-
All For Sale threads must have a pic showing the knife being sold with written date listed, your username & Bladeforums or BFC to prevent photo harvesting from elsewhere - scammers hate this one trick! The rules for The Exchange can be found here. Please read and follow them. Stop using Paypal Friends & Family and follow our best practices to prevent getting ripped off or having a bad deal.
-
The BladeForums.com 2024 Traditional Knife is ready to order! See this thread for details: https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/bladeforums-2024-traditional-knife.2003187/
Price is$300$250 ea (shipped within CONUS). If you live outside the US, I will contact you after your order for extra shipping charges.
Order here: https://www.bladeforums.com/help/2024-traditional/ - Order as many as you like, we have plenty.
Tim Britton: The Full Story?
- Thread starter Fire_Brand
- Start date
- Status
Okay, let's say we don't even know about this whole mess with Kizer. We don't see all the evidence from that debacle. The stuff with Sibert is enough. Combine that with this older Kizer stuff? Then the weird crazy rambling post? Sorry, what is happening here is clear. Far too many quality makers and companies making excellent stuff to deal with this crap......
- Joined
- Jan 18, 2013
- Messages
- 30
some of you gossip mongers may want to check out when KIZER first showed up at BLADE. It was 2013. Posted in this forum is my original notice posted in USN in October, 2012. NOONE has asked me for photos of KIZER's other rip-offs of Hinderer, Strider and Chris Reeves.....sold and advertised on www.alibabaexpress.com
An entire segment of the knifemaking community has grown up around "copying" the work of Bob Loveless. Jimmy Lile took it as an honor when I made a few of his Grey Ghosts. I have been ripped off by knife companies for many years....sure hasn't upset me....literally nothing I can do about it. Filing a lawsuit against Cold Steel or SOG or other makers is futile, just a waste of time when I could be in the shop. Y'all have fun....I'm outta here.
An entire segment of the knifemaking community has grown up around "copying" the work of Bob Loveless. Jimmy Lile took it as an honor when I made a few of his Grey Ghosts. I have been ripped off by knife companies for many years....sure hasn't upset me....literally nothing I can do about it. Filing a lawsuit against Cold Steel or SOG or other makers is futile, just a waste of time when I could be in the shop. Y'all have fun....I'm outta here.
Dude. No one believes you. You are arguing over a scandal that isn't even your latest one. I would ask you to you explain your Sibert drama but their really is no need.
And stop trying to post links to counterfeiting websites. You have no shame.
- Joined
- Dec 30, 2009
- Messages
- 175
The thread was revived! I'm glad to see more people weighing in, and that post from USN is really interesting and seems pretty conclusive (as if there wasn't enough evidence already...). Also, pretty awesome that we got a visit from the man himself!
Wait, so was it one year or 2 years later that they copied you?
Linville Knife and Tool ("Knife and Tool" is a weird name for a pistol grip company btw) and Shane Sibert have to do with the conversation because it is a reference to your character and the type of businessman you are. If you have a history of stealing, lying and then denying it until your face is red it becomes relevant when you are accused of it again.
Wait, so was it one year or 2 years later that they copied you?
Linville Knife and Tool ("Knife and Tool" is a weird name for a pistol grip company btw) and Shane Sibert have to do with the conversation because it is a reference to your character and the type of businessman you are. If you have a history of stealing, lying and then denying it until your face is red it becomes relevant when you are accused of it again.
- Joined
- Dec 30, 2009
- Messages
- 175
Unfortunately not, the Tango typically is just the knife in question but it appears that the T10 Mongoose is also a Kizer just looking at it. I don't know the exact model but it looks very similar to a Ki412 variant. A lot of their older models have been discontinued (such as the one that was the closest match to the Tango), that may be the case here as well.
I honestly believe you that it is a wonderful knife, Kizer makes great knives from the start and then if you have the added bonus of someone pimping it and putting in roller bearings that should improve the action even more. Really when you consider the work it takes to make some of these additions the prices he charges are still slightly high, but not outrageous. The bigger issue I personally take with Tim is that he doesn't just admit to pimping knives from China and instead tries to smear Kizer accusing them of making fakes when they are an excellent company working hard to make a good name for themselves.
Interesting. Do you know for a fact Tim adds these "upgrades"?. I just sent him my Tango for a tune up. To be honest, I always found it to be a great EDC knife. It works better (at least for me) in the pocket compared to my Sebenza 21 and 25, as well as my Striders and Hinderers.
- Joined
- Dec 30, 2009
- Messages
- 175
I don't know as I haven't handled his knives personally, I only started this thread based on everything I had read because random bits and pieces of evidence seemed to stack up over the years regarding Tim but I never saw a thread wholly dedicated to this so I thought I'd start one.
That said just looking at the knives it is clear he does put a lot of work into them. I've had a number of knives pimped by other makers but never to the degree Tim does. Just the anodizing and machining alone are pretty solid, he definitely has talent that is worth a bit of money. I think he just has been caught in a lie trying to pass his work off as something it is not and his reaction to being caught is childish (attacking Kizer and others).
As far as it being a great EDC knife I absolutely believe you, but I would credit Kizer on that. There are (some) excellent products coming from China these days, I personally owned a Kizer KI401B1 (very similar/identical to the Tango) which was a great knife.
- Joined
- Apr 27, 2003
- Messages
- 5,738
I have no reason or desire to defend Mr, Britton or to give the appearance of doing so. It certainly sounds like he is all those things. However, since I did attend Blade in 2012, I dug around a bit on my computer and found a copy of the Exhibitor List. Kizer is not on it. I suppose they could have been a last minute addition, or had someone else representing them, but otherwise I'm afraid they're mistaken.
brownshoe
I support this site with my MIND
- Joined
- Sep 6, 2002
- Messages
- 9,925
I don't know Tim Britton, but over the years I have seen a fair number of his slipjoints at shows. They were well made knives. He has a good eye for stag and bone. They were reasonably priced by dealers who know the market.
Interesting! Hopefully they will follow up with a response to this. Many people have said, however, that when this all came up the first time Kizer produced the contracts showing that there was a deal for Tim Britton to buy the rights to Kizer's design, a deal that fell through when Britton didn't live up to his side of the bargain.
- Joined
- Dec 30, 2009
- Messages
- 175
Thanks! Anecdotal evidence is good but getting some hard facts like this is better and I'd like to see more of it, and hopefully we can get a response from Kizer here as well to put this whole thing to bed.
That said I think the evidence still tips in favor of Kizer. Tim has already been exposed as a thief by Shane Sibert (fact) and Shane claims that the copies Tim is selling are produced in China (speculation, but from an expert source). This act got him banned from USN and despite all of this Tim continued (continues?) to sell these copies.
Another argument against Tim is that he has never provided any proof to support Kizer stealing his design vs. him purchasing the design from Kizer. I realize the irony that in this thread we're accusing Tim of being the thief without hard evidence but if neither side produces evidence I'm going to say that the guy who has: stolen designs in the past, lied about stealing those designs and continues to maintain that he is innocent - is probably the one who did the stealing this time around.
Last edited:
Every time I go to a show and see Tim sitting there by himself with no one around his table and a full table of knives still on late Saturday afternoon, I almost feel bad.
Then I remember this and the many other threads like it.
Then I remember this and the many other threads like it.
- Status