William Henry not always so great.

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Dr. Craig Merrell

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Just as an FYI, I recently bought my fourth W/H. Earlier purchases were carbon fiber-handled Black-and-Tan folders with DLC-coated spearpoint blades and a smaller, satin-finished Lancet. The first three were perfect liner-locking knives with no sharp edges, good feel, and great function. A couple of weeks ago, I finally bought a new Spearpoint with black palm handle inlays, titanium frame, the laminated blade that was also DLC-coated, button lock, blue saphires inlaid into the button lock and the blade thumber, and reversible deep-carry pocket clip. Unfortunately, after I got it home and checked it out with my reading glasses on, I could see that the tip of the blade on the obverse side is severely rippled for about 1/4". Both sides of the blade have grinding irregularities, clearly byproducts of the hollow-grind process. The back end of the spine of the blade is cut at a sharp right angle, which is hard on pocket fabric and which is an area that was radiused on the three other W/H knives I mentioned. The black palm is partly polished and partly rough-finished. The junction points between palm inlay and titanium bolsters are all easily felt with either fingernail or fingertip. And the blade pivot is so loosely adjusted that the knife easily qualifies as a gravity knife (operable by centrifugal force), which makes it a prohibited weapon in most states. I wrote to W/H to see if I could send the piece in for a tune-up to fix what was wrong when it left their inspection process, and I was informed essentially that what I saw was what I get. Tough luck, in other words. I may only be an amateur knifemaker myself, but I'm a 46-year collector who has some pretty nice pieces in my collection, and I can tell you from this example and the response I received from W/H when I e-mailed them about the problems that this knife is sub-par. Either I got a lemon, or the Emperor really has no clothes as far as the William Henry frenzy goes. Given the kudos heaped upon W/H by various knife organizations, I'd say that I got a lemon that the manufacturer should have volunteered to fix to my satisfaction, just like all of the gun manufacturers have done whenever I've had problems with any of their products. Is W/H getting too big for its britches?
 
Pics would help us a little more. Out of the ten or so I have handled they were on par with the price, and fit and finish was on par with a custom.
 
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Problems or no, I'm pretty surprised WH doesn't offer any kind of warranty customer service, if what the OP says is true.
 
I have had an issue with one of my WHs and helped a customer of mine with a small issue with his. I suggest that you give them a call they were some of the most helpful people I have ever dealt with. pics of your particular problem would be Very Helpful.
 
I must disagree with OP, I have had several small problems over the years and they have always gone out of their way to help resolve said problem, last one was a bad pivot screw on a 8 year old knife. They sent everything needed to replace it, FREE of Charge and I am a most happy WH collector
and user.
James
 
Moved from General to GB&U.
 
Sorry bro, I'm really surprised at this, any company/maker can have a few lemons/issues but it's the warranty service that makes a good knife better. Keep us informed of what happens please.
 
I have sent an email to WH about this thread, perhaps they will get something done to help original poster.
James
 
No photos; the defects are too obvious to need photography. I have over $30,000 in my knife collection, and this is the only knife I own that has defects like this. And as a peace officer (retired surgeon), I don't need a photo to demonstrate that a quick flick of the wrist fully deploys the blade on this knife. It definitely qualifies as a "prohibited weapon," in this case a knife that opens via centrifugal force. W/H's reply was essentially "what you see is what you get." No offer to even take a look at the thing.
 
They told me to take it back to the dealer, who sold it to me at a 10% mark-up and who said, since the knife had been out of their possession and they had no idea what might have been done with it, they would be unwilling to exchange or refund. Pretty much like buying a light switch from Home Depot: No exchanges or refunds on electrical things. Only a light switch costs $5.
 
I did contact them. They told me it was up to the knife dealer (In my case, it was the Beretta Gallery in the most upscale part of Dallas, the only dealer in town.) to address. The knife dealer treated it like some electrical widget bought at an auto parts store: No refunds, no exchanges.
 
You want an accurate description of the problem, or, "My knife wasn't made correctly"? Me, I'd like to know the facts; but, then, I'm a cop who used to be a surgeon, and I'm kinda used to reading however many words it takes to describe something accurately.
 
Whoever gave you that response at WH customer service, call and ask to talk to their supervisor, and then that person's supervisor if necessary. Refusing to address the problem, let alone do something to rectify it, is not acceptable if they wish to keep customers.

Edited to add: Here's the warranty from William Henry's website. From reading it one would think that the issues described should not be a problem for them to handle.

"Limited Lifetime Warranty"

William Henry Studio guarantees all its work to free of any defects due to materials or workmanship. We further guarantee your initial satisfaction with the performance of each tool we build.

We strive to build the best possible tools, designed for a lifetime of use and more. To that end, we will do everything possible to ensure your initial and continued satisfaction with our work.

Regarding use, we guarantee the lifetime of the knife, or other tool,provided it’s used in an appropriate manner. Our knives ARE NOT PRYBARS, CHISELS, OR HAMMERS. They are fine cutting instruments – any use other than cutting will void the warranty. We reserve the right to evaluate each repair with regards to the use/misuse of the item in question.
 
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Dr. Craig Merrell said:
No photos; the defects are too obvious to need photography. I have over $30,000 in my knife collection, and this is the only knife I own that has defects like this. And as a peace officer (retired surgeon), I don't need a photo to demonstrate that a quick flick of the wrist fully deploys the blade on this knife. It definitely qualifies as a "prohibited weapon," in this case a knife that opens via centrifugal force. W/H's reply was essentially "what you see is what you get." No offer to even take a look at the thing.
Click to expand...

For you the defects may be obvious, but we only have your word. And there are a lot of knives that can be flicked open. Your experiences with the customer service seem to be totally different from other peoples experience.

Have you tried tightening the pivot?

Kind regards,

Jos
 
really, try adjusting thy pivot screw.

while i dont have $30K worth of knives i've seen defective knives from a lot of makers, both custom & production, so it can happen.

do i understand correctly - they are saying unless ya buy from W/H they wont warranty the thing, either repair or replace it?

if thats the case thats not right, but i find that hard to believe.

FWIW i have had exactly one W/H, dont remember the model but it was a carbon fibre handle/spear point IIRC, and it was really a nice knife, an expensive one too lol, had great F&F, no problems so i didnt ever deal with W/H, but i just find it hard to belive that they wont take care of ya, if thats correct that sux.
 
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