Totally unacceptable, packing and shipping lesson

Hi

One thing to remember even with the nice padded cases, you need to insure the tip is protected, as the inertia and force that the knife is tossed around with in its journey can and will make it go right through those padded cases.

I know because I once had a AK 47 come to me with pretty bad tip and front end damage because all the person did was put it in one of those cases and throw it in a shipping box and send it to me.





RobStanley said:
Mate I use these things. Soft padded cases. I bought a whole bunch of them at Blade for about $5 or $6 each to ship my knives back to Oz. Cheap, shock resistant and keep the knife dry and safe. All of my knives have made it back to Oz without any dramas at all. They come in all sorts of sizes, the largest one I found holds a B11 quite comfortably. Here's one with an FSH. I do normally have the cardboard sleeve ever the blade as well.

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Talk with Jaxx!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Bomb proof packaging!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :)
 
For large blades I take 2 paper towels and fold them in half as many times as I can, then fold that over the end of the cardboard sheath. I then take tape and wrap it tightly around the paper towels. If you get full coverage of the paper towels around the cardboard, you should be able to remove the paper towels and tape with the tactical cardboard sheath unaffected. Then I will put about 3-4 inches of tightly packed newspaper at the bottom of the box where the tip will be. If you do the same to the handle end the knife with newspaper it should not move much or at all inside the box if it is thrown around. Cheap but effective.
 
I think I'm going to go back to making a cardboard sleeve to go around the Busse Sleeve. It seems that if you butt the cardboard up against the hilt most if not all tip forward movement will be retarded or stopped all together. I will as already been mentioned normally wrap the heck out of the tips and then put bubble wrap around the whole thing so as to attempt to emobilize it while in shippment. Short of shipping a blade in a sheath, all any of us can do is do the best we can. The big thing is try to keep the postal or shipper personel from getting stuck regardless of there carelessness or maliciousness so that we can continue to ship blades. You know how and what happens when dopes have knee jerk reactions:mad: The sky is falling, ban all blades!!!
 
Great post! I take wrapping anything I sell very serious too. I think it is very important - as shown in your photos. I always go overboard when wrapping a knife for shipment - as anyone who has done business with me will tell you.
 
I had a ranger RD9 come to me with an inch of the tip exposed ,I opened the box and it was IN THE SHEATH!!! ;the blade cut the sheath and was poking its way out. I have often taped card stock around the blade and a few extra layers over the tip wrapped the whole deal in paper and then taped the whole wrapped knife to the bottom of the box to keep it in place. Fixed blade knives are a real challenge sometimes if they are heavy and they want out. I have had the best luck with USPS at least with them it gets there most of the time, UPS is a joke around here ,I think they put it down as a scewup if the package gets on the right porch.
 
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Rob, who is the maker of those padded cases?
Perfect for storage, and that is a great price.


RobStanley said:
Mate I use these things. Soft padded cases. I bought a whole bunch of them at Blade for about $5 or $6 each to ship my knives back to Oz. Cheap, shock resistant and keep the knife dry and safe. All of my knives have made it back to Oz without any dramas at all. They come in all sorts of sizes, the largest one I found holds a B11 quite comfortably. Here's one with an FSH. I do normally have the cardboard sleeve ever the blade as well.

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Thank you for posting this! Sometimes its good to allow a mistake to be examined by others to teach the lesson and help others to avoid making similar errors and this is one of those times. :thumbup:

While this is most likely a fluke occurrence, I did notice something... On this BWM, it looks like the blade sheath might be one size too big. If I'm seeing it correctly and it isn't a trick of the camera then I see that size cardboard sheath used more for fat FSH's, FFFBM's, NMFBM's and other knives in this same size range. If a larger (wider) than needed cardboard blade sheath is used or reused, it is much easier for the handle to slip forward into the sheath no matter how well it's wrapped and can result in exposure of the tip whether through the side or out the top of the blade sheath, which with the right force, will then cut through almost anything used in shipping while being tossed around in transit.

Most of us wrap knives up in paper to ship as Busse does, but in addition to using the same size blade sheath that it came in, I suggest that folks draw the wrapping in more tightly around the handle by taping or plastic wrapping the paper wrapping tightly somewhere from the middle of the handle to near the pommel above the lanyard hole(s) to help the knife stay put without movement in its sheathing & wrapping. Also, don't skimp on the tape (or plastic wrap) used to wrap lengthwise and crosswise. This, along with stuffing extra paper or other filler tightly around the wrapped up knife in the box will do much to prevent it from moving enough to cause the tip to become a dangerous hazard. :)

One last suggestion for all... Once you have the knife secured in the box with all the extra filler material, close the flaps but don't seal it yet. Pick the box up with one hand over the unsealed flaps and shake it hard up & down, side to side, etc. Can you feel or hear the knife (or knives) move at all in the box? If not, then it or they should be good to go...seal it, tape it 'n' ship it! :D


I'm glad that this didn't hurt anyone and also that the knife itself was undamaged. Again, thank you, 12lku2 for showing us what can happen in transit, even when much care is taken in the preparation for shipping a knife. :)
 
One last suggestion for all... Once you have the knife secured in the box with all the extra filler material, close the flaps but don't seal it yet. Pick the box up with one hand over the unsealed flaps and shake it hard up & down, side to side, etc. Can you feel or hear the knife (or knives) move at all in the box? If not, then it or they should be good to go...seal it, tape it 'n' ship it! :D
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And that's the story !!!
 
Wow, that is crazy... As someone who has personally bought and received knives from l2lku2, I can say that he very adequately wraps and packages everything. I had a heck of a time getting the knives out =D I wonder what the hell the mail delivery person said when they saw that...
 
Man thats crazy. Glad to hear no one was hurt. I am guessing that the box was handled less than gently.

Garth
 
Paper is never enough, wrapped around it or as padding. Any sharp knife can puncture through it if it slides at all. Sheaths are also not always enough - they have to be riveted (not sewn) to be truly secure and the handle of the knife/tip of the sheath still have to be protected from puncturing through the cardboard. Consider this excersize: how much will the knife move in the box if you drop it from 10 feet (off your 1 story roof) onto hard concrete? if the answer is more than an inch it will stab through the box.

Most of the time that isn't a problem because thats an extreme example of package mishandling. But the looser the knife the less it will take to punch through. This is an extreme example of how to pack unsheathed knives, but it is a universally good one if you have the time, energy and spare cardboard. By creating anchor points you reduce the ability of the knife to shift in it's cardboard sheath. By creating stiff thick end peices you reduce the ability of the knifes tip to punch through the cardboard sheath in case it bends over. By keeping the ends of the cardboard sheath close to the ends of the box you reduce the ability of the entire contents to slider around under shock force.

Ridiculousness commence:

Last Visible Canary said:
method: overkill
(for larger blades)

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cut one face of the end shorter than the otherside so you can bend it over, making a sealed end
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folded reinforcement for the tip
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leave enough room for the cardboard to taper when you roll/fold the longer side over
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so that it wedges the handle downward. If the handle side gets slammed down, it has to shove the cardboard apart before it can get to the sealed end and break through.
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final product. This way it's held in place within the sleeve by multiple points of pressure, and even if it does manage to slide up or down, it has extra room and reinforcements at both ends.
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on a machete (with adittional handle stabilizer)
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Because this machete doesn't have a lot of grip points for the rolled cardboard to keep it in place (from sliding up or down) I cut a window to help grip it into place. This way the handle gaurds will hit the cardboard here instead of having the tip fly through the package.
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With this kind of sheathing overkill it's much less likely to puncture through the packaging box and less likely to get damaged as a result of it. With other types of products it's necessary to pad them and keep them from striking hard surfaces because it might damage the product. With knives this heavy, if the box is struck on a hard object or put through a lot of g-force on a curve, throw, spin or drop - you have an edge projectile that can and will cut anyone who grabs it without seeing it. My goal with packing knives is less about protecting the knife and more about protecting the people who handle it - as said before in this thread, who often handle it like a football.
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Ok,

It would seem that opinions do vary.

Do everything you think you ought to do to protect the knife and the people handling the package.

Then Ship the knife Registered Mail, you will learn a few things,
One, the acceptable way in which to wrap the outer layer is "Different" for Registered Mail.
Two, you will learn that the manner in which Registered mail is handled is also "Different"
Three that Registered Mail takes longer to get there and gets scanned more often and so is easier to track, yes it does cost a little more, just the price I am willing to pay for Peace of Mind.
 
I ordered a custom knife from a maker once. Took nine months to complete. He then shipped it to me outside of the sheath, with the blade wrapped in paper. Bear in mind this knife had a needle sharp point. Needless to say by the time it arrived the point had passed right through the packaging and been blunted banging against Lord knows what during its long journey. I was a bit dumbfounded by his decision not to put the knife in its sheath, which would have protected it perfectly. When I asked him about it, he said he didnt want to risk marring the finish. :confused::D

He was very good about it though, made me a whole new knife.
 
We had an online retail business, with good volume, so just because of large quantities shipped we expected some things to go wrong. But once the post office outdid itself and our expectations. We received a package and a note on it said something like sorry we effed up, but your package is now undeliverable. When I opened the parcel, inside was a package cut in two. It looked like it was left on railroad tracks and a train went over it. The item inside and the package itself were split.
 
Raging Rhino said:
I had the exact same job at UPS...and UR 100% right on. Guys used to joke, "what does Fra-Gile mean?"...and intentionally throw it like a football. The truck unloader is recognized for how fast he works (how long does it take you to clear a semi), not for being gentle. I keep these memories in mind when I pack knives today...fully expecting some idiot to punt it like a football.
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I worked for UPS, and in many cases that is the truth. Boxes containing what your box contains, is why I never participated in such antics............they can get you hurt, bad. Just imagine being the guy who grabs that box and didn't know a razor sharp busse blade was poked through it...........

Honestly, the stupid cardboard sheath is what causes this issue, especially on longer, heavier blades.
 
I had a knife come sticking out of the usps box, since then I have taken cardboard boxes and cut them up and made them the exact size of the knife... it doesn't look pretty but it helps keeping the contents of the package from moving around in the box.

I bought a knife from a maker here and he did something really nice - he taped the knife in bubble wrap to the box then filled it with packing peanuts.
 
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