Not to harp on TOPSs warranty, and the warranties topic in general, but I have more to say on the subject:
If I am buying a high-end, bet-your-life-on-it knife for the outdoors, I will not accept anything less than an unconditional lifetime warranty when there are companies that are offering them truly. I dont go out into the wilderness with the intent to try my best to destroy my knife any way that I can--I intend to use my knife for relatively ordinary camp chores. However, I also have it with me as insurance, as a tool of last resort to get me through desperate situations of any kind. I dont head out with the plan in mind to cut through crashed cars to free trapped people, but I want my knife to be up to the task, should I need it to be. I dont plan on driving my knife into rock to use as a climbing aid, or digging with it to build a firebed to prevent hypothermia, but I need a knife that wont fail when called on for these extenuating duties. Perhaps its foolish to regularly use a knife as a hammer, prybar, bolt-cutter, shovel, piton, etc., when cheaper and more effective tools specifically designed for the purpose are available. But when theyre not, and I need a tool to use that way to save my life, you bet Ill try to accomplish the task at hand with the tool at hand--my knife. When I head into the wilderness with just what I can carry, I am severely restricted as to what and how much can come with me. I cant carry one of each item I might possibly need in an emergency, so I carry just a few special tools, one of which is a super-tough knife that damned-well better get me through, performing out-of-the-ordinary knife tasks. Knife failure is not an option if Im in a real emergency.
Sure, knives arent designed to be hammers, shovels, prybars, pitons, roasting skewers, bolt-cutters, axes, and so on. Theyll perform less efficiently than a tool designed solely for any of those tasks. But thats not to say that knives are not designed to SURVIVE that kind of use. Some are, and some arent.
So, how am I supposed to tell which are truly designed for extenuating use, and which arent? I can look at the knife in a store (sometimes I can only look on screen), but that doesnt tell the whole story. Often, it comes down to (at least in part) going by what the company says. If a company says that hammering on the knifes spine while using it as a wedge is considered abuse, then I will take that to mean that the knife is NOT designed to withstand that kind of use. If the company says unhesitatingly that doing so is not abuse, then I will take that to mean that the knife IS designed to withstand that kind of use.
And one of the chief areas to look in order to find out what a manufacturer believes the knife is designed to handle is in the companys warranty. A warranty is where a manufacturer puts his/her money where his/her mouth is, because meeting warranty obligations costs a manufacturer money when the knives fail to perform as warranted, but doesnt cost the manufacturer money when the knives perform as warranted. It shows what use parameters a manufacturer is so confident about that they are willing to morally and legally bind themselves to their knives ability to handle such use. The warranty is, among other things, a manufacturers bottom-line, straight-answer, final statement of what the knife is designed to withstand and what it is not.
Thus, when I say that I will only buy a high-end, bet-your-life-on-it knife for the outdoors if it comes with an unconditional lifetime warranty, I say so primarily because the manufacturer is ultimately saying, by means of the full-coverage warranty, that the knife is designed to survive my possible extenuating needs. Im not demanding an unconditional lifetime warranty out of a concern that my knife should be refunded or replaced if it breaks, though that is also good to know. That concern takes a distant second to my concern that my tool of last resort should be up to the task.
Of course, not every knife is meant to be a bet-your-life-on-it survival knife which can withstand anything, nor should every knife be. For example, I want my kitchen knives designed for maximum cutting efficiency over maximum impact resistance. For a knife that Im not intending to use as a bet-your-life-on-it tool of last resort, I wont rule out a knife with a limited warranty.
Newt Livesay said: ...warranties are a manufactures way of protecting our selves from the very few people who are dishonest, and in general terms are stupid crooked people trying to screw someone out of something for nothing. While I would like to further discuss the wisdom of this attitude with Newt (I wont try here, since he said that hes left the thread), I can basically accept validity in this position. But the wording of a warranty still matters a lot.
If a manufacturer says that a knifes warranty covers cutting only, and that the knife is not covered for prying use, nor warranted against impact, I can accept that. If a manufacterer limits coverage so strictly as to cover only manufacturing defects, and not use of any kind, I still think thats perfectly reasonable. Ill know where I stand with that manufacturers knives, and I can determine whether the value is worth it to me, relative to the cost. I wont automatically exclude a knife with a very limited warranty, if the designed use appears to be in accordance with my intended use, and the value is fair in relation to the cost.
But there is a distinctly separate way to warranty a knife which immediately sets off my alarms. The way which sets off my alarms is to include a clause which overrides everything else, and gives the manufacturer the option to arbitrarily refuse warranty obligations at whim. Here are two examples of such clauses:
Tops: The Company reserves the right to make the final decision as to what is considered "fair use" or abuse."
Newt Livesay: "We will not warranty any knife that in our opinion has been abused, there are no exceptions."
I dont know Mr. Livesay, nor Mr. Fuller. I have never handled their products, nor dealt with their company, nor met anyone who has (that I knew about). So, please dont take what i am about to say as casting aspersions. I am simply calling it like I see it....
I call those kind of clauses weasel clauses, because they appear (to me) to be designed for the sole purpose of safeguarding the manufacturers option to weasel out of warranty obligations. Those clauses arent necessary for protecting the manufacturer from stupid crooked people trying to screw someone out of something for nothing--that could be handled fully with a regular limited clause, such as This knife is warranted only against manufacturing defects and damage from cutting; it is not warranted against chipping or fracturing or bending as the result of impact or torque.
When I see that kind of clause in a warranty, it sets off my alarm because it looks... dishonorable. It looks to me like a company went out of its way to purposely and unnecessarily add a clause which would enable it to capriciously renege on its obligations. I just dont see any valid excuse for sticking in a clause which retains a manufacturers power of arbitrary warranty refusal for undefined reasons. That is NOT the same as simply a limited or conditional warranty. Its not a neutral thing. If a manufacturer intends to provide a better warranty than that, then the clause shouldnt be in there.
Jeff Randall said: Maybe we do things a little differently where I come from but I have always taken a man on his word until he screws me.
Jeff, Im taking Mr. Fuller at his word. I trust that he means it when he says that he reserves the right to make the final decision as to what is considered fair use and what is considered abuse. Those are his words, not mine. Nobody made him say it. I dont know him or his products or his company, but I do know that, when he gave his word to his customers on public record, he felt it necessary to add a clause to take back his word at whim for unspecified reasons. You say that Mr. Mike Fuller is a man of honor. You may be right, and I'm not saying he isn't, but I must take into account what I see. Those words in his warranty are (as best I can tell) dishonorable, and thereby dishonor him. If hes a better man than that, I think he should take them out.
I can only go by what I see. Those words arent to be disregarded. Theyre there. Theyre no accident. He, or someone else with his informed consent, put them in there. And they seem to me to only serve one purpose. And its an ugly one.
--Mike