -- for instance, I had him make me up a Golok with an 8" blade instead of the standard 11" blade.

I own several Barkies, and do not hesitate to recommend most of them. I prefer the ones with the A2 or the 52100 blade steel. These days they are a little on the expensive side, but you will get a quality produce with great customer service.
 
Ankerson said:
Not when I see photos and videos. ;)

The designs are good from what I have personally seen and held in my hand.

The blades are usually pretty thin ground, also good, but I don't trust the HT enough to spend money on them.

The HT has to be right when the blades are that thin or very bad things will happen in a real hurry.

Not going to roll the dice and hope I get a good one, not with my money I won't.

Too many other options out there with much better reputations.
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I'm not sure what models you've seen, but most Barkies are pretty solidly built -- not sharpened pry-bars by any means, but a good, hefty solid blade. And I've go about 20 of 'em in different makes and models.
 
bladefoolish said:
I'm not sure what models you've seen, but most Barkies are pretty solidly built -- not sharpened pry-bars by any means, but a good, hefty solid blade. And I've go about 20 of 'em in different makes and models.
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Never said they weren't solid. ;)

I don't trust the HT, with the blades ground thin behind the edge it must be right, and I do have custom knives that are ground as thin as printer paper above the edge and they hold up fine, but they are right.

I am extremely picky about what I want and expect performance wise and the steels.

The track record hasn't been as good as I would expect from knives in this range.

Some guy has a video on YT were he rolled the edge on one EASY on a wood dowel, that's just one example of many over time.

That should not happen, ever.....
 
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Ankerson said:
Never said they weren't solid. ;)

I don't trust the HT, with the blades ground thin behind the edge it must be right, and I do have custom knives that are ground as thin as printer paper above the edge and they hold up fine, but they are right.

I am extremely picky about what I want and expect performance wise and the steels.

The track record hasn't been as good as I would expect from knives in this range.
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I'm up to my 15th barkie and have never had any of the problems to which you refer. I don't know about what sort of advice you've had but I certainly haven't had to 'roll the dice' with quality. Every single blade I've had from them is excellent and some of them I've put through the wringer on a number of occasions. No complaints from me.

You ought to try one out and then let us all know if your opinion has changed.
 
HandofCod said:
I'm up to my 15th barkie and have never had any of the problems to which you refer. I don't know about what sort of advice you've had but I certainly haven't had to 'roll the dice' with quality. Every single blade I've had from them is excellent and some of them I've put through the wringer on a number of occasions. No complaints from me.

You ought to try one out and then let us all know if your opinion has changed.
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Someone would have to send me one or two to test and pay shipping both ways then I could make up my mind.

See if they can hold up to my standard testing method using 3 different test medias.

I will never spend a dime on one or take the chance otherwise.
 
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Ankerson said:
Someone would have to send me one or two to test and pay shipping both ways then I could make up my mind.

See if they can hold up to my standard testing method.

I will never spend a dime on one or take the chance otherwise.
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I'd be happy to shoot you a couple to test out if you were in Australia. Sadly shipping to the US is around $30 one way... Too much just to give you a chance to sway your opinion.

You've clearly got a strong position on this subject. Out of interest, what are you basing your concerns on? I'm haven't seen any horror storks on blade forums in the short while that I've been a member here.
 
HandofCod said:
I'd be happy to shoot you a couple to test out if you were in Australia. Sadly shipping to the US is around $30 one way... Too much just to give you a chance to sway your opinion.

You've clearly got a strong position on this subject. Out of interest, what are you basing your concerns on? I'm haven't seen any horror storks on blade forums in the short while that I've been a member here.
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When you hear things like bad chipping and rolling under normal use and I am not talking about Noss4 here either it causes me to run the other way in a hurry.

It's all out there and pretty easy to find here and YT.

Mike doesn't have the best reputation here either, also easy to find, just do a search for Mike Stewart.

Pretty scary stuff for a maker.
 
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Any knife can fail, and usually due to abuse or improper technique. That's why you have several people here who own multiple Bark Rivers and they all work fine, they know how to properly use a knife.
 
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DocWilly said:
Don't feed the troll guys. He hates Bark Rivers even though he's never had or used one and no one's gonna change his mind!
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Ankerson is anything but a troll, and his reasons for disliking Bark Rivers is well founded. Issues of all sorts have come up. As much as I love the designs of the knives I can't bring myself to buy one.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4ss8NtqEkw
VPBowie012-1.jpg

golok.jpg

http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php/585934-Bark-River-has-taken-16-000-of-My-Money
 
I've just done some research as Ankerson has has suggested. Yes I found some pics (just like the broken Golok above). You've got to realise people that forums such as these tend to draw together bad instances in unrealistic ways. Take for example the golok picture. That was taken probably some two years ago now. And yet I'm sure it gets posted every time someone tries to explain their position on Bark River. There's a picture of a CS Recon Scout broken in near identical fashion (snow and all) that gets recycled too and that was taken in 2005 IIRC. That too gets used to justify CS's apparently dodgy quality issues.

What I did see however were pictures of blade damage either as a result of poor technique (ie hammering directly through bone) or blade grinding, meaning it was ground too thin for the purposes to which it was used. Mike has recently changed practices with his grinding to accommodate the need for thicker edges as people wanted a more robust grind.

Bark River makes some 20-30K knives, by hand, every year. And yet people jump on threads such as these and post their handful of experiences as proof of poor quality or poor workmanship. As others have said before me, if you find a knife maker that has never had an issue with customer satisfaction please PM. I'll sell all my spydercos, barkies and cold steels and jump on that bandwagon (or at least for sufficient time before the inevitable happens).
 
Honestly I only have a very limited experience with a convex edge on my swamp rat and I didn't find that it cut through material any better than a very sharp v grind made with the sharpmaker. I changed it into a v grind and I like it a lot more and it pops hairs off your arm easily.
 
I believe the main advantage of convex over a bevel or scandi grind is that the edge is supported by more carbides which allows for a longer lasting edge.
 
HandofCod said:
I believe the main advantage of convex over a bevel or scandi grind is that the edge is supported by more carbides which allows for a longer lasting edge.
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Hmm that may be it did seem to maintain the edge well.
 
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