I've had a ton of Kershaw and ZT models on order, many for well over a year. It's a major frustration I have with KAI. Between when this thread was made and today, nothing has really changed much (or in the past 5 years or so for that matter.) They manage to produce prototypes that excites all of us, really push the boundaries of high quality, and have a very unique finish, but they do a terrible job in the ramping up and maintaining production stages. They do an even worse job of communicating with their customers in regards to these delays (which I always find odd as they are a good company to deal with for things like warranty/repair/general customer service.)
The ZT0777 is probably one of the biggest fails in that regards in the sense that Kershaw was never able to even remotely meet demand (I wouldn't be surprised if for every one knife they made there were 1,000 people intending to buy it if it was available.) They have won many awards for their designs, but it does not seem to expedite the process.
I can understand a maker like Rick Hinderer struggling to meet time or quantity demands, and other smaller & custom makers for that matter. They are smaller companies with limited resources and generally intend to stay at a certain size. But a massive company like KAI? A little different to me indeed. I think they can do a better job here. Even if they cannot improve the actual lead times, better communication would go a very long way.
The ZT0777 is probably one of the biggest fails in that regards in the sense that Kershaw was never able to even remotely meet demand (I wouldn't be surprised if for every one knife they made there were 1,000 people intending to buy it if it was available.) They have won many awards for their designs, but it does not seem to expedite the process.
I can understand a maker like Rick Hinderer struggling to meet time or quantity demands, and other smaller & custom makers for that matter. They are smaller companies with limited resources and generally intend to stay at a certain size. But a massive company like KAI? A little different to me indeed. I think they can do a better job here. Even if they cannot improve the actual lead times, better communication would go a very long way.
