I have never met or talked too Jerry. Another knife manufacturer and semi-competitor of Jerry who I often talk too on the telephone has told me that he is good friends with Jerry and describes him as a very nice man to be around. Great humor and a great story teller. When your competitor describes you that way I think it explains the feel here on these Busse related forums.
As far as the negative comments, well when I worked at Boeing I had a two year running WAR with a fellow engineer over TI versus HP calculators. It got to where I saw him hide between two cars so he would not have to speak to me. I did not care about the calculators, but he was so much fun I could not let it go. Sorry. Some people just like to complain. I know, I have been guilty of that once upon a time. It is usually happens when I do not know what is going on. (That happens more than I like).
Ron Athay