Hello, this is to bring to the forumites a problem I have with a knife from a mastersmith of the ABS.
The reasons for posting this are;
1) To see if this helps resolve the problem.
2) To make buyers look for possible defects in a bowie, especially when hidden as in a takedown.
3) To see what standards one can expect in a bowie from a mastersmith.
I received a bowie from Bailey Bradshaw, a mastersmith. I had ordered it about 6 months or more before it was delivered. It was to be in L6 steel and with Thuya burl handle. He calls it a Cimarron bowie. When I received the bowie, the first thing that struck me was a very distinctive grinding belt mark at the ricasso area. When I emailed him about it, he said these are the forging marks that he had meant to clean up and had forgotten. The bowie was not what I had expected. I have never had to send a knife back to a maker after buying it. I have bought knives from Apprentice smiths, Journeyman smiths and Master smiths of the ABS. To date, I had never needed to send one back and I did not know whether I should just allow the defects as acceptable from a mastersmith and keep quiet. This was a takedown bowie and but there was no takedown tool provided with it. Mr. Bradshaw replied to this query by saying he puts beeswax on the inside of the handle and it makes the handle very hard to takedown, He does not encourage taking down the bowie and therefore does not supply a takedown tool. He also said a 1/16th drillbit was what he used for the takedown. I wanted to make sure I was not over reacting to the defects I kept finding on the bowie. So I had another knifemaker look at it. There were quite a few forging marks and belt grind marks on the blade, mainly in the ricasso area. The cutting edge had a nick in it, but the biggest defect was inside the handle. The finial knob has only 4 and 1/2 turns of engagement. The finial knob, screws onto a tiny screw, soldered on to the end of the tang. The flux was not cleaned out after the soldering. I have been told that the flux can be very corrosive. I decided that the knife was not WORTHY of a mastersmith and emailed Mr. Bradshaw and asked for a refund. He said it is almost a month since purchase and he could not refund it. He said he could try and sell the knife and then send me the money. How long would it take to sell and how much would it sell for were left unsaid. So I have to send off the knife and wait and hope for a return of whatever Mr. Bradshaw says it sold for at whatever time period he likes to put to it. I was not very trusting of Mr. Bradshaw by this time. I wanted a neutral party to intervene and so approached the ABS. It took more than a month to receive communications back from them. Due to Christmas and New Year holidays and other engagements the concerned people there had been busy. I had asked if they could hold the knife and then when sold make sure I received the money. I was finally told that the ABS is an educational organization and has no authority to regulate dealings between collectors and makers. This is the reason after all this time and effort for me to post this in the forums. I will also post the pictures of this knife so that you can see for yourself the quality of this bowie.
Thank you for your patience in reading this rather lengthy note.
Sincerely, Raj.
note...Spark for some reason my Gold Membership is not showing up?
The reasons for posting this are;
1) To see if this helps resolve the problem.
2) To make buyers look for possible defects in a bowie, especially when hidden as in a takedown.
3) To see what standards one can expect in a bowie from a mastersmith.
I received a bowie from Bailey Bradshaw, a mastersmith. I had ordered it about 6 months or more before it was delivered. It was to be in L6 steel and with Thuya burl handle. He calls it a Cimarron bowie. When I received the bowie, the first thing that struck me was a very distinctive grinding belt mark at the ricasso area. When I emailed him about it, he said these are the forging marks that he had meant to clean up and had forgotten. The bowie was not what I had expected. I have never had to send a knife back to a maker after buying it. I have bought knives from Apprentice smiths, Journeyman smiths and Master smiths of the ABS. To date, I had never needed to send one back and I did not know whether I should just allow the defects as acceptable from a mastersmith and keep quiet. This was a takedown bowie and but there was no takedown tool provided with it. Mr. Bradshaw replied to this query by saying he puts beeswax on the inside of the handle and it makes the handle very hard to takedown, He does not encourage taking down the bowie and therefore does not supply a takedown tool. He also said a 1/16th drillbit was what he used for the takedown. I wanted to make sure I was not over reacting to the defects I kept finding on the bowie. So I had another knifemaker look at it. There were quite a few forging marks and belt grind marks on the blade, mainly in the ricasso area. The cutting edge had a nick in it, but the biggest defect was inside the handle. The finial knob has only 4 and 1/2 turns of engagement. The finial knob, screws onto a tiny screw, soldered on to the end of the tang. The flux was not cleaned out after the soldering. I have been told that the flux can be very corrosive. I decided that the knife was not WORTHY of a mastersmith and emailed Mr. Bradshaw and asked for a refund. He said it is almost a month since purchase and he could not refund it. He said he could try and sell the knife and then send me the money. How long would it take to sell and how much would it sell for were left unsaid. So I have to send off the knife and wait and hope for a return of whatever Mr. Bradshaw says it sold for at whatever time period he likes to put to it. I was not very trusting of Mr. Bradshaw by this time. I wanted a neutral party to intervene and so approached the ABS. It took more than a month to receive communications back from them. Due to Christmas and New Year holidays and other engagements the concerned people there had been busy. I had asked if they could hold the knife and then when sold make sure I received the money. I was finally told that the ABS is an educational organization and has no authority to regulate dealings between collectors and makers. This is the reason after all this time and effort for me to post this in the forums. I will also post the pictures of this knife so that you can see for yourself the quality of this bowie.
Thank you for your patience in reading this rather lengthy note.
Sincerely, Raj.
note...Spark for some reason my Gold Membership is not showing up?
