What Warranty do you Offer?

scott kozub

scott kozub

Joined
Jan 1, 2018
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861
I'm putting together a website for advertising. I'm considering offering a full warranty even against abuse. I don't want to argue abuse with anyone. I'm want to make sure everyone is happy as word of mouth is all my business. (still new at this). I'm am putting a note that if the warranties get abused I will have to put qualifications on it. Here's What I have in the FAQ section:

Q: Is there anything not covered by the Warranty?

A: For the time being no. If you don't take care of the knife or break or bend it trying to pry open an Abrahams tank or destroy the handle in the dishwasher I will still refund your money so long as you provide me with the original knife. If I find people are taking advantage of this, I will be forced to put limitations on the warranty for future purchases.

Do you think this is too generous of a warranty? I mainly do kitchen knives but do offer bushcraft as well.
 
Pretty much the same as Stacy. I’ve had one broken blade so far, a through hardened 15n20, used to cut a bolt with a hammer! I replaced it with a differentially hardened blade, in 8670. so it won’t happen again. But most people don’t use their knives for things like that! I’ll also resharpen or clean rust off, only thing I won’t warranty is loss!
 
Awsome, thanks, guys. I feel this is one of the advantages of buying handmade and shows that the maker is taking pride. Good to hear about your experience.

I do find my customers so far baby their knives and won't let anyone touch them.
 
Think about for how long you will offer your warranty if you put it down in writing.

For the rest of your life?
For the rest of your carreer ad a knife maker?
For as long as you have a work shop?

You don't want anybody come to you with a damaged knife to be repaired after losing an arm in a car crash or after loosing your eyesight at 94yo.
 
Hengelo_77 said:
Think about for how long you will offer your warranty if you put it down in writing.
Click to expand...
Hengelo_77 said:
For the rest of your life?
For the rest of your career as a knife maker?
For as long as you have a work shop?

You don't want anybody come to you with a damaged knife to be repaired after losing an arm in a car crash or after loosing your eyesight at 94yo.
Click to expand...


That would be an issue for a company, but a warranty from an individual knifemaker is a different thing. It is a gentleman's agreement. I agree to fix the knife as long as I am able to. The customers understand that.

In addition to warrantying the blade against damage or breaking, I also will buff up a handle and re-sharpen/repair the edge of a knife if needed. I end up doing this a couple times a year on thin slicers that have got nicks from rough use. Obviously, wood handles need a buff up every so often if used heavily. Many of my blades are used every days by chefs, and the fact that I have had only a few warranty returns out of over 1000 blades makes me happy.

My best warranty story is a guy who couldn't get the sliding top to his boat cabin entry to push back so he could open the cabin door. He took a thin fillet knife and slipped it in the gap and tried to pry it back. He succeeded in freeing up the hatch, but broke the handle scales while prying ( the blade survived. He brought me the knife and wanted to buy another just like it. I didn't have one with the same wood in inventory, so I gave him a new knife with a Micarta handle and said "No Charge". I took the old blade, re-furbished it and put a new handle on of the same wood as the original. I gave it to him the next time I saw him … along with a 12" prybar. He asked what he owed me and I said, "Nothing".
 
The very best warranties come from folks about to go bust.
The lifetime no quibble or exception warranty thing if your a, sole trader will likely finish you in time. At least make it to the first registered owner, why not give a lifetime warranty as an add on option to indicate it had a real value and at least give you something to set aside for repairs or replacements.
I dealt with a manufacturer called abel on some very expensive fishing pliers. Lifetime warranty no written terms. I returned them after two seasons the removable jaws did no loger cut cleanly. They charged me but only oncevtgey had the things in thier possession then to add insult to injury they posted them back to me from the usa (i am in the uk) and marked the item as a fishing reel and customs hit me again - hard!

If they where truly good to thier word or just plain didn't push the warranty i would not have ever spoken of this. Bad word travels far quicker than good though and i have been at this nrsrly twenty years niw telling folks

Should i really spring temper my small game knives incase some fool tries battoning firewood with them? Tigtening slot head screws? Using it as a crow bar? Do i make all my tips real thick and again take the temper right back till the edges roll?

At least add clearly upfront something akin to knife abuse is not covered and my decision is final (if you need a crow bar use one) or words to that effect.

Just think real careful especially if you haven't already built up a booming trade that can compensate your losses.

Fully support proper customer care anyone has tge option to send out a replacement but to promise it up front at time of purchase?
 
none. no warranty. i have only had one come back out of 241 knives. i got the knife back in the mail, stopped everything i was doing in my life and had the knife back in the mail sooner than 24 hours. the guy was thrilled. sometimes in life what you actually do is more important than what you say you will do.
 
Like the old adage says, there is no such thing as an idiot proof product, so I strive to make them idiot resistant. But someone is always building a better idiot and I choose not to encourage such activities. Warrantied for manufacturing defects and semi-reasonable normal use. If you choose to "test to destruction", have fun. You will be one knife short.
I have a similar response to the question of why I do not make knives with removable handle scales. Because some idiot will remove them, lose parts and expect me to replace them for free. :p
 
I often joke that my knives come with a lifetime warranty, depending on who dies first.

In reality though, I'll take care of just about any issues if the customer wants to send their knife back. I cleaned one up for a guy that left one sitting overnight in a cup of bleach. Another customer had scraped and scratched the blade up pretty bad, so I did a quick touch up on it. I refitted the kydex sheath and touched up the handle as well (it was one of my first, and while it was still a good knife and sheath, I made it better.
I will also resharpen my knives at no charge as well, just cover shipping.
 
Nothing stated, just do. I've had a guy run over his knife and sheath with the lawnmower, fixed knife replaced sheath. I've replaced many sheaths that were just plain wore out. Fixed a set of damascus steak knives with mammoth tooth spacers and camel bone handles that were left in a sink of soapy water overnight, forgotten after a dinner party. The occasional obvious prying deal etc. Just fix em. One time had a guy lost his knife for several months in a cow chute. It was buried in manure and being run over by 1500 lb cows for months. Fixed it. Nuther guy had a damascus mammoth ivory handled knife that went missing. Found it several months later in the dog house. Dog had been using it as a chew toy. Fixed it, but there I let him pay for the new handle material, he insisted. Just fix em and they will come back and buy more.
 
I offer a lifetime warranty against materials and workmanship. I have wording discouraging abuse etc. but would fix the knife anyway. Like others have said, it is more important what you do than what you say.
 
On all knives I offer a "write your own" warranty. This means that if there is ANY issue with the knife, I will make it right. Whether it takes a simple repair, a complex repair, or flat out remaking the knife, that is what I offer. All I ask is that you tell me what happened or what went wrong. There are the "obvious" exceptions tho. The only issue I've had to date really is kitchen knives being run thru dishwashers, even when I tell them in the letter included with the purchase "Do not was in dishwasher. Hand wash and dry only." Mistakes are made, no biggie. The knife looks brand new (almost) after repair.
 
I'm a little different. I warranty against all manufacturer defects and do a lifetime of resharpening. But it's a knife. It should be used as such. If you use my knife as a prybar or screw driver I will not replace or fix it. I put alot of time and sweat into every knife I make. Being an idiot with the knife is disrespectful to me as a crafstman.
 
I’ll warranty it for life, no questions asked. Same as above....if used as a pry bar, I’ll still replace it, but will lecture them before handing them knife #2. I’ve sold right at 3000 knives in38 years and have only replaced one. Great friend of mine who straight up told me he broke it prying...

I’ll joke with folks though who ask about my lifetime warranty....when it breaks, well, that’s the end of its life...
 
I have always told buyers that I will take back my knife for a full refund or another knife for any reason and have replaced 2 knives out of hundreds sold. Both were broken in half at the ricasso so I suspect they were used as pry bars. I knew that someday I would have to replace some knives but figured that it was worth it to assure my buyers of quality. It turned out well for me as both buyers were happy enough to purchase some more knives. One of them bought three of my knives at once. I think you are probably going to have to replace some misused knives sometime but it is worth it me to show some pride in my work. Larry
 
Most of hand tools in my service is from Stahlwille .They are quite expensive and provides a lifetime warranty against defects in materials and workmanship. Sometimes I do weird things with them .I never managed to break/damage single one .Some of them are older then 25 years and they are in excellent condition ....as you say they worth every penny I paid for them.... I have some fishing rods with lifetime warranty and they will replace them without any question .....Some of them I have many years and many things happened in that time ...but they have survived all stupid things I do ....
My point is that it is easy to write a guarantee on paper , question is does knife have quality to stand behind that claim ? I don t want to buy /expensive one/ products and then spend my lifetime sending/receive package with replaced one ....
 
If/when I when I ever sell I feel like I'd likely offer no explicit warranty. I remember seeing a post on here about a maker replacing a brute de forge chopper that had clearly been abused (semi circular chunk was missing from the blade) and wound up in a new owner's hands. The maker still replaced it. It just didn't quite seem right to me.

We are not factories. We are makers devoting our time into preserving an age old craft.

People do dumb things. If you're going to do destructive testing on a knife forged in fire style... I don't really think you deserve a free replacement.
 
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